Thurs. Dec. 31

Amanda Palmer and Keith Lockhart: Together again at Symphony Hall. Palmer, still the singer-pianist for the Dresden Dolls but more and more a solo artist,  is playing an extravaganza of a show New Year's Eve. Some new wrinkles for both Palmer and Lockhart: She's been learning the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1. As to Boston Pops conductor Lockhart, if Palmer gets her way he may just be wearing lipstick and a feather boa at some point.  There’s a piece in today’s Boston Herald that I did, based on interviews with Palmer and Lockhart – www.bostonherald.com. Here are some interesting bits that didn’t make the cut:

Palmer, asked about the show she did with the Pops in 2008: “ I think the last show was about Amanda Palmer playing with the Boston Pops and this show is about New Year’s Eve. I feel like everybody sacrifices  themselves to a greater cause, that’s the cause of everybody celebrating existence and doing this ritual we all partake in. That doesn’t mean there isn’t room in there for heavy emotions, but I think when I think about New Year’s shows I turn all my attention towards what’s universal and what can I do to serve the party. I decided it’s not all about me. That’s what I’ve always tried to do on New Years’ where everyone is getting together for a common purpose.”

Lockhart, on Palmer: “This is not a Boston Pops New Year’s Eve concert. Which we love doing and a lot of people love, but frankly it was time to try something new for a totally different audience. And this is definitely for a totally different audience. I think it will be like everything Amanda does. I think it’ll bring a great new audience in. and I think we’ll have a great time working with her. I really like her. I like her personally, I like what she’s about. She’s constantly inventive and she manages to say some things that should be said in ways that are alternately very amusing and thought-provoking and little bit shocking. I think it’s a great collaboration.”

Palmer, on Tchaivkovsky: “I’ve been practicing a piano concerto by Tchaikovsky, which is going to be part of the program.  It’s freaking me out because, as you know, if you’ve seen me attempt to play piano, I’m not really a classical expert. But I gave myself a challenge just for fun because you’ve gotta do that because you’ve got to do shit like that in your life. I started with a piano coach in Boston, but I’ve been on tour and unable to practice. I [recently] sat down by myself and started to dig into it. It’s a bitch man. My songs are all improvised and easily done on any instrument. I’m a songwriter who has a piano and that’s my tool. My songs are very chordal, there are very few complicated parts, and pretty much any level one pianist can actually play my songs. As long as you’ve got aggression you can. But this Tchaikovsky stuff … If I’ve ever going to try and get myself up to task, I might as well do it now with these people. It’s not going to get any more convincing. …The way I work with the Pops, the way we did the last show, I spend a lot of time organizing the set and the selections and arrangemnets ahead of time in the offices of the Pops and I talk with Keith here and there, Then I don’t get time with the orchestra ;til the day of the show – one fast rehearsal. That’s what you get when you’re dealing with people in unions – it’s not like, ‘Hey guys, feel like coming over tonight?’ It doesn’t work like that.”

Palmer, on what she’ll play “I think New Year’s is going to be pretty cover heavy. We haven’t finalized the set list, we’re still trying to figure out what we can get a hold of in terms of arrangements for the orchestra, but we’re looking for some seriously old-school stuff, and I’m looking into the David Bowie territory,  the Queen territory, possibly into the very recently newly minted pop song territory. I’m trying to do a little bit of everything. There are so many cool things we can do. They handed the program over to me and said, ‘Ok, you tell us what to play for 45 minutes’ and I went ‘Oh my god.” The challenge is: It’s the Boston pops, they can play anything. Classical, standards, jazz, pop, it’s mind-boggling. You sit there saying what would blow people away they are not expecting. What does everybody know but not expect? It’s really hard to come up with that stuff. You don’t want to just spoon-feed this feelgood typical traditional thing And that goes for the covers in my set, too. I’ve been looking through everything. ... What I’m really hoping, my fundamental goal a the end of the day is to make everyone feel really happy. I’m just hoping at the beginning of every piece, everyone looks around and goes, “Oh, awesome!” No matter what it is.”

Palmer’s on at 10, but it’s a multi-act affair, all over the place, starting at 8 with music and film from the likes of Sxip Shirey, Adam Matta, Michael Pope, (Palmer’s bf) Neil Gaiman, Miss Tess and the Bon and April Smith and the Great Picture Show.

Tickets: $160-$45 (boxed dinner included).

301 Massachusetts Ave, 617266-1200 www.bostonpops.org