
ok. you know what i hate? i hate when i get all excited about my weekend's purchase @ reckless and sit down for a listen and wonder to myself what the heck am i doing with the 'live from the battle in seattle' the no wto combo cd and where the heck is my pornography by the cure??!! the way reckless records organizes their music behind the scenes is with this numbering system. so you give the dude or dudette at the counter your little card that says what album you want them to fetch for you, and they look it up by the number on the card which leads them to the hiding place on the shelf for the desired item, and they take the item, insert the front sleeve liner notes that accompany the little card if it's a cd, slap on the matching sticker w/ the id of the item onto the card, and give you the card back when you check out & pay. well, stupid me, i wasn't paying attention, and as it turns out, pornography was code # 44-0252, and this album i ended up going home w/ was #45-0252. an honest mistake, i suppose, but c'mon--i mean, the girl put the pornaography liner notes into the cd case of this anti-wto compilation...at some point, there should have been a light bulb going on in her head that there was something wrong with this picture. alas, no such display of assertive intelligence here...i don't wanna jump to any conclusions...i'm sure she is a bright individual...i just find it hard to believe that you can mix up the cure's pornography w/ a no-name comp cd and call yourself a qualified record store clerk...ok, maybe i'm just sore because i wanna hear the cd...and i'm pissed i have to go back to reckless to rectify the matter, and that's just one more thing on my list of a zillion things that i have to do before leaving for seattle, which includes securing my place in my current job by finishing up that huge project that is in dire need of my attention right now so that i have something to pay the bills when i come back home. next time, i will make sure i LOOK at what the clerk brings back to me so i know it's actually what i'm paying for.
speaking of used cds, i found out there's a used record store across the street from piper's alley on north ave. i went to see my friend nicole sillin's sketches produced at the 2nd city training center on saturday, and i had some time to kill, and so i stepped outside pipers alley, looked across the street and lo and behold there was a record store with the word SALE in bold on the window. there are some people in this world who live by the principle 'if you pass a fish & chips shop, you must go in and have some fish & chips' and there are those people in this world who live by the principle 'if you see a used record store with the word SALE in bold in the window, you must go in.' i fall into the latter category of humankind. it was a great deal--$1 off every used cd, and most of the used cds were $6.99, which is a great price to start with. granted, i didn't find too many used cds that i wanted to actually take home with me, but i did find a cd by sebadoh called harmacy. sebadoh is just one of those bands that i've been hearing for a long time that i need to listen to, and i just never got around to it. until today. holy schmole, some of those songs on that album made me want to break down and cry...songs like willing to wait...too pure...and some just totally rocked like crystal gypsy...i can't wait to get my hands on some other albums. i also got this cd of music from india for $3 that's frickin' beautiful...well, at least the first song is. i'm listening to it as i type and i've only heard the first song. it's kinda weird. like mixing ravi shankar with enya or something. eeyew...ok. whatever.
i saw the appleseed cast tonight @ the fireside bowl. local boys chin-up chin-up opened for them. these guys i saw open up for watchers when watchers opened for duvall back in august. that was at the empty bottle, and i don't know if i just wasn't paying attention back then or what, but they sounded so much tighter tonight than they did that night. i was really impressed. and if i'd had more than $5 in cash w/ me, i would've bought their cd. the dude offered it to me for $5, but i told him i needed an appleseedcast sticker and button. i'll catch them again soon, i'm sure. actually, i see their bass player at a lot of shows. he was at the watchers show in sept. @ the empty bottle. he seems to really like watchers. which he totally should because watchers are frickin' awesome.
tonight i saw jesus at the fireside bowl. he was wearing a wool v-neck pullover and khaki pants and sneakers. if you think i'm nuts, you should go hang out @ the fireside sometime, and i'll bet you you'll see jesus too if you're looking for the right jesus....apparently the dude's a fan of the appleseed cast. i stood next to him for the entirety of the show. he seemed rather quiet and introspective tonight. he's not as tall in person as i'd imagined...
ok. the drummer for the appleseed cast is frickin' NUTS!!! this was only the 2nd time that i feared a musician in a band i was watching would collapse from heart failure. i basically stared at him for the whole show. partially cuz where i was standing, i couldn't really see any of the other musicians except the drums (which is rare--the drums are usually what i CAN'T see...), but also cuz i was having a good time watching the dude go nuts on his instrument. and he's a mouthmover too. which is always interesting to watch.yeah, the appleseed cast were pretty awesome. i had never heard their music before tonight. i went cuz i know if i didn't and ryan found out, i'd be ridiculed. so i don't like being ridiculed by ryan...sue me...i did buy an appleseed cast button for ryan which i'll give him tuesday night when i make it in to seattle...hope that makes him happy cuz he's rather hard to please...picky about beer...food...music...the speed at which i drive on the kennedy...picky, picky, picky...anyways, the appleseed cast...they weren't as quiet as i'd imagined they would be, but they were good nonetheless. i love bands that totally rock out, and these guys definitely did. they were LOUD. in a good way. i mean, that drummer...he really works hard for his food...but when they do play the gentler, more melodic stuff, it's totally gorgeous.
