Brandi Carlile's Human Tour and Soundcheck

As I've mentioned before, I've been a fan of Brandi Carlile for 23-ish years, since the days of just local Seattle fame. But now her hometown shows are at the Gorge (nope, hate it, never gonna go), unless we're lucky enough for a special fan gig (which are rare), so I have to travel to see her live. When the Human Tour was announced, the trip that worked for me was the last date in San Francisco, in early March. And given how many BC t-shirts I saw on the flights there and back, and how many people sitting near me said they'd come from Seattle, I'm not the only one who does this. I even overheard someone saying they went to SFO because they also hate the Gorge.

But it turned out that was only the first leg of the tour; a short time later, the second half was announced. It included a stop in Vancouver, BC, which is another home city for me, so of course I went to that one, too, at the end of last week.

In both cases, I got the VIP ticket that included a goodie bag, soundcheck, and a backstage tour -- not any meetings with the band or anything, just info about the setup (shrug - I come from performing arts, nothing new) -- because that's what was tied to the best seats. In SanFran, that put me in the fourth row, off to the side, in the perfect location for a Tim Hanseroth super fan. But in Vancouver, it got me row one, just off center. 

I was excited for my front row seat, but it was also surreal, since I hadn't watched a gig unobstructed, leaning on the stagefront barrier, since the tiny local rock shows I saw every weekend in high school. Never as a grown-ass woman, and definitely not in a big-ass arena.

But I didn't get to actually be in the front row (or the fourth row in SF) until the doors officially opened for the show, more than 3 hours after we had to show up to see the soundcheck... which seated us first come, first served. And I'm never gonna be at the head of the line. 

Anyway. In both cases, soundcheck was fun, but Vancouver was more like a party-slash-band rehearsal, with full songs, chatting, taking requests, even singing Happy Birthday to a small kid down front. San Francisco was a true soundcheck: we still got some commentary and made requests, but the majority was partial songs, often repeated, while each performer got their levels right. I guess things had tightened up in the intervening six months. 

Both swag bags were identical, and both backstage tours were also pretty much the same; Vancouver was slightly more interesting to me, though, because it gave me a peek behind the scenes at Rogers Arena where I've seen loads of hockey games through the years. In both cases, after the tour, they sent us to get the best selection at the merch stand, and then we had to wait (for up to an hour) in a small area, until doors opened and we could be released into the rest of the arena. Luckily, in Vancouver I'd met two other women in the VIP check-in lineup, all of us solo and up from different parts of Washington, and we ended up being a little gang for the whole night. For once, I had someone to hang out with while there was nothing to do but wait.

So the shows! Both were amazing, of course. The Brandi Carlile Band regularly goes for two hours, but I think Vancouver may have gone about half an hour beyond that, and they went with all Canadian covers for the night (A Case of You and Uninvited)... except for Dolly (Islands in the Stream with the opener CMAT), because duh. Both gigs included a section of requests in the middle - just Brandi and the Twins. I didn't get called on to give a song at either show, but was happy with the choices, regardless. In SF they were Closer to You and Cannonball, My Song and This Time Tomorrow in Vancouver. 

 

 

I took quite a few pictures at both, but oddly enough, the Vancouver ones weren't that much better than the ones further back. Maybe I was too close, the angle was weird from up under the mic... but I also just didn't take as many. I wanted to enjoy the rare experience without holding a phone in front of my face the whole time. 

Plus, there was a young woman, just to my left in the first row, who was completely stone-faced for the entire show. It reminded me of Robbie Williams, who often says he can be performing in front of 50,000 people having the time of their lives, but he will notice the one person who looks bored, and fixate on them all night. I was going to be someone the band could see having the time of her life, and not block that with a mobile device. I was also slightly to the Phil Hanseroth side of center, and he interacts directly with the audience a lot more than the rest of the band... which you'll miss if you're busy framing photos.

As it turned out, by the time Brandi Carlile Band took the stage, I didn't feel weird about being in the front row, I felt exactly where I was meant to be.

I told my temporary girl gang in Vancouver that, given my start seeing Brandi and the Twins up close in bars and restaurants, being far away in an arena feels wrong. I need to be close, in that same small venue proximity. One of them replied, "She needs you there, too." 

Which was said jokingly, but I'm just going to keep acting as if it's true... no matter how many identical tours and merch bags it takes to be there.

Girls to the front!

Back to School

I've been neglecting this place for the last while, partly because I haven't really gone anywhere or done anything interesting, but also because my writing time has all been going into long academic papers, for both graduate and undergraduate classes. Now that those are wrapping up, I'm back... sort of. Realistically, I'll probably spend more time on the newsletter I'm starting, but more on that later.

So how did I end up as a full time student for the first time in 25 years? You may have noticed that pretty much anyone who's remotely near middle age is having a mid-life existential crisis, because, well... look around. Mine started last year when I realized that I was disillusioned with the kind of work I'd spent nearly my whole career on, but I didn't know what I did want to do. Or even what I could do, after devoting decades to becoming an expert in one field. 

In trying to figure this all out, I found an online career change tool where you input your skills and experience, and it provides a few alternative jobs you're suited for. The list it spat out for me was:

1. Museum Curator
2. Sociologist
3. [my current job]

Helpful! I have absolutely no interest in curating museums, and Sociologist isn't actually a job. I know this, because I have two sociology degrees and couldn't find any work using them, which is how I ended up doing option three in the first place. 

But it did get me thinking... I always loved academia. I wanted to stay there forever, until the intensity of grad school burned me out. Even since then, I read as much for education as pure entertainment, and maybe more schooling would help me figure out what I want to do with the rest of my working life. So I took a long summer sabbatical and went back to being a full time student for a few months.

