The girl just wants ta dance.

I just came back from a Keb’ Mo’ concert. if you don’t know him or his music, I highly encourage you to youtube him. It’s delta bluesy funny + sad + honest. I don’t know how I found out about him, but I’ve been listening to him for at least 6 years now, and he's in my top at least 5 musicians.

The show was incredible.

He was funny and humble, and so freaking talented (a steel guitar could melt my soul). and his voice. what emotion that man has. I actually welled up a few times in the beginning when it was just him and his guitar – just out of pure joy and appreciation that a man, and music, like this exist in the world.

It was wonderful. I smiled til my cheeks hurt, I stood up with the two ladies next to me when no one was dancing yet, and just clapped and hooted and shimmied till… well, not till anything. I just did. I just was. I was happy.

The only downside to any of it is that I yelled and howled so much that I think I strained my throat and I have a vocal performance for my singing class tomorrow! But – It was so worth it – it was worth being out on a “school night”. Worth taking BART home from the city. It was worth it to be able to sit at the bus stop with an older African American lady who’d been in my row at the show and gush about how just tickled pink we were.

I won’t go on about his music, but well, everyone left feeling joyful – that was the palpable emotion. The induced and provoked and invoked emotion. And not all music shows are like that. I do also love the harder more rock-y stuff to dance myself out to, but that produces a way different emotion - more RWAHH!! LIFE IS LOUD AND RIGHT NOW!!! Lol, but then again, you can't really dance to punk rock either – it’s more like snap your head in time with the fastest beat, throw in some shoulder, and occasionally shimmy some hips. I dance at the shows. I’m that girl now.

I used to not be – or only when I was drunk and became … well, let’s just say lecherous and often involving Elaine-like flailing (and falling). So when I wasn’t drinking when I went out anymore, at first I felt I had to be “super cool” by not acting like I was into the music – which likely I wasn’t cuz I was probably too busy thinking about what everyone was thinking about me. Yeah, I have that kind of self-centeredness. But, it’s gotten WAY better. And I love to dance. Perhaps I’m not a particularly good dancer (I hold with the view that the best dancer is the person having the most fun) but I do have rhythm of sorts and I just love to let my body just get into the stream of the music, to just let it do what it wants to do in response to what I’m hearing, what I’m feeling from the bass and the crowd.

So, yeah, me and two middle aged white ladies stood up and danced. Eventually more people did too – the domino effect, because likely I’m not the only one who thinks about what other people will think of me. But this is certainly a period of “but do it anyway” for me.

On the way out, a guy asked me out – and I said Not right now but thanks. On the way to BART a guy told me he liked my outfit and that he had “nothing to follow that.” It was sweet.

It appears to be true – the happier I am, the more approachable I am. Not that that’s the end goal – it’s just interesting to notice.

The last thing is, Keb Mo’s last song of the encore went, “She’s not lookin’ for a lover/She’s not lookin for Romance/The girl just wants ta dance.” Amen.