seanan_mcguire | Setting the night on emerald fire.

Ever have one of those nights that you just want to tell everyone about, usually following the recounting with 'but really, you had to be there'? I love those nights. They're the ones that live forever, gradually sloughing off anything that went wrong -- because there's always so little of it -- until they become perfect little bits of time that last inside you forever.

I had one of those recently.

The concert at Erosong was a sort of last-minute* addition to my Seattle holiday plans; they'd been planning to have Vixy and Tony, and as I happened to be in the area, I got drafted to come and help out, along with Betsy 'I play the cello like I expect the Devil to be moving on to a different stringed instrument any day now, and I plan to be ready' Tinney. Ah, serendipity. Sometimes it just decides that life needs to be awesome.

I'd never really had much opportunity to hang out with Betsy before we went to rehearse at her place, which is large, gorgeous, and filled with Maine Coons. (One of them, Alligator, is officially my new best friend. Sorry.) I now regret this lack in my life, because she's a smart, funny, positively amazing lady, and getting to know her definitely stands as one of the highlights of my trip. Along with, y'know, Voodoo Doughnut. So she's in good company. PS, adding spooky cello to 'Dear Gina' makes it a weapon of massively creepy destruction. Brrr.

There really isn't a linear accounting of the actual concert in my head, because there isn't room. Getting ready in the upstairs bathroom with Vixy and Betsy, the three of us becoming a unified flock of purple, black, and orange with feathers in our hair-o. Meeting Phil for the first time after knowing him for fourteen years (oh, you splendid satyr, you). The doleful spontaneous sing-along of 'Science-Fiction Double Feature' in the dining room. And the concert, oh, yes, the concert. Two sets, as follows:

First set:

'Girl That's Never Been.' (Dockrey)
'Thirteen.' (Dockrey/Fabris)
'Skullcrusher Mountain.' (Coulton)
'Tanglewood Tree.' (Carter)
'Apprentice.' (Dockrey/Fabris)
'Evil Laugh.' (McGuire)
'Ravens in the Library.' (Tucker)
'Burn It Down.' (Dockrey/Fabris)
'Mal's Song.' (Dockrey/Whedon)

Second set:

'Paper Moon.' (McGuire)
'Dear Gina.' (McGuire)
'Santa Baby.' (Javits/Springer, made famous by Eartha Kitt)
'Strange Messenger.' (Dockrey/Fabris)
'Companion.' (Dockrey/Fabris)
'Goddess.' (Tucker)
'Emerald Green.' (Dockrey/Fabris)
'Oh, Michelle Dockrey.' (My parody of 'David Duchovny' by Bree Sharp)
'Dorothy.' (McGuire)
'Wicked Girls.' (McGuire)

When we hit the bridge of 'Wicked Girls' -- the line 'the rules that we live by are simple and clear/Be wicked and lovely, and don't live in fear' -- and changed into a major key, the room literally SHOUTED its approval. Just this solid wall of 'YEAH.' I...we...it is a miracle I didn't trainwreck the song out of sheer amazement, I swear.

They demanded an encore. We gave them 'Alligator in the House,' by Betsy Tinney and SJ Tucker. The night was...

The night was...

It was perfect. You should have been there.