let 'em talk about hard cider
So it occurred to me that I haven't yet posted about seeing Hey Monday and the Cab on the AP tour, March 31 at the Regency Ballroom. I had to stay at work later than I'd hoped, and then it was raining so traffic up to the city was hideous, as a result of which I completely missed The Summer Set. No hot girl drummer for me! :( However, I did meet up with lovelypoet and clumsygyrl in time for Hey Monday, and that was awesome on all counts. I tend to forget how much I like Hey Monday until I hear them again, and then I remember that they rock! Cassadee is so tiny and bouncy and authoritative onstage. And it may be a cliche to fall for the big single, but Homecoming is totally my favorite of theirs and I love hearing it. Then came the Cab, and though I'm not super invested in them, their sets are always a good time. Changing faces notwithstanding. Singer never took off his knit cap & I felt a little lost & confused with his hair not being visible. But he was very very earnest and delightful. Then we totally bailed on the headliners to go get eats at Mel's, and I was completely satisfied with that choice also. So it was a lovely night.
This past Saturday I went with bexone to see Girlfriend, the musical based on the Matthew Sweet album of the same name, at the Berkeley Rep. And it was 100% ADORABLE. Bex and I made hearteyes and clutched hands and hearthands pretty much constantly throughout the whole show. It's about young characters - just out of high school, before heading to college - and it has that heartpounding, new experience feel down to a T, both for romance in general and for coming out. A cynic could perhaps question the longevity of the happy ending, but why be a cynic? Seriously it is so so cute! They go see the same movie at the drive-in every night of the summer! Will wants to go buy dog food at Safeway with Mike for the sheer domestic intimacy of it! Go see it if you get a chance, you will not regret it.
And yesterday I went to see the Young Veins at the Bottom of the Hill. To be honest, for me the night ended up being much more about seeing* my girls than about listening to the bands. Katie and Fi and Bex were all there, thelionforreal was healed enough to venture out, afterthefair dropped back into town, and I got to meet the likewise visiting wovenindelibly in person for the first time after lo! these many years of LJ friendship, plus brief introductions to some of her posse. The fangirls were out in force!
*and by "seeing" I mean "cuddling and smooching", because I am an affectionate drunk.
So although I was there in the room when Bad Rabbits and Foxy Shazam played, all I can really say about them is that Bad Rabbits seemed energetic and joyful, and Foxy Shazam had kind of scary facial hair and and were super fast-paced and did crazy athletic acrobatic gymnastics on stage and lighting equipment that was really not designed for things like Kniewellen at all.
I did make an effort to pay some attention when the Young Veins were onstage (as the second opener, in between BR & FS). They opened with Defiance, I think, and I love that one a lot. And of course Change, which I love likewise. And more songs that I don't know the names of yet but enjoyed equally. Their whole direction feels like everything that I loved about Pretty. Odd. - the psychedelic e.e.cummings lyrics, the retro harmonies, the upbeat rhythms - and that makes me very happy. I've seen notes in more than a few places on my flist that this sound isn't to people's tastes, but it is to mine, so. Ryan was in pretty good voice, and Jon! sang! lead! on a whole song! and that was fucking hot! And no, neither of them has the pipes that Brendon does, but I'd say they do fine.
Ryan and Jon are also both in a really good hair place right now, by my lights. And also I like Jon clean-shaven. And I find his stupid hooked nose really hot. He was wearing shoes or else I would wax ecstatic about his feet, too, so count yourselves lucky to be spared that. Ryan looked good, he looked cute, but Jon looked HAWT. is what I'm saying.
So also BotH is a small club, and dudes in bands have to squeeze through the crowd to get to the bar just like everyone else. So we saw Ryan and Jon (and the other guys now in TYV, whom I have not studied up on yet but who I'm sure are lovely) make a good few trips past us back and forth. The braver souls among us went to go seek them out for conversation. I hung back for a while having my fourth-wall-breaking celebrity-fan-power-imbalance freakout, but eventually I gave in to the lure of our fannish attention loci being Right There and let Cristen take me over to say hello. First we went up to Ryan, who was in the little courtyard out back, and he was totally polite and courteous, to borrow a phrase from popslash. Like, really friendly, and not seeming at all bothered by us coming up to him and interrupting. I said the two things that my inner censor has sanctioned for saying to musicians ("I really enjoyed your set! I'm really looking forward to your album!"), and also after he said something about not being sure about the crowd's reaction to their set, I tried to say something encouraging back like "I think people were behind you." (The club is small, as mentioned, but it was pretty well filled and if anything the crowd thinned slightly after TYV, not before.) And, and, I think he civilly asked my name at one point, and when I answered I stuck out my hand and he shook it, although after I did that I worried maybe he hadn't intended for that. And that was about all I could manage.
