Erin, Do Not Read This
Because it's all about the trip to Asheville I took to see Squirrel Nut Zippers live at The Orange Peel. She couldn't go, and I don't really feel like rubbing it in much more than I already have.
Monday afternoon, I decided to head up to Asheville early enough that I could check into my room, drop off my stuff, shower, dress, eat dinner, and be at the Peel early enough to meet up with the girl who bought my extra ticket through asheville. I booked through Hotwire and ended up at the Extended Stay hotel/inn/whatever off of Tunnel Road, next to the O'Charley's I didn't even know Asheville had. For those of you familiar with the area, it's up the hill opposite the Mountaineer Inn, about half-way between the tunnel and the mall.
It was an OK place. Had I been spending more than just one night there, I would've appreciated having a kitchenette (with utensils and dishes), but I was just using it as a crash pad so that didn't really figure in. I dropped off my stuff, took a shower, shaved, dressed, and went to dinner at the Brew 'n View, where I saw an ad for this. Further evidence that Asheville is the kind of place I need to live.
After dinner, I headed over to the Peel, where I met up with the girl who bought my spare ticket, made the exchange, and headed inside. I sat by myself for a little while at a table in the corner until a lady and her daughter asked if they could sit down. I said yes, of course, and got to talking with them. They were from Burnsville, the town that gets snow every time someone says the word "snow." I sat and talked with them through the opening set and the intermission, and it was nice having someone to talk to instead of just sitting there, waiting for the show to start. Concerts are much more enjoyable when you can share your excitement.
The opening band was Backyard Tire Fire, from Bloomington, IL, and previously temporarily of Asheville. They've got a sound kind of like Drive-By Truckers, and are pretty good. I liked their set well enough to pick up their CD and talked with their bassist & lead singer. Nice guys, good music, but they weren't what I was there for.
The Zippers took the stage around 10:00 (show started at 9:00) and you couldn't tell they took a five-year hiatus, except they played one of Katherine's songs from her solo work. They hit all the high spots, like "Hell," "The Suits Are Picking Up the Bill," "Put a Lid On It," "Ghost of Stephen Foster" (with cartoon music video in the background), and the fan favorites. They played "Memphis Exorcism" (my personal favorite), "Wash Jones," "Good Enough For Granddad" (and it still is), all the goodies. Around 11:20, they took a bow and headed behind the curtain, but we weren't having that. We were stomping, cheering, clapping, all that, and of course they came back out and did at least a 45-minute encore. Jimbo even played the trombone, which I didn't know he knew how to do. The baritone sax player went back-stage at least twice during the show, causing Jimbo to remark that he quit "this Vaudeville jazz outfit" mid-show. Oh! And they had a girl with a hula hoop dance on the stage with them for two or three songs. It was pretty neat.
And then, after all that, they did my favorite thing: they got down in the audience and danced. The drummer strapped on a snare, the bari sax player put on a sousaphone, and they paraded down the stairs and into the audience. They were playing that calypso/samba number off "Bedlam Ballroom" and just kept it going as long as they could, dancing around and forming a little circle down in the crowd. Several people from the audience who can dance much better than I ever could got in the middle and started dancing along. It was absolutely great. And at one point earlier in the show, Jimbo shouted out "conga line!" and one worked its way through the audience for a couple of songs. After that, Jimbo announced "Je Widenhouse on the coronet, and that was Sarah Widenhouse on the conga line." Je (short for Jerome) lives in Asheville and is also the trumpet player for the Firecracker Jazz Band, those guys that are from Asheville. You know. I've written about them before.
Long story short, the show was great. Absolutely great.
So, I go back to the hotel, unlax, watch a little "Internet Superstar," and hit the hay. Until 2:00 AM, when the fire alarm went off. I'm glad I took the time to put on both pants and a jacket before going downstairs. It was so cold outside that, in late October in North Carolina, it was snowing. Snowing. It was flurries, admittedly, but it was snow while there were still leaves on the trees. This is new to me. The novelty quickly wore off, though, as I realized I wasn't wearing socks with my shoes and that I was standing outside in freezing temperatures waiting on the fire department while my car keys, the rest of my clothes, and my laptop were all upstairs in my room that might be on fire. I didn't see any flames and only smelled a weird burnt-plastic kind of smell in the lobby, but you never know.
Once the three (3) fire engines got there and the firemen had talked to the night clerk, we learned that there must have been something in the dryer or something, because there was nothing wrong according to the panel. So, back inside and to bed. I didn't sleep well on the hard bed in a room with a fridge and a loud A/C unit that kept kicking on every few minutes. I don't think I ever got fully to sleep, but I got rested enough to get up in the morning, pack up, check out, and get lunch at Urban Burrito. It's like Moe's, but different.
Coming back, I noticed that there was accumulated snow on the ground from Oteen (east Asheville) all the way to Black Mountain, which is around ten or twelve miles. It wasn't completely covering the grass and there was none on the roads, but I reiterate: snow on the ground and leaves on the trees. I've never seen that before, so it was kind of exciting and made me wish I'd brought my camera.
Then, after I got home, I did boring stuff. I met with the lawyer who's working on my disability case, helped my mom take pictures for my dad (insurance stuff, boring), ran some errands, picked up the last major bits of my Halloween costume, that kind of stuff. Through it all, surprisingly, I haven't felt too terrible. All told, these past three days have been the best I've had in at least two weeks. That may or may not be thanks to the amitryptiline, which I'm seeing Dr. Shah about tomorrow. I think the best course of action is to try it for another month, see if I continue to feel not-so-bad, and go from there. Three days out of thirty isn't a big enough representative sample and could just be chalked up to a fluke.
