de.tech.ting

i know, i know.  not all that original a title.  i can see stephin merritt giving me that flat, dry, unswerving stare.  which he actually did on sunday night at the magnetic fields show.  f’real.

i was sitting in the front row thanks to (ridiculously cheap) ebay tix, and stephin merritt was no more than 20 feet from me.   and, um, he shushed me.   !!!!   i whispered ONE word to my date — literally, a single whisper of a word — and stephin merritt looked at me, put his finger to his lips and oh-so-quietly shhhh’d me.   in a nice sardonic way, actually.   but that brings me to a little known merritt fact: he’s got hyperacusis.   any sound louder than normal begins to “feed back” in his head.  that’s why he wears earplugs when he performs, and why he doesn’t like applause.

a review of the show here.  i was happy to see them live, to revel in the pointed and poignant misery they so lovingly harmonize.   found some videos from earlier shows on the tour — a few of my favorite moments:

papa was a rodeo

the book of love

all dressed up in dreams

give me back my dreams