i may be a bird in a cage but at least it's your cage

I'm drinking whiskey in a cheap motel in Tenne-virginia and last night I saw Dr. Dog from ten feet away for about four bucks, if you divide up weekend pass price by cumulative sets seen. Today includes a Drive-By Truckers set and a Felice Brothers set. What are you doing?

I have what I call a bus friend -- a regular rider of my bus who I have also regularly seen out at shows, who I often chat with in the mornings, but who I rarely see outside the bus or dirty concert venues -- who I shall henceforth nickname Trees, based on his real name.

Anyway, this morning Trees and I were talking about the Rosebuds show from the weekend, and stuff we're going to see, and he asked me, what's the best show you've ever missed?

For example: he once walked out of a $5 Arcade Fire show at a tiny basement venue (the Cave, for Triangle-ites and ex-Triangle-ites) during the opener because he was tired. He also saw the Flaming Lips soundchecking at the Cradle, had no idea who they were, and skipped the show; he has since become a big fan. I sincerely regret missing any and all of the early Chicago dive bar Fall Out Boy shows. (He laughed at me when I said that, and I told him that I sincerely and unironically loved Pete Wentz and all P.Weezy stands for, including really ugly boots and loving Patrick Stump, and Trees told me that he could respect my love but he would never understand it.) Wilco played Carleton's spring concert my sophomore year and I was in London at the time. I'm pretty sure there were things at the Cave at Carleton that I would regret missing if I could remember what they were. Any of the Truckers shows in the Triangle between August '05 and April '07, which are, respectively, the dates when I moved to the Triangle and when Jason Isbell left the band, and also the Tres Tangled Truckers show (Caitlin Cary, Kevn Kinney, Jason Isbell) at the Pour House in Raleigh in December '05. REM ever before Bill Berry left. The Pixies reunion shows in Chicago.

So. It has to be, through timing and location, something you could have seen. (Because if we're talking history, I wish I could have seen Skynyrd in the 70s and the Truckers doing Southern Rock Opera start to finish at the 506 and Sam Cooke anywhere ever, but I wasn't alive for two of those and I was in Minnesota for the third.) What's the best show you've ever missed? Go.

(In other news: our electronic timesheet system hates me, I think one of my earbuds is breaking and I don't want to buy new ones, the bra that was fine when I left the house is now incredibly uncomfortable, our hot water heater seems to be busted again -- I had a shower like the ocean in December this morning, and I couldn't skip showering because I rode the exercise bike this morning and, well, gross -- and it's incredibly gloomy and foggy today. FAIL, WEDNESDAY. Also, I want spring to be here. Is it spring yet?)

I honestly don't have much to say lately -- that is, much that any of you care about. That said:

• Now is the time of year when the BCS gets hairy and I get obsessed with midgety graduate student quarterbacks in Texas and with non-BCS conference undefeateds, and also basketball season has started which means a) I have to devote a lot of energy that previously went to, say, posting on lj to worrying about the collective health of the Carolina men's basketball team and b) I spend a lot of time thinking about the guys who write and broadcast the Basketball Jones podcast, the former being of no interest to anyone but other Carolina fans, and the latter of no interest to anyone but shep.
  
  
• Saturday night we slogged over to G'boro in the butt-ass cold (for North Carolina) to see a beloved almost-not-quite local band play, and not only were there some true story hysterical covers -- trad bluegrass covers of "American Music" and "Like A Prayer" by the opening band, Americana-fusion-y covers of "Another Brick In The Wall", "My Girl", "Baba O'Riley" by the headliner -- but there was also a fight! We never go to shows with fights! (There was a briefly aborted swinging of fists between two 40-something ex-punks at the Hold Steady show in August, but it lasted about ten seconds.) It was very exciting business. (The set was awesome, too, but mostly THERE WAS A FIGHT. I think the hipsters in the CH are too lazy and disaffected to fight.)
  
  
• ( my view of the centro-matic set last week )
  
  
  
• Thanksgiving this week, and this year I am thankful for many things, including the roof over my head and the job that pays the bills, my friends and my family and my friends who are family, but this year, I don't know, I think I'm most thankful that this country went to the polls on Election Day and changed the way we live here. And, okay, also the fact that the Carolina football team is going to finish over .500. But mostly the part about Barack Obama.
  
  
• I hate this Monday SO MUCH.

God, is it Thursday yet?

So our plan for a low-key Halloween resulted in half-naked bartenders, an metric buttload of beer, and a cheerfully tipsy three mile hike home two hours later than we'd meant to be home, and then six hours later we got up, made coffee, and slithered back into town for the Merge Records Last-Chance-To-Early-Vote Local-Rockers-And-Billy-Bragg Obama Rally. We were rocked, by which I mostly mean we drank too much free coffee, made fun of hair cuts, sunglasses, underwear and old man sweaters on various musicians, one of us watched some baseballers of our hearts scramble (literally) to vote before early voting closed at 1PM, and I spent a lot of time lying on very cold cement being tragically hungover and taking pictures of the sky and people's shoes.

