Storm-y Sunday

This has been an odd weekend.

Our Friday night plans were modified at the last minute because some of the intended guests had family issues arise on Friday morning. Our Saturday brunch happened, but the rest of Saturday got kind of pushed off to later due to a case of the flu, and, possibly, a battle with a cold or two - but we're not discussing that. At least I got around to cutting out the ornamental grasses from last year so that the new stuff can sprout.

Today was nice. Chilly and grey, but not horrible. I finally got my taxes done (long story, but at least they're done before the 15th). Christopher got a massage. And we went to see Storm Large in concert at the Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis.

We first encountered her as the second lead singer for "Pink Martini" when their regular lead singer was taking a sabbatical due to some medical issues. Storm handled all of the jazz and the standards with style, but added a little edge of her own.

That was enough to get Christopher interested, so he picked up one of her CDs. Then he picked up another. And a third. A few weeks back, he noticed that she was on the schedule for the Dakota, and so we checked for seats and made plans.

I really had no idea what to expect. I knew she had great stage presence and an amazing voice. And Christopher had filled me in on the fact that her solo stuff was definitely edgier. But that was it. When she was introduced as being "not shy"... well... we knew we were going to be in for a great evening.

And we were not disappointed. She went through her own renditions of everything from Cole Porter to Bonnie Tyler to - this was a surprise, I'm not going to lie - Black Sabbath. She even did a couple of her own songs. The one thing they all had in common is that they were all incredible.

It's so strange, sometimes. I mean... She comes on stage looking like she was probably prom queen once upon a time. She's able to do the sweet, melodic stuff that makes you think that she could be Snow White. And then she gets off-color as she explains that all songs, really, are love songs - so in the song she wrote where she says "I want you to die" she really wants the audience to hear that as "I love you (maybe a little too much)." (And, yes, that became a sing-along.)

Seriously. It was an amazing 2 hours of music and stories. If you want to hear what she sounds like - or look at pictures or check her tour dates - her website is here: http://stormlarge.com/.

I'd highly recommend it. After all, for as sweet as she looks when she's smiling, I don't think I'd ever want to get on her bad side.