"Even if I got rid of all my problems, I'd just go out and get new ones..."

Beautiful hands part deux
11:11 a.m. on 2003-12-05

I have never been, nor will I ever be, a quivering fangirl. Okay, so I might buy the merchandise and the videos, and I might occasionally daydream, but stick the object of my interest before me and I'm not going to start sqeaking incoherently before passing out at his bemused feet.

Quite frankly, it's just bad form.

Tom McRae brings me close, though.

Ask any Buffy fan and they will be able to reel off for you the poem 'Passion,' taken from the episode of the same name.

Passion. It lies in all of us. Sleeping...Waiting...and though unwanted...unbidden...it will stir...open it's jaws and howl. It speaks to us...guides us... Passion rules us all. And we obey. What other choice do we have?

Replace the word 'passion' with the word 'Tom McRae', and you have a better idea of what his music is like than any adoring passage I could write.

I went to see him in concert on Wednesday with Claire, Hayley, and Phil. It was my fourth time - my fourth and a half, if you count the time I bought tickets and there was a train strike which prevented me from going. This was his best concert yet: an acoustic set, accompanied by Olly and Olly 2, Tom sang a collection of songs from both albums, as well as the wonderful Streetlight and Border Song. He also had to put up with a lot of heckling, and responding to it wonderfully. At one point he was on a mobile talking the six-year old sister (?) of a fan; at another, he discussed how scared he was when, after dedicating one of his many songs about killing people to Tony Blaire, he discovered Tony had had a heart murmur. "Fuck, one more song and we can kill the cunt! And his wife!"

Heh. Phil apparantly wasn't amused but he was the only one.

Tom pours out his soul on stage, through beautiful lyrics and a voice which just grabs at my insides and twists to provoke tears. The truly strange this is that despite the content of his songs, death being a big feature, he is truly a lovely guy. Funny, modest, loving the reparte with the audience and wandering around the stage to make facial expressions at the two Ollys.

He is wonderful. Now, I wonder how long it will be til his next concert...

Quote:
"I'm gonna leave any minute"
See the skyline disappear
Head out of the city
Burn my clothes bury my fears

<< >>