( a cornucopia of local bands who all love barack obama, photographic style )

There are way more photos here, although I still have two rolls to get developed. Now I need to take a shower and pay some attention to the Cocktail Party, That Stafford Boy seems to be sucking it up in my negligence.

you don't need a professional grade camera to take good concert shots. for the record. these were all shot with my nikon coolpix L3, no flash. (you just need to know how to use your camera, and the next time someone with a pro-grade dSLR asks me to set their ISO for them, i'm gonna take their camera.)

( ten photos of steel train, dear and the headlights, forgive durden and holy ghost tent revival @ greene street, g'boro, nc, 10.21.08 )

the rest of the set is here. (and there are photos from the state fair here, if your desires to look at photos aren't satisfied.)

steel train is just so much fun in concert, and they were even better as headliners than they were opening for the hushies back in august, and they were really good then. embarrassingly, after they finished their set, the bassist grabbed me as i walking past him on our way out and said, hey, i remember you from the last time we were here, you were wearing that mason jennings t-shirt then, too. and, in fact, i had been wearing my mason jennings t-shirt, i remembered, because i talked about mason with evan then. i thanked jack -- the lead singer -- for playing "women i belong to", which is my favorite track on trampoline, and he gave us very sweaty hugs. holy ghost tent revival -- the local opener, they're from g'boro -- and forgive durden were both a+ enjoyable, and dear in the headlights weren't bad but they were pretty boring. not bad for a sparsely attended tuesday night ten dollar show -- and i would, without a doubt, go see steel train play again wherever and whenever. as long as wherever isn't further than greensboro.

today i am listening to hank iii and enjoying that the office is mostly empty and quiet, downloading bill monroe cds and last night's tv, actually getting some work done. i had an a+ turkey club for lunch and talked about baseball with the bar owner and about short stories with the bartender. i take my zen where i can get it.

... and I hope I stay this way, it is an A+ good feeling.

1. Can anyone recommend a good, readable history of the American punk scene to me? I am enjoying reading history of popular music lately, and punk is one place where my knowledge is pretty much zero. Well-written and enjoyable and not too srs bsns history are my biggest criteria in books.
   
   
2. I have seen a bunch of amazing shows lately -- Bombadil, Justin Townes Earle, Mason, Okkervil River supported by Crooked Fingers, Caitlin Cary with her band -- but I'm in that phase where I don't really want to talk about them, I just want to sort of roll around in how much I fucking adore Will Sheff and Eric Bachmann's guitar playing and Justin Townes Earle's stupid face and stupid voice and stupid pants and Caitlin Cary's entire existence.
   
   
3. There's this thing happening in Chapel Hill where the football team not only "doesn't suck" but are actually "sort of amazing", and I don't quite know what to do with it. This is not my reality, okay, guys? I know logically that at one point in the '90s we were good (I have a favorite Mack Brown joke, so you know I know that era), but ritual destruction of Top 25 teams on national television Does Not Compute for me and Carolina football. I guess it's really a matter of who cares why they're good -- the team is fun this year and it makes me stupidly giddy to watch them.
   
   [Poll #1273390]
   
   
4. Tonight I am going to see the Rumble Strips, who are the artists behind the best-album-of-2007-that-I-acquired-in-2008, and I was pretty sure that I was never going to get to see them live, and I am so excited I am almost vibrating out of my skin.

Five things make a post, right? Because if they don't, I am too tired to cope.

I LOVE ALL WILL SHEFFS.


i also love all beds, which is where my rocked-off ass is heading right ... now.

there are musicians i've loved longer, and musicians who have occupied more of my time this year, but in the end, when it comes down to it, i love mason jennings best, forever and ever amen. ten years, and he still sounds like my heart set to music.

( mason jennings @ the cat's cradle, 09.30.08 )

hushies set list: intro/love you much better/we intertwined/molasses/medicine man/don't wake me up/sweet tangerine/lions roar/hurricane/as you cry/back in the ussr/not your concern/wine red/i want you back/we believe/crawling towards the sun/honey

greta is so pretty, you guys. you look at pictures and you think that, and then you stand two feet from her and your brain stops working, she's so pretty. i want a bob morris of my own. the cab boys are still delightful and dorky. steel train was fantastic and all of those boys were so nice. the best part about tiny clubs is turning around and finding boys in bands standing behind you, just sort of chilling. and it is now confirmed that greensboro is actually a really doable concert location, even on school nights. \o/

( if a picture's worth a thousand words, this is ten thousand on the cab and the hushies )

the rest are here. is it time to go back to bed yet?