October 29, 2010 through November 7, 2010: An Age of Awesome

Hi.

How are you?

I'm alright.

Yeah, I know. It's been a hot minute since I've last blogged.

Please forgive me?

The sooner you can forgive me, the sooner we can move on and never let this happen again...

(Until it happens again, of course.)

We good?

Thanks! :-)

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If someone were to kidnap me, tie me up in a chair and torture me until I gave one word to describe the period of time, just a bit longer than a week, between October 29, 2010 and November 7, 2010, the word I would choose would be...

Transcendent.

I can only hope that while writing this entry, I can find words to describe exactly how I felt. It's not going to be easy.


October 29, 2010. Friday. This was the HUMANWINE show at MassArt. There was supposed to be an iron pour, but this had to be postponed due to additional permits needed. HUMANWINE played in the Pozen Center. It was FREE! It was Rad. It was tight. Nate had all kinds of fake cobwebs (or maybe they were real...dun dun dun) on his drum kit. They looked awesome in the different lighting...look at my facebook for photos. I also met this girl named Dani, who seemed really nice. She introduced herself to Heather and I because she made a tiny hat that she wanted to give to Holly. I was really excited for this show because it was the first time in awhile that I was able to see Holly and M@. Brain Viglione also came for awhile, and it was awesome to see him, too! The last time I saw him was the show in Brooklyn last summer when he played with Martin Bisi. The same show that HUMANWINE played at, as well as Marissa Nadler. I had a great time, and met some cool people.

Many of the people that approached Heather and I asked if we were friends with HUMANWINE. When we said yes, they were like "OMG That is so cool!" or things similar to that. It struck me as odd, because HUMANWINE is not THAT well known. (By not THAT well known, I mean, not a "famous" band signed to a "major" record label. They are that way on purpose :)) HUMANWINE is made of people. And if you go up to those people and start talking to them, you too can become friendly with them. They won't bite! They are some of the nicest people I've ever met. That's a promise.

October 31, 2010. Sunday. Halloween. If you know me personally, I'm not a HUGE holiday person. Meaning, I don't really care for all the bells and whistles when it comes to decorating and/or celebrating any major holiday. Halloween is included in this list. If the interest is there, I'll blog about this (my dislide of holidays) in another entry, at another time. Just leave a comment below or something. Halloween, or as some people say, Hallowe'en, was fun. I dressed up as "Dr. Pepper" and heather was a drunk pagent mom barbie type thing. Her costume was brilliant. Eric hung out with us and we ate goodies and watched Rocky Horror. All I have to say is that Cooler ranch doritos do not taste as good dipped in Dr. Pepper as I remember.

Monday November 1, 2010. Social Distortion concert at House of Blues. I originally wasn't going to go to this because I had to work the next day, but I decided like two weeks before to go, so I went. It was at the House of Blues in Boston, and luckily, Heather and I ended right up front!!! The show was sold out and they were checking everyone's pockets and patting people down. Stupidly, I wore pants with five million pockets and I had to empty every single one. FAIL. Despite the fight that broke out in the bar area when heather and I were trying to leave, it was so fun and I'm glad I went to this.

Cue next day, November 2, 2010. Tuesday. By this point, I'm pretty hella tired. I know it seems as if all I do is hang out with friends and go to awesome events. This is not the case. I do, believe it or not, have what one would call a day job. No. Scratch that. Early morning job. Yeah. Basically, for the most part anyway except like one or two days a week where i go in anywhere between 7 and 8 and leave at 3pm, I work 5 AM until 10 or 11 AM or 12 or 1 PM. It changes all the time. If I stay out late the night before one of the 5am shifts, I'm hella tired. It's so worth it though. I know its not good, but if I want to have any kind of social life, it needs to be done. I can't always get time off and if I do, it means less money. And with loans to pay back, more money is better. more hours equals more money. It's a vicious cycle. ANYWAY, back to the story. Tuesday night was the first night of 2 that the Dresden Dolls were playing at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston. This was the second time I went to see the Dresden Dolls. The first time was in the winter of 2008, right before they took a hiatus. There really are no words to describe the way this night made me feel. Transcendent doesn't even begin to cover it. You know that feeling you get when you're really ridiculously happy and you would use the expression, i'm on cloud nine? Well that doesn't cover it either. Basically I was floating on a cloud for a week or two afterwards. I'm not even exaggerating. Just ask heather, she felt the same way. Or, at least very similar. This night was SO Jam packed with awesome people, artists and friends it was almost like the Steampunk fair. (see last post...yes, it's been that long since I've blogged. shame on me.) Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band (ENSMB) was jamming outside the Wilbur before the show. Two years ago, I would have been waiting in the line of people outside the theatre to get in, not giving two shits about the band playing or the people in the band. But instead of joining the line right away, Heather and I went right up and, after stepping inside to the box office to validate our parking so we wouldn't forget, stepped right up to ENSMB and started dancing and hanging with them while they were playing. I saw two girls who went to my college and they said hi to me and asked me why i was there. So I told them oh, see this band here? Yeah? Well some of my friends are playing in it so I came to hang with them and I'm here for the dresden dolls, too. They were like Oh, cool. But they looked at me like I was crazy for not joining the line. We were lucky enough to walk to the Wilbur from the garage with JoJo and Kevin (carrying his Bari sax) and David. Nate and Vess were there too, nate playing the steel bucket, of course, and Vess playing the Tupin, this awesome bulgarian drum from bulgaria. I carried/watched Vess' tupin case (her purse was inside and she didnt want to leave it on the street while the band marched up and down the line of people) while listening/following ENSMB up the line. I got a lot of weird looks from the fangirl types. Although they at least had the sense to ask Heather and I who ENSMB was. We went inside and Heather, David and I got up front on Brian's side, which was really nice, especially because I could still see Amanda well enough to drool while watching her hands fly up and down the keys. They have the most amazing chemistry when they play together. It's really something you have to witness in person. They played the entirety of the self titled album plus some other goodies we were hoping to hear. I will definitely never listen to that album the same way again. It's been playing non stop in my truck ever since that night, which is almost a month ago at this point. I was especially excited to hear the Jeep Song played live. They hardly ever do it because it requires a back up chorus and such and is a pain to play but it was SOOO GOOD. Despite the fact that the eight foot tall girl that blocked my view at Amanda's solo show at the paradise last year was up on stage in her backup chorus selected from the audience. We got to hear things that we never heard live before, which was AWESOME!

