live fast and die old
Happiest of birthdays to 
eglantiere!
Tonight (or yesterday, depending on how you look at it) I went with lovelypoet to see Bird by Bird, Franz Nicolay, and Frank Turner. The first were fine, but paled in comparison to the latter two acts. Which were awesome! Katie has a more thorough writeup here, but oh man, Franz Nicolay is hilarious - he talked a lot about entertaining us, and he really did, not just musically but verbally as well. And he had a song all about Hollis Mason, and he covered Tom Waits' "Goin' Out West" which I had never heard before but which was marvelous, and also he had a song about how musicians who have nothing to say should put down their guitars, and he did, and promptly picked up an accordion and then a banjo instead. Anyway he was terrific.
And then Frank Turner, who had so much enthusiasm and charisma despite mentioning several times how jetlagged he and his band were, having just arrived from England, and the audience showered the love right back at him. I may not necessarily be taking to the barricades to smash the state, but I love his general message of going out and living life actively and taking music into your own hands and not letting yourself get boxed in by discouragement and fear of aging. "Try This at Home" is still my favorite of his and it was full of joy. Oh, and also he kept asking for sound adjustments all through the show, and at the very end, just before finishing off the last encore song, he said he and Kyle the sound engineer were going to buy a house in Carmel and be a middle-aged gay couple, so, you know, that was fun. \o/
eglantiere!
Tonight (or yesterday, depending on how you look at it) I went with lovelypoet to see Bird by Bird, Franz Nicolay, and Frank Turner. The first were fine, but paled in comparison to the latter two acts. Which were awesome! Katie has a more thorough writeup here, but oh man, Franz Nicolay is hilarious - he talked a lot about entertaining us, and he really did, not just musically but verbally as well. And he had a song all about Hollis Mason, and he covered Tom Waits' "Goin' Out West" which I had never heard before but which was marvelous, and also he had a song about how musicians who have nothing to say should put down their guitars, and he did, and promptly picked up an accordion and then a banjo instead. Anyway he was terrific.
And then Frank Turner, who had so much enthusiasm and charisma despite mentioning several times how jetlagged he and his band were, having just arrived from England, and the audience showered the love right back at him. I may not necessarily be taking to the barricades to smash the state, but I love his general message of going out and living life actively and taking music into your own hands and not letting yourself get boxed in by discouragement and fear of aging. "Try This at Home" is still my favorite of his and it was full of joy. Oh, and also he kept asking for sound adjustments all through the show, and at the very end, just before finishing off the last encore song, he said he and Kyle the sound engineer were going to buy a house in Carmel and be a middle-aged gay couple, so, you know, that was fun. \o/