Vienna Teng takes a break between sets

Vienna Teng performed this evening with Karmen Buttler at Bazaar Cafe, which was the first place Vienna Teng ever performed in public (back in 2001 or so — and just 1 song!). The Bazaar Cafe is a fairly small venue (but very cool — you should go), and it was so packed with people that it was literally impossible to move around. I even had to resort to crawling under the table in order to get from one side to the other.

Me, Calvin, Vienna Teng, Bob, Erik, Michele, and Gordon

The uber-fans (above) got together for a group photo. I suspect that there were many more uber-fans lurking in the audience because when VT asked everyone to sing along to City Hall, the whole place was in on it.

At one point, VT was surrounded by a group of Asian women, and I got her and the group to do the super-Asian, dual-wield peace sign. It was awesome! I only wish I had been in position to get a photo.

Vienna Teng at Bazaar Cafe

I really enjoyed hearing Vienna perform. Although I hang out with her a lot, my time at home only intersects with her performance schedule once every couple of years. I particularly enjoyed Recessional and a cover of Alex Wong’s In the Creases, which was absolutely beautiful.

By the way, be sure to show up early when VT plays a local show. Erik and Michele arrived at around 2:30pm for the 7pm show (!). I left my place at 4pm, and avoided getting stuck in traffic after Michele warned me that there was a jumper on the Bay Bridge. And so, I drove around through Sausalito ($9 in tolls wtf), and arrived at 4:40pm to find that tables were already starting to fill up. By 5:30pm or so, there were basically no more seats, and many of the folks who showed up at 7pm had to stand outside!

Here’s a funny story. A couple that arrived fairly early took one look at me and asked, “Do we know you?”

After a couple of minutes, realization dawned upon them: “You’re the guy who got his cats to shit in the toilet!”

I’ve always wanted to be know as that guy.

By the way, here are a couple ways to annoy people at a sit-down show like this:

1. pretend your thighs are drums and play along
2. bring your coughing, restless kid and leave him at center stage while you drink a beer outside

Special thanks to Warren Wu for buying me a piece of chocolate cake à la mode. :)

Trivia: I also convinced Miss Teng to give a little performance back in 2001. It was at my place, and was only after several years of harassment. :)

[see all photos @ flickr]