Gigs, (Why am I so bitter, Is it the tea?)
I have started innumerable journal entries lately and have not been able to get passed the first sentence or two. I don't really know why there are lots of things I would like to document for myself. Journalling is also a superb procrastination tool so I am totally baffled as to why I simply can not write. Perhaps there is not enough angst in my life presently or I feel restricted in talking about my angst. Or maybe I have finally grown up a bit and feel like there is no point in talking about my current friendship dramas. I am quite certain none of the above is true since I feel the need now to talk about childish friendship dramas.
I think that one of the reasons I have been reluctant to write has been the subject matter. I have had a desire to record my thoughts on some of the gigs I have been to recently. However I do think that my reluctance comes from a desire not to dwell on some unpleasantness that happened at the most recent of the gigs. So I will start chronologically and finish with the most unpleasant.
A few months ago I went to go see Rocket Science with Chappie. I really enjoyed the music and I love the Hopetoun its so small and intimate. However the intimacy comes at a price of sharing space with whomever decides to rock up. Unfortunately we had some dick head corporate suppressed types, who decided to use all the space, especially the visual space. I really liked Rocket Science, rock music to me is really cathartic and fun. Unfortunately some of the crowd clearly were using it as a cathartic outlet too. Toward the end of the gig one of the crowd members bowled over dear Chappie. We decided to leave before we became thoroughly bitter.
Later that month I went to see Band of Horses. I have seen them before at the Gaelic Club. Last time was odd, the Gaelic club was empty, they played a really short set and the crowd was antagonising them. This time I was meant to go with my brother to the metro but he got really sick at the last minute. (The poor guy has had a shitty year for illness. He has whooping cough now) So I scalped his ticket and bought him a T-shirt with the money. They were really great this time and really lifted me up. They were having fun and their enthusiasm was very infectious. I will definitely make the effort to see them again the next time they are in town. It was just really fun. I need to remember how much fun I can have at a gig on my lonesome.
Shortly after that I went to see Brian Jonestown Massacre at the Factory. They had a totally douchey support band called the Black Ryders. I was unimpressed. I think they were just a reformation of the Morning After Girls. I never used to mind MAG but never thought were fabulous. BJM were as drug fucked as everyone says they are. Much of the set was spent fiddling with guitars and telling useless stories trying to butter up the audience quoting chopper, and talking about how it was the lead singers Bday. They were good musos and I like their songs. I found them kind of grating. I think it was because everyone there including the band thought that they were some how superior to your average music lover. I just found it kind of silly. They are good at what they do but they aren't really doing anything meaningful. But they seemed very self important. I much preferred them when I saw them support the Dandy Warhols in Oregon. They didn't talk :)
The next gig I had purchased tickets for was the warlocks. Unfortunately they cancelled their tour.
A couple of weeks ago I went to the Opera House with my Dad to see Patti Smith. I was in a funky mood and wasn't really ready for my Dad to be such a fan boy. She was superb and put on a really magnificent gig. I was impressed with everyone in her band. They were all having a ball and were very talented. She was lovely, graceful and engaged the audience. She seemed really pleased to playing the Opera House. She brought out the support band and they played a cover of smells like teen spirit together. It was really marvellous. I was a bit harsh on my dad when he started referring to her as a shaman. I am rather troubled by artist worship. She is a magnificent artist but she doesn't have real power. She is an artist with a genuine message which is refreshing. However her power is only in her ability to motivate like minded people to try make changes. Change is so complicated and I am not sure one really implements it or if it is even really possible. Humans have followed the own selfish needs since time began. The biggest motivator for change is anger, and I don't think outsiders respond well to anger. Social justice is complicated and deserves its own entry.
Eba has been going through some big shit lately. She has been better since starting antidepressants and seeing a counsellor regularly. I was reservedly hoping that we would manage to have a good time since we haven't managed that recently. I soon gave up this hope. We caught up after work and uni and met up with some friends that were moving over seas. She decided to have a few drinks pre-gig and I refrained because it was a Wednesday night. This was an interesting choice on her part because she told me that she really shouldn't drink because she had been blacking out when she had been drinking. A couple of weeks previously she had caused drama sputty and Bee whilst drinking and somehow I ended up in the middle. So anyway Eva was drinking, and with the alcohol I was hearing different versions of the truth . Some of the lies were understandable and others were just things she was telling herself so that she might be able to believe them. Anyway I tell her she probably has had enough to drink considering she is working the next morning. We head off to the gig after she has one more.
