new songs...

posted by schmakt at 11:57 PM 0 Comments

Ring it in Stupidly

I guess that, while I'm posting terrible random pictures, here are our terrible random pictures from when Thomas decided to grace us with his presence for a few hours before going back to China.
I am 98% certain that I took this photo. It is a fairly normal photo of fairly normal looking people doing fairly normal looking things. (losing at Crainium) I am also 98% certain that I did not take any other photos this night...	How Sweet. Pretty sure this was Allison's doing. Apparently someone broke my sweet bone, so I can be pretty sure I had no part in this.	Obviously I didn't take this. But, sadly, I suppose I start the offensiveness by blinding everyone with my head. I wish I could turn that into a super power. Also, Allison's hair is totally pink. Crazy that it looks all orange here...
lol!!!!!!!111 They think they can win!	c'mon... pleeeeeeaaaase let us win :(	Let me think about it...
hah! no, you'll never win!! :-p	grrrr... I will eat you!	pssh. Whatever.
Right. That's over. Almost. I'm sorry to have subjected anyone not involved to the photographic evidence of... well... of whatever all of this proves. Which might be nothing. And that might be worse than proving something really bad. (*shhh*... it actually proves that Thomas is voting for Fred Thompson) And, lastly, this proves that I don't know what to do in front of a camera... *sigh* Oh. And we did win, btw. technically.

Labels: Allison, Brooke, Thomas

posted by schmakt at 5:30 PM 0 Comments

Silent Weapons & Bang! Bang! @ The Milestone

I was planning to write about this long ago. Really, I was. Sarah bitched at me last night for slacking off on my quickness tho, so I'm trying to make up for lost time. Now it's one month later, and I hardly remember what happened. I do recall being pretty psyched to be at The Milestone again. And pretty ashamed for not being there more often. But I was also pretty psyched to see The Silent Weapons play in a place with good sound. Sadly I've got no audio/video from that night... I tried, but the lighting was so freaking low that making videos was just silly. And yeah, so I really don't remember any details past what I just said. Dammit. It must be the drugs. So, I guess mostly, here are some photos from their set.
The one in the middle is my favorite. But it only beats out the one above b/c Jason is standing in front of Josh.
Uhm... and I just poured the Rum & Sprite I was drinking into a clear class. I think I forgot the Sprite.
	Allison also had recently dyed her hair purple. This photo got me kind of famous. myspace default photo famous. And, dammit, I hope that I actually took it and not Sarah and that I'm not just forgetting yet another thing. Regardless. The purple was sweet. Then this other thing happened... later...
As is often the case with shows in Charlotte, the crowd was, sadly, rather sparse. I suppose it's slightly understandable this time as it was a Tuesday night. With a new band from Charlotte and a band from Chicago. I really wish I'd had some recording of the show, cuz this was absolutely the best the actual sound has been. I like being able to hear Eliza sing. I think she looks great, but, ugh, I ALWAYS just want to hear her better. It was much much much better at The Milestone than I've heard it before. Given, of course, I've only heard them at SK Net and the Bucket Shop (which is now NOTORIOUS for shitty mics...), but still. I do recall being glad that the levels sounded better and that I could hear Eliza. Dammit, I wish I could remember more better. I do know that I often feel that I'm just waiting for a wall to come down when I get to see TSW play. I really like what I hear, but I just have this feeling that it could *sound* so much better. It'll get there. The songs are really fucking good, and everything happening on stage is pretty sweet. (and, damn, Josh knows his way around the equipment on stage.) Anyway. It's good. But totally has a lot of room to get better. A lot of very fillable room. It'll get there. And it's great fun to watch it progress. Also, I'm eating Cheetos. mmm. But the other reason that the lack of bodies on the floor was sad was b/c this random band from Chicago called Bang! Bang! was actually really fucking cool.
But before I get that, here's the last photo. Of Eston. Because he's completely a diva and would be pissed if I didn't post. Well... not pissed. I've seen Eston pissed. I don't think I've quite gotten that far on his bad side yet. <3 Eston.
From what I've heard since, Bang! Bang! is actually quite the popular band up Chicago way. They've certainly got more friends than filboyd studge... The lighting came on for this show, and I probably should have recorded something, but I had no idea what to expect, so I just listened and watched instead. What a novel idea. It was this kind of punk/pop thing that leaned more towards the whole punk thing instead. And I thought it was really badass. If I wasn't so poor, I definitely would have bought a CD. (speaking of which, why the hell aren't Silent Weapons CD's for sale at shows??) Anyway. I kind of think this is the kind of thing that I might get tired of if I were to try to listen to it for an extended period of time. Not that that makes it less good... just not exactly what I'm looking for long term. For a random discovery as a band that happens to be playing with another band that I like? Wow. Maybe one of the best one of THOSE bands I've heard in a long long time. They had a really good stage presence too. Cuz it completely seemed like they were just having a great time. I don't think I've ever heard a cymbol solo before either... And the guitar string broke, so we got the Flying V. And it all happened like everyone there were just friends having fun. the fact that I recall that may or may not have anything to do with something I find missing in day-to-day life. Hm. Although I'm getting old and boring and bald and rarely venture outside the safe confines of my apartment to discover anything unknown, I'll keep my eye on this band... maybe they'll play somewhere near a stop of the new light rail. Or, hell, maybe they'll come back and play with The Silent Weapons again. I really liked it.
Jack Flash Jason, dude! You're always in the way!	Gretta Fine	Nick Kraska
Although Holster was actually headlining the show I, yet again, missed their set. Allison had to work early, so we took off after Bang! Bang! had finished up. But the end of their set certainly worked out for the end of the show. I know there's a video of this whole thing floating around somewhere b/c the guy next to me was holding his phone up recording it all. I don't really remember exactly how it happened but they, somehow, managed to get all the prettiest people in the crowd up on the stage for a nice little dance party to send things out. Of course I didn't join, cuz I didn't want to make anyone feel bad. With my skillz. But that's good for everyone else who is a dude b/c it means that I have a couple of photos. So there's that. And there's my awful awful words that are simply here to fill space b/c I have these pictures, and I didn't want to do nothing with them.

