The James Report
Ok, just to let you know straight off: there were no Personalized James Moments this time through, 'cause we hung around in the club instead of being pushy and going out right away, and as a result, when we *did* go out, just as we got close to him, Angel (his girlfriend, whose name is no doubt not Angel, but he'd written a song for her, and the song was called Angel, and because I know no other name for her, I call her Angel) and Scott (the manager dude at 14 Below) were telling James he *really* *had* *to* *go* *now*, and although *he* pretty clearly wasn't done -- he was signing autographs and mugging for photos even as they tried dragging him off -- I've lost where I was going with this sentence. Oh yes. So just as we got close to him, he was tugged away, and we feel that discretion or more to the point, ordinary politeness, was and is the better part of valor when dealing with celebrities and we didn't try to grab him for a quick photo op. Despite this, I got at least two really cute photos, and those will be posted next week after I get home from San Francisco.

*gasps for air* Right. Now I'll get to the meat of the matter.

Would you like to know what James Marsters does when he's nervous and/or excited? He sticks his tongue way out and goes "Aaaah!" Hee hee hee. He did that Saturday night when he came out on stage, "AAAH!" and a stuck-out tongue and his usual, "Wow, look at all of you," comment, and then pretty much blurted, "Okay, I'm gonna do this song from Buffy," which prompted a roar of approval, which died down so he could say, "My boss is making me do this, it was his idea and he wants me to do it and I'm incredibly nervous, most of the songs I do have, like, three chords? But Joss writes HARD stuff, like, fourteen and twenty-three chords, and I just know I'm gonna fuck this up, so, well, okay, here goes." Only less coherent than that.

And then he did, indeed, do his song from the Buffy musical, which is titled Rest in Peace (which everyone knows, because everybody on the planet except ME saw the musical last night!) and he was indeed *very* nervous: I haven't seen him so nervous since the first show I saw, the Hallowe'en show last year. So his singing voice wasn't as strong as it can be, but even so, it was pretty clear that the song has some real angsty rock-ballad potential that those of us who grew up in the 80s are culturally and genetically incapable of resisting. He was more confident in the chorus, and, well. *melt* It was a love song, what else can I say? He sang it like it was one.

Oh, and he *did* blow a chord, and grinned with embarrassment at himself, and when he was finished he said, "See, I *knew* I'd fuck it up," and shaded his eyes and said, "Is my boss here? Joss? Are you here? Is Joss here?" and squinted out at the audience, and there was no response from Joss, and James said, "*Good*!" and then went on to do a song of his own, Smile, which -- well, he was still nervous, I think, 'cause it wasn't the strongest rendition I've heard of that song (and it was only the second time I'd heard him do it, I think, actually). However, it's still a sweet song, and it invariably makes Emily's knees melt, so there was much gooshiness.

He then did Tom Waits' Chocolate Jesus, which is one of my favorites of his renditions, and he *knows* that one, and so he relaxed and really started having fun, and I did a cheery little yip-yelp during it, because, er, I'm noisy, and got a smouldering smile in rturn, so, well, *tud*. He also did, I think at the end of the song, his little touch of his tongue to his upper lip, which for some reason reduces my brain and knees to absolute jell-o, and so I was pretty swoony and drooly by the end of that. :)

He'd borrowed a friend's guitar -- without, apparently, telling the friend -- and the guitar had a switch, the purpose of which is mysterious to my non-electric-guitar-playing self, but it was in his *way*, and he kept thwacking it, and swearing, and explaining that this was his punishment for having nicked his pal's guitar. Somewhere in the last third of the set he actually gave up on a song entirely after the switch ate his hand for the umpteenth time, but I've forgotten what song it was. :)

His fourth number was Nirvana's Come As You Are, the words to which I believe I've *learned* from James, as I've never been particularly good at picking out words from radio songs and I don't own any Nirvana. It was a good solid rendition, very strong. Once he relaxes he really has a lot of fun up there. :)

I don't really remember the order of songs, after that. He did Angel, which is a song he wrote for his girlfriend: she was sitting up on the stage off to the side, and when he mentioned the song, she hid her face in her hands very adorably, and although I then ceased to watch her, Emily said that she got all teary during the song, which was a really gooshy romantic song, and I'd have gotten all teary too, if I'd been she. :)

But he introduced the song with, "This is one I wrote for somebody who's out there, you know who you are." (Angel, whose name is apparently Jennifer, hid her face in her hands at this point. James didn't know she was on stage.) The audience went, "Awww!" all sweet-like, and James said, "Yeah, I've got a girlfriend, I know, I know, you all really wanted to pay eiight dollars to find that out, but I'm really in love with her," and the audience, bless their pointy little heads, all cheered wildly. The sound guy said, "Fifteen dollars," James's eyebrows went up, and he said, "Okay, you paid *fifteen* dollars to find out I have a girlfriend."

