Sia @ the Fillmore

A few years back I was boarding a Southwest flight out of Vegas and was not too happy because I was in the C boarding class. Let's just say I'm "huskie" and sitting in the middle seat isn't the best. Right before I entered the seat channel, a petite blond girl popped out of the bathroom and was ahead of me. Now, cute blond girls tend to get my attention, but in this case I was especially...attentive, because in addition to the cuteness, her size made her a perfect person to sit next to, aka - I would have plenty of room.

I followed her down the aisle, noticed the middle seat was open next to her and went for it. We struck up a nice conversation a few minutes later and this girl told me that she was a singer but sang, "mellow music." For most people, that's not as cool as Rock'N'Roll, but you, dear reader, know that I like mellow music. Now, this whole conversation had gone without me asking her name. I'm smooth like that. I asked her name and she responded Sia. Never heard of her, bummer.

Anywhoo, we talked about the book she was reading, Tipping Point by Gladwell, my life @ Kellogg, and later on we got to talking about traveling. It turns out she was coming back from South by Southwest, an epic music festival in Austin, Texas that I had the pleasure of attending this last year. SXSW is a great showcase event for upcoming bands and the fact that she played it piqued my interest...and then I remembered this profile of her in the SF Chronicle.

It turns out that Sia sings in a band I really like, called Zero 7, but her solo career had almost ended before it got started. Despite her Zero 7 success her music label had dropped her and things weren't looking good...until the folks from Six Feet Under decided to use her song, Breathe Me in the final scene of the final episode. It's a pretty awesome song and it adds a lot to the moment. Just one catch, no one told Sia.

A funny thing happened after the show aired. Her CD's started flying off the shelves of record stores across the world. One problem though, because she had been dropped, there were no more cd's in production. There was a worldwide shortage of Sia.

And that is where she was when we talked on that Southwest flight. She had a four way record label bidding war going for her next album and she was flying to Australia to cut another Zero 7 album in about a month. Things had turned around for her and it couldn't have happened to a nicer person. She was even cool enough to leave me some tickets when she played in Chicago a few weeks later.

Sia is playing at the Fillmore tonight. I'd be there in a second but I have the flu. Sia is as nice as can be, she's very cute and she has some serious pipes. My friend Meghan Coles is going, shouldn't you?

P.S. Here is the Six Feet Under clip with the song. It's a lot cooler if you are a fan of the show.