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shows i've seen
- Rocket from the Tombs and Thee Snuff Project, Black
Cat, December 7, 2003
- Thee Snuff Project (the opener) was only so so. I mean, they were
loud, but somehow they still managed to make Dave fall asleep and me read
my Green Bag. Rocket from the Tombs was much better, with David Thomas
amazingly effective despite his corpulence. Also, I liked the guy who
looked like Mr. Rogers.
- Broadcast, Manitoba, Black Cat, November 18, 2003
- Man do I like Manitoba. They have some great experimental stuff going
on, and it was super fun watching them sample stuff and loop it into
songs. It surprised me that their set sounded so much like their album.
Also, the animal masks were funny and scary all at once.
- Rude Staircase, Velvet Lounge, November 14, 2003
- A bizarro band that was almost like a bunch of kids from marching band
got together and decided to try to be all hipster and experimental. They
really grew on me, I have to say. I want to be in a dissonant band too1
- DC Different Drummer's Symphonic Band Fall Concert, St.
Margaret's Episcopal Church, November 8, 2003
- We saw this because D's friend Andrew was in the concert. It was
nice, even though classical music is really not what I'm into. But I
liked the singalong to My Fair Lady songs! And it was funny to discover
that that familiar march is the Washington Post March. Can you believe
it? The Washington Post has a march!
- Mates of State, Death Cab for Cutie, Black Cat, October 20,
2003
- It's like my dream concert or something. Though the line was too long
outside and we missed some of Mates of State. But oh! So pretty and
sweet! And Death Cab was lovely too. It was a long set, and they played
all the songs I like. And oh, Ben made me so sweetlysad when he told his
story about going past the White House and how he kept thinking to
himself, "This is Bill Clinton's house. Bill should be there, but no, we
have this other guy instead." Also, someone screamed "It's Raining Men"
instead of "Freebird" as suggested by Mike Doughty. Also, Ben has an
enormous head.
- Beulah, Black Cat, October 13, 2003
- Wow. This felt like a farewell concert. Which it probably is.
They played and played and played and took so many requests and the room
felt all huggy and Je was dancing up and down from the sheer ecstacy of it
all. And the guitars were shiny and the horn was gleaming and the voices
surrounded me with joy and harmony. And I loved them and I was happy to
see them and I was happy to see them with D.
- Built to Spill, 9:30 Club, October 3, 2003
- Oh it was great hearing them play and besides, it was D's birthday
concert and besides, I ran into CB and hey. Greaty great great.
- Mogwai, Part Chimp, 9:30 Club, September 9, 2003
- Mogwai was so lovely! I, of course, like the hushed parts the most.
David liked both the hushes and the crashes. (I did not like Part Chimp,
which was too rocking for me, though David did.)
- Wilco, Bumbershoot, September 1, 2003
- Great! Joyful! Fun! Especially considering it was at a stadium.
David thought they sounded off when they started, though he also thought
they got better as the set went on.
- Donovan, Bumbershoot, August 31, 2003
- He kind of put us to sleep, or at least David and Ollie. His stories
were amusing, though, if also somewhat annoying in that "I've seen it all"
way.
- Modest Mouse, Bumbershoot, August 29, 2003
- Not as good as they were in Philly. But it was stadium concert, so
they had an excuse. I bet Isaac Brock was drunk, though.
- The Decemberists, Bumbershoot, August 29, 2003
- What hilarious rhymes! So unexpected and complicated and
appropriate and funny. (I should note David thought it was too much.) I
want to listen to all their albums now.
- The Tyde, Velvet Lounge, July 28, 2003
- Sunshiny pop! With not-so-deep/great lyrics, but I couldn't tell that
from the concert. One of the guys from the band had a cute stuffed whale
stuck to his guitar. Also, the keyboardist (who Lily knew from high
school) stuck out from the rest of the band, with her straggly hair
hanging down in front of her face like the girl from Ringu. I
thought she was kinda creepy. Phong thought she was cool.