Labels: Allison, concerts, Eston, music

posted by schmakt at 6:07 PM 0 Comments

Dave Eggers

Dave Eggers at the Novella Festival
I first became aware of the Novella Festival of Reading in 2003 when I saw that Neil Gaiman was coming to town. Got the tickets, and I was on my way to see him read for the 2nd time. I guess I was kind of an insensitive douche at dinner tho when I said something mean about little kids. Or something like that. Regardless. I ended up going by myself just in time to see Neil walking back across the street from the Smelly Cat coffee shop signalling the end of the reading and the beginning of the signing. I could have gone in, I suppose, but I didn't. I dunno... I just didn't. But this time... I saw that Dave Eggers would be speaking, and I didn't want to miss it. I'd only read his first novel, but I really really liked it. (Thanks, Scott... and Cindy?) Before going I picked up his most recent as well as How We Are Hungry. I planned to read at least one before the signing, but I am lazy. Or just easily distracted. So, of course, nothing was read by me.
I imagine it's true with everyone about most everything... I always seem to believe that I am the average demographic for people who like the things that I like. So I was pretty surprised and amused tonight when a vast majority of the people filing in were substantially older than me. Grandparents old. I have a difficult time believing that more old people than young people identify with and enjoy A Heartbreaking Work... Having gotten partially through What is the What, I can see why Eggers would also appeal to an older crowd. Or, as Allison suggested, perhaps these were just people who were attending most or all of the Novello events. Of course, that's neither here nor there. So Dave came out a little bit late looking... more or less... like I thought he would (should?). It was great fun to watch him stand there. In lots of ways it was like I was looking at myself. He's so freaking fidgety and nervous looking; I feel like I used to do that when I used to have to stand on stage and say things to people in school or whatever. Luckily for everyone that doesn't happen anymore. Once, in middle school, I got in trouble for refusing to lead the assembly in the Pledge of Allegiance. Eventually they made me do it tho. I started with the Calvin and Hobbes version of "I pledge allegiance to Queen Frag and her mighty state of hysteria." Then I just stood there. Fucking assholes. I do not know why I remember that... nor why I decided to share it now. sdlkgjasdlkg. So, Dave. This thing occurred the weekend for Halloween partying in downtown Charlotte. While Dave was talking there was this incessant thumping in the background. Turns out that there was a huge Halloween party right across the street from the auditorium. Lots of near naked people running around getting drunk. And here we are listening to an author talk about Sudan. I'm only minorly bitter about my lack of desire to lose my inhibitions and do crazy "fun" stuff with lots of other random people. None of this seemed to bother anyone else tho, so that's good. Although, between the techno-fly bass drums and Dave twisting the cap to his Coke on and off and on and off in the microphone, it was kind of like being at a rave. Except without the glo-sticks and dancing. And drugs. And lights. Actually it wasn't like being at a rave at all. It was like being in school again. Which, oddly, was really awesome. This most recent book (What is the What) was so very obviously his current pride-and-joy. It was really cool to see how happy and excited he was about this thing. Especially when compared to how self-deprecating he was regarding Heartbreaking Work... The "lecture" portion of the talk ended up being Dave mostly telling the story of how it came to be that he was the author of this book. Much like HWoSG is fictionally auto-biographical, WitW is fictionally biographical. I don't know if Dave would agree with me or not, but (I am now halfway through the book since I first began writing this post) the two books seem very stylistically similar to me. Both are written from a first-person perspective and both attempt to stay historically accurate in a general sense while being aware that the details are often lost to time and, therefore, imagined by the author. The most interesting story, I thought, was how he actually arrived at the decision to write the book this way. There was a phone call that initially put Achak (who is the main character in WitW) in touch with Dave, which led to meetings, which led to him accepting the job. Having been trained as a journalist, he initially