Little Earthquakes

Listening to: A Fine Frenzy, "The Minnow and The Trout." It can't be easy to make a song about fish so charming. I love the lyrics. "Help me out said the minnow to the trout / I was lost and found myself swimming in your mouth / Help me chief / I've got to plans for you and me /I swear upon this riverbed / I'll help you feel young again"

Blondes have more fun, brunettes are smart, and who doesn't love a red head? I know I certainly do. My friend obsessed over Alison Sudol a few months ago and since we were on similar Pandora tracks, we were both similarly enchanted. He saw her last weekend in San Francisco, I saw her yesterday in San Diego. He told me to watch out for her gyrating hips. And yes, her hips do gyrate and she moves in this very magical way that we believe only she can pull off. I mean, it's pretty difficult to do the hands above the head sing and dance thing but she does it effortlessly and naturally.

Of course, the thing A Fine Frenzy is noted for isn't her dancing but her singing. Most people are probably familiar with her haunting "Almost Lover," and rightfully so, but she's got quite a few fantastic songs. Her voice is incredible, even more so in person, and she's got a tremendous amount of stage presence and energy. I thought her concert might be low key and ballady but it was nothing of the sort. She and her band kept the excitement level high, she was luminescent, and she did fun covers like "Heart of Glass."

The fact that Alison is dizzying beautiful also helps keep your attention. I think I could just watch her on a stage taking the GMATs or LSATs or something. "Oh, she pursed her lips, this is a hard one... Oh, she smiled, she knows the answer! Goooaaaalll!"

The Del Mar crowd was a bit lame (we saw her at the Belly Up) and when she asked for people to sing along, there was barely a murmur. Afterwards she flashed her dimples and joked, "You guys are the cutest chorus of mice." Which is the same as saying, "You guys are lame-o." I wanted the crowd to return her energy but it seemed like the slightly older fans were only capable of some enthusiastic hand clapping after songs. And by slightly older I mean me.

From reading her Wikipedia, I suspect Alison is a shy person at heart but has honed her stage presence over the years. It also said that she was known to mingle after concerts and talk to people and I had my topic of choice all ready (talking about children's books) but alas, she did not make a beeline off the stage to hang out with me post-encore. Shocking, I know.

This July, A Fine Frenzy hit a million Twitter followers and she currently has over a million and a half. She was an early featured act by Twitter and she's been apparently very good about using social media to grow her fan base. I know when she was in the Bay, my friend and I were definitely tracking her progress through the city. Tracking, stalking, whatever.

I did a quick Twitter search while we were waiting for her to appear (her opening act was Landon Pigg, the romantic lead from "Whip It," who's arguably a better musician than actor) but could only find one other Tweeter there. I thought maybe we should say hello to each other via tweet but then thought that might be weird.

The conversation with a complete stranger would have basically started and stopped with: "You're here for a concert, and you tweeted about it! So did I!" Cue silence and awkwardness. Right, so why put yourself through that? I'm not gonna lie though, I was kinda hoping the other person would tweet me because I've never met a random person off Twitter before and secretly hoped to. Oh I dream big, it's true.