Here all the bombs fade away

[vovat]

It's been a little while, and I have a few things to talk about. Tuesday, as you all know, was Halloween. After work, I went to bethje's aunt's house, and we walked around the neighborhood with Dewey, who was dressed as Freddy Krueger. Unfortunately, no one much was out at the time. Everyone trick-or-treats so early nowadays. I didn't dress up at all this year. I enjoy dressing up, but when you're too old for trick-or-treating and too uncool for parties, where is there that I can wear a costume?

Later that night, Beth and I went to eat at Denny's. There were a bunch of annoying kids talking really loudly there. I also had to wait for them when I wanted to pay the bill. There were approximately eighty of them sitting at one table, and they each paid separately. The food was good, though, except for the somewhat tough ham.

Wednesday night was the Decemberists concert at the Electric Factory, which was awesome. What wasn't so awesome was the opening band, Lavender Diamond, which was led by some weirdo hippie chick who waved her arms a lot and didn't sing very well. I think they mentioned that it was their last night opening for the Decemberists. Lucky me, huh? :P The Decemberists themselves were introduced with a spoken-word recording telling the audience to admire the venue's architecture, and think of the enslaved nubian eunuchs who died building it. The set was heavy on songs from The Crane Wife, which is probably my least favorite of their albums, but oh well. It also included a few older numbers that they didn't do last time I saw them, including "Song For Myla Goldberg" and "Red Right Ankle." Colin Meloy tried to start a dance contest during "The Perfect Crime #2," and divided the audience for a singing competition in "16 Military Wives." There was also a sing-along at the end of "Sons And Daughters," in which Lavender Diamond participated. As I'm sure I've said before, I like it when there's some interaction between the main band and the opener, even when (as in this case) I didn't particularly like the opener. Lavender Diamond also joined the Decemberists in a cover of the Eagles' "Take It To The Limit." The next to the last song of the night was "The Legionnaire's Lament," which segued into "A Cautionary Song." During this last number, a few members of the band walked out into the audience and reenacted the Charge of the Light Brigade. It's stuff like that that can really make concerts for me. Sure, shows where the band just gets up on stage and plays songs are fun, but bands that manage to work in clever interludes, banter, and means of audience participation really go above and beyond the call of duty. That doesn't mean a concert that includes these things is guaranteed to be good, but the Decemberists are particularly adept at those kinds of things.

One thing I noticed was that the audience looked pretty young. I'm a terrible judge of age, mind you, but I think I might have been one of the older people in my immediate area. Actually, there was a mom with her kids kind of near me, and I assume she was older than me. Still, it looks like I might be older than the average Decemberists fan. That's okay, though, because I think I'm quite a bit younger than the average Camper Van Beethoven or Cracker fan.

I have the first chapter of my new Oz manuscript written. Would anyone be interested in reading it? I should probably write some more soon, but I don't know that I'll get around to it tonight. I haven't had time to keep up with most of my usual Internetting as of late. I'm sure I'm way behind on my friends page, for instance. I remember a time not too long ago when I not only refreshed the page constantly, but would also read OTHER people's friends pages. Ah, those were the days! {g}

Oh, and just in case I ever do get bored with everything else the Internet has to offer, I can now re-read all of the old book discussions from the Oz mailing lists (the Ozzy Digest, Nonestica, and Regalia) in one place. If you're into Oz and haven't read them yet, I'd definitely recommend it. If nothing else, you can marvel at how lame my posts were ten years ago. {g}

Comments

[loz]

That concert sounds excellent. I was listening to "Red Right Ankle" earlier.

I'd read your manuscript, but I don't know anything about Oz.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I'd read your manuscript, but I don't know anything about Oz.

Yeah, I really need to find more people familiar with Oz who can read the stuff I write about it. I'm actually on a mailing list devoted to Oz fiction writing, but it's very low-traffic, and it's not unusual to not get any comments at all on stories posted there. Still, I'll probably submit at least a few of the chapters there eventually.

[espions.livejournal.com]

Hello, I found your journal while trying to find out if an mp3 exists yet of the "Take it to the Limit" cover (which thusfar I am thinking no.) and I enjoyed reading your entry and wondered if I may perhaps add you here. Yes?

Also, I agree that the crowd was young. I'm only in my early 20s yet most people in the crowd surrounding me looked to be a good 5 years younger on average.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Hello, I found your journal while trying to find out if an mp3 exists yet of the "Take it to the Limit" cover (which thusfar I am thinking no.) and I enjoyed reading your entry and wondered if I may perhaps add you here. Yes?

Sure, go ahead! I have no idea whether an MP3 of the cover exists, but their comments made it sound like they hadn't done it prior to the Philly show, and probably wouldn't do it again. So unless someone recorded that one show, you might be out of luck. I obviously wouldn't know for sure, though.

I'm only in my early 20s yet most people in the crowd surrounding me looked to be a good 5 years younger on average.

I kind of think of the Decemberists as a band whose fans would be mostly college students (as is the case with a lot of bands I listen to, really), but a lot of the people there looked even younger than that. I guess it's good that the kids are getting into cool music. {g}

[espions.livejournal.com]

I just came back from seeing The Elected and with the exception of my party, everyone in the crowd appeared to be 19 and under. My fiance told me that going to shows with me reminds him of why he likes to see bands like Clutch whose fans aren't preteen girls rushing the stage. :)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, older audiences don't always make for a better experience. When I saw Cracker in Atlantic City earlier this year, most of the people around me appeared to be older than me, but that didn't stop them from being drunken jerks.

[espions.livejournal.com]

That's certainly true, I think JB's main point is that fans of stoner metal typically have no interest in their proximity stage and are typically also not 16 year old girls who seem to make that their primary objective. Don't get me wrong, I like to be near the stage for certain bands but I make it a point to get to the venue early enough so I am not inconveniencing someone who did make that effort.

There is a man that appears to be in his late twenties whom I see often at TMBG shows who can't seem to grasp that with his being well over 6 feet tall, that pogo-ing in front of my 4'11" friend was not a very nice thing to do.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

One thing I've noticed about TMBG crowds in particular is that people tend to show up INSANELY early. So if you want to get a good spot, you not only have to show up before doors, but several hours before that, and preferably the week before. I guess if you care enough to keep showing up that early, you deserve to be in the front every time. On the other hand, it's not entirely fair to people who, for whatever reason, CAN'T show up ridiculously early.

I've seen some very rude TMBG fans in my day. But then, some of them are really nice, so I guess there's no way to generalize. Still, I do get somewhat annoyed at fans who feel they have a sense of entitlement, and OF COURSE they should be up front, and have the right to get in other people's way and yell stuff out at inappropriate times, because they're REAL FANS, who have been to upwards of 200 shows. You know what I mean?

[amyawesome.livejournal.com]

Are you talking about who i think you are regarding the 200+ show attenders? If so, I am sure he's a nice guy, but he makes me feel quite uncomfortable. QUITE.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Honestly, my Entitled TMBG Fan was kind of a composite character. I think I do know who you're talking about, though.

[amyawesome.livejournal.com]

He had a short-lived crush on me simply based on my being female and a they might be giants fan. He's truly an okay person but... well obviously his priorities are a tad skewed.