approached the task as a journalist. As an outside observer attempting to tell history. After two years of frustration, he said that his excitement for the project had waned b/c he just couldn't make the story work with this stylistic choice. He felt that he was inserting himself into the story too much and that he was depersonalizing the tale. His initial self-imposed deadline for completing the book was one year, and he believed that it would have been better to just cut his losses and pass the project to someone else. But, before making that final decision, he said he realized the he could write the story from Achak's eyes except that he knew he'd have to make up the details for the novel to be readable. In relating this anecdote to us, he made it pretty clear that he was embarrassed to even be bringing up his new idea. But he called Achak and told him how he wanted to write the story and asked if it was ok if he took artistic license with the details of his life. Achak just laughed at him and said that's what he thought Dave had been doing the whole time.. Suffice to say, the book got written and doing so really made an impression on the author. He travelled to southern Sudan several times during the course of writing the novel and seemed to have become very close with several of "The Lost Boys" of Sudan. A few of the guys who had been relocated to the States were in attendance as well and one guy (David something... I only remember b/c Dave answered questions posed to "David" until he realized that they both had the same name... that was funny) helped field the audience questions. And Dave was excited to have the audience questions. Except for the one or two about HWoSG... he just became so embarrassed anytime that came up. The word "staggering" was used to describe something else, and he just kind of crumpled on stage, "Ugh... there's THAT word again." But the questions about Sudan and the history and Marial Bai. He obviously loved. He seemed at ease when he felt like he was teaching people about stuff that had very little to do with himself. He was proud to be able to bring this story to people who never would have experienced it in such a personal way before. It seemed really easy for him to get into the history and the causes of things in Sudan (and Achak's life), and it was pretty inspiring. Even though he never read a passage from the book and spoke very very little about the only book of his that I'd actually read, I still very much enjoyed it. I wish, now, that I had read the book prior to this lecture/Q&A thing since, naturally, now is when I have questions I want to ask. And because he totally revealed a pretty major plot development... I'll spare you on that one. But getting to hear the how-it-came-to-be story, seeing the photos of the actual places and people involved, and hearing and seeing the emotion put into this book by the author has really made reading it a much more enjoyable experience. I mean, I guess it's more enjoyable. Impossible to empirically prove, but I'm sticking with my hypothesis. And now I'd really like to find a cause outside of myself into which I could lose myself. But the closest I came was searching google for jobs in Sudan for about a week. Turns out that you can't really get paid to do that stuff. I'm such a stupid American consumer. Also, when I was writing notes to remind me of what I wanted to say about this thing I wrote this down: It's easier to not feel something that you do feel than it is to feign a feeling you don't really have I wish I could remember why I wrote that, but it completely escapes me now. I guess it's also a pretty obvious truism tho, so perhaps it's best that I can't remember what I was gonna say.
I also thought these things were funny. This event happend at Imaginon which is this totally badass place for kids to hang out off of the public library downtown. I'd have loved this when I was little and pure and not so damned jaded. And I probably would not have found it odd that these sculptures pictured at right are the first things that would have greeted me when I walked in the door. But now it amuses me. I suppose that's all I'll say about that.
I would be remiss were I to write all this crap and not drop a link to the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, which attempts to help relocated Sudanese as well as rebuild war-affected towns and villages in Sudan. (and from whom I stole this picture of a sunset in Marial Bai) Check it out.
And here are the signature pages from the three books Allison and I had signed
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius	How We Are Hungry	What Is the What

