Confessions of a Digbyholic: Hotel Utah, SF 12/09/09

On Wednesday Marie played a sold out show at the Hotel Utah Saloon in San Francisco, CA. Despite technical issues with the sound system the show proceeded as planned and Marie gave her first true concert performance in San Francisco.

Marie played about 10 songs for this show. We found videos for 4 of them on YouTube: “Beauty in Walking Away”, “Love With A Stranger”, “Stupid For You” and “Daybreak”.

Thank you to DreamyPiper for getting the Digbyholics a quick shout out from Marie after the show.

We received an amazing and complete write up on Digbyholics’ Facebook Fan Page about the San Fransisco show in Hotel Utah by Ed Magaoay. Very updated, time specified, and impressive! Thanks for taking the time to write for us!!

An Excellent Evening with Marie Digby on Wednesday, December 9, 2009

• 7:00pm: Got on the freeway and headed towards San Francisco.  I knew it was going to be a great night because we flowed right into the City without traffic and without getting lost.
• 7:45pm: Found free parking less than 100 feet from the Hotel Utah Saloon, and in fact, parked right behind Marie Digby’s tour bus.
• 9:00pm: The band she was traveling with, Alpha Rev, came on first and sang about 6-7 songs. They performed quite well and had some good songs.
• 9:30pm: Marie Digby made her entrance onto the stage with a rousing applause from the audience.  She greeted us and then asked for a drink of hot tea.  Then someone yelled out, “Hot tea for the hottie!”  With that, Marie laughed along with the rest
  of us.  Before she started singing, she talked about her tour and how much fun she was having traveling around the country and how it felt as if she was on the road for years when in fact, had been only 10 days or so. She said she missed her dog Misty and hoped that she was ok at home. Then someone yelled, “Is Misty with you?” and Marie looked at the audience and had that look on her face as if to say, “Are you for real?  I just said I miss my dog and I hope she’s ok.”  But instead, she simply replied, “No.”  She did mention the fact that this was her first performance in San Francisco and wondered why she hadn’t come up to the Bay Area earlier. After a few more comments, she began her set with the song “Daybreak”.  As the concert moved on, she went from playing the piano to playing the guitar to just singing with the mic in her hand. After singing one song, she noticed that one of the audience members had sung the entire song with her because she noticed her mouth moving as she was singing.  Marie got a kick out of that and said she was quite impressed.  Before she sang the song “Beauty in Walking Away”, she talked about her time spent at college at the University of California at Berkeley and how the song related to that experience. She said that during her one year in college she was having the best time of her life.  She lived on the top floor of
  Cunningham dormitory unit 2 room 808 and to her surprise, there were some girls in audience that lived just a few doors down from her in room 805.  Marie was thrilled to hear that.  She then talked about how she would go out into the fire escape, in which she wasn’t supposed to go, with her guitar and sing.  Then one day as she looked out into the twinkling lights of the Bay Area she thought to herself, ” I love school, but I want to be a musician.  I don’t know if I got what it takes but
  it’s what I love more than anything else.  I would focus on one of those twinkling lights and think, that’s where I want to go.  I was scared to death to leave school because I was so comfortable and safe, but I had no choice.  And this is how I
  came up with “Beauty of Walking Away”.”
• 10:30pm: Marie ends the concert but comes back on stage as the audience chanted, “One more song, one more song.”   In fact, she sang 2 more songs and ended the night with “Umbrella” and we all sang along with her.
• 10:45pm: Marie came out to meet and greet her fans.  She took pictures and signed autographs.  She was also selling her latest CD “Breathing Underwater“, t-shirts, and tote bags.
• 11:50pm: We were the last ones to meet her and take one last picture with her.

Marie Digby is such a friendly and beautiful person.  I was very impressed that she took the time to interact with her fans during and after her show.  She has an amazing voice and I look forward to seeing her again in concert and buying her future CDs.

Our fellow Digbyholic Ken, who was also at the Hotel Utah show and conducted the 2nd Digbyholics Interview, provided us with a great write-up of the show as well. It is pretty long, so I have included the first few paragraphs, you will need to click “read the full story” for the rest of it. Thanks Ken!

~Detour to the Hotel Utah Saloon~

“Marié, you can expect Ken to interview you down at the San Francisco concert.”

It’s Tuesday, the night before the upcoming Hotel Utah performance and Marié is still in Seattle talking to Vince, fellow Digbyholic Interviewer. When I hear about this conversation later that evening, I realize the pressure is on for me to drop by the next night and make this happen.

