Monday, October 10, 2005

Girl Free Birthday!

In the lobby at work yesterday, a birthday party was gathering that was waiting for the room they booked. Eventually, there was a small mob of about 10 boys, all around 6 or 7 years of age. Several of the boys were pretty unruly – lots of chasing, fighting, and wrestling. At one point, they all pressed together and started chanting “Girl Free Birthday! Girl Free Birthday! Girl Free Birthday!” This chant went on for about 2 or 3 minutes. Since that time yesterday, several of us will start chanting that when it gets slow. I guess you had to be there…

I did make it out to a couple of shows last week. Last Monday I caught the New Pornographers at the beautiful Gothic Theater (one of my fave venues in town, located in the heart of old Engleweed). This was the second time I’d seen them, and I loved them the first time, so my expectations were high. This show was even better than last time, and it was good to see a big turnout for a change. If you aren’t familiar with the band, they’re a Canadian collective who’ve put out some incredible pop music. Seeing the band live is a joy – they’re just about the geekiest looking bunch you’ve ever seen, and they appear to having a great time on stage. Their leader is Carl Newman (ex-Zumpano, who put out the excellent The Slow Wonder billed as A.C. Newman last year), the other members are from various indie bands that I know next to nothing about, and their secret weapon is amazing vocalist (and lone non-Canuck) Neko Case. (Neko had on a really weird dress – it looked like the kind of dress of dress you’d give a little girl and tell her “wear this, you’ll look like a princess.” It was long and chiffon looking, and it had butterflies on it – with her pale skin, she looked a bit ghostlike! But in a good way…) The band blasted through a terrific set of their up-tempo tunes (Mass Romantic, The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism, Letter From an Occupant, Sing Me Spanish Techno, oh-so-many more) that had the crowd singing along and applause doubling after each number. Good singin’, good playin’ (if I may quote Grand Funk Railroad), and fun opening sets from Destroyer (whose leader is a part time Pornographer on record, and joined them onstage for a few numbers) and Immaculate Machine (their keyboardist is Newman’s niece, and also a Pornographer). An incredibly good show, nights out don’t get much better.

On Wednesday I went to see Les Hell on Heels, an all girl band from Arizona. I had never heard them before, but they record for the Bomp! label so I thought I’d give them a try. I’m glad I did – while nothing all that original, their snotty garage tunes were pretty fun. Kind of a weird show– for whatever reason, they were the only band playing that night. After they played, some sort of snowboarding movie was being shown. When I left the showroom and walked through the outside bar, I found it full of dorks in sideways baseball caps waiting for the band to be done. They were probably wondering why the bar hadn’t booked a more “extreme” band, duuuuuuuuude…

After a slow weekend (we just had the entry/dining/living room floors refinished, and the house is in utter chaos and kept me from getting out), I’m hoping to make it out a few times this week. At some point, I’m hoping to get a chant of “Girl Free Birthday!” started. Now, that would be extreme!

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