So he did Angel and afterwards he was talking more about being in love, and said, "Well, I can't be a slut forever. I was born to be a good boy." Pause. "This next song is about killing people." The audience roared with laughter. *laugh* I have to hand it to the man: he's got great timing. :) (And great other things, too, but we won't go there.)

Other silliness that happened: Somebody held up a lighter after one of the songs -- maybe the Nirvana song, but maybe not -- and James said, "Oooh! I got a lighter! Fire is *gooood*!"

There was a bit where, for some reason, he was feeling sorry for himself -- oh! I remember. He'd been saying that on Buffy, that every time something good happened to a character, you just *knew* that it was going to hit the fan for that character, because you get no joy without pain in the Buffy universe, "Especially," he said, "if you're Spike." And everybody went, "Awww!" and then he made really big eyes and said, "Ooh. Was that self-pity? That *was* self-pity! Somebody slap my hand!" And he came forward to the edge of the stage and gave the blonde girl who was in front of us (I didn't catch her name, but James knows her well enough to recognize her backstage at other gigs) his hand to slap, which she did, and then he went back and did some more music. *giggle*

And then suddenly he saw Angel and lit all up and said, "Oh, there you are, darlin'!" to her, and then he was back talking about love (somewhere in there he admitted to just being love's bitch) and then he was talking about the show, and he said, "Joss took that from us, didn't he?" to Angel. "I call you pidgeon, and so he had me call Michelle 'Pidge', only," and then he laughed, "only we had to change it, because I had a line where I shouted to her, and it sounded like I was saying, "Bitch,", not "Pidge,"" and then some jerk in the audience -- a guy -- said something like, "Well, that's appropriate," and the audience hissed him -- I'd have feared for my life, if I'd been him -- and James got quite serious and said, "No, Michelle Trachtenburg is a really terrific person. I mean, when she came on the show, I was thinking, you know, animals and children, but Michelle is just an absolute professional, she's really great," and the audience was happy.

The jerk apologized, then made it *worse* by saying, "I thought you said Sarah," (whose middle name is Michelle), and the audience snarled again, and James got *really* serious and said, "You know, I'm kind of glad you said that, because I want to set something straight. Sarah is an absolute class act. The thing about her is that unlike some people she doesn't feel that she has to give everybody what they want or need from her. She holds back, and a lot of media and reporters think that makes her a bitch, but it's just that she doesn't feel the need to give everybody what they want. She's really a class act, one of the classiest people I know. When I came on the show, she told me that she didn't hang out with the cast, that she liked to keep things separate, and I said I was cool with that," and he grinned big, "and then we became friends." Big shrug, big grin.

I *cannot* remember the Gandhi quote the man quoted. God, but I wish I could. I was just delighted: not just gorgeous and incredibly talented, but how many rock gigs do you go to where the singer is quoting Gandhi?

Other songs he did: Springsteen's Used Cars, which is one of his favorites, and which he keeps copping to feeling guilty about doing because he's now got a new car -- although this time he did say that Sprinsteen wrote the song after getting his own new car, so he felt less guilty, or something. Apparently the killing people song is another Springsteen song, Nebraska, and he did another Tom Waits song, Who Are You, which he said was one of his favorite songs of all time, and then he got off on a tangent about one of the Trio of Terror (this season's bad guys) who does Tom Waits songs and apparently sounds just about *exactly* like Waits; someone in the audience said, "Adam!" and James looks quite surprised and said, "Yeah, Adam. He's up in Minnesota right now with his own band doing a gig."

He also did Hundred Acre Woods/Goodbye which is _my_ absolute favorite of his own songs, adding that he'd written it after someone had broken up with him (I believe) and that he'd smashed two -- plates? Smashed two somethings, anyway, and then wrote the song: "Writing this song saved my apartment."

All other cleverness has been temporarily sucked into the void that is my brain, so I think I'll wrap up now. Overall: good show, lots of fun, *lots* of people, James was as charming and delicious as ever, his girlfriend -- oh, we did talk to her very briefly, after the show; I wanted to say thank you to her, for sharing him with us, and she smiled brightly and said no problem, he loved it, and that, my friends, is that.

11.08.01
Invariably, when I write these things, more information comes up a day or two later. So:

I'm reminded, by nothing in particular, that James had seen the Buffy musical on a big screen (not a Big Screen, I don't think, but a bigger than usual tv screen) with the rest of the cast on Friday night, and he said they'd all been pretty nervous about it, but then they watched it and they thought, "Hey! This is pretty good! We rock!"

He also said that the filming had run over, and that they'd had to squish a bunch of other episodes into less filming time, but that UPN had let them, 'cause, well, Joss was God. :)

Also! Scott has corrected me: James smashed two holes in his kitchen walls before writing Hundred Acre Woods/Goodbye. I knew it had something to do with a kitchen. (Well, plates are in the kitchen!)

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