ok. lots of catchup to do.
so saturday night connolly & i went to the empty bottle to see duvall (with josh caterer formerly of the smoking popes). the band that opened up for them was called the watchers. i don't even know how to begin to describe them. first off, the guys were dressed in white dress shirts and dress pants and dress shoes.
then they come on stage banging on cowbells. their music/execution was like the talking heads meets guided by voices (specifically the antics of bob pollard) meets james brown. it was funk infused crazy and totally FUN!!! this is the type of band that makes your body start moving. they're doing a dance party @ the empty bottle on monday 9/23 so go check them out and find out for yourself if you can keep your body still when these guys are doin' their thing.
ok. so duvall--josh caterer the frontman used to be w/ the smoking popes and now his new outfit is duvall. they've been around for maybe a year now, and i'd been hearing about them from various people that i had to check 'em out, and so i finally did, and i'm totally glad i did. josh has the perfect pop voice, and the band plays some ferocious music. i think it's his brother eli on guitar and then mike formerly of alkaline trio on drums and john sewell on bass. josh made the sad announcement that mike & john were playing their last duvall show that night, so he and eli would have to regroup and figure out what to do w/ the band. josh writes totally catchy songs that are really singable (and y'all know i like the singable stuff!) but they're not just a pop band--they rock & roll, baby! i love the rock & roll...
i got both the cds they had for duvall, the ep and the split cd they did w/ seville. josh seems so sweet. he even let a friend of his sing a song w/ the band for his girlfriend and then propose to her. i'm not one for public proposals personally, but it was still very nice of josh to let his friend do that. and then he sang this song for both of them like a song of blessing over their marriage. didn't take much to make a fan out of me. i just hope to catch them at a venue w/ better lighting next time.
so sunday HPV met by the beach off of 55th. i was totally tricked into coming to church almost on time cuz i thought they met at 10 but i guess when we meet by the lake it's at 10:30. so i showed up at 11 and i was only half an hour late as opposed to my usual hour. after the service, we had a bbq. yeah, see the guys trying to get that fire lit? that's my housegroup leader peter w/ the knarly tattoo. huh. i didn't know he even had that one.
and that's sam w/ the blonde hair. he's the blonde korean i mentioned previously. and that's ken in the black t. that's not just any old black t. it's a black poor old lu t. so yeah, the bbq was nice. they had veggie burgers (cuz peter & amy are vegetarians too, thank goodness), so i actually got to eat. that's alway a bonus.
it was mikey's birthday sunday, so i called him in boston on my way home from HPV. he was on his way to see the big dig. it sounded like he was having a lot of fun with his friends, so that's good. peter & amy came over to my apartment in the afternoon and we hung out a bit looking through cds and talking about bands and stuff then we went over to the lakeview street festival to see the okgo show. i love outdoor music fests! 
okgo is another one of those bands i've been told to go check out (interestingly enough by the same dude--matt dobschuetz--who told me to go check out duvall). as soon as the band got up there on the stage & started playing, i knew they were going to be fun to photograph. esp. the lead singer. he's gonna be a rock star. yup. ok, so their music is not like serious or anything. i mean, the first song they sang was called 'you're so damn hot.' but man these guys were fun fun fun!!! they're on the same label as the vines, whom i've heard @ the reckless cd listening station and they're awesome. i gave up the vines/okgo concert last july (i had a ticket & everythin) to follow VoL to oshkosh. which i don't regret one bit, even now when i know how fun both acts were that i missed.
i mean, just look at all these pictures. it's really a credit to the band, not the photographer. these were so damn easy to take cuz the music was so much fun. if i don't enjoy the show, i have no motivation to take pictures. and then there's the other end of the spectrum. if i'm totally mesmerized by a band, i'll stop taking pictures after a while and just enjoy the show. 
but that hardly ever happens. i think i did that w/ mark eitzel, but probably cuz i got a dirty look from him cuz he mistakenly thought i'd used a flash on him. (if i ever find the guy who stood behind me and took that flash photo of mark and then disappeared when mark turned his head...grrrr...) well, anyways, yeah. it was a fun show, and i was glad i went w/ peter & amy. the funny thing about peter is that he looks like a rock star. but he can't play or sing, and neither can i. maybe that's why i've gotten along w them so well, cuz i can't play or sing either. one thing's for sure though. we love the music, man. we're totally down w/ the music.
so after the concert, we went back to my apartment and just chilled, listening to music, reading cmj, talking about God and what not. peter went through my cds and amy went for my books. i got to borrow a bunch of cds from peter last week, so i was happy to have him take some of mine. some of the bands peter introduced me to that i like are grandaddy, idaho and modest mouse. oh, and i got to play some more zapruder point for them. i like exposing people to zp. zp deserves such a wider audience. like millions more. anyways, it was fun hanging out w/ peter & amy. they're cool. and they're so cute together, but not in a way that make me nauseous, ya know? i'm learning that there is a bigger ratio of cool people to normal people at HPV than i'm used to in a church setting. for example, i met ken bonner on sunday (well, i'd met him at his apt. back in july when caleb was staying there, but it wasn't that formal of a meeting), and he's got this band called downcast. he was wearing a poor old lu (jesse sprinkle's band) t-shirt, so i went up to talk to him. and sam's cool too. sam's the blonde korean. ok. enough about coolness. it's all about the rawk anyway. whatever. i'm just taking up space here.
stuff i've been listening to--
via satellite--ian moore
s/t--serene
the limitations of the source tape--zapruder point
concrete dunes--grandaddy
everywhere & his nasty parlor--modest mouse
sharpen your teeth--ugly casanova
oh inverted world--the shins
start here--the gloria record
very emergency--the promise ring
hootenany--the replacements
stink--the replacements
cmj july mix
VoL mix
static prevails--jimmy eat world
duvall ep
duvall/seville split cd
okgo little tiny ep
Friday, August 30, 2002 at 3:08PM 
