A symbol of my devotion...or How to have an amazing night

So, one my most anticipated concerts of this year has now come and gone, and I'm left with the lingering loveliness of it all.

I might as well bore you with the whole experience - which for me started at 3 am the night before when I woke up plagued by two thoughts: 1) how early should we get in line to get the seats? and 2) perfect seats? what exactly does that mean in the Vogue, and for an event like this? I blame genetics for this sort of obsessiveness. Not sure exactly which parent I can pin it on, but I know my brothers and I all have our own obsessive quirks...damn you brain, damn you.

How do I solve this one then? How would any logical person deal with it? It's obvious isn't it? Firstly by wasting half an hour Googling the venue and studying floor plan of the Vogue in detail (even though I've been there at least half a dozen times for gigs and films), and secondly by talking to a sound engineer type friend of mine who has had a tour of the venue. I pondered. I spoke to my concert-companion brother, which isn't really the place to go if you want to calm your obsessive tendencies. The end decision? We would go for first row balcony - it overhangs the 12th row of the floor, and also is a bit of a sweet spot according to sound engineer type friend. I decided not to go home after work, so I could get in line nice and early - I'm thinking maybe an hour and a quarter before the show. I decide to take a wander by the venue at about 5:05 - 2 hours before doors - and there are already 10 people there. So I stake our claim in line, and my bro shows up shortly thereafter. And we are the first two on the balcony. Now, truth be told, we likely could have showed up quite a bit later and still found good seats, but if an extra 45 minutes means it is pretty much guaranteed, it's worth it to me (and my cold toes).

Now, if you read the above paragraph and just shook your head in bemused disbelief, consider yourself lucky that you don't have my brain to deal with.

As for the show, I couldn't have asked for more. Antony was engaging, funny, and I'm not sure how anyone can not be affected by that amazingly unique voice. The backing band were fantastic - I'm a sucker for strings and they just work so very well with Antony's delicate, soaring vocals. And even the audience didn't get on my nerves - for a group of 1000 they were amazingly well behaved (read QUIET) and respectful. And sitting there I couldn't help but think here is someone for whom life cannot have been easy, how fantastic it is that he has found his place in the world, and how lucky we are for it.

As for videos - well, the security guys tried to put the fear of god into camera holders in the lineup, so I knew it was going to be an issue. Quite frankly, for most of it i didn't want to fuss with a camera - I didn't want to break my own focus. But I did sneak a couple of slightly crap vids in full stealth mode (black plastic covering the viewfinder, the whole slightly pathetic nine yards) - one here, the other here. My brother also filmed one that looks promising, hopefully he will post it on the site sometime soon.