Tuesday, April 22, 2008

And on a completely different note

I didn't go to Comic Con this year, but I wish I had because Grant Morrison was there. And, omg, he says his favorite work of his is The Filth. ME TOO!!!

Siiiiiiiiiiiigh.

Monday, April 21, 2008

A post about last night's show for real (and I'm old)

Wow, not only have I not blogged in a long time, I haven't blogged about shows in a long while as well.

Ha, the previous post was pretty damn random simply because I was totally flabbergasted about the chick touching my hair and I needed to tell the story. Now, about last night's Tokyo Police Club show at the Bowery Ballroom...

I had taken care of my business and got there around 6:30, or a little after. The doors weren't supposed to open until 8, but Alex said he'd be there even earlier and I didn't want to leave homeboy hanging.

So by the time I get there, there's been some interesting about Tokyo Police Club being held up at the border. I chuckled a bit to myself thinking, "Oh Lord, I know it probably isn't, but please don't tell me it's 4/20 related."

Things were a bit delayed thanks to that minor kerfuffle I suppose, but I couldn't tell if that was it or if it was the usual lateness of the Bowery.

OK, I know the guys in Tokyo Police Club are young, but really, they were totally rubbing it in my face with their opening bands. Really, way to make me feel positively ancient. I get it, I'm too old to be going to shows anymore.

First of all, there was Smoosh. They're cute...and young. Seriously. You know what freaks me out? As young as they seem now, I first heard about them when I was still in COLLEGE. Like what, two years ago? Three years ago? It's crazy. It really makes me feel all existential. Like, what the hell have I been doing with my youth? These kids have accomplished a whole lot more than I did between the ages of 13 and 18.

They're very good on the whole and absolutely sweet, but can we stop to comment on Chloe's drumming? Girl can beat that thing. Anybody who doubts this just need to watch her totally pummel a drum set live for "Find A Way", Jesus, "Promises." At least watch the latter. It's truly amazing. I'd be really interested to see where she heads with her talent. And she totally rocks the drum face.

But I'm jumping out of all kinds of order here. The first opening band was a group of young lads called The Static Jacks.

I had seen them earlier outside. I was so being reminded of my own mortality...or maybe it was the other way around and I was probably depressing them with my own oldness. It's fairly sad when you look around at the crowd you're in at a show and see how young the people look, but it's a whole different kind of sad when you realize the people on stage are getting to be around the same age as you, or even younger for that matter. I felt like I was the tomb in Poussin's "Arcadian Shepherds" and was proclaiming to all the younguns there, "Et in Arcadia ego, my friends, Et in Arcadia ego."

I tried to cheer myself up by trying to make light of the situation, but it all went horribly wrong because it went something like this: "Oh, Lord. How old are these guys? 16? 17? I am sooooo old. What am I doing here? I'm too old for this shit. Haha, however old they are, they are definitely not legal, ha!...Oh, my God. Oh, God. It was a joke. A joke! Oh, God. Chris Hansen is going to arrest me now, isn't he?"

That beer I had for "lunch" didn't seem like such a bad idea anymore.

The Static Jacks pulled off an energetic set. And really, don't let whatever biological age they have fool you, because their musical maturity is pretty impressive. Oooooohhh, see what I did there? Actually, that reads so cheesy. I sound like Gene Shallit. But that's besides the point. I genuinely enjoyed the set. If it's danceable, you'll probably win me over. But these guys weren't just danceable. Just when you thought you'd figured them out, they'd tweak it a bit and kind of throw you off. They had a couple of songs with some fun composition. I don't know, like you think, "Oh, I get it, they got like a garage rock-y type thing going on," or whatever, then all of the sudden they throw "The Waltz" at you.

My favorite picks? Probably "Light Show" and "Northern Bank." They were selling 3-dollar CDs. It's a steal people. With like 4 songs on there, that's not even a dollar per song. Right? Numbers are not my forte. Well, whatever. The point is it was cheap. I do wish it had "Northern Bank" on it though. I'm pretty sure there was another one I liked, but I can't remember off the top of my head which one it was right now.

Tokyo Police Club. What more could I say that I haven't already said before? Hmm, let me think about that for a bit. Noooope.....no, can't really think of anything else. They're fantastic. Really, that's all I have to say. I do have to say they looked like they were having as much fun as everyone in the audience and that's always a plus. OH! The thing with the border. Well, they had some trouble bringing merch in so they decided to go DIY and had t-shirts that they had signed...and shoes. Yes, shoes. Signed shoes. Um, and socks. Hey, you know, whatever works and the gumption is admirable. I would've bought the socks with a little convincing I bet. The socks I could see someone buying, strangely enough, but I wonder if anyone bought the shoes. They looked like a pretty big size.