Labels: Allison, Books

posted by schmakt at 12:27 AM 0 Comments

Femme Fatale

posted by schmakt at 5:57 PM 0 Comments

Charlotte ComiCon

Ok... I'm going to try this again... I guess. I hate computers.
Right. Mini-report on the mini-convention. This was the first time I'd been to a comic book show as a "dealer" instead of a random guy walking around with no money. Which was good on so many levels. There was so much stuff there that looked really great. Comics Planet had a rack of beautiful EC's, which were WAY out of my price range. So I actually bought nothing. Which was strange for me in addition to good. But the whole thing was a lot of fun... Allison helped me all day, and Bryan stopped by to check it out and even paid the $3 to get in. His presence, of course, is what led to all the picture taking. How freaking cute is this? If any significant portion of the comic book collecting population was female, I think I would have seen sales rise during this particular depicted period of the day.
"Za-Zow! Buy some comics!"	"For instance these moderately high-grade but totally not rare at all X-Men issues. Acts of Vengeance... what could be better?"	"Or buy something totally different... or nothing at all... It's not like I care anyway."
So... here's Allison and most of my backboard (or whatever it's called)... Comic collectors can definitely be single-minded in their task. How else can you explain the lack of purchases off of that board with her as the sales pitch? I reckon you can see some of the stuff that's underneath in that other picture. I spent a lot of time putting things together in sets and marking them down, so I was glad that at least one person (the guy in blue) picked up a few complete runs of stuff.
"Marvels are on your left, DC's are on your right; everything else is underneath."	"Marvels are on your left, DC's are on your right; everything else is underneath." If I say that one more time, Allison is going to go nuts.	"Marvels are on your left, DC's are on your right; everything else is..." oops... yep... there she goes...
	So... what sold? Iron Man. I went in with a near intact run of Iron Man from 64 up to the beginning of the current series and left with hardly any IM issues at all. Several people left with 1 or 2, but several more left with big chunks of the series. Which confuses me a bit... Recently, on the best news show in Charlotte (as voted on by me), the sexiest woman in Charlotte (as voted on by readers of Creative Loafing) spoke with some old guy who dealt sports memorabilia. Apparently, once OJ started being a douche, the values of OJ collectibles quite rather plummeted. When Tony Stark decides to start being a douche, however, everyone wants his stuff. Not-a-douche = people who don't punch Captain America in the face. Perhaps that is art's big "fuck you" to life. - "Hey Life. This whole sincerest form of flattery thing? It's over. It is done. Fuck you."
Perhaps I should note that I, personally, am actually more of the life-imitates-art kind of guy. Art is where people dream, right? How many people dream of the status quo? If you think everything is great right now, you're just not looking hard enough. Go paint a picture.
What else... Everyone was pretty interested in the Albedo 2, Primer 2, and TMNT 1, but I had them priced too high to sell. Which, honestly, was kind of the point. I just wanted people to come talk to me. And maybe buy some other stuff, but those are my best comics, so you only get them if you wanna pay me a LOT. :) I think that, maybe, one guy looked at the CGC Magnus 1, and no one looked through the Valiant boxes at all. I didn't really promote that they were available tho, so that's ok. Hopefully when the new Valiant stuff starts coming out, some of the old stuff will pick up again. But probably everyone is thinking that. I was also surprised that nobody picked through the fairly large number of Captain America issues I brought. Steve Rogers >>>>>> Tony Stark. And he's dead. You know, "comic book dead." But I still thought people would be interested. Especially when all that Iron Man stuff started going out the door...
	I wish that I had seen more kids tho. I got a few from the 10-ish year old demographic, and I was able to find something for all of them. I think/hope that I gave them a good deal and that they're happy with what they got. Finding a few issues of Transformers for a little guy and giving him one for free might have been the most fun sale. And the freakiest thing was having someone ask if I had Fantastic Four #132, and I'm like, "Sorry, I think the oldest I have is #115 and then it jumps to 182 or something." My actual oldest issue? #115. The next actual oldest issue? #182. I don't even like FF that much. But it was all fun. Even wheeling all those boxes back-and-forth. Allison was a huge help in bagging and unbagging and rebagging stuff before the show as well as with getting all the boxes alphabetized. I'm kind of OCD when it comes to the alphabet... And an OOOLLLLDDD friend from high school, Richie Ritter, showed up the night before for a concert in town and helped with the alphabet and helped a lot with putting all the boxes in the car. Very cool.
Oh... and I just remembered... See how there are comics on the front of all those boxes in the pictures above? And how that one box on the far right has nothing? It used to house the current Jonah Hex #1, and I was asking $2 for it. The dealer setup on my left (I forgot his name, dammit...) bought it from me for $2 before the show started and put it out on his table for $3. *sigh* I guess that's smart business. I don't think he sold it tho... and I totally stole his idea for folding the table cloth up under the boxes on the table so that the ones under the table were more accessible, so it's all good. Meeting people as a "dealer" just kind of felt different from meeting them as a potential buyer. I guess that should have been obvious. But it was a lot of fun to see things from the other side. I really liked meeting the guy to my right... his booth was as poor to moderately busy as mine was, so we got to talk a bit. I think I got invited to present at his ZombieCon show in Greensboro; if they get Rob, I'm so totally there. I think I also got asked to present in Greenville as well as at the next Charlotte show in December. I'm not sure I have enough stuff to make it worthwhile, but, if I do, I'll definitely go again. And I almost forgot... a couple of guys that I sort of "met" on the CGC boards came over and said hi, which was really nice. I only remember Sal's name at the moment b/c I was trying to remember too much as it was, but it's kind of neat to see that it can be a "community" instead of just a bunch of random guys together. And Shelton stopped by to say hi as well, which was super nice. AND Rick and Dave (the promoters) couldn't have been nicer, more helpful, or happier to have me there.
Weird. Did I just post an entire entry without being a negative dipshit asshole? I think I did. (except for that art thing, maybe, but that hardly counts.) I also just realized that there aren't any pictures taken from my POV behind the table. That's annoying. I should have thought of that...

