Where is the wow?

Last Friday night, Sweets and I had in our possession a pair of highly coveted tickets to The Raconteurs show at Irving Plaza. Rolling Stone magazine reported the show sold out in sixty seconds. I got our tickets several minutes afterward, so I'm not sure how accurate that is. I'm scheduled to work until 9 pm, so we didn't get to Irving Plaza until almost 10 pm. We missed the Muldoons, the next best thing since France gave us Jordy ( I still have his debut cd). We also lost out on the chance of getting a spot where we could actually see anything. We tried the balcony first. It was packed. Some rude queen threw me shade saying I was pushing in front of him when I wasn't. Across the way in the VIP area I spotted Jim Jarmusch's shock of hair. We went back downstairs. If we stood on the last few steps, we could actually see something - or David Cross as he ambled by- but then we got moved along by staff. We settled in the bar area way in the back. If you turned your head just so and swayed to the right, you could just about see Jack White. It was hard to concentrate on the show. People were talking all around us. Daniel Kessler from Interpol and a friend were standing right in front of us, so I noticed all the times guys stopped to tell him they just finished recording their records and that there were better drinks upstairs etc etc. About half way through the show, I caught myself wondering what happened. I was buzzing all week knowing I was getting to go to this show and now that I was here, I wasn't connecting with the band. The audience seemed quieter than I thought they would be. Were we all bloggers? Feverishly taking mental notes, surreptitiously snapping photos, celebrity spotting and turning witty phrases over in our minds instead of latching onto the music and letting it carry us away? I had hyped this show up so much in my mind, it could never live up to my expectations. The first time I saw the White Stripes, I thought about it for days. Brendan Benson opened and he hooked me right away with his lyrics. I love all three bands whose members make up The Raconteurs. This new band is something entirely different. It didn't wow me. Maybe the band is a "grow-er not a show-er" as my friend Chris Pearson would say. When the record drops maybe I'll be wowed. The weekend before, we went to see The Flaming Lips at Webster Hall. I'd never seen them before but have heard their show is great. That's a total understatment. They opened the show with text flashing on a screen behind the band that read "Tonight the world begins again ... it will be glorious...spectacular and fantastical...Tonight your life will change ... and you will say...Fuck Yeah!" And we did. As hundreds of balloons fell from the ceiling, confetti and streamers shot into the crowd from the stage, audience members dressed as aliens and Santa Claus had a laser light battle on stage and the rest of us joined together in a mondo karaoke rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." That show was like the best New Year's Eve party you could ever imagine. That's a tough act to follow. Sweets had possession of the camera for this show. See his photos here. Another thing that did not wow me in the last week was my salon visit. Last time I got a really good cut and it was expensive at $95. A week later I went back for color. Somehow I walked out with a deep red. I liked it alot but it lightened up since then to something more cinnamon. I made an appointment with a different stylist this time to try to save some money. She is one of those stylist that looks at you disapprovingly clucking that "you REALLY need a shaping." Come on lady, my grandmother was dying I didn't have time to lounge around the hair salon. She wouldn't cut my bangs short the way I like them and styled them to the side so I didn't even know how long they are until I blowdried it myself. Ugh. I told the colorist I am getting married and want to start working back to my natural color with a brown color. She told me to that wasn't a good idea and to leave it up to her. It's, geex, I don't even know what color to call it now. Copper maybe? Then they charged me more than they had quoted me on the phone. So, here I am with my unfabulous hair that set me back close to $200. I used to have the best stylist ever. Cut and color for $60! And then she disappeared. I'm considering hiring a P.I. to find her. Can't cost more than this last styling.