The Del Amitri Concert, September 06, 1995
by Alison Bellach

A bit o' background:
After the Del Amitri concert at Slim's in April, I seriously doubted that Caroline and I would be remembered. I mean, they meet many many people, and we were just two of the few...but, I felt a distinct urge to send David a note telling him how much I loved the concert, about the Del Amitri home page, and informing him of the fact that Caroline and I were going to be at the concert at the Fillmore. I included a picture to jog his memory as to how he knew us and figured that he probably wouldn't get it, but that was okay....I had tried. :)
Anyway, when I bought the tickets, Caroline was in PA. I sent her a postcard stating, "Caroline, guess what? WE'RE GOING TO SEE DEL AMITRI!" (This is a little home-of from the last concert...Caroline and I would frequently go up to each other at random times and say, "Guess what?" and the other would either say "What?" (indicating a memory lapse) or "WE'RE GOING TO SEE DEL AMITRI!" (indicating a sharp, sober mind. :) ) I decided to let her stew a few days and then laid it on her by sending her a letter telling her that the Dels were going to be here and she would be able to see them. She called me promptly after receiving the letter to tell me how excited she was. :)
09/06/95...The day was normal and unassuming. I went to work, then was picked up by my sister. Work was hell! People are so rude to customer service reps....don't you dare do this to people when you need help, it only makes them less apt to aid you. (Public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood Alison!)
Anyway, we got VERY lost trying to find the Fillmore. I mean, I figured it would be on Fillmore St in SF, not Geary! So, we got in, and went directly to the merchandise table where we found that the shirts we were wearing had been sold out at the Slim's concert in April (cool!) and proceeded to buy three more shirts each -- a blue, retro polyester one with white stripes on the shoulders, which said "Twisted" in white letters above a huge, plaid "DA", a white one with long letters spelling out the band name but made up of a picture (so if you stand away from the shirt, you can see the guys) with blocks showing tour dates/places on the back, and a blue one with a license plate on the front saying Del Amitri (the license plate is from Glasgow -- the Sunshine State...lol!!!), and on the back, a list of tour dates, flags, the band name, and the statement "Not Available In Stores". They are RAD!
We sat down with a few people who had (ew) heard of the Dels via VH1. Then, out of the side door by the stage, Caroline noticed that David walked out. She gave him a hug (this was very cute) and then I ran up to them to give David the honey bear we had made for Justin earlier in the day and to greet David. When Caroline asked him if he remembered us from Slim's he nodded and said, "Yah! Hi, Caroline and Alison." He then said he had gotten the letter I had sent him after the Slim's show (shock!) and that he had backstage passes (actually, after show party passes) for us, which he gave us. He then said, "Come back after the show and I'll talk to you two there." (I was shaking by this point because I was so excited to see them perform.) I was in shock that he had remembered us enough to come outside and look for us, but more was to come...
The opening act, the Caulfields, sounded like a REALLY loud version of the Gin Blossoms. David and Ashley were telling us later about how they think that because the band is so loud, they scare off people who would normally listen to them. I think I need a hearing aid after that opening act, let me tell you. They played:
  1. Silence Will Kill
  2. Out Of It Now
  3. Awake On Wednesday
  4. The Underwater World Of Agent X*
  5. The Day That Came And Went*
  6. I'm Fragile (I Can't Fall Alone)
  7. Hannah, I Locked You Out*
  8. Brendal's Diary
  9. You Left Your Mark On Me
  10. What You Are (They Don't Want To Cut Your Disease)
  11. Lauren ---- (Moral Victories)
  12. All Of My Young Life*
* means that really *is* the name...the rest I guessed on. :)
Anyway, the Dels proceeded to take the stage and blow the crowd away with an amazing performance of:
  1. Stone Cold Sober
  2. The Ones That You Love Lead You Nowhere
  3. Just Like A Man
  4. Start With Me + Iain singing Lust For Life (Iggy Pop)
  5. It Might As Well Be You
  6. When I Want You
  7. This Side Of The Morning --> Justin made an extremely cute pouty face during this song. I asked him what this cute little vie for attention was about, and he said it was because "the audience seemed to be so sad" ::sniff::
  8. Roll To Me
  9. Crashing Down
  10. Come Together
  11. Hatful Of Rain
  12. When You Were Young
  13. Last To Know
  14. Being Somebody Else
    (Encore One:)
