I don't know if it's me or if it's just life in general - but the best laid plans of mice and men and all that... If you read back on where I *said* I was going in my last post and then kept up with me and saw where I actually went, I was really only about 20% accurate in my predictions. I've been wondering if I should really only post about the things I say I am going to when I have tickets in hand, but that's not the whole picture. I tend to change my mind about a bajillion times a day and I am spontaneous to the point of compulsion, so who knows with me, really? I am thinking it's almost just as well that I post where I *think* I'll be and you guys can just take it as a 50/50 shot that I'll actually be where I say...
I said I was going to Greensboro with Brian - THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED!
he played weird loopy noises in between spoken word poets re: feminism while he, our friend Will, and I sneaked Newcastles behind the curtain behind me on the floor. The poetry was decent, the kids were very young, but I took some awesome pics of my dude.
Friday night - I told you i was going to Casbah for Bull City Metal Fest? ....NOPE! Brian and I actually both got kinda ill from either the Thai food we had in Greensboro or (gulp) hangover ihop the next morning... we struggled through (albeit amazing) dinner at Fiction Kitchen and in walking back to the car we both decided the best thing would be to stay close to home and keep very, very still. therefore... Friday.... FAIL!
Saturday, While I was at my part time job for a lunch shift, Brian setup shop at Tir na Nog for the Double Barrel vendor show...
the view from BJM's booth
I showed up very, very late, but just in time to snag a House of Swank tee that I have coveted for long enough and run next door to catch Organos at Pour House!
omg friends!
Saturday - EVERY INTENTION of going to Durham for the second night of BCMF ... nope! I am totally open to the excitement and suggestions of others and was told by three people in a row that I would be totally nuts to miss Whatever Brains opening for Airstrip at King's... so guess where I went?
Apparently it's been longer than I thought since i saw WB last because there are like, 3 more people in the band? huh? that's cool though... good times.
gone with the wind?
MARIA LOVES ME BAAAAARF
where'd all these other dudes come from?well... the more the merrier!
So, having been up since 630am and sipping brews since about 430, guess who was way too drunk way too early? lil ole me... (Mom will be proud reading this one, I assure you.) This can be proven by two very important pictures:
the first.... I was apparently so enraptured by the fact that i accidentally broke a coat hanger in my attempt to take back my coat that there were (ready for it) ... SIX PICTURES... of it. they all basically look like this...
yup, that's a broken coat hanger, alright
THEN... on the way down the steps, I demanded Brian take this exaggeratedly (not too exaggerated) pathetic picture...
sad karla is sad
so guess what I did on Sunday? ....Laundry and suffer. I'm not proud, I'm not bragging, but I am just trying to let you know... Where I say I'm going to be, what I say I'm going to do... man, just sometimes (most times) they just don't line up...
THAT BEING SAID:
here are the things on my horizon this week:
Thursday: LBLB this week is take 2 for Katharine Whelan (whose show w/ Birds and Arrows was cancelled earlier this year because of bad weather) - no B&A this time (boooo) but my friends' band A Mad Affair is opening. don't know this Izzy and the whatsy whats - sounds ok though?
Saturday is the in store performance for Gray Young at Schoolkids at 2pm. this just reminded me i have to send some emails right now and switch my part time job schedule around a little so i won't miss this - YIKES!
looking ahead:
If you don't have valentine's plans, you could always spend a special evening with Art Lord (aka Future Islands before they were future islands) at King's.
don't forget: The Love Hangover: 02/15/13: King's
don't forget: Caspian: 02/16/13: Local 506
don't forget: Menomena: 02/20/13: Motorco
So the problem hasn't been lack of inspiration or motivation (okay maybe a little motivation), mostly a overall feeling of exasperation with life in general. One of my best friends, Shawn, and I have been on this same weird cycle of "Oh god dammit life, gimme a break" where nothing seems to be going right. I got dumped, State screwed him over with his student loans, I'm having a financial crisis, He got in a car wreck. I mean... COME ON CAN WE NOT GET A BREAK. I had this kinda light bulb moment, that I've actually already had about 400 times in my life at different times, where i decided that I am going to force myself to be happy.
SO - I let one piece of me spiral and then it all goes downhill. I don't understand people who have coping skills. I have none. I only know how to ride it out and wait for the clouds to break. Which is what I did, which is kinda what happened. I had a good idea that seeing someone I had seen perform in the past that I knew gave me the shivers would certainly help... I have recently "discovered" (because I'm a little slow on the uptake people) that you can track bands and shows on reverbnation by creating a fan page and basically stalking favorite bands' shows. My show calendar is now out the yinyang with shows by bands like Gray Young, Birds & Arrows, and the band I knew would give me that last little push to get me out of the rubbish bin... Stella Lively.
