Kaki. King. Was. Fucking. Incredible.

*EDIT*

Can someone tell me who was my 50,000th visitor? hahaha I just realized I had that many visits! How long have I been on AnD? since like April? or something? thats pretty nuts =P

Anyway, back to the actual blog:

Oh boy, was she incredible. This entry would be even MORE awesome, had I brought my camera. But I didn't! Cuz I'm an idiot... hahaha

I dunno, something had told me to bring it, but then I was like eh, its a concert, they probably would've told me to put it away and plus, I didn't want to feel like I had hyped myself up for it too much you know? I figured I'd have a good time with or without it.

Anyhow, so I get there, get my tickets printed and wait in line pretty early, so im like second or so, but luckily time went by fast as I just texted or called some friends. I was gonna have my friend Keith join me, but he had to work last minute so it was just me by myself, which was fine by me!

In the end I get in, and got to be pretty much right in front of the stage, as the Park West in Chicago is more of a dancehall/opera concert stage with seating all around and a balcony, but then an actual dancefloor in front of the actual stage/arena. So yep, I ran up there and got myself a nice spot right in front of her!

After some time, she finally gets on at 7:30 and wow... what a show! She goes through all the tracks that I LOVE, and plus she's totally on fire the whole night, blasting through everything and singing with a ton of passion. I've seen her since her debut, and this is probably the biggest area I've seen her in, as she normally does much, much, smaller shows and I'm used to a more intimate setting with her concerts. She performs fab in those, but it was really nice to see her in like a 2,000 people concert and rock the fuck out. She totally handled the newfound audience like a pro.

But yea, she played a ridiculously long set. About 2 HOURS. Which is crazy, cuz she was the opening act! haha it didnt hit me until later, and then the other guys, the Mountain Goats were getting set up to go on. Anyway, she played such a long set but to be honest, it felt like half an hour. She really just blasted through a ton of songs and I was so immersed, I didnt know time flew by like that! The best part was at the end, when she randomly played a german hardcore cover and it ROCKED. It was very cool to see her do something more crazy than her more folk and somber sound, and she killed it with the guitar! It was pretty amazing.

Anyway, she played such an amazing set, and I didn't really know the other people, so I decided to leave as she wouldn't be back on. I really wished I brought my camera though, as I was RIGHT IN FRONT! I could've taken some sweet pics of her, but alas no...

What made it worse was what happened next!

So upon leaving, I see Kaki there signing autographs and greeting the fans, and I HAD to tell her how amazing her set was, and the best I've ever seen her play. So I did, and we started talking a bit and she was really cool until she paused me and was like wait a second...is that a MEGA MAN shirt? hahaha.

Yea, I have this mega man shirt my best friend eli gave to me on my 21st birthday, and its really awesome. Basically its a picture of him doing the slide he does (mind you, its basically an 8-bit still blown up to fit a shirt which looks AWESOME cuz its a high quality blow up) and under him it says "BREAK IT DOWN".

Kaki totally got a kick out of it and kept on being like "that shirt is awesome!" and we talked a bit more, and then she realized I was leaving and asked why, and I should stay and check out the Mountain Goats as they were really good. But I said no offense to them, yet her set was so ridiculous awesome that I would hate to know theirs might not be as good, and thus ruin my amazing experience. So she accepted my statement and then demanded I buy something to support her hahaha.

I didn't really want to spend any money, as I have all of her cds, but I did see this sweet limited edition poster of her that they made specifically for the tour. For $20 it wasn't so bad, so I bought it in front of her and she was really happy. Then she said, "wait! before you go this needs one more thing to make it better", and she signed it! It was really cool, as I didn't ask her for it, feeling like I took up too much of her time, but she was very nice the whole way through. She gave me a hug and everything, and I was like "dammit!" I wish I brought my camera! and she laughed and said, "yea, you should've, this would've been the best day for it!".

But anyway, I left the concert feeling super happy that I got a great show and got to talk to her and get her autograph. Needleess to say, I was in love haha. But really, it was just cool to be able to tell a fellow artist how amazing their work is and for them to be not only humble about it, but also excited to hear an opinion and talk to just some person.

Anyway, here be the autographed poster!

And here's one more performance:

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF9K1RXofEc

Btw, seeing her from like 2ft away rock on with her guitar was not only incredible, but fucking sexy as hell! haha. Any woman who can do that with her artform and really be passionate about it and then REALLY put on a good performance through that same passion is super hot in my book haha. It was just really funny as I forgot how small she is in real life (5ft, barely?) and we basically kept making eye contact the whole time while she was playing. Anyway, I'm totally crushin' and I admit it!

--Manny