Spoiler alert: it didn't inspire a new career path, at least not yet. My break ends in a couple weeks and I'll be back at my job again. But the time back in school did rekindle and expand my love of the social sciences, and make me feel a whole lot better about moving through this messy time and place.

I know it sounds crazy, since ignorance is supposed to be bliss and all, but I’ve always been a research junkie. Throughout my life, in the face of anything daunting or scary, it’s information that makes me feel able to face it; learning as much as I can stuff into my brain is how I cope. It's like that James Baldwin quote: Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. But I don’t just learn enough, I learn too much. I get overeducated. 

So in these past few months, I've spent the majority of my time digging deep into history, sociology, political science, public policy, and more. And as always, having the knowledge to see the country clearly has made me feel more able to deal, and to remain hopeful through the dark days.

And that inspired me to share all the stuff I’m learning way too much about, and how I’m getting by. Most days it’s by understanding the politics and societal context of an issue, but others it’s obsessing about the pop culture that allows me to take a break from thinking about it all.  

Hence, the Overeducated newsletter, kicking off in the coming days.

Yes, it's on Substack, and no, that platform hasn't become less problematic. Unfortunately, I'm going to accept being a hypocrite here because it's the one engine with the full publishing abilities for free, and I can't justify spending money to put out this experiment that may never go anywhere. So that's where it is for now and we'll see if it's worth investing in down the line.

And, look, I know that a newsletter is the 2026 version of a pandemic podcast, but I never claimed to be a trendsetter. Just someone who loves to write, whenever and wherever.

Robbie's Long 90s in London

If it seems like all I ever do is go to London and/or see Robbie Williams live... welp... it's not not true...

When Robbie's latest album, Britpop, came out, he described it as the album he wanted to do right after his ouster from Take That, or what his first album would've sounded like if he knew then what he knows now. And that eventually inspired him to do a tiny show at Dingwalls in London, playing both Britpop and the first album, Life Thru a Lens, in their entirety. He called the gig Long '90s. 

That show was so wildly successful (I wasn't able to go, there were about 12k people ahead of me in the virtual line for 500 tickets) that it became a mini Long 90s tour, with 4 dates in small-ish venues around England and Scotland. And despite initially being locked out of tickets for all those shows as well (over 60k people ahead of me in the pre-sale queue!!), I knew I had to be there. So I booked flights anyway and continued to check Ticketmaster daily, determined to make it. After months of nothing but a sold out message, less than 2 weeks before the show, on my birthday, a handful of tickets for the London date were quietly released and I got one... maybe the only time in my life that keeping the faith actually worked.

But anyway, the show! 

I had a standing floor ticket, and since the Brixton Academy holds less than 5000 people (including the seats in the balcony), I wasn't worried about showing up early to get a good view. But it turns out that I should have. When I arrived, the lineup snaked around and around the building, over multiple blocks, and it took me at least half an hour to get to the door.  

So by time time I got in and quickly grabbed a t-shirt, the opening band was on their last few songs, and I was stuck at the veeeerrrrrrrry back. But since people always step out for drinks (or whatever) between sets, I was sure I'd have a chance to move forward when the clear out happened.

Nope. No luck. Nobody moved. And when Rob got started, I could hear the front section was full of my people, singing every word and having the time of their lives. While I was surrounded by the casual fans who had conversations during the non-hits, to the point that at times I struggled to hear the music. Oh, and a Robbie impersonator was standing right behind me (it's a lucrative gig in the UK, apparently), so all the loud-talkers were also asking for pictures with him as part of their generally being annoying.

So yeah. I was stuck in the wrong section. But it was still my only opportunity to hear two beloved albums live, so I made the best of it. And even with super zoom, I was too far away to get good photos of the stage, which gave me a reason to keep the phone in my pocket and just enjoy the singular experience. 

The concept was pretty simple: Rob sang both albums in order, and told stories, either about the songs themselves, or other things in his life related to the songs. 

Life Thru a Lens was first, and I had a fabulous time singing along to every song. Funny how I can remember every lyric of an album that came out 30 years ago, but I can't remember where I put the reading glasses that I took off my face 30 seconds ago. It was great to hear so many songs that I thought I would never hear live, alongside the ones I've heard repeatedly. He did the full album, in order, except for a swap of two songs when he accidentally introduced the wrong one. It was odd hearing Angels early in the set, instead of at the end, and Rob enjoyed himself by only singing about the last 30% of the song, and letting the crowd do the rest. At the end, he tacked on the hidden track poem, Hello Sir, as a bonus before stepping off stage just long enough for us to hear the Take That classic, Everything Changes, overhead.

Then the band hustled back on to play Britpop, which has already become my favourite overall Robbie Williams album. Intensive Care and Take the Crown are still a close second and third, but I think hearing Britpop live only helped solidify its place at the top. I sang along with at least some of every song -- as much as I knew... my memory is middle aged and the record had only been out for a couple of weeks. They did everything in order, but left out the songs You and Pocket Rocket. I can understand skipping the latter, since it's just an alternate version of a song they'd already performed, but I (and apparently many other fans) were disappointed not to hear You. They also threw in Selfish Disco from the deluxe version of the album, after it was picked to be the extra song by an Instagram vote.  

In the end, bad spot in the crowd or not, I had an amazing time. Photos or not, I'll never forget it. One of the best concerts ever.

During the show, Rob talked about wanting to do more smaller shows where he doesn't have to do his big hit set, and HELL, YES! Getting up at 3am to endure ticket pre-sale nightmares, travel halfway around the world, whatever it takes, I will be at every small Robbie show possible. Always and forever.

And not just because I'd prefer to never hear She's the One ever again for the rest of my life. Although that would be a perk.