- Modest Mouse, !!!, The Electric Factory, July 18, 2003
- I adore Modest Mouse. There's so much contained in Isaac
Brock's voice---joy, exhaustion, anger, self-loathing, frustration---and
it all comes out at once. And the concert was set up perfectly---not too
many new songs in a row, and a good mix of popular and less-heard older
songs. Yay!
- But god did !!! suck. David and I hated them, hated the lead singer,
hated their attitude, hated their lyrics (which seemed to consist of
nothing but "shit" and "fuck," mouthed arrogantly) ugh. We found it so
unbearable that we were wishing we had cigarettes--anything to kill time
until !!! left the stage. Ugh!
- The New Pornographers, The Organs, The Lonesome Organist, Black
Cat, June 13, 2003.
- The show was really good, and Neko Case has a great voice. And some of
the harmonies and rhythms were just fab fab fab. I even liked one of the
opening bands, The Organ, though David didn't seem as impressed. We all
were annoyed with The Lonesome Organist, though, who just seemed smug and
droned on and on and on. Kevin and Michele played rock, paper, scissors.
The Lonesome Organist should've gone on first, then The Organ, then The
New Pornographers. Is what we thought.
- Melt Banana, Black Cat, June 9, 2003
- Never in my life have I been more grateful for earplugs.
- Don't get me wrong. Melt Banana was fun. I enjoyed the show. But yow,
I'm getting old and I can't handle being up near the stage anymore while
the high-pitched sound waves shear through my ears. Though I did take out
the earplugs every now and then to get the full experience.
- And I have to say, the lead singer is hott. Hott hott hott. I would be
more in lust if I weren't already head over heels about D, but yeah.
Skinny, crazy-eyed, messy-haired Asian chicks, mmm. Who can wail their
little not-really-so-loud voices out. Or at least this lead singer was
like that. Except without a big nose. But whatever! Don't get mad at me!
Everyone in the room was thinking the same thing!
- And I'm sure everyone in the room thought these thoughts too: (1)
surgical masks do make people look kinda scary, (2) that bassist girl
looks all too innocent and young to be really that innocent and young, (3)
how terribly cute the lead singer's story was, about all the accidents
that happened to their van while on tour, like with the "bambi" and the
"drug person on crack", and (4) how terribly cute the way she'd get done
screaming her songs and then say very quickly "Thankyou!"
- Also during the concert, I thought "Hey! So this is where all the
other tattooed Asian girls and boys are!"
- Bishop Allen, The Positions, the Pinstriped Rebel (Les), Blue
Nile, June 28, 2003
- Bishop Allen was good poppy fun, the Positions were really loud but
had great horns, and of course I like Les's spinning.
- American Analog Set, Calla, Black Cat, June 20, 2003
- Calla started out great, but then all their songs sounded the same.
American Analog Set played the kind of peaceful mellow folksy rock that I
like, but it was too low energy for D, who was coming down with my cold.
So we left early, missing "The Postman."
- Bardo Pond, Fursaxa, Black Cat, June 16, 2003
- Postrock, David's call. Fursaxa, the opener, reminded me of stuff we
chorus geeks played around with in college, only in real time, not with
loopers. Bardo Pond was enjoyable, but a little too dreamy for me, in the
sense that, well, I got sleepy. But in a good way, if that makes sense.
- Dressy Bessy, The Oranges Band, Black Cat, June 2, 2003
- The Dressy Bessy concert was great happy fun. The kids in front of us
(especially this one kid) bopped around a lot, and Tammy was her usual
perky self. Except that I don't think she was warmed up at the
beginning---i.e., she wasn't hitting the high notes. But as the set went
along, she got smoother and more into the notes. The opening band was The
Oranges Band, and they were more rockin'. Dave and I decided that the
shortest guy was the guy who owned the garage. (This is Kevin's game. In
this game, you try to guess which member of the band is only a band member
because he or she owns the garage/practice space. It is a fun game.)
- Sea and Cake, Califone, Brokeback, 9:30 Club, April 25,
2003
- Brokeback: super super low energy. Not sure I could handle it
anywhere but lying in my bed, just about to fall asleep. Or maybe while
taking a bath. It could work for bath music. Califone reminded me of Red
House Painters. Sea and Cake, great. I never realized that that was a
drummer, rather than a drum machine. Fast fast beats, wow. Jacking the
Ball was stuck in my head for hours.