We walk up the stairs to the Metro and who happens to be there smiling at us... Yes of course its the ex fuck buddy who shall forever more be called Mr comb over. Mr.Comb Over because he has this weird long hair that he styles over his receding hair line with hair clips, if he is not wearing a hat. I whisper into Eba's ear, "please don't freak out, but Mr comb over is here."
This is where it all goes down hill and I want to stop writing. Eba quickly leaves me with comb over and friends while she runs off to the bar. I am fully aware that my night is ruined. I should have been grateful that I am not a big You am I fan. In fact I find Tim Rogers loathsome but I enjoy the band. Comb over and I start arguing about the Bee and Sputty drama and I tell he is no one to judge other people's dysfunctional relationships. I also tell comb over I don't hate him I hate the situations that arise when they are together. Eba goes and buys more and more alcohol we end up in the nosebleed section of the metro. whoopee. I have a very peekaboo view of the band. They play mostly new stuff which I don't know. My time is spent trying to keep Eba from doing stupid shit which I clearly fail at.
After the gig and Comb over and friends are going back to his place. Eba wants to hang out. It is 12:30 on Wednesday Eba has work in the morning .I am meant to be sleeping at hers. I told her that was just a dumb idea. But I guess I wasn't firm and we end up back at his place where she proceed to drink faster than everyone else there. She makes a suggestion about me and comb over's flatmate that is downright hurtful. At one point she goes to the toilet and doesn't comeback for ages. Comb over gets a phone call which is clearly Eba. He goes into the bedroom and I assume they are having sex. I find out later that Eba tried to make the moves on comb over, but nothing eventuated. I was fully expecting to spend the night on relative strangers couches.(The cab fare to my house would have been about 100 . Its money I don't have right now) He emerges and says Eba's passed out. A while later she emerges and says she is ready to go home.
We end up walking back to hers at 3am, in the pouring rain. I wake up at 9:00 and i get ready for uni. Eba is passed out. She doesn't make it into work that day. She doesn't remember much of the night before. I tell her off over the phone later. I have recounted this story to Sputty who has been telling me to cut her out for yonks. I am really bad at the cutting people out. I have never really successfully done it. Any suggestions? Walking away from friends is really hard for me. Other people think I am over reacting. I felt so completely disrespected. Eba was getting drunk to justify sleeping with comb over.
I think that one of the reasons I have been reluctant to write has been the subject matter. I have had a desire to record my thoughts on some of the gigs I have been to recently. However I do think that my reluctance comes from a desire not to dwell on some unpleasantness that happened at the most recent of the gigs. So I will start chronologically and finish with the most unpleasant.
A few months ago I went to go see Rocket Science with Chappie. I really enjoyed the music and I love the Hopetoun its so small and intimate. However the intimacy comes at a price of sharing space with whomever decides to rock up. Unfortunately we had some dick head corporate suppressed types, who decided to use all the space, especially the visual space. I really liked Rocket Science, rock music to me is really cathartic and fun. Unfortunately some of the crowd clearly were using it as a cathartic outlet too. Toward the end of the gig one of the crowd members bowled over dear Chappie. We decided to leave before we became thoroughly bitter.
Later that month I went to see Band of Horses. I have seen them before at the Gaelic Club. Last time was odd, the Gaelic club was empty, they played a really short set and the crowd was antagonising them. This time I was meant to go with my brother to the metro but he got really sick at the last minute. (The poor guy has had a shitty year for illness. He has whooping cough now) So I scalped his ticket and bought him a T-shirt with the money. They were really great this time and really lifted me up. They were having fun and their enthusiasm was very infectious. I will definitely make the effort to see them again the next time they are in town. It was just really fun. I need to remember how much fun I can have at a gig on my lonesome.
Shortly after that I went to see Brian Jonestown Massacre at the Factory. They had a totally douchey support band called the Black Ryders. I was unimpressed. I think they were just a reformation of the Morning After Girls. I never used to mind MAG but never thought were fabulous. BJM were as drug fucked as everyone says they are. Much of the set was spent fiddling with guitars and telling useless stories trying to butter up the audience quoting chopper, and talking about how it was the lead singers Bday. They were good musos and I like their songs. I found them kind of grating. I think it was because everyone there including the band thought that they were some how superior to your average music lover. I just found it kind of silly. They are good at what they do but they aren't really doing anything meaningful. But they seemed very self important. I much preferred them when I saw them support the Dandy Warhols in Oregon. They didn't talk :)
The next gig I had purchased tickets for was the warlocks. Unfortunately they cancelled their tour.
