illtruisms
every once in a while, i have a thoroughly unproductive weekend.
i managed to see three concerts in 24 hours (friday-saturday). friday night christina and i drove to dc to see ted leo at the black cat. we found a place to park, i called annie_linux, and it turned out he was walking home across the street from us. amazing coincidence. he took us to eat at his neighborhood vegan soul food joint, where i consumed the tastiest veggie ("garvey") burger in the world, not to mention great "jerusalem fries" and orange/lentil soup. we hung out for a while at his place, listening to tunes and swapping news, before we went to the concert. two bands opened for ted leo, one was les aus, whom everyone should check out, and the other was a lackluster english band, the duke spirit. ted leo was in fine fettle, except that he lost his voice last week and had to cancel a show. he looked like he was hurting when he sang, coughing and spluttering after pretty much every song, drinking tea throughout the set, but it was a lot of fun and you could tell he was happy to be in a familiar town on the last stop of the tour.
i had had a coffee so that i wouldn't fall asleep driving home. the ride home was very pleasant after we found our way back onto 66. we got in around 330, but i didn't get to sleep until 5. i had a nice 7 hours of shuteye, but then i woke up because we had tickets to a UVa university programs council-sponsored "fest full of rock". i really only bought my ticket to see two bands, pedro the lion (going solo) and les savy fav. both were excellent. david bazan (i think that's his name) from pedro the lion was funny and sort of awkward: he interspersed his songs w/christian references with dirty priest jokes and other naughty bits exclusively about semen. les savy fav were fucking crazy, and they definitely brought down the house. i only recently really got into them, so i felt lucky to have seen them. plus, the ticket was only 5 bucks, and that ain't too shabby.
christina had heard about another show downtown (the physics of meaning) at the tea bazaar, but at that point we were pretty concerted-out. i stopped in at the convenience store near the satellite ballroom, where the show was, and the cashier happened to be none other than the bassist of truman sparks, my favorite local band. i told him how much his band rocked, and he told me that they were playing a party that night near where i live! it was especially funny because christina was feeling exhausted and had said only minutes before that the only way she would stay out tonight was if truman sparks were playing a show. i called around to see if anyone in the german dept was going out, but the only ones around seemed to be anna and her boy-toy, jay. we met up with them and went to an uncharacteristically classy place (for christina and i): the wine bar. i took a "mixed white flight", which only means that i tasted four local white wines. two were good, two not-so-good. i'm a big fan of sauvignon blanc and any wine made with riesling grapes, for future reference.
i called to let my friend jill know about the party after we left the wine bar, at which point we walked toward home to get to the party. we raced to get there after walking about half an hour (we ended up getting a cab), but the band that was playing was not yet truman sparks. it was some other band, very good party music, who played for another forty-five minutes or so. their sound was kind of like queens of the stone age, minus the stoner-rocking plus some southern rock influence. the guys from truman sparks showed up, but the next band that played was really bad, think high-schooler-korn-wannabes. though their opening number was very promising: a punked-up cover of an often-covered tune, "'take on me". truman sparks didn't go on until about 2am, and even then they could only play two or three songs. i didn't really care, because i can hear them any number of times without getting tired of their sound. jill and her boyfriend got too tired and didn't see truman sparks, which i felt bad about, but not too much. they had also been at the "fest".
seeing all these bands really made me excited about writing songs again. adding to this excitement was the opportunity jenn and i had over break to listen to songs i recorded with dave the summer before i left for germany, our set in stone reunion album, "wearing suits on the farm". we wrote some really good, funny songs! i couldn't even believe that we had gotten so much recorded, but there it was. tonight i sat down with my guitar and just started playing, and i really liked what came out. i need to write some lyrics, too, and i haven't attempted that in a long time. fueling this, too, is jason - that kid from my turn of the century class, who is in this folk band called skyline drive. i've been jamming with him sporadically on my bass, which is good practice, but i'm not sure i'm that into performing with him. for one thing, folk music isn't exactly my bag, but for another, i'm not sure i think his songs are all that great to begin with. don't get me wrong, he's a good kid, but i can't really see myself seriously playing an open mic with the dude. if i do that kind of thing at all, i want to be sharing the stage with no one, playing my own songs or at least my own covers.
in short, this weekend - though it has been far from restful - has done wonders to rekindle my desire to play and write music. and there ain't nothin wrong with that.
