MinneapolitanMusic

Saturday night was a great adventure, which began with a buzz-inducing Ani DiFranco show that left me elated and a little dazed. (Read my review here.) Afterwards, we headed over to the Turf Club to catch the end of HeartBreak and Harmoney, which was billed as Haley Bonar and the Ashtray Hearts, and was completely shocked to find Mr. Andrew Bird on stage behind Haley, playing fiddle and singing backup vocals. There were only about 15-20 other people in front of the stage (the rest of the crowd was further back and yacking loudly) and I looked around the room in amazement that I seemed to be the only one who recognized him.

After Haley's set, she introduced Bird and asked him to play a set of his own, which led to him borrowing her guitar, tuning it for about 10 minutes, and accidentally unplugging it once before he could begin. And I thought Haley was the charmingly awkward performer. After all of the technical problems were figured out, Bird played a new song that he just recorded with Haley, which featured him whistling and Haley playing keyboards and singing backup vocals. It was a lovely song and I wished he could have stayed to play a bit more, but given the cameo nature of his appearance he flitted off the stage and out the door faster than they could get the rest of the equipment off the stage.

The evening at the Turf was closed out by the Ashtray Hearts, but my brain was so fried by all the developments of the evening that I headed home to write and snuggle with Husband.