Seated near me at The Dresden Dolls show Friday was "avid fan" fan Loryn Heffner, who helped identify a song title for me and then agreed to email me her take on the concert. That's Heffner (pictured left) with Dolls singer/pianist Amanda Palmer.

By Loryn Heffner:

Before the show, my friends and I were congregating outside the venue watching Troupe Bal Hepsi and The Lounge Cat, and I thought I saw Amanda Palmer walking around near us, but she was incognito with a hat on— and pants. In any case, it was her, and it was very funny that so many people didn't recognize her. I went up to her and asked for a photo in which she put her arm around me, and we took one "myspace style." I'm not sure if she was mobbed at that point, but she did say later in the show that she regretted not being able to stay outside very long.

My friend Susan and I went inside Tampa Theatre, which could not have been a better backdrop for the show. With its lavish baroque fixtures and known hauntings, it seems that the Dresden Dolls were meant to play there. Our seats were great— Mezzanine stage right— right in front of Amanda Palmer's keyboard. I could not have been more stoked. I bought the tickets back in December as a Christmas gift for my friend Susan, and I was worried that I would have nose-bleed seats. I have done many performances in the Tampa Theatre (state thespian competitions, and in the Larger than Life Cast of Rocky Horror), and I was apprehensive that even if I got a good view of the stage, I wouldn't be able to hear the show — in the past, the acoustics were shoddy. But that did not seem to be the case at all Friday. Even my friends in the top of the balcony could see and hear everything, and when Palmer came up into the top level, it seemed kindly of her— as if she cared so much for her fans, even the ones who didn't get premo seats, that she wanted them to get to see her up close. She has always said that the fans mean the most to her, and their happiness is key to the Dresden Dolls' success.

This article appears in Jan 9-15, 2008.