Pray for a man in the middle, one that talks like Doolittle

As I had previously indicated, last night was the Pixies concert at the Tweeter Center in Camden. Prior to the show, I bought a T-shirt and a pack of stickers and buttons, and then bethje and I went to find our seats. There were two opening acts, the Bennies and the Datsuns, neither of which were all that impressive. I mean, they weren't bad, but they weren't really anything that interested me, either. I'd actually seen the Bennies before, opening for Frank Black when he played in Philadelphia with the Catholics, but I didn't remember any of their songs or anything, so it wasn't one of those cases where it was like, "Well, these songs aren't that great, but at least they're familiar!" All I really remember about the Datsuns was that the drums for one of their songs reminded me of the Donkey Kong Country theme. I'm sure I would have liked the band a lot better if they actually HAD played the DKC theme. {g} They also left really abruptly, without even announcing that they were playing their last song, or that the Pixies were next, or any of the usual things that opening bands say when they're getting close to the end of their time. Anyway, I'm not sure why so many shows seem to have two openers nowadays. I'm glad we had seats, since standing up through multiple openers and breaks between them usually makes me really worn out by the time the main band starts playing. I did stand up for the Pixies' set.

Our seats weren't that great, but they weren't that bad, either. I really think the Tweeter Center should have a screen, so those people sitting in the far seats wouldn't have to strain to see the stage. Oddly enough, considering that most of the Pixies' songs are pretty loud, it wasn't that hard on the ears. I'm not sure if this was because I was farther from the stage than I am at smaller concerts, or that they took more care with the sound system than is typical.

( Vamos a jugar por la playa )

I also tried out Crystal Chronicles yesterday. It turned out to be more action-oriented than I expected, what with the real-time battles. When I hear "Final Fantasy" or even simply "RPG," I tend to think in terms of a turn-based battle system, which is easier for me, since my reflexes and eye-hand coordination are pretty lousy. I guess Final Fantasy Adventure was action-based, but that wasn't originally an FF game anyway. I believe it was called Seiken Denetsu in Japan, and the English-language versions of all the sequels have been called "[Something] of Mana." Anyway, the game will probably take some practice for me, and I'm not sure I'll really concentrate on it until after I've finished Mario and Luigi, but it seems pretty fun.