WKNC Double Barrel Benefit 8, Night One - King's - 02/04/11

On Friday morning February 4th, my maternal grandfather, Claude, (91) sat up in bed, asked my aunt for a Tylenol, laid back down and quietly passed away. It's not a surprising death; we had all asked ourselves for quite a while how much longer he could last without our Granny, his wife, who had passed away the year before. They were married for almost 70 years and never spent a night apart. (When people ask or wonder about my outrageous expectations for true love, my grandparents are all the example i need.) We all think he was waiting for us to be okay without them, that he was only going to let go when we were ready to let him go. It was heartbreaking; I was and am mostly brokenhearted for my mother and her siblings. There was no need to leave town just yet; mom and dad left right away and my brother and I left Sunday morning.

In my pity party state, in which i spent the majority of my day furiously cleaning the house and napping (I am denial master), Roo called and asked if I'd like to join him for the first night of the Double Barrel Benefit at King's that evening. He had recently discovered a local band, Cassis Orange, that he was very keen on checking out. Double Barrel was an event I wasn't really super hyped to check out... As i had told some other folks "this is one of those shows I'm not talking anyone into going to with me, but if someone wants to talk me into it, I'll go." I agreed to go because I had a feeling distraction was a good plan to not deal with the crushing sadness in my little heart.

I got up to King's around 9 or 9:30, and a band was already playing. it was Cassis Orange... wait, what? I creeped up front and found a couple friends. I heard two Madonna cover songs and then turned to ask my friend if they had only played Madonna cover songs? they replied that they thought so. then they announced they were about to play their last song, which, coincidentally, was a Madonna cover. This whole time I am texting Roo furiously. The night started backwards and only got worse.

I had a hard time this night (not surprisingly) and I asked Roo to tell his side of it all, as I lost the majority of the night in an alcohol soaked sadness haze.

Roo Review ... aka Roo-View #1 (in a hopeful to-come series!)
At about 9:30 p.m. this past Friday I thought to myself, "What's that? A text message during dinner? Hmm, it's a bit rude usually, but I'll check it anyway since we're expecting to meet up with people for the first night of WKNC's Double Barrel 8."


Text from Karla: "Cassis Orange is playing first. Now."

Dear Seamus Kenney, Congratulations on being in EVERY BAND EVER.

This was the point I started disliking this show. I never stopped disliking this show.

(Roo ponders the likability of this show.)

(Roo decides No. Does not like.)

We rushed through the last few bites of our dinner to get to Kings and hopefully not miss the entire Cassis Orange set. This band's myspace is really why I bought the tickets at all (http://www.myspace.com/cassisorangemusic). Now, some might be thinking it was my fault that I missed the band as the show started at 9 and we arrived around 10. However, I will squash your rebellious uprising by stating that EVERY PIECE OF MARKETING (including the websites) showed the line-up as The Old Ceremony then Bright Young Things then Luego THEN Cassis Orange. I will squash it, and I will put my thumbs to my ears and wiggle my fingers while making a childish garbled mess of mocking sounds at you.


We arrived while the second band was setting up. That second band was..? Yep, Luego. Apparently some college kid, in his infinite wisdom, decided to completely reverse the show from what all of the marketing had said. Now, you might think it was silly that I bought a ticket to a show if I only liked the one band. That is not the case. I like Bright Young Things, and I was eager to see Luego live for the first time. I listened to The Old Ceremony online and decided I could miss them. That is the reason I arrived at 10 for a 9 p.m. show.

Who is this band? Luego? Who cares. Beer.

Now, despite the fact that the line-up would have been spectacular as published (see: slow rock gaining speed and ultimately leading to a dance party), I was resigned to standing through what must have been one of the hottest nights I've ever suffered at Kings and occasionally fighting my way through a sea of people toward the bar. At one point I actually told Karla that I wanted to "stand toward the back so it wouldn't be so hard to leave."


Luego. I don't get them. They may be alright, but Friday wasn't their night. All I saw was a blonde boy speaking Spanish poorly.


BYT. I like them in general...but after missing the band which was my draw, suffering through the heat and Luego and realizing that the only thing yet to come was a band I had already decided once that day I could miss...we left half way through the set.


We crept down to Neptune's a few times to get easier drinks throughout the night, but even it was packed to capacity by the time we were leaving and the energy was getting crazy in a "where have all the locals gone?" sort of way. Walking away I quipped "Downstairs is too much and upstairs is too little."

The face of Peer Pressure. Talking Roo into doing shots in honor of my Poppa.

The highlight of my Double Barrel 8 experience was meeting Jonny Tunnell (Of The Big Picture)

We left and started having fun when we got to Mecca.

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Snob's Points to Ponder/Announcements:

Jackpot Alumni Club, Alert: We have lost Neptune's. There hasn't been a time in the past couple months it wasn't overrun with creepers and polo shirts. this makes me very sad because all of my friends who work there. It makes me really sad to think of my bartender boys and favorite DJs having to deal with that crowd. I'm sure I'll still make it downstairs once in a while, but as Roo said; too much. Go to Mecca. go to Slim's. Hopefully this crowd will tire of our spot soon enough. I'll keep you posted.

I don't remember much of this show because I dealt with my Poppa's death in the true German tradition: I got way too drunk. One of those nights were I was on a beer-leash. I went where the alcohol gods took me. Here are some of those places now:

In summation, despite the waste of a show night, I have incredible friends and Thank you very much for all the calls, support and love in this painful and sensitive time. My family and I are very grateful. I wouldn't mind a hug or a beer or three next time you see me out... xoxo