Labels: Allison, Comic Books

posted by schmakt at 3:47 PM 0 Comments

Hey, look... a post where I'm not just quoting other people...
There was one post-"concert" photo that I neglected to post, but only b/c it happened the day after... Allison and Scott and Raven sitting around my house. I feel so... popular. Life Goal #1: Check. Also... unless I'm greatly mistaken... the contents(?) of that table are ("contents" is one of those plural/singular nouns things that sounds like the subject/verb doesn't match, right?) interesting. Or funny. Or not. But maybe I just wanted to talk about the finer points of the word "contents."
A few weeks later Brooke graced us with her presence for a few hours while visiting these fine united states (NOT a proper noun in this case). She chose a good night since Wednesdays are Wongdays at 300 East. As I understand it, Dustin has actually been to 300 East but has no idea what a wong is. These, Dustin, are Wongs. They contain some alcohol.
The most amusing thing about this place is its bathroom doors. There are no words written. No pictures of people in dresses or jeans. None of those circles with a symbol on them that are supposed to mean "man" or "woman." Not even a "V"-shaped space b/t Jesus and Mary Magdalene signifying the sacred feminine. Just some dogs. Before you can take a pee, your drunk ass must correctly locate and identify the dog sporting a rock-hard boner. Then. And only then. May you pee in peace. Now that I think about it, it would probably actually be worse if it was all limp.		After successfully completing the Ordeal, you are at least rewarded with a porceline potty complete with easy-access ashtray. The only place I've ever been that encourages smoking in the boy's room.
wow. I am so about to cry. I just spent the last many hours writing a report about the comic convention... I opened myspace in a separate browser window to look up a profile, and ALL of my IE windows crashed. I so fucking hate myspace.

Labels: Allison, Brooke, Raven, Scott

posted by schmakt at 12:10 PM 0 Comments

Don't much feel like commentating at the moment, but Raven and Judith sent me some pretty cool pictures... Thanks! :)
Ok... One comment... wtf is going on here. Also, I'm definitely not lost in the mood or something and playing with my eyes closed. Sometimes I have to blink. It happens.

