the epic NYC new years blog

January 13, 2009

dude.
new years eve in new york. the best.

first off, we borrowed paige’s loft for the private party.
60 fans bought tickets to actually DO new years with me & the danger ensemble, since the show itself had a crazy 2 am start time.

paige’s loft is magical, i wandered around and took these photos with my mac……

awesome wall #1.

awesome wall #2.

living room…

(photo by stingray of doom)

everybody arrived, and we all drank champagne, and got jiggy.
amazing tania stavreva played classical piano (we filled up the living twice with groups of about 20 people) …..and she blew us all away:

(photo by someone who had tania’s camera)

me & tora watching tania play…..

(photo by lauren goldberg)

me & tania:

(photo by lauren goldberg)

tania’s site: www.taniastavreva.com..she’s also making her CARNEGIE HALL debut in new york this spring and offered anyone who emails her tickets! first come, first served:
from tania: Please, mark April 4th, 2009, 5:30PM at your calendar if you are interested in coming. Also, please let me know if you will be able to make it because I need to tell Artists International how many friends will come for sure before the tickets are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office for sale. The seating is limited because the capacity of the Weill Recital Hall is 268. If you can come, I will make sure you get a seat at the VIP row. Please, tell other people about this very important concert, the more people come, the more fun!: taniapiano [AT] gmail [DOT] com.

then i played the ukulele and everybody mostly tolerated it.

(photos by stingray of doom)

tania took this photo of mark in paige’s bedroom. the woman has CLOTHES…..

tania also took this, it’s one of my favorites of the whole night…

here’s a clip of the cure song (in between days, one of my old favorites) i learned for the occasion:

random folks at the party….the girl second from the left (who was waiting shiveringly in the hallways when we got back from dinner) SAVED BETH’S ASS helping her out at the door at the door.
beth wants to know what her name is and grab her email – if you ARE her or you KNOW her, do it: beth [AT] amandapalmer [DOT] net.

(photo by stingray of doom)

miss paige herself & her friend anika….

approaching midnight, everybody turned their phones and cameras off.

we had given away pieces of paper at the door and asked everybody to write down something they wanted to let go of.
at around 11:45, we gathered in a huge circle, went into silence and steven went around one by one gathering the pieces of paper into a metal bucket,
while tora followed and handed out candles.

at midnight, still in silence, we lit the bucket full of paper on fire and lit our own candles and passed the flame around.
after the bucket was burned (and the whole loft was filled with thick smoke), we started 2009. together. calmly. it was perfect.

THEN everybody went outside into the subzero weather and got into the subway to take the train to the bowery ballroom….
and the process was SLIGHTLY unorganized…

…but everybody made it.

beth took this photo of me being FREEZING & SAD outside the bowery because the patti smith show hadn’t let out yet, she ran late,
and the bouncers wouldn’t let me in. so we froze. i clutched my ukulele and filled my heart with love and hope for a brighter tomorrow.

brian was playing bass with emilyn brodsky and we all soundchecked together and brian started playing along with my cure ukulele song and
before you know it we were jamming like long lost cure soulmates. so he decided to play it on stage with me, which made me really happy.

(photo by lauren goldberg)

emilyn ROCKED, and brian wore GOLD PANTS.

(photo by sour lullabies)

the dresden dolls, on ukulele and bass, ladies and gentlemen:

(photo by lauren goldberg)

here’s a good clip of it:

the set itself was hard to describe in all it’s wonderfulness.
starting at around 3:30 was surreal. everybody was wild. the whole joint felt like a lost spaceship.
we were all locked away from the world, and it made sense.
i think it’s very possibly the best show i’ve ever played. it went on forever. hours.

i played requests. i played a bunch of covers (including “tainted love” which was great because everybody in the audience sang the YONK YONK part). i drank wine. i felt like everything was right, like i was with my family in the right place at the right time.
i was very happy.

tora in “slide”…..

(photo by lauren goldberg)

tora and kat took over the make-out duties in “coin-operated boy”….

(photo by lauren goldberg)

afp, tora as katy perry, and kat….

we did an experiment…..and just played duran duran and took porny pictures for a while…..

(photos by illuminique)

(photo by coz)

(photos by hayley rosenblum)

and then it was 5:30 in the morning.

i was tired and on my way to being MODERATELY INEBRIATED but went out to sign and came across this wonderful girl who had lyrics from “delilah” tattooed on her neck.
so beth took a picture of us: