Michelle Shocked: Search & Destroy.

And a lot more here:

At the beginning of the show, "Michelle came on stage and seemed visibly anxious and nervous, and took the mike and said that she was really scared and afraid, and that she didn’t really know how the show was going to go— which seemed a little unusual," recalled Penfield. "At one point in the first set she even said, 'You all seem very nice, but I’ve been in rooms of nice people before and sometimes they turn on you.' That was a throwaway line, but one that seemed siginifcant later. After the first set I went backstage with her to the green room and she said that she had been terrified coming up from L.A. because it was going to be a big deal for her to play this show. You can deconstruct from what happened later what she was referring to. In retrospect, it seems clear that this whole thing was premeditated—if not the exact language she used, then that this was where the show was eventually going to go."
The first set went great, from all accounts, even though Penfield thought it was odd when, at the start of the show, Shocked said she needed an on-stage tweeting volunteer and added, "Does anybody feel the invisible person in the room?" Said Penfield, "My family is fron the South and all Baptists, so for me, that’s kind of the code that people use when they’re talking about Jesus or God. I didn't know what her faith-based situation is, but clearly she was looking for someone to identify" as a fellow believer. Despite some raised hands, no one was willing to go on stage, so Pinfield finally volunteered, because after "5-10 minutes" of this, he was afraid the show wouldn't go on otherwise.
At first audience members were confused when she explained that she wanted them to vote on the order of the sets that had been posted outside the door—one labeled "truth" and one "reality." Eventually it came to a Twitter vote and the audience voted for "truth" first, which involved playing her classic Short Sharp Shocked album in its entirety. But after an intermission, Shocked hadn't even gotten to any music when she started talking first about the importance of social media to carry on a dialogue with her fans off-stage, and then about Proposition 8.
"She started reading some tweets from the stream and having a dialogue about people's impressions, talking about how she was feeling brave at this point and that she was doing the right thing. Then the tone of the conversation became extremely religious and she began talking about the two things most important to her being Jesus Christ and freedom. Then she talked about how she had just come from a prayer meeting the night before, and the people in her prayer meeting were really worried because these are the end times, and they’re the end times because Prop. 8 is going to lead to ministers marrying gay people with a rifle to the head. At which people got a little riled up; then there started to be some call and response from the crowd about what she meant. She started exhorting the crowd very specifically to go ahead and tweet or write and say that Michelle Shocked says God hates f--s, and some other references to the Bible denouncing homosexuality as sinful and abhorrent.
"At that point a lot of people started getting up and walking out. We didn’t understand if this was for the sake of art or an actual rant. Then she delivered the same Bible verses in Spanish. At that point personally I felt like I was an emotional hostage, and the night of entertainment had become a night for her to deliver this intense personal polemic that, in hindsight, it felt like she had been carrying around since she got on stage, while we were strapped in waiting for her to deliver it."
At least one fan on Twitter believed that the "God hates f--s" line was spoken ironically, as if she were predicting that that's what her message would be reduced to. But Michelle Penfield, the on-stage tweeter's wife, is one of those saying there was only one way to take what she was saying. "She said 'Please tweet that Michelle Shocked said on stage that God hates faggots.' There was no irony," says Michelle, who used the hashtag "#takingmyhusbandback" as the show fell apart. "I don't really know what's going on with Michelle Shocked, but I really hope it's a mental breakdown of sorts."
Adds her husband, Matt, "I will say from a personal perspective that I’ve been around musicians my whole life and done a lot of tour work for people, and also been around people who have pretty serious emotional problems. When people ask if she seemed high or drunk, she didn’t. She seemed like someone who had actually gone off medication—anxious and rocking back and forth and a lot of activity and about to explode with emotional anxiety. I have a lot of compassion for her, because she’s clearly processing some heavy emotional s---, but she shouldn't be doing it in front of a room full of strangers."

damn

awkwaaaard

i read all his quotes with matt pinfield's voice regardless. you know you did it too.

once a dumbass......

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/michelle-shocked/Content?oid=880716

If only she'd done it during the spoken bridge of "Graffiti Limbo" it might've worked.

yeah, in the same vein as buzza's link:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-05-28/features/9202170604_1_blackface-bart-bull-minstrelsy

choice quotes:

At the recent South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas, for example, she gave a rambling keynote address in which she compared the black funk-rock group Fishbone to the blackface minstrels of 100 years ago. Shocked now concedes, "My performance could be called into question."

...

"I felt that this image (a blackface cover) was so powerful, so potent, that the controversy would swallow up the music. I would have been just like a tar baby - controversy would just stick to me."

aaaand the mccabe's show is cancelled.

wtf

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/3/19/1363691341607/Michelle-Shocked-in-2005-010.jpg

http://blog.chron.com/askacat/files/legacy/hatcat.JPG

Maybe it's actually Howard Devoto.

i read all his quotes with matt pinfield's voice regardless. you know you did it too.

*nods shamefully*

The pure products of America
go crazy

sounds like pretty much the entire tour has been called off:

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/garchik/article/Shocked-shows-canceled-in-wake-of-anti-gay-tirade-4367370.php

also note: "Cheryl Renee, who was said to have been Shocked's PR person, responded to an e-mail from The Chronicle saying that as of Feb. 25, "I am no longer working with Michelle Shocked. I cannot comment on her behalf and was not present at Yoshi's. ... I personally do not support the sentiment of what Michelle is being accused of saying."

what's it like to work for someone like this who starts to go off the rails?

she's claiming on twitter that she isn't against gay marriage or abortion as well. I think she's having a mental breakdown.

