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17 october 2006
rocktober
so, this october has totally been "rocktober." i feel like i'm being forced to warm up early for the spring sxsw & noise pop onslaught. i mean, it's great to get to see so many bands i like in such a short period of time, although going out almost every night is tiring... i have skipped some really great shows just because i was too exhausted, which makes me sad, but there it is.
rocktober really started, for me, on september 30th, when rogue wave held a benefit show for pat spurgeon, who has kidney failure. i wrote about it for my magazine, rightround, because it was such a great night. i even nerded out and did the thing i never do: got everyone who performed to sign my poster, which i'll frame and hang soon. it was a really special night.
then the spinto band played with we are scientists and art brut on october 2nd at the fillmore. i love those spinto boys. i was sorry that they didn't have jeff tour managing them this time around, but i did get to hang out with the boys while they had dinner, which was fun. they have such great energy.
i went to man man the following night at the independent, with dodo bird opening. dodo bird is my friend meric long's new band, which is really just him and one other guy on drums. meric does a bunch of that record-a-loop, play it back with pedals during the performance stuff, but he seems to get how to use it to better effect than anyone else i've seen. he also just writes bloody catchy songs, with interesting and complex vocal lines. oh, and they're a treat to see perform, because the energy between him and logan is just wonderful. oh, and of course, man man was fantastic. i saw them at sxsw this past year for the first time, and they totally blew me away, with their crazy-amazing circus-rock, their all-white outfits, and their unusual way of setting up: they put the drummer front and center, and then everyone crams in as tightly as possible around him. at the independent, this meant that there was all this stage leftover around the edges. so cool.
jonathan richman was playing for four nights in a row at the makeout room, and i finally made it out to see him on the 4th. it was a really great set, and i got to see some friends there that night that i hadn't seen in a while, which was wonderful. jonathan had come by the rogue wave show, where i found out that he had a polyp removed from his throat, so now he can't talk in loud places, which means anywhere public, basically. and he's got tinitus, now, as well, so he has these special sound-blocking headphones he wears out at clubs. it made for some very fun communicating at the rogue wave show, lots of gesturing and such. he's such a sweetheart, and really funny.
thursday the 5th was a special night: my friend julie and i started by having dinner at the hotel utah while oppenheimer (from belfast) and the mosquitos (from new york) were loading in. they came over and sat down with us for a while, and i got some station ids and such, and then we headed over to the independent to see land of talk and the stills. land of talk were really great, it was the first time i'd actually heard them, minus a brief bit of myspace listening. i was going to just get a station id from them, but they were terribly accomodating (including liz fixing my minidisc recorder so i could actually record something...), so i did an interview with them, which was a bit long and really rambly and fun. i haven't edited it yet to air it, but i think i will this weekend. the stills played my favorite song second (the lola stars and stripes one), so i didn't feel sad or weird about being stuck backstage for most of their set. Julie and I then hustled our way back to the hotel utah, where we caught the last oppenheimer song (wah!), and the mosquitos set. oppenheimer sounded much better than i'd even hoped, and the mosquitos were really fun live, complete with silly outfits and choreographed dancing.
on friday morning, i picked up oppenheimer, jerry, and a couple of mosquitos, and took them up to see muir woods, and then to go drive down lombard (aka "the twisty street") before they had to head off to LA. it was fun, i hardly ever get to do stuff like that. it was also nice because i've been emailing with rocky from oppenheimer for well over a year, and it's good to get to put a face with the words, and spend some time in person. both the oppenheimers are complete sweethearts.
elise with oppenheimer
i didn't make it out to any shows for the next week, i don't think. maybe i just can't remember. my girlfriends that i knit with introduced me to this show called "lost," which i then discovered my local video store had on dvd, and i believe the week was spent knitting and watching lost. (this is what happens when you don't watch broadcast tv for a decade...)
i feel i've made up for it in the past few days, though. on friday the 13th (somehow i didn't even realize it was a friday the 13th until just now...), i went to cafe du nord to see the long winters and what made milwaukee famous. i texted WMMF earlier in the day to get on their guestlist, and they threatened to smuggle me in in a guitarcase if there wasn't room. i got to the show after going by a friend's house to get my tie knotted for the wedding i was attending the next day, during which he plied me with champagne, and then an open studio reception party thing that SomaFM was involved with due to our new "office" location (which happens to be in a big warehouse of artist studios). the show was excellent, and afterwards, the WMMF guys and i went upstairs into the dark and closed swedish american music hall and ran around exploring. i got michael, whose birthday it was, to get up on the stage and sing into the empty room, because it echoed a lot and sounded cool. someone gave me a can of whipped cream, which i was squirting on everyone's fingers in lieu of birthday cake. (the bartender at du nord told me last night that "my" can of whipped cream was still in the fridge backstage, but i made kyle go look, and he said it was gone.)
saturday the 14th was kylee and anthony from loquat's wedding, which was absolutely gorgeous and amazing. i rocked the diane keaton look with a three piece suit and double-winsor knotted purple tie to match my hair, and boy did the tourists in north beach stare. the wedding itself was at that big church just off the park in north beach, the saints peter and paul church, i think it's called? they even had a boys choir singing. totally amazing.
i knitted with the girls on sunday, and blamed them for my "lost" week, which made them all laugh.
and then last night, monday, i went back to du nord to see bettie serveert with the capitol years. i missed the capitol years' set, so i think i might go to hotel utah tonight to see them play there instead. bettie serveert was great, and my old friends from madison were at the show. my friend dennis who just returned from living abroad for a couple of years was also there, and then near the end of the night, a couple of friends who work at bottom of the hill showed up. very fun evening, all around.
coming up for the rest of rocktober: yo la tengo at the fillmore, beirut at great american music hall, the joggers at hotel utah, two gallants at bottom of the hill, now it's overhead and subimage at cafe du nord, say hi to your mom at bottom of the hill, peter ellenby's indie rock photo book release party at 111 minna (which i'll be djing at), peter ellenby's book release show at bottom of the hill, figurines, citizens here & abroad, and the morning benders at the rickshaw. oh, and halloween parties, of course.
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