And the hotel clock was slow by about thirty minutes. SCAM?
Someday, I want to go down to Bloomington, IN just to wander around and check stores out. It reminds me a lot of Iowa CIty, in that it's a somewhat small town with lots of cool, small, local stores. Also, it seems to be very local-business oriented. Quite a few of the restaurants say they get as many of their ingredients from nearby towns. Murder by Death said that the new CD was produced entirely in Bloomington.
And their public library looks awesome. There was a little kids play area! IT LOOKED SO COOL
ALSO THE WAY IN TO BLOOMINGTON IS SO HILLY AND THERE ARE TREES AND THE HIGHWAY HAS TWISTS AND TURNS by which I mean it is very pretty and fun to drive around in. It makes me wish I had a motorcycle and, uh, lived close enough to Indiana to drive around.
We ate at a delicious (but kind of expensive) restaurant/bar called Nick's English Hut. They must've had a wood grill or something because the hamburger had that taste of outdoor grilling. And the chicken wings we got were AMAZING, oh man. Slightly crispy on the outside, tender and flavorful on the inside.
...It makes me a little jealous. The town I live in does not have cool little pubs, at least not that I can tell. It doesn't have hardly any small, locally-owned shops. It feels a lot more commercial, somehow, even though it's not that big. And I mean, okay, I think there probably are some cool restaurants, but they are all super expensive. There are some cool shops, but they are also super expensive and obviously for non-college students.
Anyway! On to the non-MbD part of the concert.
The opening band was called State and they were actually pretty good! I feel like they were better at playing their instruments than singing, because, uh, they were not always in tune and when both of the dudes were singing it was kind of hard to tell what the melody was supposed to be? One of the singers reminded me of a clean-cut, a-few-years-younger version of Joshua from Shadowrun in that his face was very expressive, he was kind of dorky but also kind of an asshole, and he was wearing high top sneakers. He was the backup singer, but got a song to himself. He had a surprisingly high pitched, nasal voice, but it worked for the song. And he kept jumping around the stage on one leg.
Also, there was something vaguely homoerotic about their performance? I don't want to give the wrong impression though; it was not actually erotic, but very... uh. I don't know. Gay. I thought I was imaging things at first, but then the lead singer knelt in front of the backup singer and put his face very close to where the guy was strumming his guitar. Which, you know, is very close to anothe area. The way he did it suggested he knew it was pretty gay. And he kept, like, putting his mouth over the microphone while singing? And the guitarists kept approaching each other and getting really close, strumming their guitars. I don't know.
Oh! And the drummer had these hilarious facial expressions, like he was concentrating really hard. And the lead singer would head bang and sweat droplets flew everywhere. And the bar gave them free drinks halfway through and then Adam Turla brought drinks up for them 3/4 through. Each time, the lead singer made some comment that seemed overall negative about booze, which made me kind of happy, since usually bands seem to be extremely gung ho about booze.
Then the Bloomington Burlesque Brigade came on! The emcee was awesome. I think she was African American, I know she was a lesbian (because she told us several times and in several ways XD), and she was a bigger lady. Actually, three out of the five performers were bigger ladies. Which was awesome because they worked the crowd just as well as the skinnier ladies. It was surprisingly empowering. I think it's due to the fact that the emcee laid down some pretty strict rules before we started (in a good-humored way), such as: NO tipping, do not treat these ladies as strippers, do not be inappropriate. It made it about the ladies instead of about the crowd. One of the performers did a routine involving roses and at the end threw a bunch of roses at the crowd and I caught one! I'm going to see how well it dries.
It definitely made me think about how much practice must go into it, though. There were various skill levels, and the best one made it look so effortless, but - man. It must've taken her hours to be able to strip down so gracefully slow.
And it was pretty cool to see all of these large women strutting their stuff proudly. It's just so nice to see women who aren't all the same size and shape.