I first saw Ashley C Carter performing with Jeff Crawford at this year's Love Hangover and it was pretty much a love at first trill situation with me. I am smitten with her voice. It's as if, in my mind, I sound just like that when I sing but i know I don't because she is so good and I am dog food, comparatively. Ashley has some pipes, man. She ranks really, really high on my WHY NOT ME-o-meter. It's a kind of Stevie Nicks/Nina Simone/Patti Smith/PJ Harvey/Bonnie Raitt hybrid, but better, if that's possible. Definite soul, definite pain, definitely a lot of living and pain and love behind that voice. It's one of those things where you have to have lived it to see it. Maybe like the Pestrals in Harry Potter; you can only see them if you've seen death. You can only hear what I hear in Ashley's voice if you've lived that kinda of hurt. (PS I just nerded it up.)
This performance, a part of the Rebuilding Raleigh benefit for the tornado victims, started early. But I was on time, by God. I wasn't going to miss my girl! I was there at 7:30 and made it in plenty of time for this set. Ashley and Dave played about 45 minutes of an incredible acoustic set. Several songs I hadn't heard before that I loved indiscriminately and instantly. Then ending on the song that sold me the first time around, PJ Harvey's "Rid of Me" ... a song I would never dare to try and cover because I know I don't have the chops, but again, She killed it. I was so excited that I just had to make a video.
After their set, I made sure to tell Ashley how much I loved it, and I truly did. It was pretty incredible for a set played to a handful of people in a virtually empty venue in broad daylight, but the power and perfection of her voice and Dave's wailing guitar more than filled the space with enough energy to make up for any insufficiency of ears or ambiance. I was charmed and riled and I can't wait to see the whole band play at next week's Local Beer/Local Band! I am telling you all now, do me a solid and come to Tir na Nog next week to see them play. It's a free show and may be one of the best new things you've seen in a while.
Next up was a band called Bitter Resolve. Not really my style, but i kinda liked it. Sounded like, the Deftones song "Change" underwater. Psychedelic metal. New to me and I love new to me. Anything new and different is almost always good. I told Tomlin that the guy's voice was scary but sorta fascinating and he said one of the best things ever which was, "and it can all be yours for $60!" and I said why and he said that was probably how much the pedal he was using costs. hah. I also really liked the tiny lesbian (only assuming here, looks like a duck walks like a duck, etc.) but because she reminded me so much of my friend Brandy, but mostly because she had that heavy succinctly defined drumming style like John Stanier from Helmet. And you'd never think it, but i reeeeeeally like Helmet. "Betty" stays in pretty consistent rotation with me. Bitter Resolve I would give a thumbs up to, I would probably see them again if they were around, but I'd have to be in the right mood. Which would be in the mood to raaaawk.
Next up was Appetite for Destruction, a Raleigh staple, the self proclaimed "Ultimate Tribute to Guns n Roses." I can't tell you how long these guys have been around (website says circa 2000,) but they have been around a while. they are a Guns n Roses coverband by the way. Roo (with James and Brandy in tow,) messaged me about 2 songs in and asked "how is the musics?" to which i replied: "OMG SO GOOD RAGING (if u like guns n roses)." which was the case, exactly. Now people, I was never a huge Guns n Roses fan, but i did grow up in an age where MTV actually played music videos and quasi-decently produced music still got radio play. My brother was really into GnR while I was still in a deep RnB haze, singing in my middle school gospel choir. So while I never had my own cassettes and spent hours reading liner notes of albums, I knew all the songs. It was time, everyone knew the words. Everyone for about a year there had Welcome to the Jungle stuck in their heads. This whole set was like a time machine to a place where I still believed the best in music and everything got a chance. i wasn't such a snob and I didn't really question who Mr Brownstone was and I just rocked out a little.
Probably everyone in Raleigh has seen Appetite for Destruction at this point, and as many times and I had meant to, it never happened until now. I aligned myself with the superfans (mostly the best friends and siblings of the band members) up front and threw it down. One of those situations where i didn't realize i knew so many songs until i realized i knew every song. I was in a text frenzy with my brother berating him for not being there (texting him things like, "SHANANANANA KNEES KNEES" over and over.) and making him swear to me that we would go see them next time they play. So there aren't a lot of straight Cover Bands that I've gone to see, other than the one b52s cover band I was in for a hot second and IWTDI's U2 show. And there is a certain level of obsessive perfectionism that goes into recreating someone else's stage show. AFD nailed it. "Axl" never broke character and sounded exactly like him. LOOKED exactly like him (pre-plastic surgery and cornrows). Slash looked like Slash, Izzy looked like Izzy - these guys love doing this show and it shows. (Personal aside, Izzy unwigged was the cutest thing I've seen in town for a long time and I wanted to kiss his face off. I gave his sister my card and told her to get him in touch with me so that i might, therefore, kiss his face off. I will definitely go see these guys again and i will drag my brother with me and he will rage and then i will kiss "izzy"'s face off.)
see that dude kicking? oh yes, that is your superfan.
this show was a perfect funk-killer. it was after Appetite that I somehow wound up outside running into my Jayseph and being talked into a quick walk to Neptune's for a barefoot throwdown dance party. And so it was. And so it was probably always be.
