It’s almost time to put 2025 to bed so I revisited my Spotify playlist with all my favorite songs from this year’s new album releases. This year’s playlist has quite a bit of moody singer-songwriter goodness and feel free to give it a listen:
This year introduced me to a bunch of new artists, with only a few albums from my iconic divas like Sophie B Hawkins, Belinda Carlisle and Tori Amos. One of this year’s highlights was getting to meet Tori, and my inner fan girl hasn’t shut up about it since.
Much of my life is pleasing her (my inner fan girl, not Tori) and what better way than to wrap the year seeing one of my all-time favorite divas, Susanna Hoffs. Her tour schedule only had two stops, New York and Connecticut. In over three decades, this was only the second time I’ve had the opportunity to see her live.
The old, white, straight folks were out in full-force, getting there early (you know, before it got dark). The parking lot was packed, as was the lobby bar (great, drunk white people). Connecticut’s Ridgefield Playhouse is an intimate venue with no bad seats but I was thrilled with my eighth row center spot. That was until my drunk seat-mate tossed half his coat on me and manspread into my comfort zone. Then proceeded to demonstrate to his female companion what he thought were impressive oral techniques all over his program. I threw up a little in my mouth with all that slobbering.
(Side note: Those who think being gay is a choice, it’s not, because that was enough to make any woman choose lesbianism. He almost made me one.)
Susanna sounded as amazing live as recorded and looked great, if you ask the hoot-and-hollerers in the crowd (drunk straight people, am I right). She was backed by two musicians playing multiple instruments each, they also co-wrote the songs performed from her upcoming album (something to look forward to next year). The remainder of her set were The Bangles classics and taking questions from the audience. In my gay opinion, I’d prefer less meandering answers to questions I can’t hear, in favor of a few songs from her solo catalog, which she completely ignored. The evening ended with an encore of three cover songs, performed solo with just a guitar. The show was what I expected, more than what I’d hoped for, but it was still a magical night.
Here’s to many magical nights for us all in 2026!