- Delgados, Aerogramme, Essex Green, Black Cat, April 23, 2003
- Fun! Except Aerogramme, who rocked too hard for me (though David
liked them, and though I have to admit that I did like the high pitch
screaming and was amused by the rants against Phil Collins). Essex Green
was exactly the sort of twee that I like, oh mmm, like music with sweaters
and knee-high boots. The Delgados were great too; I especially liked the
song "American Trilogy." But the lead female singer looked a bit worried
the whole time, which threw me off, so I had to stare at the lead male
singer and admire his messy bleached-blonde hair. He, at least, was
smiling. They both drank tons of wine, though, enough that I marvelled at
them. The bassist looked like he wanted to rock out, but couldn't.
- The Flaming Lips, 9:30 Club, April 20, 2003
- This concert was the bestest ever, in a long long time. Went with
David and Jerod and Phong et al. Saw Les and Mikewong and Ching (who got
birthday-sung to!) Wayne was his master-showman self, and the big giant
balloons were just perfect, including the two ridiculously huge ones, and
even the people in the animal suits didn't annoy me like they
could've---they seemed so happy and swell.
- And I'd forgotten how cute and sweet the background video for "Waitin'
for a Superman" was. Oh oh. I want to make background videos for
concerts.
- Postal Service, Cex, Black Cat, April 15, 2003
- To start with, Cex was pretty decent, but not nearly so fun as when he
opened up for Death Cab and Dismemberment Plan and had all this crazy
free-style goin'. He was just so-so with the audience interaction this
time, though he did get the audience going with the bike song. But the
crowd was happy because he's a hometown boy.
- Postal Service was great, though. All blues and greens and pastels
like I like it, and with Ben Gibbard and Jenny Lewis's voices blending
just fine. I wanted to hug the world, that's what I wanted. Oh yes, and
the Rilo Kiley album is now our first joint album.
- Television, 9:30 Club, March 24, 2003
- David's band pick. I didn't really know them. They rocked a little
too hard for me, though there were two songs (one which happened to be
David's favorite song, the other of which happened to be one of those they
played just before the ensemble) I liked because of their lush poppiness.
- Pinback and the Threnody Ensemble, Black Cat, March 22, 2003
- We arrived at the club at the time that we thought Pinback would go
on. But everyone was running late, and instead, we caught the Threnody
Ensemble (making Dave worry that he could not last the entire
evening).
- It was an inauspicious start. The Threnody Ensemble started off
dissonant, and, worse, arrhythmatic. Clashy clangy jangly chamber music.
I said, "Hmm. Not so crazy about this song." Dave said, "This is . . . a
song?"
- But it got better, and I realized that ensemble wasn't just a
throwaway word, but that they were really an ensemble. And the cellists
were lovely and the music merged into beautiful contemporary classical
music (with the exception of one I-don't-know-what-you-call-it excerpt
with this guy coming out beating sticks and wearing a Star Trek outfit).
I ended up risking dissonance and buying a CD, and it was worth
it.
- Pinback was amazing. The singers sing together so well! And
they have this wacko sampley instrument thing that I wanted them
to play with more and more.
- The other concert of the evening was Cat Power. Jared went to see
them instead. And all of us missed Dr. Caligari, playing at Visions.
Damn.
- The Album Leaf, Sigur Ros, 9:30 Club, March 18, 2003
- The
concert was incredible. Joyous. Uplifting. Angelic. Wow. And it was made
even better by being there with David. Plus it was full of some odd
convergences. While I listened to Album Leaf open, this happened:
-
Guy next to me, talking to his friend: Hunh. Is this Sigur Ros?
This isn't Sigur Ros. But they sound kinda like them. Who are they?
-
Me, eavesdropping: It's Album Leaf.
-
Gntm: Well, they're great, and . . . hey . . . I . . . know . . .
you.
-
It turns out we worked as editors of the same journal together, once upon
a time. I didn't recognize him with his new hipster glasses.