Anyway, I had a great time and hopefully next time I go to Asheville and/or to a concert, I can take somebody with me so I won't look like such a dork dancing in place.
Monday afternoon, I decided to head up to Asheville early enough that I could check into my room, drop off my stuff, shower, dress, eat dinner, and be at the Peel early enough to meet up with the girl who bought my extra ticket through asheville. I booked through Hotwire and ended up at the Extended Stay hotel/inn/whatever off of Tunnel Road, next to the O'Charley's I didn't even know Asheville had. For those of you familiar with the area, it's up the hill opposite the Mountaineer Inn, about half-way between the tunnel and the mall.
It was an OK place. Had I been spending more than just one night there, I would've appreciated having a kitchenette (with utensils and dishes), but I was just using it as a crash pad so that didn't really figure in. I dropped off my stuff, took a shower, shaved, dressed, and went to dinner at the Brew 'n View, where I saw an ad for this. Further evidence that Asheville is the kind of place I need to live.
After dinner, I headed over to the Peel, where I met up with the girl who bought my spare ticket, made the exchange, and headed inside. I sat by myself for a little while at a table in the corner until a lady and her daughter asked if they could sit down. I said yes, of course, and got to talking with them. They were from Burnsville, the town that gets snow every time someone says the word "snow." I sat and talked with them through the opening set and the intermission, and it was nice having someone to talk to instead of just sitting there, waiting for the show to start. Concerts are much more enjoyable when you can share your excitement.
The opening band was Backyard Tire Fire, from Bloomington, IL, and previously temporarily of Asheville. They've got a sound kind of like Drive-By Truckers, and are pretty good. I liked their set well enough to pick up their CD and talked with their bassist & lead singer. Nice guys, good music, but they weren't what I was there for.
The Zippers took the stage around 10:00 (show started at 9:00) and you couldn't tell they took a five-year hiatus, except they played one of Katherine's songs from her solo work. They hit all the high spots, like "Hell," "The Suits Are Picking Up the Bill," "Put a Lid On It," "Ghost of Stephen Foster" (with cartoon music video in the background), and the fan favorites. They played "Memphis Exorcism" (my personal favorite), "Wash Jones," "Good Enough For Granddad" (and it still is), all the goodies. Around 11:20, they took a bow and headed behind the curtain, but we weren't having that. We were stomping, cheering, clapping, all that, and of course they came back out and did at least a 45-minute encore. Jimbo even played the trombone, which I didn't know he knew how to do. The baritone sax player went back-stage at least twice during the show, causing Jimbo to remark that he quit "this Vaudeville jazz outfit" mid-show. Oh! And they had a girl with a hula hoop dance on the stage with them for two or three songs. It was pretty neat.
And then, after all that, they did my favorite thing: they got down in the audience and danced. The drummer strapped on a snare, the bari sax player put on a sousaphone, and they paraded down the stairs and into the audience. They were playing that calypso/samba number off "Bedlam Ballroom" and just kept it going as long as they could, dancing around and forming a little circle down in the crowd. Several people from the audience who can dance much better than I ever could got in the middle and started dancing along. It was absolutely great. And at one point earlier in the show, Jimbo shouted out "conga line!" and one worked its way through the audience for a couple of songs. After that, Jimbo announced "Je Widenhouse on the coronet, and that was Sarah Widenhouse on the conga line." Je (short for Jerome) lives in Asheville and is also the trumpet player for the Firecracker Jazz Band, those guys that are from Asheville. You know. I've written about them before.
Long story short, the show was great. Absolutely great.
So, I go back to the hotel, unlax, watch a little "Internet Superstar," and hit the hay. Until 2:00 AM, when the fire alarm went off. I'm glad I took the time to put on both pants and a jacket before going downstairs. It was so cold outside that, in late October in North Carolina, it was snowing. Snowing. It was flurries, admittedly, but it was snow while there were still leaves on the trees. This is new to me. The novelty quickly wore off, though, as I realized I wasn't wearing socks with my shoes and that I was standing outside in freezing temperatures waiting on the fire department while my car keys, the rest of my clothes, and my laptop were all upstairs in my room that might be on fire. I didn't see any flames and only smelled a weird burnt-plastic kind of smell in the lobby, but you never know.
Once the three (3) fire engines got there and the firemen had talked to the night clerk, we learned that there must have been something in the dryer or something, because there was nothing wrong according to the panel. So, back inside and to bed. I didn't sleep well on the hard bed in a room with a fridge and a loud A/C unit that kept kicking on every few minutes. I don't think I ever got fully to sleep, but I got rested enough to get up in the morning, pack up, check out, and get lunch at Urban Burrito. It's like Moe's, but different.
Coming back, I noticed that there was accumulated snow on the ground from Oteen (east Asheville) all the way to Black Mountain, which is around ten or twelve miles. It wasn't completely covering the grass and there was none on the roads, but I reiterate: snow on the ground and leaves on the trees. I've never seen that before, so it was kind of exciting and made me wish I'd brought my camera.
Then, after I got home, I did boring stuff. I met with the lawyer who's working on my disability case, helped my mom take pictures for my dad (insurance stuff, boring), ran some errands, picked up the last major bits of my Halloween costume, that kind of stuff. Through it all, surprisingly, I haven't felt too terrible. All told, these past three days have been the best I've had in at least two weeks. That may or may not be thanks to the amitryptiline, which I'm seeing Dr. Shah about tomorrow. I think the best course of action is to try it for another month, see if I continue to feel not-so-bad, and go from there. Three days out of thirty isn't a big enough representative sample and could just be chalked up to a fluke.
Anyway, I had a great time and hopefully next time I go to Asheville and/or to a concert, I can take somebody with me so I won't look like such a dork dancing in place.