Wednesday night is in full effect; my friends and I are at Temple, a few blocks from the Hotel Utah venue for some drinks and dancing. It’s fifth-shot-o’clock, and I remember I’m supposed to catch Marié after her autograph signing. “I’ll only be gone an hour,” I foolishly tell my girl as I leave the neon interior for the streets of downtown. “Homeless-guy-number-1″ is walking in the same direction with me and we share a nonsensical, but funny conversation for a couple blocks. There’s a short line in front of the venue, but no worries because I’m kept company by “Homeless-guy-number-2″ exchanging jokes.

A month earlier, I was surprised about hearing Ms. Digby booking a show here. You see, the Utah is a great little dive bar where you come to knock back a scotch-and-soda (or three) to the sounds of The ‘Stones or The “Boss” Springsteen. Super laid-back, with a stage usually occupied by local rock bands and an open-mic. I knew that a Marié concert in the Bay Area would end up drawing a huge asian-american crowd to a joint with a definitively different subculture. Think, Pearl Tapioca Tea meets Pearl Jam. Think, Pho meets Faux-Hawk. I knew the regulars would get a kick out of seeing such a large-scale “invasian” of their good ‘ole bar.

I’d planned on getting there at some point during autograph signing, but it turns out they’re behind schedule and Marié was just starting her set. ‘Gone for an hour,’ my ass! A sold out show? No problem. A minute later, I’m ten feet from the stage with a pint of Guinness. Should be a good deal all around, but what’s with this quiet subdued crowd? I peer into my Guinness wondering if they’re lacing the drinks with a sedative, until I took a glance at the tables and notice the strongest beverage in sight is a Coke, minus the Jack. I’m quickly losing my buzz as I felt the need to ask where the funeral service is at. Utah’s setup is “intimate and cozy” with the right crowd, but tonight it was more “quiet and cramped.”

Fortunately, Marié flexes some of her veteran tour-charisma and rouses some excitement and cheer out of the few super-excited fans seated front-stage. Much props to them for knowing how to have a good time, whoever y’all were. One funny tangent in between songs was her attempt at starting the intro to Love With A Stranger, which took a minute for her to, “get into the mood to sexy it up,” as she put it. In true Digby-form, she’s sipping on a cup of tea in between songs, to which one of the talkative fans up front says it’s, “Hot tea for a hottie.” Marié got a big kick out of it and repeated it into the microphone for all to hear.

She performs about nine or ten songs total, singing her heart out on each one. Her background musicians and sound guy do a bang-up job on each song. As she leaves the stage, a seated group in front, and myself, began cheering and clapping for an encore and she returned back to the stage by herself. Marié plays a couple more songs solo, ending with Umbrella, to get the fans to sing along with her. This was another great set from her, even if the crowd was lacking in the enthusiasm department.

Nearly every fan in attendance stays behind to see Marié for autographs, photos, and merchandise. The Breathing Underwater tour features new goodies; a dark blue shirt with Marié’s name on it, a lighter shirt with the album cover, and a cool totebag with a similar design as the dark shirt. On top of all the great things about Marié Digby, one of her trademarks is her desire to spend however long it takes to see every single fan who waits after the show. Several text messages inform me that I’m massively, epic-late in getting back to Temple. I quickly let Marié know that I’m there for the interview and let her get back to autographs. A second and a third Guinness keep me occupied while I get the stage arranged and run through a few pre-interview checks.

Marié, trooper that she is, finishes up around midnight and joins me on-stage. I’m imagining she must be exhausted, so we talk for just a quick bit and dive right into filming. A snag happens near the end when we suffer some technical difficulties: I’m a retard and forgot to clear the memory card prior to recording. I’d try to blame the Guinness, but it’s not the first time (nor the last) I’ve done that. I give little thought to continuing the interview and we let loose for a few minutes to chat. Fellow Digbyholic, Marj (@marjghe), busts out her camera and resumes recording so I wrap up and get a conclusion on film. After the camera stops, we chop it up for a little and brief on the upcoming plans for the interview in Hermosa Beach. We get our hugs and goodbyes done, and Marié slips off to backstage while I close out my tab and begin a brisk walk back to continue the evening’s festivities. “Homeless-guy-number-1″ and “Homeless-guy-number-2″ are nowhere in sight this time, so I make the trek on my own while thinking about the concert and the interview.

As one of her biggest fans, I sometimes get spoiled with how generous Marié is in her level of fan-interaction. The Digbyholics are fortunate enough to be in contact with her on a regular basis. I’m also in San Francisco and Los Angeles often enough to see her more than the average fan. But, I left the Hotel Utah with a sense of gratitude that inspired me to think of more ways to help support her in her career. This is a girl that you can’t help but want to root for and cheer on.

Best.

Detour.

Ever.

Tags: Avalanche, Breathing Underwater, digbyholics, marie digby, mariedigby, Say It Again, unfold
Posted in Confessions of a Digbyholic, Feature