So last night we went down to the beautiful Cafe Du Nord to see the brilliant Patrick Wolf. Curt had never been there! So I was excited for him to see it. The bastard has only been to San Francisco once about five years ago. I missed that show and have been waiting ever since to see him live. I have loved all 3 of his albums and have been waiting patiently to hear how they sounded live. I was a little worried that he would disappoint.  It was hard to imagine him pulling off the brilliance of the albums in a live setting. But he literally blew me and everyone there away. I was expecting some over the top outfit and of course he met my expectations in this regard at least. I thought maybe some suspenders and a jaunty cap with a feather. He came out with a blue wig, shiny gold suspenders and little school boy shorts. He reminded me of a young Liza Minnelli mixed with Mccauley Culkin's version of Michael Alig. Maybe with a little Marc Almond and high school musical thrown in there. He even made a costume change half way through the show. He was joined by three young men on stage. Stand up bass, drums, and of course electronics. His violin player had gone back to England because of the "weather." The songs sounded great live and he was quite the little show man. He interacted with the crowd and told some great little stories.


He played a lot of my favorites from the first two albums. The live version of "To the Lighthouse" brought some little tears to my eyes. The highlight of the night was right before he came on stage. Five bears walked right in front of us to find their spot for the show. While a couple of them were obviously dragged to the show. The fact that they were there made me happy. It was overall a very stylish indie crowd. But its nice to know he has crossed the boundaries into bear territory. And I swear I saw George Lucas and Catherine Zeta Jones in front of me as well. The best thing about the show was how positive he was. He could have easily been a little mopey depressed emo goth on stage complaining about how horrible and tragic his life was. But he instead remained positive and optimistic. He shared not only his music with the audience but also a little bit of love. I left the show with a big smile on my face.

It was so nice for Patrick Wolf to wait until my birthday to release his new album "The Magic Position" here in the states. Or I guess I should say, that it was nice for his label to wait until the 1st of May. It has been out for a month or 2 already in the UK, so I have already spent some quality time with it. This is Patrick's 3rd album and first since his departure with the excellent label Tomlab. "The Magic Position" is if nothing else, one of the best album covers of the year. While one would think Patrick would be maturing and using more adult imagery on his albums. He has gone the opposite direction as a man child on a sort of magical merry go round, dressed like a 10 year old having his cowboy theme birthday party. Or maybe he was just planning this all along for my birthday celebration. I did have an outfit very similar to that on my tenth birthday.  Unfortunately my mom would not let me get away with that hair color until I was in high school. Whatever you may think of the album cover, there is no denying it is a unique and brave idea. Much like the music you will find inside.

I having been loving Mr. Patrick Wolf for a while now. He seriously blew me away with his first excellent album "Lycanthropy." I remember that I read a little bit about this before it came out and was very intrigued. I then got the album and was hooked immediately. I slowly spread the word of the greatness of Mr. Wolf. Of course, he is not for everyone. I carefully chose the friends to share him with. He was like my little secret obsession. His music is sort of a combination of the dramatics of Kate Bush, Xiu Xiu, and Erasure mixed with the bookish intelligence of Morrissey and Idlewild mixed with the electronicness of Aphex Twin with a bit of classical thrown in,  He does not mess around with his lyrics either. He takes himself quite seriously on the musical journey of his albums. He seems to be from a different time. A Futuristic Past, if that even makes sense.  Patrick takes you gently by the hand and forces you into his magical land of wolves and dreams.