onfocus

Last night I went to Portland to hear Nellie McKay play at the Aladdin Theater. I'd heard her double-cd debut, Get Away From Me and I was very interested in what her show would be like. It was just her playing a piano onstage, with no band backing her up—not that she needs a band behind her. She sings and plays like a force of nature, it was great. As Matt mentioned the other day, her music is hard to pin down to a specific genre. After the show we were talking about it as jazzy, sometimes spoken-word, david-lynchian, satirical, doris-day-on-acid sort of stuff (if that helps at all). And to top it all off, she's only 19—straight out of high-school band to touring with her own solo show. Matt posted a photo (and another) he took last night. There was a geeky moment outside the theater that went something like this:

matt: Nellie McKay is just inside the door over there.

pb: I should buy her CD and ask her to sign it.

matt: What CD? I downloaded it.

pb: Me too. Do you think she has a PGP signature?

So I didn't get an autograph. Is this something fans have considered about their stubborn insistence on downloading music? What are music artists going to sign if CDs go away? Wake up, people! The future of autographs is at stake.