  Would the jessica that you know and worship, Hungry and Tired after a day of walking around center city, stand in the rain for five hours for any amount of money? In fact, i paid 37.50 for the privledge Last night, the seventh, me n' sisters n' mom saw the Rufus Wainwright/Ben Folds/Guster concerto. It was freakin amazing. First we walked eight blocks in the rain to festival pier, not too bad, but then the rain picked up. For an hour we stood in the rain, watching them squeegee off the stage. Festival pier has no seats.
While we were waiting, we befriended some short girls who shared our unique problems. We decreed that all tall people should stand toward the back. a decree that proved useless when these drunk teens, i would guess they were newly graduated, shoved their way in front of us. one of the short girls asked them if they could move over, and they did. This redheaded girl moved over RIGHT next to me and pretty much had sex with her boyfriend right there. Rufus was up first, and fighting an urge to call chrissie and ruin my cell phone, i listened to his beautiful voice and thouroughly amusing banter.
I also resisted the urge to punch the smacked-pack who had thankfully moved behind us, but were now making fun of rufus for being gay. They were also talking about how they had gotten so smashed over the weekend, and how easy it had been to get the alcohol. Ok, good for you, i'm trying to watch the triangle of rufus's head that i could see between some guys neck and some girls head. Rufus had an off night. I think he was put out by the fact that most of the crowd was there to see guster and ben. The short girls we met definetly were.
When he started singing the moulin rouge song (which is in french) the girls asked "is this in english" katie said "yes" and they replied "were the other songs? " Anyway, after Rufus was twenty minutes of standing in the rain. During this time, a number of funny and infuriating things happened. Firstly, my mother retired to the alcohol tent and we didn't see her again until the end of the concert. Secondly, a couple tall people had gone home after rufus, giving me and my sisters (and my short friends) a perfect view of the piano where ben would be playing. Unfortunately, this group of girls moved through in front of us, as if they were moving through the crowd to meet some of their friends.
But no no no, it turns out they wanted to stand RIGHT IN FRONT of us! so i got to see ben when the girl in front of me turned her head. I love ben folds though, so it didn't really matter that there were people in front of me, because it was so amazing to just be near the stage. we were, at that point, roughly 20 feet from him, and by the time guster took the stage, we had moved up five feet or so. Ben is also fuckin funny. He made up a song on stage for us to sing along to.
He even brought out rufus wainwright to sing I'm never gonna dance again (the way i danced with you). The best part of ben was when we sang army, a ben folds FIVE song, that required a brass section. He didn't have a brass section, but in what i am told is tradition, the crowd more than covered. The OTHER best part was when the rain stopped. ahh relief! After ben, some people to the side of us left, and we scootched in their spot.
So i escaped the snotty girl in front of me. Thanks to a very generous, very tall guy who stepped to the side, we had an unobstructed view of guster. I don't have any good stories from this part for a couple reasons. One: by this point, my knees and head and ankles were killing me. Two: My purse was falling apart on the scene, so i was a little distracted. Three: I only know about three or four guster songs, so i felt left out compared to katie, who once worked a guster concert, and the stoners in front of me who knew every note by heart.
Well, i do have one funny story, there was this psycho in front of me undulating. At first i thought he was grinding his girlfriend, and because of my previous encounter with the crazy drunks, i was used to it. Then I realized that it wasn't his girlfriend, and she was inching away from him! i tried to do the same, but the crowd was too close. i had to clap to the SIDE to escape his ass. When the concert was over, i lurched and hobbled the eight blocks back to the car.
We were starving, having brought chips and stuff to the concert only to be 'confiscated' by hungry guards. We stopped at wendy's, made ourselves sick with greasy food late at night, and got home!!! yay!! ok, well now you have a minute to minute account of my concert doings. Congratulations!! I'll post later today about my day in philly.
If you want to laugh, you'll want to read it. Jess 
