vovat | I want the pharaohs, but there's only men

So, yesterday evening,

bethje and I went to a Neko Case concert. It's weird that, not too long ago, she was playing the Tin Angel, and now she's moved up to places like the Trocadero and the Keswick. Not huge venues by any means, but she's definitely moving up in the concert world. While that's good for her, I kind of miss the more intimate quality of the earlier shows. On the other hand, the Keswick has more comfortable seats than the Tin Angel. We've actually been to quite a few shows at the Keswick recently (Kids in the Hall, Aimee Mann, and Stella), which is a little annoying as it's so far out of the way, but I'm getting more used to going there now. One oddity of the Keswick is that all the pre-show announcements are done by some guy with a really weird tone to his voice. He's not a good public speaker, so I don't know how he got the gig. Maybe he's related to the owner (or, for that matter, maybe he IS the owner).

The opener was a band called Crooked Fingers, which wasn't very good. The lead singer had a voice that reminded me of someone I can't place, but not someone I like. They did a bunch of songs that all sounded pretty much the same, followed by an intermission that was supposed to be fifteen minutes, but turned out to be considerably longer than that. During Neko's performance, there was a screen in the back that played images or videos pertaining to the songs she sang. I've seen a lot of other artists do that, but I'm pretty sure it's new for Neko. The set was pretty heavily weighted toward songs from Middle Cyclone, and didn't include anything from the first two albums, at least as far as I can remember. I'm the kind of guy who likes musicians to mix it up a little more, but I guess I can't really complain about the show itself. There was a lot of amusing interplay between Neko and Kelly Hogan, Neko informing us about she wanted to relax in a sauna full of Pepsi (even though she doesn't DRINK Pepsi), and have a tube-and-funnel device pump potato chips into her mouth. Also, there's apparently some overlap between her menstrual cycle and Beth's, which is a pretty neat celebrity connection. Screw wearing the same size water skis! {g}

I bought a T-shirt with the sphinx on the phone image that's in the liner notes for "The Pharaohs." I ended up getting blue, even though I would have preferred brown. That color only came in women's sizes, though. Am I the only one who thinks women's T-shirt sizes are a bad idea? Aren't they supposed to be unisex clothing? Anyway, I guess that's about it.

EDIT: Oh, and I almost forgot to wish a happy birthday to

onesto_hotel, and a happy belated birthday to

mmpoetatheart! How do I keep forgetting these things when LJ sends me e-mail reminders?