In Which I Prove I AM Cool

Last night, my sister, my niece and I went to a Missy Higgins concert at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland. It was an experience on several levels.

For one thing, we raised the average age of the audience by 10 years, just by walking in the door (well, my sister and I did; my niece lowered the average appearance of the audience by the same factor). I wondered if we’d be thrown out for watching Missy Higgins through bifocals.

For another, we were in a sort of mosh pit (except nobody was actually, you know, moshing). There were places to sit, but they were all around the edge of the floor, and we wanted to be close to the stage. To do so, you had to arrive early, grab your patch of floor, and  defend it against broad-shouldered fullbacks trying to charge your line. Then you stood for the entire concert.

If you could anyway. At one point, we felt a whumph, a vibration in the sprung floor, and a hole opened up next to us. Everyone looked around for a moment, then a guy leaned over, hoisted a limp body over his shoulder, and started pushing through the crowd to get out. Everybody around him went, “Oh! So that’s what happened,” and move right into the open spot. Apparently not everyone can stand through a three-hour concert.

Crystal Ballroom doesn’t allow flash photography, but everyone (and I mean, everyone!) had a digital camera or camera phone (though most respected the no-flash rule). Oh, heck yeah, that includes me! When in the mosh pit, do as the pitters do. Or something. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my cord, so you’ll have to wait to see my dim, blurry photos.

The weird thing is, those little handheld computers remained out during the entire concert. People were Twittering, taking notes, checking e-mail, sending text messages, who knows what all!

When in the Mosh Pit, right? I tried to write a short blog entry from the floor, during the concert, but I couldn’t get the WordPress iPhone App to work. I had to settle for calling Mars.

Oh, OK, I didn’t really. At least, not intentionally. But I must have accidentally hit something because when he got to work this morning, he found a voice mail that included about 30 seconds of loud music and an exuberant “Whoo!” from me. He said it sounded like a great concert.

Another interesting thing: Missy Higgins is Australian, but she was very much interested in the election and said she felt honored to be in the U.S. as we made this history. Ironically, when they made the call that Obama had won, she got the news via cell phone — from a mate in Australia who was up late watching the election returns.

Apparently Ozzies weren’t the only ones. My friend Stephen from the U.K. stayed up until 2:30 a.m. on a work-night to see who the new U.S. president would be. And the entire globe appears to have celebrated the result. My writing buddy Gina said the world’s careful attention to this election was partly due to George W.’s isolationist views. “The world does not want an isolationist USA,” she said.

I looked around at all the young people Twittering away and thought she must be right. I have met so many wonderful people via the Internet, from all over the globe (*waves to Samarcand, Anaconda, and Bunny B*). My circle of friends, and my worldview, is much bigger than it used to be, much bigger than the United States. But this new generation of American adults has never known anything else. Might help explain why they went for Obama in such an overwhelming way.

Oh, one more thing. The opener for the show was Joshua Radin. He was incredible, much better in person (and I liked him already). I totally have a crush on him now. How can you not love a man who plays in a sandbox and writes sad, wistful songs for a woman who drives a “Vegetable Car.”

Edited to get Joshua Radin’s name correct.

Tags: Crystal Ballroom, Joshua Radin, Missy Higgins