Bursting.
At 4 AM, Brittany and I returned from Camp Mountain Goats.
And I really wish that it did not have to end.
Brittany's window doesn't roll down (or if it does, it doesn't roll back up, which is what happened last time we went to a MG show), so for awhile, I was jumping between the seats to pay tolls.
I still don't quite understand the MassPike ticket system.
My Chemical Romance.
Got to Northampton, and didn't really know what to do while waiting for Cora...so we parked and wandered up and down the street.
"UNEEDA GET SMART"
We ended up being the second ones in line, behind a couple in their 30's or 40's. The five of us talked with the bouncers about Buckethead and The Residents.
Most of my pictures of shows aren't great quality, since I didn't want to use my flash...oh well. This is Melissa of The Moaners, and her gorgeous Telestar guitar.
And somewhere behind this drum set is Laura, who played a mean beat.
Killing time.
Overall, a good show in a freezing cold venue. Had a five or ten minute conversation with John Wurster after the show about Danzig.
Slept on Cora's floor, played some Where's Waldo, ate some Chex mix...I was asleep last and awake first. After the other two were up and ready, we went out and did some shopping, the notable experience from that being ULTRAGAL.
I ended up with a nice pair of pale pink pantaloons, but if I had more money...
After bidding adieu to our wonderful hostess, Cora, we headed back on the road for the two hour trip into Boston. Put the wrong information into the GPS system (which was both very useful and very strange) and ended up at a mall/hotel/parking garage. Ended up leaving the car there and walking to the venue, and were cornered by Greenpeace volunteers on the way.
Waiting in line at the MFA. Found out from the one person in front of us that since we didn't purchase "Front of House" seats, we couldn't sit in the first few rows. Kind of a bummer, since I had no idea how shows there worked.
Overall, I wasn't so pumped on this venue. I felt like I was the only one moving, the only one singing. The room was so quiet, everyone was seated, it was just such a different atmosphere.
Moaners, day two.
You can't really see it, but Melissa is playing a saw.
My pictures from this show are barely worth showing. It was too dark and I was too far away.
After the show, hung around a bit, and ended up talking with the Moaners. Told them about how we were from Maine and had a conversation about that for awhile. Wandered off after a bit, found burritos, found the car after some confusion about how exactly to get back into the parking garage, and started trying to think of places to park the car to sleep.
And having no better ideas, ended up in the parking lot outside of Shane's dorm.
Stinkycar sleepover party, part one.
At about 5 AM, after having slept on and off for about five hours, Brittany started up really quickly and decided it was a bad idea to sleep there any longer.
This is about how I'm feeling at this point.
Relocation process.
Ended up parking in a gas station lot til they opened, getting gas, and then having the GPS locate us a rest stop. By the time we got there, I'd been sitting up and enjoying the car's heater being on and singing to the radio and eating peanut butter M&M's, and I was barely tired anymore.
Stinkycar sleepover party, part two.
Fort?
Ended up falling back asleep. Woke up quite a few times, made myself keep sleeping til about 1 PM. Sat up and read til Brittany was awake. Then went to the bathroom and changed our clothes in the toilet stalls, brushed our teeth in the sinks, and were ready to go again.
After wiping down the fogged up windows with a tank top.
Refreshed...sort of.
After reaching Cambridge and parking the car, we wandered up and down the street looking for cheap food, and ended up being so cold that we just ducked into the Wendy's.
And then back to the car to wait out the next few hours. Not refreshed.
Waited outside the venue in the freezing cold for a few hours. Met some interesting people in the line, ate some pizza, tried to warm my toes.
We had to literally wait two and a half hours for the show to start after getting into the venue, so we made some friends and played Hangman. Here we have Brittany, Spencer and Shawn.
We ended up talking to the couple behind us as well, Dana and Keegan. I was so excited by how friendly people were at this show. Noone seemed willing to have conversation at the Pearl Street show, and I didn't even bother to try at the MFA.
