Missy Higgins and Harlan Coban

I don't go to concerts often for the same reason I don't ski much: It's usually too expensive, and I'm usually too busy. Tonight, though, we took time to go to a unique show at the Lark Theater offered by Corte Madera's Book Passage.

Recently, my wife heard a song while she was waiting overlong at the Verizon store in Walnut Creek. She wrote down some of the lyrics and later googled them to find out the song was by Missy Higgins, an Australian singer we'd not heard of before. It wasn't long before we had bought most of her recent album on iTunes. The next week, we saw the advert for tonight's show in the Book Passage newsletter. Neither of us had ever heard of Harlan Coban, the author appearing with Missy at the theater. He's a crime fiction author, and we don't really hit that genre. We weren't sure what a crime fiction author would be doing at a concert, but my wife liked the music enough to tolerate his presence, and I like my wife enough to go to a concert with her.

We got into downtown Larkspur, a quaint little downtown just a mile off highway 101 but you'd never know it. One parking spot and one taco-to-go later, we arrived at the front of the theater, collected our tickets and not-yet-signed books, and headed inside. They served wine! Perfect. The theater is small, seating 246 but feeling more like a large parlor. It's wide, and even the seats near the back seemed close to the stage. We sat about eight rows back. (Later, as we exited, we realized there were several empty seats. General admission at the door was just $15, an amazing price for such a cool event.)

What we got was one of the coolest concerts/author speakings that I've ever been to. Harlan kicked it off with an introduction and a description of how the two connected to put this together. Apparently, Harlan had been inspired by a line from one of Missy's songs, so as a sort of tribute he named her and the song in one of his books. Later, Missy's mum was reading the book on a beach and discovered her daughter referenced. Thus a friendship and collaboration was born.

The night was a combination of about a dozen songs and a dialog about writing and the writing process. They even stopped to answer audience questions at one point. And it was clear that the whole thing was ad-lib because at two different points, Missy played a song shouted out by the audience. The first time, she seemed at odds about what song to play, and someone up front asked for Sugar Cane. She said, "Yeah? OK," and played it.

So, anyway, it was awesome. Harlan is very cool, seriously funny, and clearly a talented speaker. At some point I'll read his book and decide if he's a talented writer. Missy is a genuine treat to see live. Cute, sincere, terribly talented. Go buy her albums.