Friday Night: Stephen Lynch

I've been a huge fan of Stephen Lynch for the past six years.
And I got to see him tonight for the first time.

I've performed several of his works, repeatedly, at various clubs here in Chicago, with and without success.

Stephen Lynch is, foremost, a musician;
Secondly, a comedian.

I "know" Stephen Lynch!

First of all, he sings his pieces in an awfully high, piercing tenor voice. It's this sweet, high, folk-song voice that I'd love to be able to replicate.
I can do a pretty good "Stephen Lynch" imitation, but only on a third lower.

I'm a "closet" tenor, so I've always performed his pieces adjusted to lower keys.
For example, his "Lullaby" which written in D major, I performed in B or B-flat major:

"Because Daddy likes poker and drinks lots of beer
Then he wants sex that involves Mommy's rear
Daddy has sores on his naughty-parts oozing with pus;
I think that's why your Mommy left us . . . "

Anyway, I'd bought tickets to see Mr. Lynch two months ago. I couldn't think of attending a Stephen Lynch performance with other than my friend, Marilyn.

Marilyn and I have know each other for six years now.
We first met when we were both employed at United Way here in Chicago.

Here' s nifty pic of us waiting on line last night.

We got on line early and got third-row-center seats, bay-bee!

It had been, like, sixteen years since I had been to a live performance.

Anyway, when Stephen Lynch came out to do his first monologue, I whipped out my cell phone and hit my BFFs number so that she could hear it.

Oops!

I really didn't know that you weren't supposed to do that. Like I said, it had really been a couple of decades since I'd been to a live concert. . . .

. . . A big muscular and imposing bouncer/security guard sitting at the front of the stage flashed a spotlight on me and glared at me. Like I said, I'd obtained seats right up against the stage. I was completely busted. I switched off my phone and quickly tucked it away.

damn!
I'm forty-eight years old and got busted by a security guard at a concert on the third row!!!
LOVE. IT!!!

Yes, he did do his jaw-dropping, abortion, anal-sex folk songs that included Clinton, Obama, and Bush, that I love so well. There was a lyrical piece about vaginal plastic surgery that tied into a thing about Republicans that made us hoot-and-holler.

Stephen Lynch was extremely entertaining. While I was hoping for, and even expected his familiar tunes to be presented, Lynch, instead, launched into an incredibly rapid, harmonic and comedic diatribe with two other musical partners. While the trios' performance was entertaining and stimulating, it wasn't what I was expecting.

Maybe I was just exhausted from the work-week.
I'd like to think I was way too familiar with his previous work to really be impressed by his performance.

Perhaps I'm just getting old. . .