Moaners, night three. By this show, I was really excited to see them; they'd really grown on me since the first show, and I think they sounded better than ever at the third one.
When Mountain Goats took the stage, I felt so excited; as soon as John walked onto the stage, he came right up to me and gave me a huge high five. Fantastic.
Yes.
I actually felt a bit nervous at the beginning of the show. John was forgetting some of the lyrics, one of his guitar strings broke...but after a few songs, they seemed to regain momentum, and it ended up being the best fucking show of the three, hands down.
Peter letting the crowd know that he is not single.
Also, it was technically John's birthday after midnight, and the crowd sang "Happy Birthday" twice.
Got to hear "Have to Explode", "Jeff Davis County Blues", "Lovecraft in Brooklyn"...first encore had "Going to Georgia" and "This Year", and the unexpected second encore was "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton". I don't think the crowd could've been any louder. I just threw an arm around Dana and let it wail. Perfect.
Talked more with the Moaners after the show. Laura referred to us as "Goatheads", gave us some free stickers and pins, I bought a t-shirt...we told them about Guthrie's and are hoping that they'll want to head up here for a show sometime in the summer.
Had to head home...and got stuck behind a red light that was red for so long that eventually everyone just ran it. Brittany is alienated by the GPS.
I don't think we were actually supposed to go in this tunnel.
Brittany puts in eyedrops while she drives, and I take pictures and sing more My Chemical Romance. We kept ourselves awake pretty well.
Overall, I had the most fantastic fucking time that I've had in a long time. I'm feeling kind of torn at this point, partially really excited and happy for what happened, and part of me really wanting more and feeling really sad at the thought of going back into my routine. It's been such a long time since I really traveled, and this small taste of it has left me craving more. I would've loved to have just kept going, went on to the NYC show. But, I'm trying my best to just accept that I'm home, and appreciate that I had such a wonderful trip.
Brittany, thank you so much for driving. And Mountain Goats and Moaners, thank you so much for doing what you do. Words can't express how much this all means to me.
***
I also saw Slouchback.
And Eric Cyr.
And Ryan Cutler.
And Goomba.
And I really wish that it did not have to end.
Brittany's window doesn't roll down (or if it does, it doesn't roll back up, which is what happened last time we went to a MG show), so for awhile, I was jumping between the seats to pay tolls.
I still don't quite understand the MassPike ticket system.
My Chemical Romance.
Got to Northampton, and didn't really know what to do while waiting for Cora...so we parked and wandered up and down the street.
"UNEEDA GET SMART"
We ended up being the second ones in line, behind a couple in their 30's or 40's. The five of us talked with the bouncers about Buckethead and The Residents.
Most of my pictures of shows aren't great quality, since I didn't want to use my flash...oh well. This is Melissa of The Moaners, and her gorgeous Telestar guitar.
And somewhere behind this drum set is Laura, who played a mean beat.
Killing time.
Overall, a good show in a freezing cold venue. Had a five or ten minute conversation with John Wurster after the show about Danzig.
Slept on Cora's floor, played some Where's Waldo, ate some Chex mix...I was asleep last and awake first. After the other two were up and ready, we went out and did some shopping, the notable experience from that being ULTRAGAL.
I ended up with a nice pair of pale pink pantaloons, but if I had more money...
After bidding adieu to our wonderful hostess, Cora, we headed back on the road for the two hour trip into Boston. Put the wrong information into the GPS system (which was both very useful and very strange) and ended up at a mall/hotel/parking garage. Ended up leaving the car there and walking to the venue, and were cornered by Greenpeace volunteers on the way.
Waiting in line at the MFA. Found out from the one person in front of us that since we didn't purchase "Front of House" seats, we couldn't sit in the first few rows. Kind of a bummer, since I had no idea how shows there worked.
Overall, I wasn't so pumped on this venue. I felt like I was the only one moving, the only one singing. The room was so quiet, everyone was seated, it was just such a different atmosphere.
Moaners, day two.
You can't really see it, but Melissa is playing a saw.
My pictures from this show are barely worth showing. It was too dark and I was too far away.
