Nick Hornby with Marah
Two years ago I spent a weekend in NYC with my mom, who was in town for a conference. Leafing through the weekend events listings, I came across what I believed to be Nick Hornby reading selections of his essays on rock, accompanied by a singer-songwriter, Marah. This sounded like a mellow and fun way to spend the evening, so we ordered tickets and headed down after dinner. My nights of wandering the Lower East Side with friends stood me in good stead, and I was able to get us to the Bowery Ballroom without a hitch. Once there, we established ourselves in the front table on the balcony, where we were able to sit, have a drink, and get a good view of the stage. Once the show started, we discovered that Marah was not in fact a singer-songwriter, but a five person band from Philly. A loud, rockin, five person band from Philly, complete with groupies. We still had a good time, once we adjusted our expectations (and fashioned my mom some impromptu earplugs). To compensate for my mom's risk of deafness, I caught Nick at the bar during Marah's set and got both of our tickets signed. He was duly impressed and flattered that my mom was there, at what was one of only a few full-on rock concerts she'd attended in her life.
