The most important thing you need to know about me is the music. I hit on this a few times back in the old incarnation of this blog, but I won't assume anyone reads back in these entries, so I'll do my best to paraphrase: My dad raised my brother and I as musically encyclopedic rainmen. We spent our Saturday mornings lying in the floor listening to the Who's Tommy and quizzing each other on Motown. My mom worked most weekends at her salon, so my brother and I spent our free time with Dad, who inadvertently insisted we learn and obsess over his record collection the way he did. We were glad to comply. My childhood is a swirling memory of running errands with Dad and the Beatles. Eating lunch with Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. Playing Gi Joes with my brother and the Ventures. Long and short; I never really learned to turn to TV for entertainment; It was always the music.
Mom got me in piano lessons at age 6, which i continued for upwards of 13 years. No one was really surprised when I went to college for Musical Theater. The fact that I am now incessantly dedicating my every moment of free time to attending shows, making music with my own band and now writing about music when not doing these other things isn't that shocking either, i would seem. To not be this person who does these things, who surrounds herself with music at every possible moment, seems almost heretical to me. This post has, obviously ventured into one of those posts where I am all personal-n-shit, but as I utterly convinced no one cares and I am a blazing egomaniac, I continue.
My whole point of this was to explain to you why I liked Spcl Gst. ha! But i have to backpedal even more... can you handle it? Read on, reader! here is a handy visual guide to my lifetime (so far) of the musics.
What you really need to pay attention to here is the purple line. this happened sometime around my senior year. Christy and I had already completely obsessed ourselves with Ace of Base, Real McCoy, the Scatman and the like, compliments of her French foreign exchange student, Veronique, our junior year. Opening the door to BPM, it was like finding a magic lamp, a gateway drug, something else majestic... I took that one step and I never stopped running. It may surprise some of you and sound completely derp-y to others to find out that yes, my first true love (after the holy U2/Moz/Byrne trifecta,) is House music. You give me a swingy discohouse beat and I'm happy as a pig in glittershit. Legends on a Saturday night is pretty much heaven to me. There are certain DJs that are like Gods to me. I went to Paris to the Technoparade in 2008 to follow Benny Benassi, Carl Cox and David Guetta like a zombie through the city. I've written about that before and that entry is more than enough to explain all this, if you give any kind of shit.
SO! that being all said, the lineup on this past Thursday's LBLB was glee-inducing for me. specifically SPCL GST and Heads on Sticks. Let me explain one thing, I'm not a huge rosebuds fan. I mean, they're cool and all, but I'll be honest; I haven't paid much attention. I'm all proud of them for being the hotshits of Raleigh, Ivan is a cool dude (we went to high school together,) but for some reason I never really got into them. I think I have a couple songs that I gloss over every once in a while, but nothing has ever really grabbed me. I don't dislike them, maybe it's time I start paying attention, I thought this night was going to be the bonding moment for me, but nope. I wonder if this confession will blacklist me from the scene? I wonder if i care. The biggest issue there was the crowd... Even I have my limits. Tir Na Nog was way beyond capacity. I wasn't braving that mess for just anyone.
the first "act" of the night was the Revolver fashion show, with choons provided by Raleigh's own Spcl Gst. If you don't know his style, then you know the name because there are stickers EVERYWHERE. I've personally heard him several times (including last year's Hopscotch, as he spun at 5star before one of my truest love DJs; Treasure Fingers! [le sigh!]) More hiphop than house, I really dig on spclgst regardless. Still almost always a good swingy, rude beat. Almost a little more scratching than I like, but in a live set, it's doable. The fashion show was fancy pants, I found myself pointing out several outfits I kinda wanted. Where the hell is revolver? maybe i need to go there. on a payday. The guys break dancing between models were fantastic. Jonny and I were, once again, playing fashion police. I threw down my bag at one point and pretended like I was gonna walk the runway as well, but cooler heads prevailed. I'll tell you, unabashedly, y'all I looked good Thursday night, Haaaaaay.
Heads on Sticks might be one of those bands you start seeing a lot of on this blog. I'm starting to like them more and more, it that's at all possible. The electronic/live mix is something I foam at the mouth for, regardless. The fact that these guys are so good at it, certainly helps feed that addiction. I was down front with Mikey and Matt and other people I don't remember because I was drinking tequila. I was about halfway through the set when I had this sudden realization that i should try to make a video of the performance, but as soon as I had this thought, I stifled it because there was no way I was going to stop dancing long enough to keep the shot steady. (I tried this once at a Gray Young show and it looks like I have Parkinson's and every 2 seconds is my dumbass going, "woooooooo!....woooooooooooooo!" no one can tolerate that. I didn't even bother trying to upload that.)
The show was fantastic, what I allowed myself to watch (basically HoS and about a song and a half of rosebuds,) and was officially billed as a Hopscotch launch party; as tickets have officially gone on sale and the lineup announced. I bought my VIP ticket at 10:02 am and subsequently grinned like an idiot for the rest of the day. The evening also served as an outlet to collect donations for the Triangle Red Cross for victims of the tornadoes. I'm curious to know how much was collected, I hope everyone pulled through, I know i threw down everything i had in my wallet. It was a pretty awesome night. Everyone I think Ive ever known was there at one point and I gave away almost all of my blog business cards... HELLO NEW READERS. heh.
speaking of hopscotch, (which I am sure I am going to be speaking of a lot until the time comes and I already cannot WAIT to do the writeup of these shows! AHHH! GAUNTLET HAIR!) here is a little youtube playlist i threw together for a couple friends to highlight some of the bands i am most excited to see. aka gauntlet hair, who i have been relentlessly harassing to tour the east coast for about a year now. *bliss*
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