so saturday, needless to say, i slept in having promised ryan i would sleep for more than one hour...you know what's funny...if you averaged the hours that ryan and i slept combined, it would probably amount to what the normal person should be sleeping. ryan sleeps like 12 hours a day so you do the math...anyways, i basically did nothing except go through photos from a photoshoot i did the previous night for someone's website and then pete called me from the bourgeois pig. he was w/ sam who was studying for med school tests for next week, and of course pete was bored so he wanted me to come hang out until our pedro the lion show later that evening. i guess i took a little too long getting ready cuz by the time i got to the bp, pete had gone home to shower & eat before the show. that was too bad cuz i really wanted to do a photoshoot of him & sam. oh well. but here's sam at any rate. he may look happy but he's really stressed from all that studying he has to do for med school. i don't know how anybody goes through med school. i'd go insane. i suppose somebody has to be a doctor...
so the pedro the lion show...at the metro...early all ages show...scientific, who used to be out of chicago but jumped on the seattle bandwagon, opened up. i happen to like these guys a lot. it's basically chris and janie wargo. the dudes from seldom filled in as the other musicians. i have their album from the nest of ideas which i really love--some of the songs really remind me of older promise ring stuff. and chris's voice really sounds like davey von bohlen's sometimes. which is a compliment from me. i love davey's voice. the songs they did tonight were all new and sounded nothing like the stuff i was used to, but it was all good. it sounded a lot less poppy and a bit more dark. must be david bazan's influence...that man has a really hard time writing happy songs...i can't remember a happy song since the whole ep, correct me if i'm wrong.
and then seldom got back on stage to do their set. i'd never heard their stuff but it goes right along w/ pedro's newer edgier indie rock. they sure used a lot less people than scientific. half the set was drums, keys and guitar. i like lead singers who play the keys. like when ben in death cab plays the keys and sings, i just melt...uhm, anyways, seldom wasn't the type of music to melt a girl's heart in my opinion but it was still good rock 'n' roll to me, so that's all good. to make things even better, two kids in front of pete and me on the balcony got kicked out so pete & i took their seats at the table that was right at the front of the balcony. not only that, they left a full beer which pete drank cuz he don't care about germs i guess, a pack of camel lights and a skateboard video. pete totally cashed out on that move. and he got to put his feet up for the rest of the show. i love the balcony at the metro cuz you're so close to the stage. it's an awesome view. and i didn't take a lot of pictures that night, but it did make shooting a bit easier w/ something to lean my camera on.
and then there was david a.k.a. pedro the lion. the dude my cousin kris when i took her to the last pedro metro concert said looks like a plumber. yup. that he does. i bet he'd make a great plumber. and i bet he could come up w/ some really REALLY sad disturbing songs fixing other people's toilets. maybe i should send him an email...now this is the 3rd pedro show i've been to this year...i know, i know, some of you think even one's a bit much...but david's music was really important to me earlier this year when my life just went to shit and my dad was dying. his latest stuff is really different from his older stuff, and i know that's turned off a lot of fans who loved his moody slow dark beautifully melodic stripped down guitar stuff w/ droning drums in the background and that depressed voice of his. the last album CONTROL is an allegory of the american dream gone awry with adultery and murder and general mayhem. he rocks out on this one 1000% more than say on IT'S HARD TO FIND A FRIEND. although he does scream on almost there (the whole ep) which pete & i both really like. i mean, my favorite is always gonna be whole just cuz it's like the song about my own heart. he'll never do that at a show again, i'm sure...oh well...it was great seeing him again and hearing him answer the audience's silly questions.
after the show, i dropped by to see some of my high school friends at the artful dodger. turns out my history teacher mr. miller was there waiting for me to show up even though it was past his bed time. i love mr. miller...the gathering was due to my friend steve elliott's stop in chicago for his book tour for his latest novel. you can check out his stuff here. i love his poetry. steve's had one of the more incredible lives from people i've known in real life. he was homeless as a teenager, went through the juvie system here in chicago, got in all kinds of trouble (i can say all this cuz it's in his bio on all his books), managed to graduate from high school, went to college, did all kinds of stuff to make ends meet, got his masters and became a truman capote fellow at stanford university where he now teaches writing. that's a long way from the corner of devon & california where he slept on the rooftops...it still amazes me when i think about his life. steve is one of those people you can pour out your life story to, and i've done that this past year since i found him in sanfran where he now lives.
so anyways, i missed his reading at quimby's which is a bookstore 3 blocks from my apartment, so i met up w/ the crowd at the artful dodger, a neighborhood bar nearby. it was great seeing mr. miller again. i saw him just about a year ago when steve did a reading from his previous novel at the heartland cafe. i really wish i could've been at the reading at quimby's last night...i missed the one at barnes & noble on friday night cuz of a photoshoot gig...well, he's coming back for another reading on 11/21 so maybe i'll get to go to that one. i know deni's playing that night at schuba's but i've seen deni play like 5 times already this year, and i'll see him less than a week before that in seattle.
this being the weekend before halloween, the artful dodger was decked out in orange and black and other decorations. the dance floor was totally empty, and so we took advantage of it. it's been so long since i'd gone dancing. i really need to set something up in my apartment so i can start dancing by myself again. that's like one of my favorite activities--putting on a groovin' cd and just letting go. i'd have to move some furniture around...anyways, one of the jobs steve did back in the days was that of a male stripper. yup. so he had some moves, that boy did...and he's not shy at all about dancing. nope. steve and i both have a thing about not dancing with other people. except with him it's cuz he dances FOR other people. me, i just dance by myself. i'll dance AROUND other people, but i've never gotten the hang of dancing WITH other people, so my friends have learned to just let me be on the dance floor and pray that i don't kill anyone or myself. actually, i was pretty mellow last night cuz i didn't have proper shoes. i normally like dancing barefoot, but i was afraid of getting splinters from what looked like a somewhat rough wood floor.
so yeah, that was fun...it's always good to see steve and old friends from high school. although connolly i talk to every day. funny considering we never said one word to each other in high school. it's all josh's doing. i miss josh...what the hell is josh doing in poughkeepsie, ny?! i should make him drive to chicago for steve's next reading. it's been FOREVER since he's been back here...well, i'll see him on thursday so i guess i can stop missing him real soon.
stuff i've been listening to:
purple rain--prince & the revolution
the whole ep--pedro the lion
sam cooke's SAR records story 1959-1965--sam cooke
s/t--hidari mae
from the nest of ideas--scientific
when we were small--rosie thomas
s/t--flying saucer attack
soulweed--alpha stone
electric tickle--lenola
once i was--tim buckley
soft effects--spoon
live--built to spill
visitor--one line drawing
self-titled long playing debut album--+/-
suburbiac--dolour
keep it like a secret--built to spill
Sunday, October 27, 2002 at 6:21PM 