Murder by Death gave every person who came to the concert a copy of their new CD plus two free beers. In case you didn't know, I do not drink alcohol because a) my dad's side of the family has quite a few alcoholics, including my dad (who went cold turkey quite a few years ago), b) I have control issues (aka I am terrified of losing control because I'm drunk!), c) I hate the way it tastes, and d) it's really expensive. ANYWAY. I decided to get a beer to try, just because it's been a number of years since I last tried some sort of alcoholic drink.
UGH IT IS SO GROSS. SO GROSS. Bleeegggggh it reminded me a little bit of green olives? I don't know why.
But listening to Murder by Death has made me really curious about whiskey and it's something I kind of have wanted to try for awhile, just to see what it's like. I imagined it burned like hell and tasted like, well, rubbing alcohol or something. Anyway, Baco was also curious and after awhile, I built up enough courage to go order two shots, one for both of us. It was sweeter than I expected? Sort of in the way cough syrup is sweet. Baco drank hers in a gulp; I took two. (I had more in my cup! Also I, uh, wasn't sure how much of a light weight I was and I wanted at least one of us to be able to drive, but Baco pointed out that by the time the concert was over, it would've gotten out of my system. So I drank the rest of it in one go, and I'm pretty sure it was the amount of a shot.)
Anyway! It did burn a lot, but it wasn't bad. And - so you know how in FFX Auron takes a swig of his rice wine for a limit break? And then he breathes out and you can see the alcohol in his breath? I could totally feel that happening. But I like it better than beer and am now curious about the rest of the hard alcohols.
And then Murder by Death came on and you know all about that already.
One more thing, though. The crowd was really interesting to watch. Some people were all dressed up, some were very casual, some wore nerdy shirts and some wore skirts with sparkly purses. And it was pretty packed close to the stage (where we were standing), so it was hard to avoid being danced into. I was standing next to a couple who enjoyed grinding into each other, which occasionally involved brushing against me which was a little... uncomfortable. And poor Baco had to stand next to a girl who seemed pretty drunk and really enjoyed dancing into other people's personal bubbles and waving her arms around.
Also there was a dude who kept passing around some unmarked drink in a plastic flask. He offered it to a bunch of people, and I noticed most of the people who accepted it were guys and most of the people who rejected it were women. He offered it up to Adam before the show, though! And Adam kind of looked at it askance and then drank some.
I do not know how to end this post!
And their public library looks awesome. There was a little kids play area! IT LOOKED SO COOL
ALSO THE WAY IN TO BLOOMINGTON IS SO HILLY AND THERE ARE TREES AND THE HIGHWAY HAS TWISTS AND TURNS by which I mean it is very pretty and fun to drive around in. It makes me wish I had a motorcycle and, uh, lived close enough to Indiana to drive around.
We ate at a delicious (but kind of expensive) restaurant/bar called Nick's English Hut. They must've had a wood grill or something because the hamburger had that taste of outdoor grilling. And the chicken wings we got were AMAZING, oh man. Slightly crispy on the outside, tender and flavorful on the inside.
...It makes me a little jealous. The town I live in does not have cool little pubs, at least not that I can tell. It doesn't have hardly any small, locally-owned shops. It feels a lot more commercial, somehow, even though it's not that big. And I mean, okay, I think there probably are some cool restaurants, but they are all super expensive. There are some cool shops, but they are also super expensive and obviously for non-college students.
Anyway! On to the non-MbD part of the concert.
The opening band was called State and they were actually pretty good! I feel like they were better at playing their instruments than singing, because, uh, they were not always in tune and when both of the dudes were singing it was kind of hard to tell what the melody was supposed to be? One of the singers reminded me of a clean-cut, a-few-years-younger version of Joshua from Shadowrun in that his face was very expressive, he was kind of dorky but also kind of an asshole, and he was wearing high top sneakers. He was the backup singer, but got a song to himself. He had a surprisingly high pitched, nasal voice, but it worked for the song. And he kept jumping around the stage on one leg.