So then we went back in, and shortly after that I turned around and Jon was behind us and Cristen & some of the girls were already talking to him. So I hovered on the edges till I got to say my two set pieces to him. And then again I pretty much had nothing else I felt comfortable saying, plus I had the impression that Jon was not quite as much at ease as Ryan had been, so that was it for me. I had this moment where I just wanted to keep staring at him, because, you know, HOT, and it is *hard* to turn away from a figure you're so invested in. But then I was like "omg self you are DONE, move along," and I did.
So that was the night, and now I have to work hard on making them fictional characters again that can have filthy porn written about them.
This past Saturday I went with bexone to see Girlfriend, the musical based on the Matthew Sweet album of the same name, at the Berkeley Rep. And it was 100% ADORABLE. Bex and I made hearteyes and clutched hands and hearthands pretty much constantly throughout the whole show. It's about young characters - just out of high school, before heading to college - and it has that heartpounding, new experience feel down to a T, both for romance in general and for coming out. A cynic could perhaps question the longevity of the happy ending, but why be a cynic? Seriously it is so so cute! They go see the same movie at the drive-in every night of the summer! Will wants to go buy dog food at Safeway with Mike for the sheer domestic intimacy of it! Go see it if you get a chance, you will not regret it.
And yesterday I went to see the Young Veins at the Bottom of the Hill. To be honest, for me the night ended up being much more about seeing* my girls than about listening to the bands. Katie and Fi and Bex were all there, thelionforreal was healed enough to venture out, afterthefair dropped back into town, and I got to meet the likewise visiting wovenindelibly in person for the first time after lo! these many years of LJ friendship, plus brief introductions to some of her posse. The fangirls were out in force!
*and by "seeing" I mean "cuddling and smooching", because I am an affectionate drunk.
So although I was there in the room when Bad Rabbits and Foxy Shazam played, all I can really say about them is that Bad Rabbits seemed energetic and joyful, and Foxy Shazam had kind of scary facial hair and and were super fast-paced and did crazy athletic acrobatic gymnastics on stage and lighting equipment that was really not designed for things like Kniewellen at all.
I did make an effort to pay some attention when the Young Veins were onstage (as the second opener, in between BR & FS). They opened with Defiance, I think, and I love that one a lot. And of course Change, which I love likewise. And more songs that I don't know the names of yet but enjoyed equally. Their whole direction feels like everything that I loved about Pretty. Odd. - the psychedelic e.e.cummings lyrics, the retro harmonies, the upbeat rhythms - and that makes me very happy. I've seen notes in more than a few places on my flist that this sound isn't to people's tastes, but it is to mine, so. Ryan was in pretty good voice, and Jon! sang! lead! on a whole song! and that was fucking hot! And no, neither of them has the pipes that Brendon does, but I'd say they do fine.
Ryan and Jon are also both in a really good hair place right now, by my lights. And also I like Jon clean-shaven. And I find his stupid hooked nose really hot. He was wearing shoes or else I would wax ecstatic about his feet, too, so count yourselves lucky to be spared that. Ryan looked good, he looked cute, but Jon looked HAWT. is what I'm saying.
So also BotH is a small club, and dudes in bands have to squeeze through the crowd to get to the bar just like everyone else. So we saw Ryan and Jon (and the other guys now in TYV, whom I have not studied up on yet but who I'm sure are lovely) make a good few trips past us back and forth. The braver souls among us went to go seek them out for conversation. I hung back for a while having my fourth-wall-breaking celebrity-fan-power-imbalance freakout, but eventually I gave in to the lure of our fannish attention loci being Right There and let Cristen take me over to say hello. First we went up to Ryan, who was in the little courtyard out back, and he was totally polite and courteous, to borrow a phrase from popslash. Like, really friendly, and not seeming at all bothered by us coming up to him and interrupting. I said the two things that my inner censor has sanctioned for saying to musicians ("I really enjoyed your set! I'm really looking forward to your album!"), and also after he said something about not being sure about the crowd's reaction to their set, I tried to say something encouraging back like "I think people were behind you." (The club is small, as mentioned, but it was pretty well filled and if anything the crowd thinned slightly after TYV, not before.) And, and, I think he civilly asked my name at one point, and when I answered I stuck out my hand and he shook it, although after I did that I worried maybe he hadn't intended for that. And that was about all I could manage.
So then we went back in, and shortly after that I turned around and Jon was behind us and Cristen & some of the girls were already talking to him. So I hovered on the edges till I got to say my two set pieces to him. And then again I pretty much had nothing else I felt comfortable saying, plus I had the impression that Jon was not quite as much at ease as Ryan had been, so that was it for me. I had this moment where I just wanted to keep staring at him, because, you know, HOT, and it is *hard* to turn away from a figure you're so invested in. But then I was like "omg self you are DONE, move along," and I did.
So that was the night, and now I have to work hard on making them fictional characters again that can have filthy porn written about them.