  1. Kiss This Thing Goodbye
  2. Empty (added due to a request by my sister!)
  3. Here And Now
    (Encore Two:)
  1. Driving With The Brakes On
  2. Tell Her This (played instead of Medicine due to a request earlier in the show)
  3. Be My Downfall + Drowning On Dry Ground
Question: Why do the Dels take like nine hours to come back between encores? :P We *know* that they are going to come back...who do they thing they're fooling? lol!
During the performance, we made many faces at Andy in order to get him to smile. It actually worked, too. He makes these intensely serious faces when he plays which make you wonder if he isn't experiencing some sort of great pain. Anyway, we were our silly little selves, trying to get Justin to play "The Return Of Maggie Brown" even though Ashley had no idea how to play it. You'd think that after 4 months of hearing the request the first time, they would have rehearsed it and at least know it by now, yah?
So, here Caroline and I are, standing in right in front of Justin (in hopes of getting sweated on like we were last time...HA!) when these two chicks decided to push us out of the way and stand in front of us. I was so offended...these girls had heard of the Dels via "Roll To Me" videos and were just drooling over Justin. (Personally, I can't figure out why one would lust so heavily after someone they didn't know...for all they knew, Justin was a jerk.) David, Caroline, and I were making faces about how rude they were being while this was going on...and the girls were oblivious the entire time! Ew! They wanted to hear "Driving With The Brakes On" as if their lives depended on it, and sat there wiggling to get Justin's attention. Instead, Justin proceeded to ask CB and I: "Aren't you the internet girls?" when the two dorky girls started screaming that no, it was them. (They obviously had no idea what Justin had been talking about...they just wanted attention!) So, David goes, "No, they are Alison and Caroline." It was quite cute. I have one thing to say to those two girls: Cheapness and rudeness will get you nowhere! :)
Next, some really drunk, really psycho guy (note: if you are the really psycho guy mentioned in this review, please skip this next section!) who decided he would pal around with us tried to get Justin to read a birthday wish to his friend Michelle for her 33rd birthday. He wrote it on a napkin and handed it to Justin, who read it as such...
Justin: "'Happy birthday'....It's not my birthday!"
Psycho guy: "No, it's Michelle's!"
Justin: "Michelle? I'm not Michelle!" Then he handed the note back to the psycho guy.
Also, during the show, Justin relayed a true story about the Del's day in San Francisco. It seems that both he and Andy had gone to the Haight-Ashbury district of the city. (WHY?!) Justin saw Andy crossing the street and practically waved right in his face but was still not noticed by Andy. I thought this was cute, because he told the story this way:
Justin: "So, Andy, were you on Haight street today?"
Andy: "Yes, I was."
Justin: "I saw you there..."
Andy: "Oh really? I didn't even see you..."
Justin: "Well, I waved at you like this:" (walks to Andy, who's at the keyboards, and waves two inches away from his face)
It was cute, take my word for it. After the show, we were talking to them about it and Justin was absolutely confounded by the shops there -- he couldn't understand why people would pay huge amounts of money for used clothes! I thought it was so funny....I can't really understand it either, but it made me think about how lame those weird trendy SF people can be. :)
So, after a really really good show (which included Andy playing the accordian...WOW!), we went to the "after show party". (Ooh.)
Let me state here that David is totally TOTALLY awesome. David, if you have got your internet stuff up yet and are reading this, you are the coolest thing since swiss cheese (or is that Diet Coke?). But, I digress. David came bounding out into the "party" area with a huge smile and a warm welcome. I was amazed that he had so much energy after the show....I would be sleeping by then. :) The guy is cool. So, we chatted away about his plans for the future when I decided that I had to ask him if he had really read our letter. He told me that he had, and that he was going to get onto the internet when he got back home. (He said he was going to check out the Del Amitri home page! Wooo!) He also told me that when they had come to the states, he had tried to call us in order to tell us not to buy tickets for the concert because he wanted to give us guest passes. Unfortunately, I was lame and hadn't given him our phone number in the letter. (I wanted to hit myself for that, let me tell you.) So, he had tried to look us up in directory assistance and while he had gotten a phone number for someone with our last name, he wasn't sure that it was us. (It was, in fact.) So, he didn't call. Oh well. The point is, David is really interesting. Talking to him is absolutely great.
