The Arcade Fire

Last week, I didn't go to work past Tuesday. I, instead, hung out exclusively with people I like. Partially in a town I like. Partially at a concert I liked. Doing all that liking was scary.

Here are some photos.
I'm saying everything that I type right now in the back of my head as though I were Hank Hill.
That is also scary.
I do a terrible Hank Hill.

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These are pictures of me getting destroyed in the new expansion for Apples to Apples. By Kennedy. And Allison. Also... the comic book store that's on Biltmore (or Broadway? I can't ever remember which side of the street is called which thing unless I'm there) sucked. Except that they had Apples to Apples. You shouldn't work in a comic book store if you aren't well-acquainted with Bone.		And this... dammit... seems like there's always a picture of Bryan's ass whenever we take pictures of anything. And not to compare Brooke to Bryan's ass in any way whatsoever... but the picture of a person taking a picture of the person taking the picture of... Gay. Like Bryan's ass.
	Not that I have anything against gay people... Of course.
We kind of pushed it a little too close with the eating and missed half of the first song by The National. Which was annoying for me. But not as annoying as for other people. As far as I know. I had gotten the new album prior to the show, which made things much much better since they mostly played new stuff. Musically or whatever, they weren't extremely deep or cutting-edge, so knowing the songs helped a ton and made it a lot of fun. The dude can scream. I was surprised. Especially since I described the new record (multiple times) as perfect sitting-at-home-alone-on-the-couch-in-the-dark music. The lighting, however, was really really low... While I have a few photos, I couldn't even get the lighting up enough in Photoshop to make them worthwhile, so I will spare you.
And then the Arcade Fire... The setlist was really really good. Lots of new stuff, some old stuff... and very few slow sad-bastard songs. We were sitting right in the middle in the 2nd balcony row, which was ok for me, but not for those who require glasses. Nor, apparently, was it ok for my camera and my stupid shakey hands. Nothing really came out that great at all, but some of them at least weren't completely terrible...
	I can play a C-Major scale on all of the above instruments... Yes, I'm that amazing.	I like how the screaming guy is pretty much in focus. If everyone on stage would have just stayed still the entire time, all of my pictures would have been as amazing as my C-scales.
	<-- Ahhhh... young love... (Is that really two gay jokes in one post? Maybe I do have something against gay people, and I just don't know it.) hmmm... --> And why does everyone else look happy, and I look like a retard? There. I made fun of retarted people instead of gay people that time.

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And, lastly, here's the first encore song that Arcade Fire did. The girl sitting in front of me left for some reason, so I was able to jump down a row and use the balcony rail to hold the camera still.

Well... kind of still...

Pearl Jam in D.C.

Driving is fun, sometimes. But expensive... damn. I thought I'd have enough time to listen to all of the Pearl Jam studio albums before I actually got to Annapolis. But that didn't work out. Luckily, I got to skip the last few songs on Binaural and only play the ones I liked on Riot Act, thereby leaving the new S/T as the only record I didn't spin on the drive up. Awaiting me after the 390 minute drive were three nights of... well... debauchery... Starting with what is, apparently, the best Mexican in Annapolis (i.e. Margaritas)... downed a pair of those and then downtown for some bar hopping and expensive beers. Unfortunately, I have very few stories to tell. There was one girl who kept eying everyone who walked in the door. I thought Kennedy had her nailed for sure. You know... so to speak. But it didn't work. She's a bitch. If I recall correctly, the cab ride home was uneventful but let to one member of our party redecorating the bathroom. After which, we went to the dock with some sweet sweet Coronas and talked about things that were wrong with the world and then yelled at Scott by way of this new fangled thing called a "telephone"...... While the first full day afforded Tyler and myself the opportunity to saunter around downtown Annapolis, eat at Ruth and Chic's Deli, and search for national secrets at the Naval Academy, night two saw only Kennedy and myself heading back to downtown Annapolis. Dinner and drinks on the water. It was very romantic. Until I posed the question, "Dude, the Pearl Jam show is TOMORROW, right? Not tonight?" At which point stomachs sank and cellphones began ringing. And noone answered. I resorted to calling ticketmaster... "Uhhh... what time is the Pearl Jam show in DC? Cool. That's tomorrow, right? Thanks." So that was nice. And allowed us to go bar hopping again. And for me to play poorly at Cricket (Darts, not the British thing) yet still roar to victory. Twice. dum-dum-dum. And that was, pretty much that. For the first time in, like, 8 months or something, I actually watched a little late night TV and then took to bed. (Has anyone ever heard of some guy called Jon Stewart and the Daily Show? That shit's funny.) ....... Day Three. Tyco arrives with plenty of time to get ready, chill in DC, and get to the show. Yet we somehow manage to dick around Annapolis long enough going to McD's and the bank that we had to go back to the house to refill the beer cups. And get my phone. But this time we remembered to toss the bottles of Captain and Skyy into the trunk. Finished the drinks on the way to the train station, refilled, and got onboard. Got to the MCI Center a couple hours ahead of time and decided to just wait in line... and take turns walking back and forth to McDonald's bathroom to refill the beer cups. Two Yuenglengs were casualties of war as we were forced to leave them behind to get inside quickly enough to snag some show posters. And thank God. These are seriously sweet. (and on ebay for $150?!?!?!?!? wtf.) From the show, all I can really recall is screaming. A lot. And I now have a bunch of bruises from something. Opening with Release was badass and exactly what I was hoping for. Despite the presence of Betterman, Small Town, Man of the Hour, and Come Back, it was a great show. Encore 1 was mildly disappointing (Man of the Hour, Masters of War, Small Town, Come Back, Alive), but the last encore more than made up for it with Comatose, Leash, Fuckin' Up, and Yellow Ledbetter. I haven't heard YL live before. Nice. I guess that's all I'm really saying. Oh. Except that Wasted Reprise -> Life Wasted was frickin' beautiful. oh yeah... also... that I really did not enjoy My Morning Jacket. I don't know if it was the fault of the sound guy, the beer, the band, or my aural preference. I thought they were decent on Austin City Limits, but I don't like "Z," and I didn't enjoy the live sound. Although it looked like they were probably doing cool stuff on stage. It may have also been due to the fact that I REALLY wanted Sonic Youth to be opening instead. This has been an exercise in indulgence and I dearly hope noone wasted their time reading this far down. This isn't even interesting to me. I just felt like typing.
Oct. 29, 2007: Tyler sent me these photos a while ago, but I just scanned them in last weekend. I'm pretty sure they're from the night of the show...