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| Monday, December 6, 2004 01:45 PM |
| Suckmas |
 by Fëanor |
Not so pleased with the holidays right now. I feel like I'm drowning here. There's so much that needs to be done and bought and considered. On Saturday, instead of playing games or reading as I'd hoped, I ended up doing a bunch of crummy chores and stuff. Blech.
But let's not dwell on that. Saturday night, I went out to see the Pixies with bloginator and Darryl. We ran into Alex when we got there, but didn't see her again after the show started.
It was a pretty good show. We were at the Tweeter Center, and this time of year they close off the place, there's no lawn tickets, and everybody gets a seat, which is a pretty good deal, all things considered. I like sitting. Unfortunately, most people don't, apparently, because as soon as the Pixies came on, everybody stood the hell up! Probably it started with five or six assholes in the front, and then everybody behind them had to stand up, and then everybody behind them had to stand up, and so on and so forth. But anyway, it wasn't so bad standing the whole time, even though it was a tiring show. The Pixies played non-stop hardcore music. I don't even know how to describe their music. Is it punk? Is it metal? Is it pop? I don't know. It's the Pixies, and it's good stuff. I only own two of their albums and a 2-disc best of collection, but I recognized every song they played except one, so apparently they concentrated on their hits. As I said, it was tiring just listening to them play all that hard, thrashing music without a break; I can't imagine how they managed to get through it when they were actually standing up there and playing it. They're no spring chickens anymore, either. But Frank was up there screaming away, and the drummer was pounding along.
The show wasn't all good, of course. As usual with a live show, there were technical mishaps. In this case, somebody's guitar (I think Frank's) was just not loud enough, so in a lot of the loud songs, when the drums were really thundering away, much of the main melody line was drowned out and we didn't really experience the whole song. In fact, part of the way through one particularly loud, screamy song, Frank just gave up on his guitar and threw it on the ground, and they finished the song without it. Then there was a short break while the roadie came out and tried to fix the problem. The Pixies apparently never had this kind of thing happen before and were unprepared for what to do. So they told a bad joke or two. We were all surprised at their really mellow, laid back attitude about the whole thing. Instead of yelling at the roadies or getting pissed off, they were really cool about it and made sure to thank the guy by name who fixed the problem.
Before the Pixies came on, we had to sit through two (two!) really long, really dull opening acts. One of them was called the Bennies, and the other was called the Datsuns. The only thing interesting about the Bennies was that their lead singer was a small guy in a wheelchair. I'd never seen a band with a wheelchair-bound lead singer and I thought that was kind of cool. It's too bad they were so mediocre. The Datsuns were just really silly, totally lame metal music. Neither band had anything in the least original or imaginative going on. The Datsuns were at least kind of funny, though. Unintentionally, of course. They were just trying so hard to be something that's been over for twenty years or so. Their guitar player was even swinging his arm in a big circle a la Pete Townshend.
One more thing on the show--I was amused when, during the song "Monkey Gone to Heaven," Frank sang the lines "Got killed by ten million pounds of sludge/From New York and New Jersey," and the crowd cheered. That's New Jersey pride for you!
Anyways, as for the rest of the weekend, on Sunday poppy and I went out and did a bunch of shopping--mostly for ourselves. So there! It was just clothes and stuff like that that we needed, though, nothing too exciting. Though it is good to have a nice new jacket and a decent pair of sneakers. Plus I had to buy a new pair of gloves because I lost my last pair at the concert. Suck!
Anyway, Sunday afternoon I watched most of the Eagles game. We totally trounced the Packers. It was embarrassing. The commentators were just totally shocked and disappointed. By the end of the first half, they were pretty much laughing the Packers off the field. The Philly crowd booed when the Packers managed to scrape together their first three points at the end of the half. It was great.
We also tried to watch "The Librarian," that TNT TV movie I mentioned in an earlier post. But poppy had other stuff to do, and frankly it was so terrible that I quickly gave up on it myself. I mean, I knew it was going to be stupid, but for god's sake! Who writes this stuff? Just awful.
Well, that's enough for now. You kids have fun. |
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