Aimee and Betty

Have you ever been to a rock concert with an eight-month-old baby?

As of this weekend, I have.

My friend Tricia is visiting New York with her 13-year-old cousin Sam and her daughter Kate, born in April. We made plans to get together last night and Tricia, doing some research, found out the band Betty was playing at the Highline Ballroom. She wanted to go, and I offered to babysit - but she said no, the baby could come too.

I was highly skeptical of this plan, but I figured we could always leave if things got ugly. Besides, the baby had some concert experience - earlier on Saturday, Tricia had taken her to the annual Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall, and apparently that went well. I thought all the noise of a rock concert might be a little too intense, though.

Happily, I was wrong. For one thing, the Highline is really more of a supper club, with tables and lots of space. We sat in a remote region of the balcony where Tricia could stand up to rock the kid if need be, but even that proved mostly unnecessary. Kate was fine with the show. In fact, she loved the lights and strobes, and waved her arms when the band played, smiling widely. I was amazed.

That was actually my second concert of the weekend. On Friday, Brian and I went to see Aimee Mann and her traveling Christmas variety show, featuring Nellie McKay, Josh Ritter, Ben Lee and others. We had a ball, though Aimee had a cold. (Hmmmm...Suzanne Vega had a cold, too, come to think of it.)

I love all the activity at this time of year. Lots of shows, visiting friends, etc. I still haven’t done much holiday preparation, though. I hung my strand of colored lights from the burglar grate on my window -- my only concession to holiday decorating.

(Photo: Phone booth on Third Avenue, Dec. 2007)