Set List:

Sex Changes
Modern Moonlight
Mrs. O
Good Day
Girl Anachronism
Missed Me
Half Jack
672
Coin-Operated Boy
Gravity
Bad Habit
The Perfect Fit
The Jeep Song
Truce
Mein Herr
Pierre
Boston
War Pigs

I am also extremely happy I got to hear them play Boston. This was actually one of my favorite songs of the night. I'll try to explain why this song felt so epic. To me, Amanda can seem like an egocentric robot sometimes. She does weird things like make a record of her playing covers of Radiohead on a ukulele, for example. I know many people don't like her solo stuff. Personally, I like it. I took 12 years of classical piano and 1 year of jazz. I consider myself a hack pianist who can read music but can't play by ear for shit. I really admire Amanda's playing skills and the fact that she can easily just know the chords for something and play it. It's pretty amazing and I've been trying to further develop my musical ear, but it's not working out too great. I'm able to separate the dresden dolls from Amanda Palmer, so I have no problem with her solo things, but I can understand why some people don't notice or can't separate Her from the dolls. I'm partial to piano, while others are more partial to drums. Although I do have a fondness for the drums, which I hope to learn some day. I think it will further enhance my already really good sense of rhythm. Ahh, I'm off on a tangent again. The point of this tangent was to state that sometimes Amanda's ego can get out of control. Again, my personal opinion. I don't hate Amanda. I think she's a genius at lyric writing (see dolls self titled album) and at playing virtually anything on the piano. She's one of my music heros, which i've explained in another blog I wrote probably a year ago or something. You'll have to search for it, as I'm too lazy to find it and link to it because I need to finish this blog and write a thanksgiving blog all before like 8:30 or 9, and it's 7:56. I'm running out of time. AGAIN WITH THE TANGENTS! WTF?! I was so moved by their performance of Boston on this night because during the song Amanda held back tears. And these were real tears, not fake tears to sound "emotional or sad" but real honest-to-goodness tears. Maybe this show, being their first back in the city where they formed had something to do with it. I don't really know what caused her to feel emotional, but it was real and it was raw. And it was human. Not robotic. HUMAN. It was wonderful. I think i'm just going to end this part of the blog right here, because I could talk for hours about the way this night made me feel. If you have any questions about it or want me to further explain myself or statements I have made regarding this section, leave a comment below and I'll either answer you or write a blog entry to answer you, depending upon how long the answer is.

Friday. November 5. THANKGOODNESS I had a whole two days to catch up on all this lack of sleep. And by whole two days to catch up, I mean I didn't go out wednesday or thursday night! Friday I met Heather after I got out of work at Borders in the Providence Place Mall to go meet apolo ohno and get his book. I was luckily able to make it right before he did. He was running late. I bought the book and waited in line. Finally got up to the podium and it happened so fast! I said hi. he smiled. he signed my book while i watched like an idiot. I said Thank you so much. he said yeah, sure. and smiled again. HE IS SO NICE. It was kinda surreal that I got to meet an Olympian. I never thought I'd get to meet one. I still dream of meeting lindsey vonn. Maybe someday. After we were done, Heather and I were browsing around borders looking at things and as Apolo was being escorted out by the cops this group of teenage bimbos, who SHOULD have been in school as it was NOON TIME ON A FRIDAY, were chasing after him screaming things like I TOUCHED HIM! OMG OMG I TOUCHED HIM! These bitches were not accompanied by any adult of any kind whatsoever. The cop escorting Apolo was like NO NO NO NO NO to these dumb girls, but they didnt listen. I cannot believe that these girls behaved the way they did. It was so embarrassing. Heather and I and a couple of middle aged ladies were like OMG! POOR APOLO! THOSE GIRLS ARE OUT OF CONTROL WHERE IS THEIR ADULT SUPERVISION?! We then went to the cheesecake factory and feasted on cheeseburger sliders and fries and of course CHEESECAKE!!!!!

Sunday. November 7. Bury Me Standing and Sxip shirey at the Copal CD Release party. We left early, but I'm so glad we saw Bury Me Standing. They were amazing as always. Sxip shirey was awesome too. It had been so long since I last saw him.

It was a CRAZY whirlwind adventure, but I would not trade this week for anything in the world. Transcendent.

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