It was one of those shows where you're way more invigorated afterwards having been there because the fun of it sort of shoots you with adrenaline. So great job everyone who played last night.

(Seemingly) Stoned people love my hair

A little back story first. So, a couple of weeks ago I was hanging out in a bar in the Lower East Side with some folks. I'd been wearing my hair au natural for a while now. The curls are their springiest directly after a washing. This particular day I had combed out my hair in the morning with the intention of washing it to get it back to its plump spiral curls phase, but over the course of doing random errands in the morning I realized that if I wash my hair when I was about to, it wouldn't dry by the time I was going out to meet people and I'd end up looking like Lionel Ritchie with my hair being wet and curly, yet flat against my head.

So I while in the bathroom trying to figure out whether to braid it or sweep it up into a bun I comb it out again and see that it's not all that bad. It's still got enough "curl" in it so that it looks more like a messy fro-ish, Diana Ross type thing going on, so I figure, "Eh, fuck it," and leave the house like that and wash it when I get home or the morning after.

Now I was sitting and talking to some folks when a dude walks up to us. He was the usual type you see down there. Tall, thin, in skinny pants, with a leather jacket and a scarf around his neck. I thought maybe he knew someone in our group or was coming to ask us something when I notice he stops right in front of me and says, "Wow...do you mind if I touch your hair?"

I turned to look up at the guy because I thought I'd heard him wrong. "What's that?" I asked. He went on to say, "It's soooo cool. How do you get it to do that?"

"Er, it's just natural like this. All I did was comb it out..."

"Wow, it's just like, like Kimya Dawson's. Do you mind if I touch it?"

I guess I was in a good mood and it didn't hurt that the guy wasn't too hard on the eyes. I guess I'm kind of laid back like that. I thought it was no skin off my back to humor the guy and said sure. I figured he just wanted to run his fingers through it (ha, good luck) or something, but instead he total gets both hands in it and ruffles it. And he's totally loving it.

"This is sooo cool. You need to just keep it like this all the time."

I laugh along and he goes on his way, but for the rest of the evening each time he passed by me he'd give my hair a good fluffing and it was so surreal I couldn't help but laugh because he'd say things like "You really shouldn't like, try to tame it or anything. Just let it go wild." At one point he even had his arms around me and had his hands all up in my hair and I just laughed and laughed.

It was all very amusing. I tell this story because I don't know if he was stoned, but if it's not that he really loves Kimya Dawson's hair, it's probably likely something was going on that made poofy hair so amusing to him.

So fast forward to tonight at the Bowery Ballroom. I was there to see Tokyo Police Club. Alex was there, Kelly couldn't make it (laaaaaaaaaammme). Smoosh was opening. Smoosh stood behind us for the Static Jacks (who put on a good set), and Alex and I tried to help them decipher Asya's astrological signs pendant. Smoosh was adorable and talented as ever (this must be said whenever I mention Smoosh: OMG MINI BASSIST SO DAMN CUTE) and played a great set and did their sweet cover of Bloc Party's "This Modern Love" again.

Anyhow, before we go on, we all know what today is, right? That's right 420. And at intervals during the show it smelled like someone was getting their party on. So today I'd managed to have my big mass of curls going on. It's just big with piles of and piles of black curls just everywhere. I say all this because right before Tokyo Police Club were to come on stage, the crowds pressed in a bit more and people were squeezing in to try and get a better spot. Suddenly, I felt a presence behind me uncomfortably close. Then, a presence in my hair.

I turned around sharply to see some random tiny blonde chick with a beer in her left hand slowly massaging my hair with her right hand. She was shorter than me so she was actually reaching up to do this. She had an odd look on her face as if she was mesmerized by my hair, swaying slightly. I didn't stop her but instead slowly turned to look over to Alex with a look on my face that was pure "What. The. FUCK?"

I stood there awkwardly for a few second staring at Alex in shock until she stopped as suddenly has she had started and continued on her way. I don't know about what was exactly going on in the head of the dude at the bar, but this chick? She had to be stoned or drunk or something. It was utterly ridiculous.

Oh, and Tokyo Police Club was flippin' awesome of course. Too bad Graham was over in the corner and I couldn't see him too well =(, but the songs are so much fun to dance and sing along to. If the show on Tuesday wasn't sold out I would've been tempted to go again.