Well, let's see...Went to the Beulah show at North Six on Friday night with Miss Charming Melodee, Matt, Brother Geoff, and his ladyfriend. First time seeing Beulah and first time at North Six. We got there later than expected, which turned out to be far too early, as we showed up halfway through the set of the first of two opening acts. I forget the name of the first band, but if it reflects at all on their music, the first thought I had about the band was that it seemed like an affirmative action and/or ACLU assembled band. It featured a middle eastern (i think) guitarist, and Asian bassist, a female lead singer, and a balding, beared white male as the drummer. The second band, John Vanderslice, I really could've done without. Matt, Geoff, and I sat on a bench right in front of the bathrooms for the entirety of his set. Geoff tried to coin a the term "Vanderslicean," but we couldn't decide what that really meant. So we spent most of the time monitoring the five bathroom doors, four of which were operational. At first we had to keep telling people that we weren't in line for the bathrooms. Then, we decided to try to keep track of bathroom occupancies and directed traffic. This was further expanded by telling people which one we thought would open up next. Finally, after trying to watch Vanderslice for two minutes,we retreated back to the seats and spent a long while trying to guess how long a designated person would be in the bathroom, or how long it would be until a particular bathroom door opened, if we weren't sure if the bathroom was occupied or not. These sorts of inane games take up a much larger portion of my leisure time than one might expect. Matt and I once spent close to an hour playing a made up game, which consisted solely of throwing a plastic-toy golfball at each others' upper body while seated across the room from each other.
Anyway, we really did not enjoy Vanderslice, who was just too...Vanderslicean.
Beulah, on the other hand, was just excellent. The sound wasn't the best, and Geoff pointed out that, as with the Delgados, when you were some of Beulah's songs live for the first time, you get the distinct feeling that they've played that song already. That notwithstanding, most of the songs were great. I'm not crazy about their new album, but they didn't play that many from it. During the encore, they stuck to taking request, and dragged a few people on stage, and one even sang the song he requested. By the end of the show, I was the only one of our group still there, as Geoff and co. and gone, and MCM and Matt were sitting outside waiting. I really didn't want to leave. It was the most I've enjoyed a show in many, many, many moons. I wish I'd gone the night before to the Bowery Ballroom show, which I'd planned on doing, but was inundated with work and watching those damn Yankees on TV. I'm really hoping this is not Beulah's last tour, as they've been threatening. I'd highly recommend seeing them if you get the chance. And if you do, buy their record, When Your Heartstrings Break, which is pretty damn near perfect.Other than that, it's pretty much been a cavalcade of work and home improvement projects, sprinkled with a lot of eating and wine drinking. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the working and home improvement projects. Done some 4-track recording here and there just to satisfy the flames of frustration welling up inside.
Other things I'd recommend buying/seeing- Definitely the new Shins album, Chutes Too Narrow, which is out today. And probably Kill Bill. I was a bit surprised and/or impressed at how much MCM liked this movie. I wouldn't have minded none too much if they kept it as one movie. Pulp Fiction was really long, and it was only after seeing it three times in the theatre that I minded the length and go totally sick of it. Upon seeing it again recently, I was surprised by how much I really enjoy that movie. Anyway, Kill Bill- great eye-candy, if you can call severed limbs and blood-spouting stumps eye candy, and the story doesn't lack as much as I'd heard it does. Chock full of great visuals though.
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