Also, there was something vaguely homoerotic about their performance? I don't want to give the wrong impression though; it was not actually erotic, but very... uh. I don't know. Gay. I thought I was imaging things at first, but then the lead singer knelt in front of the backup singer and put his face very close to where the guy was strumming his guitar. Which, you know, is very close to anothe area. The way he did it suggested he knew it was pretty gay. And he kept, like, putting his mouth over the microphone while singing? And the guitarists kept approaching each other and getting really close, strumming their guitars. I don't know.
Oh! And the drummer had these hilarious facial expressions, like he was concentrating really hard. And the lead singer would head bang and sweat droplets flew everywhere. And the bar gave them free drinks halfway through and then Adam Turla brought drinks up for them 3/4 through. Each time, the lead singer made some comment that seemed overall negative about booze, which made me kind of happy, since usually bands seem to be extremely gung ho about booze.
Then the Bloomington Burlesque Brigade came on! The emcee was awesome. I think she was African American, I know she was a lesbian (because she told us several times and in several ways XD), and she was a bigger lady. Actually, three out of the five performers were bigger ladies. Which was awesome because they worked the crowd just as well as the skinnier ladies. It was surprisingly empowering. I think it's due to the fact that the emcee laid down some pretty strict rules before we started (in a good-humored way), such as: NO tipping, do not treat these ladies as strippers, do not be inappropriate. It made it about the ladies instead of about the crowd. One of the performers did a routine involving roses and at the end threw a bunch of roses at the crowd and I caught one! I'm going to see how well it dries.
It definitely made me think about how much practice must go into it, though. There were various skill levels, and the best one made it look so effortless, but - man. It must've taken her hours to be able to strip down so gracefully slow.
And it was pretty cool to see all of these large women strutting their stuff proudly. It's just so nice to see women who aren't all the same size and shape.
Murder by Death gave every person who came to the concert a copy of their new CD plus two free beers. In case you didn't know, I do not drink alcohol because a) my dad's side of the family has quite a few alcoholics, including my dad (who went cold turkey quite a few years ago), b) I have control issues (aka I am terrified of losing control because I'm drunk!), c) I hate the way it tastes, and d) it's really expensive. ANYWAY. I decided to get a beer to try, just because it's been a number of years since I last tried some sort of alcoholic drink.
UGH IT IS SO GROSS. SO GROSS. Bleeegggggh it reminded me a little bit of green olives? I don't know why.
But listening to Murder by Death has made me really curious about whiskey and it's something I kind of have wanted to try for awhile, just to see what it's like. I imagined it burned like hell and tasted like, well, rubbing alcohol or something. Anyway, Baco was also curious and after awhile, I built up enough courage to go order two shots, one for both of us. It was sweeter than I expected? Sort of in the way cough syrup is sweet. Baco drank hers in a gulp; I took two. (I had more in my cup! Also I, uh, wasn't sure how much of a light weight I was and I wanted at least one of us to be able to drive, but Baco pointed out that by the time the concert was over, it would've gotten out of my system. So I drank the rest of it in one go, and I'm pretty sure it was the amount of a shot.)
Anyway! It did burn a lot, but it wasn't bad. And - so you know how in FFX Auron takes a swig of his rice wine for a limit break? And then he breathes out and you can see the alcohol in his breath? I could totally feel that happening. But I like it better than beer and am now curious about the rest of the hard alcohols.
And then Murder by Death came on and you know all about that already.
One more thing, though. The crowd was really interesting to watch. Some people were all dressed up, some were very casual, some wore nerdy shirts and some wore skirts with sparkly purses. And it was pretty packed close to the stage (where we were standing), so it was hard to avoid being danced into. I was standing next to a couple who enjoyed grinding into each other, which occasionally involved brushing against me which was a little... uncomfortable. And poor Baco had to stand next to a girl who seemed pretty drunk and really enjoyed dancing into other people's personal bubbles and waving her arms around.
Also there was a dude who kept passing around some unmarked drink in a plastic flask. He offered it to a bunch of people, and I noticed most of the people who accepted it were guys and most of the people who rejected it were women. He offered it up to Adam before the show, though! And Adam kind of looked at it askance and then drank some.
I do not know how to end this post!