Live Review: Kimya Dawson @ the Black Cat, April 3

Ah, Kimya Dawson, she of the quiet speaking voice, subdued presence and delightful personality. Her show at the Black Cat showed off all of these qualities, plus a wonderful sense of humor. The only negative was the damn disrespectful audience, but more on that in a bit.

Ms. Dawson took the stage a bit after 10:30 and played for just over an hour. The Cat was packed and since I was with my under four foot fiancée, we tried taking a position to the side of the stage on the risers so she could see. With Kimya seated for the entire show, that didn't work out so well for either of us, hence no pictures of the show. Dawson entered to great applause, though she remained largely silent with the audience through the first few songs, opting instead to speak essentially off-mic to her accompanist, the esteemed Mike Toby. She kept referring to Toby as a wee babe, but since I couldn't see him at all, I'll have to take her word for it. After those first few songs, though, Kimya really opened up, starting with an attempt to return a missing ID for someone named Burke. Apparently, it was a military ID, though Dawson admitted she originally misread it, thinking it was for Uninformed Services, not Uniformed. Through the remainder of the show, she gave numerous speeches on positive body image, her daughter, Panda, the joys of having friends on the road and the D.C. Girls Rock Camp.

She ran through most of her solo stuff, including "Heroes," "The Beer," "Fire," "I Like Giants," "Tire Swing" and "My Mom," amongst others. Dawson also previewed a few songs from her upcoming children's album, Alpha Butt. These were perhaps the cutest of the evening and quite possibly the highlight of the show. She also had Toby sing a couple of songs. Toby apparently is with a band called the Good Lucks and I thought he was pretty good. Certainly the funniest point of the evening was the second to last song, a love song written by her brother to the Macho Man Randy Savage.

Back to the ass hats in the audience. Look, far be it from me to cast aspersions on people drinking too much. Hell, I've got a guilty liver myself. However, if you're going to do nothing but yap and make an ass out of yourself, god damn it, go to the bar downstairs at the Cat. Dawson has an unassuming, very quiet voice and trying to listen to her while I've got to deal with drunks pisses me off to no end. I wasn't the only one, as I heard a few people yelling at others to shut up. Sorry about the soap box rant here, but it's one of my biggest pet peeves as a concert-goer.

As far as Kimya and Toby, though, they put on one hell of a show and I look forward to their return to town.