Sally, Madison Square Garden, Saturday, Jan 17th, 2004
I attended the Saturday show at Madison Square Garden and all I can say is, “wow!” I am still smiling from the show. I have seen Bette in concert many times, including one other “Kiss My Brass” performance at Nassau Coliseum, but this was probably the best show I have ever seen. She sounded incredible on every song she sang,
What made the show extra special was that she really sang and talked to us as if she felt at home. I felt like the sentiment of being among neighbors and friends shone through the entire night. Bette really seemed to be having a ton of fun, and I’m sure that energy was boosted by what was undeniably a really enthusiastic crowd (much more so than Nassau, which seemed a little more quiet).
Some local quotes:
– Right before singing September, “I’ve been singing this song all over the country, but really it’s for all of you.”
– When talking about how they found Saddam underground in some nasty, rat infested, dark place, she called it the “D train” (one of our subway lines)
– More than a few mentions of cleaning up trash in the city – she said her biggest pet peeve is when she sees plastic bags in trees and encouraged us all to buy a plastic bag scooper from the internet to take them down. She also dedicated WBMW to a woman who bought 10 seats to the concert at the Hulaween auction (though she then dedicated it to the entire audience too).
– She mentioned that she had been nervous to play NYC and so she’d been pretending it was Hershey PA all night!
She did at least two of the songs she skipped at Nassau – Hey There and That’s How Heartaches are Made – and both were great. (I thought she might have skipped Keep on Rocking at Nassau but I think I might be wrong about that!)
During her band introductions, she once again forgot Bette Sussman, and blamed this show’s oversight on the fact that being in NY has left her all “fatootzed.” It was very cute, Miss M walked over to Bette at the piano, who looked all depressed, and said, “Eeyore, Eeyore, will you forgive me?” Miss M took a lei that a fan had given her and placed it over Bette’s neck And then talked about how they were good friends who had met about years ago and how they had been playing so many benefits together. As Miss M walked back toward the front of the stage she said, “should we sing benefits?” And then started to, a cappella style. Bette Sussman jumped right in. So that was an extra song, too!
