; Fun! Fun! Vancouver!: November 2008

Friday 21 November 2008

You Could Say I'm Hard To Hold, But If You Knew Me You'd Know...

Last night's Jay Brannan concert was so beautiful in that stripped down, acoustic, intimate setting, casual and uber-talented kind of way. I can't think of a better way to follow up last month's huge arena spectacle that was Madonna.



Thank you Mr Jay Brannan for returning to our city. I was so pissed at myself for having missed out on his last show back in January. I'm so glad I was able to catch him this time around. He sang a blanket of songs including Soda Shop, Housewife, Half-Boyfriend, and a new one he penned with Margaret Cho - a little ditty about bringing peace to the world by giving great head - aptly titled Relax Your Necks! (My favourite lines include the "horses at the gate" and "my esophagus is lined with silk"!)

If you've watched his clips, you'll know he likes to talk quite a bit, which made the show that much more fun and interactive. If he comes to your town, do go see him as he seems to be so genuine and grateful to have an audience, as he deserves! It was like hanging out with an old friend - a hot gay one whose lap you just want to put your head on while he strums away on his guitar and serenades you all night!

It was also refreshing to attend a concert where there weren't 100 cell phones and digital cameras in the air snapping photos and recording the songs to be uploaded later that night to YouTube. But that said, I'm glad there are a few online that I can look for and recreate the evening that I had.

For an encore, he covered Jann Arden's Good Mother. This song has always touched me, but Jay Brannan's version was downright heartbreaking. His voice simply soars on it. There's a cleaned-up version he does on YouTube, but I prefer this live footage taken from Toronto - there's just something more given out at a live performance and this clip conjured up similar emotions for me like it did last night.