i also ran into chicago's resident indie rock bootleggin' king a.k.a. butta. i first saw him at denison's booth @ c-stone, and i saw him taping pedro & roadside monument @ the abbey back in july, and i talked to him for the first time @ deni's show @ the double door a couple months ago. turns out he went to see sigur ros AND came to see appleseed cast. my friend pete blew me off for tonight's show to see sigur ros, so i'm gonna have to tell pete that he could've done BOTH. oh well. the AC will be back in chicago soon i'm sure. i wanted to see SR too, but i didn't wanna pay no $20, which i suppose isn't that expensive, but i already paid $13 for future bible heroes on wednesday and $10 for the gloria record on thursday and $10 for superdrag on saturday and now $8 for appleseed cast sunday. that stuff adds up, ya know? and i have cds to buy...anyways, i didn't take any pictures tonight...something about the fireside bowl...i can't take photos there...i don't know why...i think it's cuz i normally am more interested in the audience than in the bands themselves...the fireside is an all ages club, so you see all ages there, but mostly the younger ones...and i just get a kick out of seeing some of these kids...they're so earnest...so lovely...i saw a girl taking photos today who was hesitant and polite and unable to get a good angle, and i so totally sympathized w/ her that i directed her to cut in front of me and jesus so she could get better shots of the band. i remember when i was just starting out and i was too scared to push my way to the front...i'm not rude about it...i usually move stealthily close to the ground, and people don't even notice that a body has moved past them. you can ALWAYS fit one more body in front of the stage, and that would be ME. so since i didn't take any photos tonight, i'm gonna post my photos from superdrag on sat. night.
so i went to see my friend nicole's show @ 2nd city on saturday night, which was totally awesome, and her sketches were totally bitchin, and i had photo clearance for the superdrag show right after that @ 9pm @ the metro, and i didn't make it out there until 11pm, and i drive around for frickin' 30 minutes and i finally give up and pay for parking (i HATE paying for parking...) and i make it just as the last opening band has left the stage, which is perfect cuz i only wanted to see superdrag. now for some reason, the last couple concerts i've gone to at the metro, there was no photo pit. that's the area in front of the stage that's gated off where the folks w/ the photo clearance hang out. and take photos. i don't know if this is a permanent change to the metro's stage/pit/GA areas, but it puts me in a pickle when i'm that late to a show and haven't gotten position. luckily, the security guard manning the right side of the stage was nice and let me sit on the big staircase that goes up to the stage that he was sitting on. i sat there for the whole show. it was so crowded, it really didn't make any sense for me to try getting other angles.
anyways, superdrag rocked the house. they play some lovely tunes there, those boys do. john davis has got to be the sweetest frontman i've ever seen except for maybe brian mcsweeney of matthew. he kinda reminds me of derek becker, serene's booking agent, but not quite as goodlooking. mic harris the guitar player on the other hand is a bad ass mofo, and totally fun to see playing live. he was like RIGHT THERE in front of my face, pretty much. i was almost at stagelevel most of the time, and i was pretty close to where mic was standing the whole time. it was loud. yeah, baby...it was AWESOME...
ok. i know i totally missed talking about wed. nite's show w/ the future bible heroes which includes my current music hero stephin merritt of the magnetic fields (and claudia gonson also of the MF). well, i'm too lazy to post photos, but suffice it to say that neither stephin nor claudia disappointed that night. i could just listen to either of their voices and weep happily for hours. claudia is also actually a lot of fun on stage. the other third of FBH, chris ewen, is a rather gentlish trollish (not in a bad way--i'm talking about them troll dolls) fellow who plays some lovely keys. and stephin...ahhhh....yes...that voice...that depressingly beautiful baritone...i watched a lovely asian girl in the front row openly shed tears as she soaked in the beauty of the songs that stephin wrote and performed...i mean, this girl was REALLY REALLY crying...i was kinda touched by that...i try not to cry at shows because it's too much of a hassle. although i do remember crying recently at a show...i just don't remember which one...but it was barely noticeable, and more like moist eyes and a huge frog in the throat, not openly shedding tears, ya know. that's hardcore emo. oh, you know, i think it was at the damien jurado show that i cried. when he did the song medication off of ghost of david...that song always gets to me...it's so beautiful melodically and so sad lyrically...great combo, eh...
well, i didn't wake up for church sunday, but i told pete & amy i won't be coming for awhile anyways. megan woke me up around noon, and we talked for awhile, and then i got my ass outta bed, showered, and drove up to see her in the burbs. i took her to flatlanders, which is where ryan, jesse, and jesse's friends from that band in aurora (something w/ the word space or cosmos or something in it?) and i ate dinner w/ greg glover, the lost dogs & tim white. that was an interesting night. anyways, meg & i ate & talked for like a couple hours. we hadn't seen each other since that weekend when ryan & jesse were out here, which was like 6 weeks ago. that's the longest we've gone without hanging out since we've met. after lunch, we went to maggie moo's for ice cream which was totally yummy. megan goes back to school tomorrow, but we get to hang out in seattle when she meets up w/ me in the pacific nw on thursday night!!! i can't wait! AGH!!!! i can't believe i'm going to seattle in like less than 48 hours...i'm so not prepared...i don't know if i mathematically have enough time in the day to do what i gotta do...well, i guess i'm just going to have to uphold my tradition of not sleeping before flying...
alright...i'm ending this one now...
p.s. the misc. photos in this post are from my new york trip.