A couple of weeks ago I went to the Opera House with my Dad to see Patti Smith. I was in a funky mood and wasn't really ready for my Dad to be such a fan boy. She was superb and put on a really magnificent gig. I was impressed with everyone in her band. They were all having a ball and were very talented. She was lovely, graceful and engaged the audience. She seemed really pleased to playing the Opera House. She brought out the support band and they played a cover of smells like teen spirit together. It was really marvellous. I was a bit harsh on my dad when he started referring to her as a shaman. I am rather troubled by artist worship. She is a magnificent artist but she doesn't have real power. She is an artist with a genuine message which is refreshing. However her power is only in her ability to motivate like minded people to try make changes. Change is so complicated and I am not sure one really implements it or if it is even really possible. Humans have followed the own selfish needs since time began. The biggest motivator for change is anger, and I don't think outsiders respond well to anger. Social justice is complicated and deserves its own entry.
Eba has been going through some big shit lately. She has been better since starting antidepressants and seeing a counsellor regularly. I was reservedly hoping that we would manage to have a good time since we haven't managed that recently. I soon gave up this hope. We caught up after work and uni and met up with some friends that were moving over seas. She decided to have a few drinks pre-gig and I refrained because it was a Wednesday night. This was an interesting choice on her part because she told me that she really shouldn't drink because she had been blacking out when she had been drinking. A couple of weeks previously she had caused drama sputty and Bee whilst drinking and somehow I ended up in the middle. So anyway Eva was drinking, and with the alcohol I was hearing different versions of the truth . Some of the lies were understandable and others were just things she was telling herself so that she might be able to believe them. Anyway I tell her she probably has had enough to drink considering she is working the next morning. We head off to the gig after she has one more.
We walk up the stairs to the Metro and who happens to be there smiling at us... Yes of course its the ex fuck buddy who shall forever more be called Mr comb over. Mr.Comb Over because he has this weird long hair that he styles over his receding hair line with hair clips, if he is not wearing a hat. I whisper into Eba's ear, "please don't freak out, but Mr comb over is here."
This is where it all goes down hill and I want to stop writing. Eba quickly leaves me with comb over and friends while she runs off to the bar. I am fully aware that my night is ruined. I should have been grateful that I am not a big You am I fan. In fact I find Tim Rogers loathsome but I enjoy the band. Comb over and I start arguing about the Bee and Sputty drama and I tell he is no one to judge other people's dysfunctional relationships. I also tell comb over I don't hate him I hate the situations that arise when they are together. Eba goes and buys more and more alcohol we end up in the nosebleed section of the metro. whoopee. I have a very peekaboo view of the band. They play mostly new stuff which I don't know. My time is spent trying to keep Eba from doing stupid shit which I clearly fail at.
After the gig and Comb over and friends are going back to his place. Eba wants to hang out. It is 12:30 on Wednesday Eba has work in the morning .I am meant to be sleeping at hers. I told her that was just a dumb idea. But I guess I wasn't firm and we end up back at his place where she proceed to drink faster than everyone else there. She makes a suggestion about me and comb over's flatmate that is downright hurtful. At one point she goes to the toilet and doesn't comeback for ages. Comb over gets a phone call which is clearly Eba. He goes into the bedroom and I assume they are having sex. I find out later that Eba tried to make the moves on comb over, but nothing eventuated. I was fully expecting to spend the night on relative strangers couches.(The cab fare to my house would have been about 100 . Its money I don't have right now) He emerges and says Eba's passed out. A while later she emerges and says she is ready to go home.
We end up walking back to hers at 3am, in the pouring rain. I wake up at 9:00 and i get ready for uni. Eba is passed out. She doesn't make it into work that day. She doesn't remember much of the night before. I tell her off over the phone later. I have recounted this story to Sputty who has been telling me to cut her out for yonks. I am really bad at the cutting people out. I have never really successfully done it. Any suggestions? Walking away from friends is really hard for me. Other people think I am over reacting. I felt so completely disrespected. Eba was getting drunk to justify sleeping with comb over.