After the show, hung around a bit, and ended up talking with the Moaners. Told them about how we were from Maine and had a conversation about that for awhile. Wandered off after a bit, found burritos, found the car after some confusion about how exactly to get back into the parking garage, and started trying to think of places to park the car to sleep.
And having no better ideas, ended up in the parking lot outside of Shane's dorm.
Stinkycar sleepover party, part one.
At about 5 AM, after having slept on and off for about five hours, Brittany started up really quickly and decided it was a bad idea to sleep there any longer.
This is about how I'm feeling at this point.
Relocation process.
Ended up parking in a gas station lot til they opened, getting gas, and then having the GPS locate us a rest stop. By the time we got there, I'd been sitting up and enjoying the car's heater being on and singing to the radio and eating peanut butter M&M's, and I was barely tired anymore.
Stinkycar sleepover party, part two.
Fort?
Ended up falling back asleep. Woke up quite a few times, made myself keep sleeping til about 1 PM. Sat up and read til Brittany was awake. Then went to the bathroom and changed our clothes in the toilet stalls, brushed our teeth in the sinks, and were ready to go again.
After wiping down the fogged up windows with a tank top.
Refreshed...sort of.
After reaching Cambridge and parking the car, we wandered up and down the street looking for cheap food, and ended up being so cold that we just ducked into the Wendy's.
And then back to the car to wait out the next few hours. Not refreshed.
Waited outside the venue in the freezing cold for a few hours. Met some interesting people in the line, ate some pizza, tried to warm my toes.
We had to literally wait two and a half hours for the show to start after getting into the venue, so we made some friends and played Hangman. Here we have Brittany, Spencer and Shawn.
We ended up talking to the couple behind us as well, Dana and Keegan. I was so excited by how friendly people were at this show. Noone seemed willing to have conversation at the Pearl Street show, and I didn't even bother to try at the MFA.
Moaners, night three. By this show, I was really excited to see them; they'd really grown on me since the first show, and I think they sounded better than ever at the third one.
When Mountain Goats took the stage, I felt so excited; as soon as John walked onto the stage, he came right up to me and gave me a huge high five. Fantastic.
Yes.
I actually felt a bit nervous at the beginning of the show. John was forgetting some of the lyrics, one of his guitar strings broke...but after a few songs, they seemed to regain momentum, and it ended up being the best fucking show of the three, hands down.
Peter letting the crowd know that he is not single.
Also, it was technically John's birthday after midnight, and the crowd sang "Happy Birthday" twice.
Got to hear "Have to Explode", "Jeff Davis County Blues", "Lovecraft in Brooklyn"...first encore had "Going to Georgia" and "This Year", and the unexpected second encore was "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton". I don't think the crowd could've been any louder. I just threw an arm around Dana and let it wail. Perfect.
Talked more with the Moaners after the show. Laura referred to us as "Goatheads", gave us some free stickers and pins, I bought a t-shirt...we told them about Guthrie's and are hoping that they'll want to head up here for a show sometime in the summer.
Had to head home...and got stuck behind a red light that was red for so long that eventually everyone just ran it. Brittany is alienated by the GPS.
I don't think we were actually supposed to go in this tunnel.
Brittany puts in eyedrops while she drives, and I take pictures and sing more My Chemical Romance. We kept ourselves awake pretty well.
Overall, I had the most fantastic fucking time that I've had in a long time. I'm feeling kind of torn at this point, partially really excited and happy for what happened, and part of me really wanting more and feeling really sad at the thought of going back into my routine. It's been such a long time since I really traveled, and this small taste of it has left me craving more. I would've loved to have just kept going, went on to the NYC show. But, I'm trying my best to just accept that I'm home, and appreciate that I had such a wonderful trip.
Brittany, thank you so much for driving. And Mountain Goats and Moaners, thank you so much for doing what you do. Words can't express how much this all means to me.
***
I also saw Slouchback.
And Eric Cyr.
And Ryan Cutler.
And Goomba.