i managed to see three concerts in 24 hours (friday-saturday). friday night christina and i drove to dc to see ted leo at the black cat. we found a place to park, i called annie_linux, and it turned out he was walking home across the street from us. amazing coincidence. he took us to eat at his neighborhood vegan soul food joint, where i consumed the tastiest veggie ("garvey") burger in the world, not to mention great "jerusalem fries" and orange/lentil soup. we hung out for a while at his place, listening to tunes and swapping news, before we went to the concert. two bands opened for ted leo, one was les aus, whom everyone should check out, and the other was a lackluster english band, the duke spirit. ted leo was in fine fettle, except that he lost his voice last week and had to cancel a show. he looked like he was hurting when he sang, coughing and spluttering after pretty much every song, drinking tea throughout the set, but it was a lot of fun and you could tell he was happy to be in a familiar town on the last stop of the tour.
i had had a coffee so that i wouldn't fall asleep driving home. the ride home was very pleasant after we found our way back onto 66. we got in around 330, but i didn't get to sleep until 5. i had a nice 7 hours of shuteye, but then i woke up because we had tickets to a UVa university programs council-sponsored "fest full of rock". i really only bought my ticket to see two bands, pedro the lion (going solo) and les savy fav. both were excellent. david bazan (i think that's his name) from pedro the lion was funny and sort of awkward: he interspersed his songs w/christian references with dirty priest jokes and other naughty bits exclusively about semen. les savy fav were fucking crazy, and they definitely brought down the house. i only recently really got into them, so i felt lucky to have seen them. plus, the ticket was only 5 bucks, and that ain't too shabby.
christina had heard about another show downtown (the physics of meaning) at the tea bazaar, but at that point we were pretty concerted-out. i stopped in at the convenience store near the satellite ballroom, where the show was, and the cashier happened to be none other than the bassist of truman sparks, my favorite local band. i told him how much his band rocked, and he told me that they were playing a party that night near where i live! it was especially funny because christina was feeling exhausted and had said only minutes before that the only way she would stay out tonight was if truman sparks were playing a show. i called around to see if anyone in the german dept was going out, but the only ones around seemed to be anna and her boy-toy, jay. we met up with them and went to an uncharacteristically classy place (for christina and i): the wine bar. i took a "mixed white flight", which only means that i tasted four local white wines. two were good, two not-so-good. i'm a big fan of sauvignon blanc and any wine made with riesling grapes, for future reference.
i called to let my friend jill know about the party after we left the wine bar, at which point we walked toward home to get to the party. we raced to get there after walking about half an hour (we ended up getting a cab), but the band that was playing was not yet truman sparks. it was some other band, very good party music, who played for another forty-five minutes or so. their sound was kind of like queens of the stone age, minus the stoner-rocking plus some southern rock influence. the guys from truman sparks showed up, but the next band that played was really bad, think high-schooler-korn-wannabes. though their opening number was very promising: a punked-up cover of an often-covered tune, "'take on me". truman sparks didn't go on until about 2am, and even then they could only play two or three songs. i didn't really care, because i can hear them any number of times without getting tired of their sound. jill and her boyfriend got too tired and didn't see truman sparks, which i felt bad about, but not too much. they had also been at the "fest".
seeing all these bands really made me excited about writing songs again. adding to this excitement was the opportunity jenn and i had over break to listen to songs i recorded with dave the summer before i left for germany, our set in stone reunion album, "wearing suits on the farm". we wrote some really good, funny songs! i couldn't even believe that we had gotten so much recorded, but there it was. tonight i sat down with my guitar and just started playing, and i really liked what came out. i need to write some lyrics, too, and i haven't attempted that in a long time. fueling this, too, is jason - that kid from my turn of the century class, who is in this folk band called skyline drive. i've been jamming with him sporadically on my bass, which is good practice, but i'm not sure i'm that into performing with him. for one thing, folk music isn't exactly my bag, but for another, i'm not sure i think his songs are all that great to begin with. don't get me wrong, he's a good kid, but i can't really see myself seriously playing an open mic with the dude. if i do that kind of thing at all, i want to be sharing the stage with no one, playing my own songs or at least my own covers.
in short, this weekend - though it has been far from restful - has done wonders to rekindle my desire to play and write music. and there ain't nothin wrong with that.