florence + the machine = awesome

Good grief.
Have you ever heard of Florence + the machine? (pronounced Florence AND the machine... I think) :-/
Well... if you haven't... you need to go Google stalk Florence and her machine and fall in love immediately.

A few weeks ago my dear friend (and social coordinator) Kate posted on facebook that they were coming to Tokyo and who wanted to go?

Now, 6000Yen is a lot of money to spend on a concert ticket for a band you only know one song by but I remember watching them on TV at some awards show, and was mesmerized then so I thought- "Hey! Why not?" Plus I figured it would be something fun to do on a Wednesday night and George was scheduled to be potentially still TDY so I signed myself on up. Of course George wound up making it home on time (somewhat of a rarity) so we tried to get him a ticket too the day of the concert but it just didn't work out and it was sold out. Oh well! He had a guys night while I went out with the girls. Sometimes that's fun too. :) (duh.)

SO. My friend Melissa and I had to work (hey, 2 hours every Wednesday counts as far as I'm concerned) so we couldn't catch the same train as the others but we made it down there in good time-- only getting slightly lost once. Those trains are still a tad intimidating when you're in a rush!

The concert was in a cute and trendy venue in Akasaka, the Blitz. It had 3 floors and our tickets were on the 1st floor, which meant standing room only. I am a horrible estimator at numbers of people, unless you count my slight OCD with actually counting people in a room, but I couldn't estimate how many people were in this theater. Melissa and I figured in a giant crowd of Japanese it wouldn't be hard to find our very American group of friends. There's only so many gaijin (foreigners) in Tokyo- how hard could it be... right? Wrong. The majority of the people were white and you could hear the British and Australian accents. Not sure I heard other Americans but Melissa and I had a harder time finding our friends than we had planned on. There were still a good chunk of Japanese of course, but it was the most gaijin I've seen in one place besides the base!

Anywho, it didn't matter how many or what kind of people were there because once that girl got on the stage there was little else you were concerned with besides being sucked into the glory of this woman's voice. Like I said earlier. Good grief.

The title of their first album is Lungs. And it ain't a joke.

She took the stage and just started belting it. I've never heard anything like it and don't know why I was so mesmerized but she was just a good performer. Her hands were the most unnatural but beautiful thing and when she sang it was as if she was telling a story with them and it was the only way she could get her point across. She even orchestrated the band and they seemed so well rehearsed. Anywho- awesome.

I got a big kick out of watching the difference in how the Japanese behaved at this concert and how the rest of us did. When George told me the tickets were sold out I was bummed that he couldn't come but also that we'd probably be pretty smushed. There was still that sense of personal space and plenty of room to sway back and forth.

At one point in the concert she got the crowd going and wanted us to jump up and down with her. I love to 'hop' when I dance so this worked out perfectly for me, but the Japanese people were slightly bouncing, not really sure what to do with themselves while the Brits, Aussies and 'Mericans jumped until our hearts were content!

And then the lights lowered and she just sang and sang and the people were silent. SILENT. I've never seen anything like it. I got chills. Mmmmm.

My point is-- Florence can sang. Not sing. SANG. I don't think she missed one note the entire night. And her back up singer (introduced only as Sam) had one hell of a voice.

Sometimes when I sing karaoke or in my car, I think to myself-- hmmm... I could do this whole singing thing. I could make it to Hollywood on AI. And then you hear Florence and you're like... "Oh yeah wait. Nope. I suck."

Just sayin' folks- keep your eyes on Miss Florence Welch. She's gonna be a star!