My Mom :: Kimya Dawson

Last Wednesday I had the joy of driving up to the cities with a friend to go to the Kimya Dawson concert. Not only was the drive amazing (we become "the obviously ambiguously gay duo" if that's any indication of said awesome-ness), Kimya was stellar.
One downside was that I did not expect the concert to go quite as long as it did. Doors were at 7, and the concert was supposed to start at 7:30. However, the first opener, Angelo Spencer (aka Kimya's lovah and the other parent of her baby), did not go on until a little after 8.

Angelo was alright, he had potential. I really enjoyed his first song, but then after that my general feeling is that he needed to calm down a bit. I did enjoy some of the technical aspects of his guitar playing, and that he played a kick drum and high hat to accompany his guitar playing. Even so, a lot of the songs sounded the same, and he didn't have a set list, he just kinda played whatever he felt like. I'm not completely opposed to set list free concerts, but I also appreciate a well crafted set list.

The second opener was the French band L'Orchidee D'Hawai. They were a little more enjoyable than Angelo honestly. This may have been because there was 1) recreational drug use on stage 2) a blue sparkly guitar 3) the bass player wore a black, furry shoulder/hood item that looked like it was from a gorilla or bear costume. Not to mention I enjoyed their music a lot more. Their style was more jam band from the 50s meets the Edgar Winter Group. Even so, by the time they finished playing I was ready for Kimya.

Kimya finally took the stage, and was stellar. She opened up with a few older songs, "It's been raining" was particularly outstanding. She also played a lot of tunes off her CD that isn't even out yet, it's a CD of children's songs which were pretty hilarious. She also played some of my favorite songs, namely "12/26," "my rollercoaster," and "loose lips." In addition, she played the song "my mom" which I had never heard before. That's the actual song I'm posting in fact. She also talked about furries, and how she was at a hotel that had a furry convention going on at the same time, and how they were fascinating, and how they had elastic holes in the back for "easy fisting action."

I picked the song "My Mom" because it is so deeply personal. By this I mean that the simplicity of the song and the straightforward lyrics are intimate and revealing. The song makes me feel like averting my eyes, not looking at the situation head on. Though that might be the Lutheran in me. In addition, I really like the verse about Bert and Ernie because it seems almost completely unrelated.

Basically, I love Kimya, and I am so excited that I got to see her live in all her glory. In addition, it was at the Cedar Cultural Center which is a fantastic not for profit venue in Minneapolis. If you have a chance to see a show there, you should go.




have you ever had a dream
that your favorite baby's drowning
and you grab him by his sweater sleeve and pull him up on to the ground and
you can hear the water slosh around inside his tiny gut
push his belly up and down but he can't cough the water up
suddenly a flood comes out his mouth till there is nothing left inside of him
he's empty now
there isn't even one small breath
and he goes limp in your arms
all the people's mouths are moving
all you hear are car alarms
and you wake up and start to cry
I will lose my shit if even one more person I know dies
so please don't die

my mom's sick she's in a hospital bed
I've got a word for all you ghosts in her head
and all you skeletons in her closet
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone, please
because my mom needs you gone
my mom needs you gone
as long as she is haunted she'll never get strong
my mom needs you gone

you traded all your paper clips for a soap dish that way
your best friend's rubber ducky wouldn't slip and slide away
but he traded his rubber duck for a cigar box to place your paper clips in
Mr. Hooper came to say
"oh my dear friends Bert and Ernie
here's a little something for each of you from me
here are your paper clips and here's your rubber ducky
how could I ignore such selfless generosity?"

the human body's made up of good and bad bacteria
but the antibiotics and the antibacterials are killing all the good ones
and the bad ones just get stronger and become super infections
it's harder to destroy them and it's harder to detect them
and there's something in her blood
and there's something in her leg
and there's something in her brain

my mom's sick she's in a hospital bed
I've got a word for all you ghosts in her head
and all you skeletons in her closet
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone, please
because my mom needs you gone
my mom needs you gone
as long as she is haunted she'll never get strong
my mom needs you gone
my mom needs you gone
my mom needs you gone
my mom needs you gone