Then, Ashley came over. Ashley has this weird thing where he goes around and has people call him Sloan. I don't get it, but whatever. (You know those weird non-American types. hee hee) This guy is a babe, let me tell you. He even smelled good...he had some cool cologne on or something. :) :) I really hope he is integrated into the band soon not only because he is cool and a great musician, but because he let the band throw him into the hotel pool fully clothed and carrying a suitcase. What a sport. :)
Justin was wearing these really odd red retro glasses when he came out. When he walked over, I decided to quiz him on a few things...like, he's saying "A *burst* suitcase" in "The Return Of Maggie Brown" (conversation: Me: "What do you say in this line?" Him: "I believe it's burst." Me: "Brushed? Sounds like some weird Scottish thing." Him: "Not brushed..[laugh]..burst. Like, broken open." These guys have heavy accents, wow. :) ), that he had lied on Z100's Love Phones when he said he hadn't dated before 29, and that he had had voice lessons after the recording of the first "not really an album" album which altered his voice into the beautiful one it is today. I knew so many little trivia things about the band, in fact, that he signed the first Del Amitri "non-album" of mine "Hey Alison! -- for the girl who knew too much! Justin Currie". Cool! He is really funny and a bit quiet, which is very different from his on-stage persona.
Andy is totally sweet. We didn't get to meet him at Slim's because he was a dork and hid in the bus. This time, though, we got to thoroughly harass him, so he could feel as special as the rest of the band. :) He was telling us that the reason that they didn't always smile while playing is because they take their music seriously, and although they have fun while playing, when they smile, people tend to think that they aren't being serious about what they are doing. Wow, I can respect that. He also has gray hair with an amazing silver tint which is quite distinguished.
Iain's girl friend was at the party so we didn't see much of him. He seems to be a real party kind of guy. He's very sweet (as all the guys are) and puts up with waaay too much harassing from his loyal fans. :) He kept throwing these silly little smiles at everyone, though. :)
Anyway, David ditched us to go take a shower and change. Although he said he would come back, the band was tired and wanted to leave. SO, Alison (being the smart chick she is) decided to have a picture taken with Andy, Iain, Ashley, Justin, Caroline, and herself! (Woo!) I wish David had been in it, but oh well. Caroline gave Justin bunny ears in one of the pics and he cracked up. :) Then, we walked the guys to their bus, and were given "All Access" passes by the tour manager (I described the passes in the previous review..."Let me in or the dog dies!"). We received these passes due to the kind graces of Ashley (and Caroline, who has this way of asking for stuff and getting it just because she's so cute...hee hee hee). Ashley and Caroline sweet-talked the tour manager into handing them over by convincing him that we wouldn't follow them around and sneak backstage with them. :) Finally, we said a sad goodbye, and saw them off. They said David had gone to the hotel, but I can deal with that. :) He needed his rest.
We had a nice conversation with them about the making of "Roll To Me" (the video, that is). It seems that they took them all to a car park and recorded them from the heads up. Then, a blue screen was used to cut-and-paste their heads into position. They didn't even meet the wacky-looking chicks in the video....I also talked to them about MTV and selling out. I don't think they'll EVER sell out, personally. These guys have way too much of a musical personality to do that. One of the lead roadies was telling me that the only reason they really have videos is to help them make money, which they need in order to survive as a band, by advertising their music to all groups of people.
Also, I found out something really sad...but I can't tell you what it is because I think if I do, David will be shot. (See, in each concert review I have to have a secret, and this is it!)
My overall opinion: Del Amitri is going to be our favorite band for a long, long time. They sound great, and are great people. I have never met a group of more impressive individuals.

Cheers!

Alison

Del Amitri is absolutely wonderful...awesome...chic...without equal!