Amanda Palmer at Bush Hall

Amanda Palmer played at Bush Hall last night.

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Amanda was wonderful and gives good hug.

Sigh.

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Oh. You want to know more? But you've already read the most important thing... Oh, OK.

Amanda only announced this gig a couple of weeks or so ago, presumably as a warm up to her season at the Edinburgh Fringe. She has a lovely tendency of promoting other bands and had two support acts that she came on stage to introduce and endorse personally (I liked Christian Silva). And then it was her turn, appearing at first on the balcony in a pink tutu with a ukelele strumming to 'Creep'. She then vanished and ran down stairs to continue singing as she paraded slowly through the crowd to the stage, with the audience joining in the chorus. Up on stage, grinning from ear to ear, off came the tutu and on went a white shirt (forgetting about the flower behind her left ear for the first couple of songs) and on with the show.

Amanda and a piano and that was it. No Brian on drums, no fancy light show, no acrobats or mimes, just the lady herself. She has a really powerful voice and sings from the heart (or the crotch, I'm not sure), just opening her mouth and this amazing sound emerging, unafraid and direct. Bashing away at the keyboard and singing, Amanda treated us to a variety of new songs and covers, some of the new songs destined for the album expected next year. I particularly liked 'Leeds United' and 'Guitar Hero' so I hope they're on the album. It was quite brave of her to sing so many new songs rather than the Dresden Dolls crowd pleasers. She did a lovely version of 'Material Girl' (with friend on violin) that I'd heard via her MySpace site but didn't expect to ever hear live. This led into the wild piano solo that started 'Half Jack', a song with a chorus that sticks in the head and that closed the show. Phew!

We were standing near the front of the stage but after a while I just had to move so went to stand near the back. I didn't get such a good view of Amanda but could still hear her fine so enjoyed her and the space to move around. Clapping and cheering after 'Half Jack', looking towards the stage, and this little person in white walked past me towards the back of the stage... um, what? It was Herself going to the (appropriate) Boston grand piano at the back of the hall for an encore and we all crowded round, and Amanda asked us to sit. On that sticky floor? Oh, OK. A moment of panic about how I was going to manage to sit down and then once I was down my first thought was 'o shit, how am I going to get up again?' with one arm across the small of my back to protect it from stray legs, knees and bags. But there she was, a few feet away from me at the piano...

Swigging from a bottle of Corona, she played 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark' (a MySpace favourite) and the glorious 'Me And The Minibar'. Afterwards, as she stepped through the crowd, I put up my hand to shake hers and she grabbed it and held on (I think she was using me to help her balance) as she moved past. What a thrill - I'm never washing that hand again.

Aglow with joy and into the bar to top up on diet coke (the barman tried to give me the wrong change, deliberately) and shortly after, who should appear in a sparkly sequinned turquoise blue cocktail frock? O yes, Herself come to cavort and kiss and sign and have another Corona (well, she's earned it tonight).

When it came to my turn to meet Amanda I took my life in my hands and asked her to sign my copy of 'Yes Virginia' inside which I had a few of the photos I took at the Roundhouse gigs last November and her response was 'O wow!' asking if I'd taken them, saying she hadn't seen any like those before and asking me to send them to her (she wrote the email address on the back of one of the photos). She signed the record for me and one of the photos and then gave me a big hug for a photo, draping herself round me. I'm never going to wash at all now! And I'm not publishing that photo here, it's *mine*.

Chris then had a nice chat with Amanda, pointing out his Patti Smith 'Horses' tee shirt and saying that that's where we first saw the Dresden Dolls two years ago, at Patti's Brecht night and at the free gig afterwards. We sat on the floor for that gig too. Amanda stole my heart back then and she did it again last night.

There you are. My night with Amanda. Now, I'd better find a big e-envelope to put those photos in, stamp 'em and send 'em off through the wires to Miss Palmer.