@greysonchance Sony Hall NYC

The evening started out oddly. The train was on the wrong track; and very, very full. I’ve never taken the 6 PM Saturday evening train into the city, Are they always that full?  It's supposedly off peak.

Plus virtually everyone on the train into NYC was under 30 -- very few people of any other age group; other than one woman who, as it turned out, was trying to go to Yonkers -- not New York City -- and failed to transfer at Croton. She had to have strangers help her find out where she was. She looked very confused. That always scares me. I fear that someday I’ll be that way.

I wondered, looking at all those young people, could they all be going to see Greyson Chance, like me? I had never been to the Sony Hall. I didn’t know how large it was. Could it have been large enough to take that many people? As it turned out no, it wasn’t. They must’ve all been going somewhere else, though the hall was quite full. Still it only holds a few hundred people. It certainly couldn’t hold a whole train load.

I first heard of Greyson Chance, as I suppose so many people did, because he was on the Ellen show, after a video of him playing “Paparazzi” went viral. He was a very cute genius, who sang bubblegum pop music. It immediately became clear that he was not your typical performer, as he began writing so many of his own songs, and so quickly. Other people in the music industry were impressed.

I thought of going to see one of his concerts back then, but then I saw a YouTube video. The audience was full of preteen girls screaming at the top of their lungs, in ear piercing shrieks. I just knew that I could not  subject myself to all that screaming.

Tonight Greyson had one of those girls, who he remembered from 2010, onstage to thank her for her consistent fandom.

Then, back when he was 14 or so, his voice changed. He dropped out of the spotlight, tho I never stopped following him on twitter.

I kept tuning in from time to time to his YouTube channel, to see what he was doing. I can’t say as I liked it very much. He sounded like he was getting into stuff that would be kind of esoteric intellectual art, but not my style. But I knew something was gonna happen. He was too great of a genius for something not to happen. And, then, from time to time, a song did come out that I liked.

Then a video came out of a concert that seemed quieter, so I thought maybe I could dare go to hear him.

The next time I saw him on Ellen he was 6 foot one and one of the skinniest human beings on the planet. As with so many young men who have shot up quickly, he was awkward. His voice was still a little crackly.

He insisted that not much had changed as far as he was concerned, other than the voice, but that was clearly false. The energy of his music had totally changed. It was much slower more agonized, less pop, more bluesy. It was remarkable to me that he was so unaware of himself as to not be able to hear that.

But I thought I’d give it a try – see if I could stand one of his concerts.

When I got to Sony hall, the doorman thought he recognized me. I told him I didn’t think I had ever been there before. After going in, I’m sure I had never been there before. Another weird thing.

The hall is down two flights of stairs in a sub basement. When I got to the door downstairs, the lady looked quickly at my white hair and said “do you know that this is a standing only concert?“  I either hadn’t noticed that or I had forgotten it. Probably I didn’t read the ticket description well enough. So I shook my head.

She expected I would want to sit. I decided to nod. I probably could have stood, but I decided that discretion would be the better part of valor, and decided to sit. The only seats available were at tables, where they were serving food and drinks. The lady at the door assured me that I wouldn’t have to buy anything.

There was a large crowd of people between me and the stage. I wasn’t sure if I would actually see Grayson when he finally came out. Sometimes I wondered if he had already come out and had started. I thought I heard him singing over the loudspeaker, though it could’ve been any music. I hoped I would see him on the stage when he came out, but I wasn’t sure.

The time went on. My tickets said the concert was supposed to start at 8 PM. He didn’t actually come out till 830. Maybe I missed something. Maybe he was supposed to come out at 8:30, so that people would buy lots of drinks, I don’t know. It did seem to me very rude to make people stand for half an hour with nothing happening on stage.

I did notice when he finally came out, because they turned off the lights and everyone started cheering. I did have to stand during the concert to see over the crowd, but at least I had a chair to put my coat on.  The other people had checked their coats.  It struck me odd seeing all those very young people checking coats, which seems like an older person thing.  Now I know why. If I go there again, I will check my coat.

Another odd thing about this venue was that there were lavender colored lights in the women’s room, or maybe a combination of red and blue that seemed lavender. I always carry a packet of Clorox "To Go" wipes with me so that I can clean toilet seats, in public restrooms. The package is normally green, but in that light it looked blue.

The restroom had an aggressive attendant, who held the only dispenser of hand soap and squirted it into everyone’s hands. She was obviously fishing for a tip. You would have to look at her if she was the only source of soap. She was clearly hoping to guilt me into tipping. I didn’t tip her.

At least she didn’t try to hand me paper towels. I’ve had restroom attendants try to do that. That strikes me as very unsanitary.

What surprised me about this concert, was that he was backlit. Most of the time he was silhouetted against the lights. I wondered about that. Normally performers, as part of the job, have to endure bright light shining in their eyes so that the audience can see their faces. Certainly the audience would want to see Grayson‘s face. He’s extraordinarily good looking.

But, somehow, he got away with us not seeing his face, or only occasionally seeing his face during flashes of light.  Maybe he’s sensitive to bright lights? 

He started out dancing. A lot of the background music was recorded, including choruses of himself singing several tracks. He danced with his back to us during some of those recordings at the beginning. I don’t think he used to dance. He must’ve been working on it. He’s 22 now. He’s started to learn how to use that very tall body effectively. Also his voice is considerably less crackly. He’s learned to use the voice too. It’s sounding good.