-
Finally, in the best convergence of them all, at the end of the show I
noticed that the couple in front of us looked pretty familiar. Then I
realized who they were. They were two members of The Beans, the opening
opening band for the concert (Apples in Stereo) where D and I met!!! And
the main reason why I was standing near where D was standing was that I
wanted to go and look at The Beans' merchandise, because I was sure it
would be cute.
- Anyway, I wanted to thank those two, but I only managed to say hey, aren't
you The Beans? Cool! before the end-of-concert crowd dragged them away.
- Saturday Looks Good to Me, Mates of State, Ranier Maria, Black
Cat, March 13, 2003
- My best birthday ever! Really gosh really. Saturday was a fun band,
as was Ranier Maria the headliner, but what really got to me was Mates of
State who sang so perfectly and harmonically and rhythmically and sweet
that I was entranced. And being there with everyone made it extra-great.
- Godspeed You! Black Emperor, 9:30 Club, March 4, 2003
- Wow, the music transcended everything. Even better, though, was this:
see, I used to always listen to Godspeed You! as walking music, because it
felt like they really understood what it's like to walk in city streets at
night. After watching the visuals behind the band, I felt convinced that
yes, this was completely intentional.
- Mike Doughty, Black Cat, February 27, 2003
- I really enjoy Doughty, and I really enjoy his ironic sense of humor.
This night was a night full of It's Raining Men and Fred Durst talking
about the war. Had a great time.
- Mission of Burma and Oxes, 9:30 Club, February 21, 2003
- Okay, I usually listen to more sweet stuff, but hey, I had great
company. And it was fun loud fun. The opening band we caught, Oxes, was
pretty enjoyable too, especially the drummer, who had these awesome facial
expressions. Plus they played in the audience at first. Mission of Burma
was good too, though I wish I'd been more familiar with their set. We
stayed till That's When I Reach for my Revolver.
- Simian and Ladytron, 9:30 Club, February 18, 2003
- Simian was energetic and fun, though I suspect I'd hate the lead
singer in real life. Ladytron was like a throwback to the 80s, but in a
good way. And the concert was great for reasons entirely unrelated to the
concert.
- Apples in Stereo, Oranger, The Beans, Black Cat, February 5,
2003
- Three happyrock bands! God, how fabulous! And The Beans as
an opening opening band was surprisingly great! Same with Oranger! The
one bad thing---The Apples seemed to end their set too soon. Which was
sad.
- I am mixed, too, as to whether I like going alone to concerts or
with people. Sometimes going with people involves too much interaction,
and I like just focusing on the music.
- Bonnie Prince Billy, Black Cat, January 28, 2003
- Fun alt-country. Kevin suggested going. Glad he did.
readings
- Andrei Codrescu vs. Sheri-D Wilson, Bumbershoot, August 30,
2003
- What? Me enjoy a poetry match? Yes! Codrescu was understated, in
that way that I like. And while Sheri-D was too sing-songy for me (and
for David and for my brother), I have to admit, she had some hilarious
poems. So many puns in the poem about the dead!
plays
- The Green Stockings, The Writer's Center, May 18
- Ooh! I'd read Kobo Abe's books, but had never seen any of his plays.
The Green Stockings---about a panty fetishist who undergoes surgery
so that he can digest grass---was a lot funnier than I'd expected. And a
bit Kafka-esque (like so many of Abe's books), in its existential
examination of themes of transformation.
- Salome, Oscar Wilde, Stanislavsky Theater, March 29, 2003
- They didn't camp it up as much as they could've. Which is a good
thing. Anyway, liked it, though I'm not really a play person so who knows
what value my comments have. And the costumes were great. Also, D later
flirted (unknowingly) with the guy who played the main guard. I thought
that was funny.
supreme court cases
- Alaska v. EPA, October 8
- No substantive comments, 'cuz. But it was fun to watch, and it was
fun to see Andy, and that's enough said.
- Lawrence v. Texas, March 26
- So I only listened to this. But it rocked, mostly because the
attorney for Texas was so hilariously bad. Hope we win.