Yes.

Holy mackerel. This all comes as quite a shock.

seen shared:

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/32624_10200305192405425_1720273674_n.jpg

my take: she's mentally ill AND a bigot, and the bigotry is no doubt fueled by the illness, although it must be said that not all mentally ill people are bigots, and mental illness does not excuse bigotry or assholish behavior. also: yes, she's a closeted queer (at least bisexual), and it seems like the is-she-or-isn't-she thing has always been a thorn in her side, based on interviews going way back, and judging from her problems with act up as "outers." to me, her ambiguity is more than bowie-ish mystique-building, it veers close to "don't ask don't tell" territory.

http://www.cosmik.com/aa-septemberoctober05/reviews/pics/review_michelle_shocked.jpg

yup, i posted that upthread.

The cover for 'On The Greener Side' used to freak me out when I was about 8
http://ring.cdandlp.com/disclo/photo_grande/114094436.jpg
Actually got a bit of a fright seeing so many of it in Google images

Well...

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2013/03/michelle_shocke_1.html

The audio of the set, tweeted by Erin McEwan. "Michelle Shocked 2nd Yoshi's Set" will be a noise album title at some point soon I predict

https://soundcloud.com/therealtofuandwhiskey/michelle-shocked-2nd-yoshis

dibs

McKeown I should say.

"Folks wonder about my sexuality, but denying being gay is like saying I never beat my husband."

I honestly believe that people with so poor a grasp of rhetoric that they can't mention the "when did you stop beating your spouse" rhetorical gambit without making people wonder if they actually beat their spouse are better off not writing lyrics

When did you stop beating your lyricist?

as discussed earlier here's what she put in the liner notes of Arkansas Traveler:

My early intention was to present this record with a cover
photo of myself wearing blackface. Aside from providing
controversy for hatemongers or offending the delicate sensibilities
of the politically correct, my sincere intention was that it would
provide a genuine focus on the real 'roots' of many of the tunes
included; blackface minstrelsy. It's my contention that a blackface
tradition is alive and well hidden behind a modern mask. I believe that
'blacking up' should be done correctly; as an exploration for the source
of that hollow ring we mistakenly believe was immaculately conceived in
Las Vegas, and in a context of true respect for the cultures we ape.

iirc the label had to tell her "we're not putting out a record with a white woman in blackface on the cover, Michelle"

I believe that 'blacking up' should be done correctly; as an exploration for the source of that hollow ring we mistakenly believe was immaculately conceived in Las Vegas

I think this is where the weed kicked in?

the soundcloud makes pretty clear that she's saying what _she_ thinks. "from their vantage point. well i shouldn't say their because i also mean mine. from our vantage point." etc. the "god hates" thing was said ironically/jokingly though.

my parents listened to a fair bit of michelle shocked in the early 90s, i wonder if they've heard about this.

also never knew any of that stuff abt arkansas traveler, a record i had more than a passing familiarity with when i was 9.

wow. at 7:30 in or so, things turn ugly.

has anyone suggested that she was doing a significant amount of drugs before the show?

at 17:00 or so they shut down the show and take her mic while people heckle, and she keeps trying to sing and play guitar even as everyone leaves.

"i just want y'all to know that i did not ask for a deposit for this performance. and i'm pretty sure i'm going to be told, when i leave here tonight, that i did not give anyone their money's worth. and so now i would like to pass the hat, and ask if you wouldn't mind putting a dollar in."

this is amazing.

And my statement equating repeal of Prop 8 with the coming of the End Times was neither literal nor ironic: it was a description of how some folks - not me - feel about gay marriage.

this is pretty lol because she literally says the opposite of this from stage.

I think this is where the weed kicked in?

if I end up spending the whole time thinking about American race relations next time I blaze up I'm going to be really mad you afterwards

"...and in a context of true respect for the cultures we ape."

Hmmm . . .

Michelle Shocked should start a Kickstarter campaign. For ... something.

if I end up spending the whole time thinking about American race relations next time I blaze up I'm going to be really mad you afterwards

if this happens ask for a rebate from yr dealer imho

this whole thing makes me sad
i first saw michelle in abt '89 or so opening up for billy bragg, the campfire tapes had given buzz but short, sharp, shocked had not hit yet. all of us were there to see billy but this solo acoustic performer made him work to get the audience back and i became a fan through following albums, live shows
(the arkansas tapes blackface idea was ...... umm. complicated, it was a whole idea of how to address blackface and minstrelsy in american music and was a half-baked idea but not racist) (now seems more compliacated)
andit is heartbreaking to hear her lose her shit this way and is def fucking with a lot of the audience that supported her over the years

"when did you stop flogging that dead horse?"

"when it was sold to Tesco"

ask for a rebate from yr dealer

lol I'll let you know how this shakes out but I am not hopeful

This is the first time I've thought about Michelle Shocked in like twenty years so clearly she's doing SOMETHING right

the written explanation is just...it's so full of handwaving it's almost unreadable.

oy:

http://www.xojane.com/issues/on-my-confrontation-with-homophobe-michelle-shocked

“Hey, can you hold on a second? I need to talk to the sound guys.”