Michelle Shocked at Zoeys 4/19/12

Here is an email I wrote to Tim about last night’s show I went to. I don’t feel like recounting again here:

Tim,

I changed my mind and went to see Michelle Shocked last night at Zoeys. I really didn’t like her. It started off on the wrong foot when she was 30 minutes late and showed up with some homeless people she found down the street and invited in. They sat on the stage and held signs saying “occupy LA” and ” stop foreclosures” and shit like that. She said the show will start with audience members singing “This Land is My land’, “Blowin in the Wind” and 2 other Woody Guthrie songs. She said she would not sing until we did and she meant it. So 2 people went up to the stage and sang This Land is My Land while she played guitar. Nobody wanted to go up there and sing Blowin in The Wind so she had the homeless people do it. You can imagine how that turned out. Then she started her show.

She did about 5 songs, talking for about 5 or 10 minutes before each one. Or during it. She called her boyfriend on the phone, introduced him to the audience, and then they talked about some paintings he did for her that were on the stage. This went on for 10 minutes or so. Then she had us say goodbye to him, he said goodbye to us, kissed the phone loudly for a while, then hung up. The she did a few new songs.

The show started at 8:30 and it was now 10. She took a break and a tent was erected on the stage and the homeless people were put in it with their heads sticking out and holding signs. She sat on the floor while her assistant read to us about various people who had their houses foreclosed on. This went on for about 30 minutes. By now steam is coming out of my ears. Etienne and I got up and went out to the bar and had a drink and watched some more on TV. Around 10:30 she finally stood up and picked up her guitar but I was done so we went said goodbye to Polly and Steve and split. Etienne liked her!

I am not making any of this up. Really.

Tony