Saturday night a friend and I went to a Janis Ian, (At Seventeen, Society’s Child etc.) concert. Ms. Ian was amazing. One of the really wonderful things about the show was her talking to the audience and telling the stories of how some of her songs had came about. She had been on stage for about 40 minutes and was telling the story of her mother’s death. It had been a very difficult and slow death which, as one might imagine, left deep scars on Ms. Ian’s soul. The traumatic story took maybe 5 minutes to tell and the audience was so into the story you could have heard a pin drop. Suddenly a woman near the front stood up and screamed at Ms. Ian, “I came here to hear you sing” and then stormed out of the auditorium followed by a meek quiet, and I thought ashamed, woman. Keep in mind, all this in the middle of this dramatic story of the performer’s mother’s death and in front of maybe a thousand people.
Everyone was dumbfounded, including Ms. Ian. She stopped talking when the woman started shouting and seemed confused for an instant then, as if nothing had happened, continued. She finished her story, in which she assisted in her mother’s death. The song was a beautiful tribute to love and her mother.
Throughout the remainder of the performance I kept thinking how sorry I was that that person had been so unbelievably rude and awful. I have such deep respect for Ms. Ian and I’m so sorry it happened and I’m ashamed it happened in my city.
As the evening ended and Ms. Ian had finished her encore, she made reference to the incident in a very beautiful and forgiving sort of way. She seemed to hold no ill feeling displaying real grace and kindness.
While the incident was an embarrassment for everyone in the audience, Ms. Ian took the time to tell everyone it was ok and she was ok. She is truly an amazing woman.
