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Notes From The Road: Kaia Wilson and Jennifer O’Connor on tour (Day 8)

Hi again AfterEllen readers!

I’m sitting on a couch in Philadelphia with some cats, thinking about our show tonight at the First Unitarian Church. It’s our last show of the tour. Well, it’s my last show of the tour, Kaia will continue on for another few weeks on her way back home to Portland. It’s been a truly rewarding week and I’m grateful to Kaia for having me along.

We played the Black Cat in Washington D.C. on Monday night and it was a definite tour highlight. It may actually rank up there with one of the best shows I’ve ever played. These things made it extra special: It was a Monday night and a lot of people came out to the show anyway.

Monday’s are widely known as nights you should take off on tour. But people came and some were even shouting out the names of my songs in hopes that I would play them like I was some kind of rock star! I also had some really nice conversations with a few people after the show about how my music has been important to them over the years It may seem cheesy or obvious, but this kind of thing really does make the “struggle part” of being a musician worthwhile.

Here’s a clip of Kaia at the show singing about Judgment Day (which is Saturday, of course) and how gay pride is one of the main reasons for it(!): Here is me singing “Exeter, RI.” And Kaia doing “Sixteen”: Here’s a photo of an audience member with my setlist (notice my fantastic black cat drawing in the upper left corner!) She asked to keep the setlist and I obliged. I used to take setlists as souvenirs from shows I went to in the ’90s. I had a set list for The Lemonheads It’s A Shame About Ray tour on my wall all throughout college.

Speaking of college, our next show was on Tuesday at Princeton University. The show was set up by a Alex, a super cool student from the university’s Pride Alliance and included a talk by Kaia on riot grrl and queercore. Alex also plays the violin and sat in on a song with Kaia. We had a day off yesterday and despite the non-stop rain we made the most of our free time. We met my friend Jon Solomon of the great WPRB for a healthy lunch and then we set off to the mall to see a movie. Seeing a movie on tour is more fun than seeing a movie at just about any other time. I cannot tell you why this is so, but it is indeed, fact. We saw Bridesmaids and I absolutely loved it. Normally I’m not super into “wedding movies” but this one is more about the loss or change in a friendship between two women when one gets married and less about being desperate and unhappy because one is still single. It was really smart, and of course, incredibly funny. Kristin Wiig! Maya Rudolph! Melissa McCarthy! My hat is off to you ladies.

OK, come see us tonight in Philadelphia at the First Unitarian Church Side Chapel. Visit r5productions for more information. Show starts at 9 p.m.!

xox Jennifer

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