First, a word or two about the opening performer, Joshua Radin. Joshua is a fine singer/songwriter/guitarist. And he seems like the kind of guy you'd like to have entertain at your next house party. But he is very mellow and laid back; too much so for this venue and this loud, rude crowd, who obviously weren't there to see him anyway.

Now, about Anna. The girl absolutely cracks me up. If this singing gig doesn't work out, she's got a great future in standup. She's adorable and funny even when she's angry, and she had plenty of reason to be angry this night. The staff at Jack Rabbits were no help at all; it was the Original Amateur Hour, from start to hilarious finish.

After she had introduced herself - (Ladies and gentlemen, Anna Nalick! - the back door led directly to the stage, in full view of the entire audience, so there was no place for her to hide until she'd been introduced properly) - they went directly into Citadel, one of my favorites. The song lasted about 15 seconds. Each time she tried to sing a note, the joint was overwhelmed by a noise that sounded like a very loud roll of thunder. Thanks to Ernesto, it was raining, but that was outside. There was no sign of any storm inside the club. She stopped, the band stopped, she looked quizzically at her microphone and wondered aloud, "What the hell is going on here?" A member of the venue staff literally ran up on stage (while Anna looked on with a combination of anger and amusement) and replaced her mike cord. But the fun was just beginning.

I won't bother naming all the songs they did. (After the concert, we were able to snag two of their set lists, and Eric got all of them to autograph his.) But once again I was reminded of one basic truth; no matter how many of their CDs you own, and how often you've seen the videos, you can't fully appreciate this bunch until you've seen them live. All four of them were born to be performers. The guy controlling the lighting and sound levels must have been stoned; it was a fiasco from beginning to end. But, through it all, their inherent showmanship shone through like a beacon. They truly love what they're doing, and they are kind enough to take us along for the ride. And Anna was, well, Anna. She smiled, she laughed, she rocked, she crooned, she told her funny little stories (which are still funny, even if you've heard them before, because of the way she tells them). I especially love her reaction when she's not happy about the way something came out. If she isn't satisfied with a particular word or line, she will stop everything, tell the audience, "I can do that better" and - well - she does it over, and better!

Case in point: between songs, Anna is kibitzing with the audience, and has her hands behind her back. She stops talking, puts on a bewildered little face, and mumbles, "What the hell is that?" - followed by a dawning realization. At this point, she pulls out a tag, complete with the little plastic thingy and the extra button, and holds it out for us to see. She explains that she had just bought the skirt ("That’s hot… Okay, who wants the tag? I’m a small, by the way.") and had neglected to remove that tag. Looking out over the audience, she makes eye contact with Eric (naturally, wearing his ever-present ball cap). She smiles, holds out the tag and says, "Here, pass this back to the gentleman in the cap. Sir, you look like a crazy psychopath." She has that little gleam in her eye as she says it, and you know that this girl could tell you to go to hell and make you look forward to the trip.

Anna sprinkles an occasional "F-bomb" in her between-song patter these days. Our little girl is all grown up. But she uses it very judiciously, and only when it's really appropriate - on those "no other word fits" occasions. At the very end of her set, after many other "technical difficulties," Anna's microphone finally gave up the ghost and quit completely. She gave it a look, muttered, "F*** it," dropped it on the stage and danced a few steps away, did a 180, walked back and literally punted the offending mike across the stage. And the crowd went wild.

Even though my feet were killing me from standing for almost 4 hours, we stuck around after the show. I'm so glad we did. We were able to get Luis's attention, and asked him if we could have the two set lists left on stage. He handed them to us, and I mentioned that Marsha had told us to introduce ourselves. His face lit up. (Thanks, Marsha!) We had a really nice chat with him, which was above and beyond the call of duty for him, since he was very busy breaking down all his equipment. We also got to yak with Tim, "Bad" Ronnie, and - of course - Anna. They are all so damn friendly and gracious! Anna spent a long time at the merch table after the show. We waited until almost everyone else had left, because we wanted to talk with her without holding up a long line. I bought a copy of the new WotD CD - which I am never going to open! - and got her to autograph it. While we talked, I mentioned that we were "OldFatGuy" and "TerminallyShy" from the message board. She knew exactly who we were, and acted like she was sincerely happy to meet us. You know something? I believe she really was.

It was a wonderful night. We'd seen her once before - last October, at the Freebird - but this show topped that one for a number of reasons. For one thing, this venue - even though it's kind of a dump - is smaller and more intimate. Last year, she was just recovering from that awful infection that almost landed her in a hospital in Georgia. So she and Luis did an acoustic set, which was fantastic. But it was nice to see her really rock out with the full band this time. And, of course, the fact that she knew us from the board made us feel good, so Eric and I were able to carry on a relatively intelligent conversation. We chatted like old friends, without the star-struck stammering on our part.

Anyway - that was our night at Jack Rabbits. I've added scans of a couple of the pictures and souvenirs we brought home. Just click on the thumbnails below for the full graphics.