Unfortunately, though, the volume was very high, even though there were no shrieking preteen girls. I had my earplugs in for most of the concert. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that I have very sensitive ears. I might’ve been able to get through the concert without earplugs, but I was definitely more comfortable with them. It was sort of borderline as to whether they were necessary or not.

I know some people really like loud music. I don’t. Also, in this case, I don’t see where the style of music that Grayson is currently performing would necessarily have to be loud. It’s sort of slow and he’s a little reminiscent of Dean Martin in the way he sings, except for the falsetto. But I'm pretty sure Dean Martin wouldn't have been so loud.

Falsetto seems to be obligatory these days. I’m not a huge fan of the falsetto. But I’m getting used to it, and not just for this performer.

Greyson is still a genius. Songs come out of him like water out of a fire hose turned on full blast. He writes them faster than he can get them onto albums. He played at least one unreleased song for us. I wouldn’t necessarily have known. I did buy an EP of his recently, but he only sang one song from that. Mostly he was singing songs from his new album, “Portraits.”

He did sing a few songs I recognized from recent music videos. I don’t know their titles, the one about "emotiosaurus feelings,"  the one about “your two lips,” and the one about "white roses."  I often tend to relate better to music that I have heard before, so I appreciated hearing those.

He told us some of his story of struggling to get back into performing after his voice changed, how he lost his agent, and no one wanted to hear from him. Obviously he had gone through a lot.

He referred to that original Lady Gaga song, “Paparazzi,“ that got him into the public eye. He played a few chords from it. The audience got excited. He could tell that everyone wanted to hear him play it again, but he said “there’s not enough money in the world.“ I thought that was a bit sad.

Again those of you who may have been reading this blog know that I’ve been a Grobanite. I know that it wasn’t Josh’s original idea that he was going to have to sing “You Raise Me Up” at every single concert for the entire rest of his life. And you could see a few years ago that he was getting a little restless with it. But he sees he has to. He’s come to terms with it. It’s his biggest hit. The audience wants to hear it. He has to sing it. He copes with it by having the audience sing part of it back to him. He enjoys hearing the audience sing it.

When I saw Arlo Guthrie, he said that if he had known that he was going to have to play “Alice’s Restaurant” every single day for the rest of this life, he would have made it shorter – yet he knew he had to play it, and play the whole thing.

If you look at recordings of Michael Jackson concerts, you’ll see that he always sang at least one song from his childhood concerts. There was also a backdrop, showing pictures of his family, during that old song.

Lots of artists have to perform their very old songs.  It goes with the territory.

I can understand, with so many new songs, why Greyson doesn’t want to sing “Paparazzi” now. But I kind of think he should. After all, that is what most people remember about him. They’re going to want to hear it. I know he wants to play the new stuff that he just wrote, that’s coming out faster than he can put it onto records, but he has to think a little bit about why the audience is there. They want to hear the songs they fell in love with.

If he doesn't want to play "Paparazzi," maybe he could choose one of his other popular songs from his child performer days, like the "unfriend you" song, or "Little London Girl," or even "Purple Sky."  But he can't just ignore that period of his professional life when reaching out to fans.

He did play the piano some. I had sort of hoped I would hear more of that, but I guess he felt, as I think many performers have found, that he needs to be up there on the stage facing the audience and not focusing on the piano.  Still, I know that he's a brilliant pianist.  I wish he would show that off more.

Most of the background music was recorded. But it wasn’t entirely a karaoke concert. There was a guitarist up there. I wasn’t sure whether the guitarist was always playing the guitar. It seemed like he was sometimes playing a synthesizer, or controlling what was going on in the background music, apparently there was also a tech guy who was controlling the background as well.. There must’ve been some kind of a drum up there, because Grayson was using some drumsticks and hitting something, but I don’t really know what it was.  It was hard to see much with the back lighting and all the people standing in front of me.

Sony Hall was small enough that an audience member was able to pass a note up to Grayson. Greyson started reading the note out loud. The guy who passed it up was embarrassed. It turned out that the guy had asked Greyson to go on a date. Grayson seem to indicate that he might do it.  Greyson said that what he was looking for in a guy was somebody who would stick around.  Actually, he used the "f" word, but I don't do that.

In one more recent Ellen interview, he referenced that he had someone who left, someone he was serious about . I don’t think genius goes very well with successful romantic relationships. The level of focus and obsession that one has to have to do what Greyson does, doesn’t leave a lot of space for romance, or social skills. But I hope he does succeed in finding a good partner.

I don’t know if I’ll go see him again. It was loud. He uses a lot of profanity. I’m not sure I really like this kind of music. But, on the other hand, he’ll likely keep coming out with new songs, and likely keep changing styles. Geniuses get bored, after all, so I may find out that he does something that makes me want to go see him again.

When I left there was a line. It seem to be going towards the restroom. I asked if this was the restroom line. The people told me no it was the merchandise line. So I was able to squeeze past and go into the restroom. It’s an indication of how young people were that the women weren’t lined up to use the restroom, after the concert -- and the merchandise was more important to them than the restroom.

There’s something about getting hooked on a performer. At least for me, it isn’t so important generally what they’re doing once you’re kind of bonded to them. So I’ll probably keep following him on social media until he comes up with something I feel more anxious to hear again.

#greysonchance #sonyhallnyc #portraitstour