Labels: Allison, Eston, filboyd studge, Judith, Raven, Sarah, Scott

posted by schmakt at 1:35 AM 0 Comments

filboyd studge @ the Bucket

Right. So Scott came into town this past weekend, and we knew what we were gonna do, by God. Get the band together. With Thomas filling in our rotating bass player slot. But then Thomas went to China of all places b/c he hates us. Moo Goo Gai Motherfucker. Or maybe that's Japanese. I don't know. Regardless, Eston said he'd take the job since we were the best band he'd ever heard...
Scott says my recall is fading... he might be right. I'm pretty sure that Allison and I started everything off... we played Aeroplane Over the Sea again for Scott and Raven. We really wanted to do it like Dustin, but we're not quite good enough. But it was still quite serviceable since Allison is such a good singstress. I bet there are pictures somewhere, but I don't have any... then Eston did his solo intro stuff to, you know, butter-up the crowd. The opener has to suck so that the headliner sounds awesomer. (Yes, open mic night can have a headliner... even if they play in the middle.)
	I can only imagine that Eston and Sarah are missing from this incredibly cute shouldabeenatriology set o' photos b/c Bryan doesn't know Sarah. Which is too bad. But so it goes. <---- me & Allison Scott and Raven ---->
But anyway... there weren't actually many photos on my camera of things that actually happened during the concert, and I don't feel like screen-cap'ing the video. So this is pretty much all I've got as far as still images go. I had to lighten them in Photoshop, but I like the red tint that was naturally there...
		heh... And Raven praying at the altar of studge.
		I'm feeling narcissistic today... I'm pretty sure these photos mean that I done good. Plus, it's almost like I'm smiling. And I really like that first one. For obvious reasons. It so totally makes it look like I'm not even anywhere close to going bald. Allison says I look like a child molester.
This here is the closest thing I have to a picture with everyone in it... You can barely see Sarah over Brian's left shoulder... Allison's hitting on Eston behind Scott and Brian, and Raven's trying to avoid the whole thing by keeping her eyes closed. I guess she's kind of like an ostrich that way. I guess I'm not in this picture... nor is Judith... nor is Bryan... I don't think I knew anyone else that was there tho. Except, of course, for Christy the lovely bartender.
Scott trying to look all academic after the show...	And then hanging with a friend who is unknown to me. I think this dude's name was Matt...?	And then there's this Raven girl. She lives in New York. On the morning of the show, she was in New York. On the afternoon of the show, she was in New York. An hour before the show, she was in North Carolina. Rad? Yes. That's pretty freakin' rad. I'm pretty sure this photo says, "Holy fuck, I am so freakin' happy to be at Jeff's Bucket Shop right now!" And I reckon that's Sarah and Eston there in the background again.
And this is Allison and Raven acting happy after the show even tho the only thing either of them really wants is for filboyd studge to never stop playing ever.
And I suppose that just leaves us with the last few obligatory band photos...
Well... and then, of course, the video of the whole thing that Bryan cooked up for us...
Right... and the mp3's... CD Cover   01 Aeroplane Over the Sea     02 Dirty Boulevard     03 The Extraordinary Audacity of Human Self-Realization     04 Flavored Wine     05 Bliss     06 Polly     07 Everyone I Know Is Leaving     08 Just Another Holiday     09 Octobersong     10 Guilt     11 Happy Flowers     12 Buffet Gruel

Labels: Allison, bryan, Eston, filboyd studge, Raven, Sarah, Scott

posted by schmakt at 3:31 PM 0 Comments

posted by schmakt at 10:58 PM 0 Comments

The Fiery Furnaces

Despite a plethora of cool releases in the recent past, (read: NIN, Spoon, White Stripes, Interpol.....), I've not really done a very good job of following music lately. We'll chalk it up to a lack of funds. But now Continental Airlines and Chase Bank USA have joined forces and given me the ability to earn my way back to Amsterdam by buying a bunch of crap I don't need. Or crap I do need like food and tires on my car.

Regardless, my most recent frequent-flyer-miles purchase involved a pair of tickets for the triumphant return of The Fiery Furnaces to my musically shallow city. Last time I got to see this band was a few months prior to the release of 2006's Bitter Tea. I went in a Fiery Furnaces virgin and came out struck more by the opening band (deadboy and the Elephantmen) than by FF. This time, however, I'd let Bitter Tea sit in the car stereo for a few days, I had my recording stuff, and I was prepared. Hell, I got there almost an hour before doors opened b/c I forgot this was Charlotte, and I thought that people might be lined up for the show... but that's neither here nor there. dios. The Fiery Furnaces. I will now talk about them both.

Opening band was a pleasant surprise. While it wasn't my thing as much as deadboy was, dios was a lot of fun and turned out to be a fantastic choice as an opener for The Fiery Furnaces.

Their website, however, is fucking terrible... The lead singer reminded me (quite a lot, actually) of a South Carolina band called A Decent Animal, but that's about all I can do for comparisons. Everything was super-tight with a fantastic amount of ambient noise, and the drummer was a fucking BLAST to watch. It was just the right mix of painful groove and groove rock that neither put me in a mosh pit nor put me to sleep. While not a jam band by really any stretch of the imagination, it almost could have been. I had a hell of a time noticing when most songs ended and the next began. I even recorded the thing, and I've been struggling fruitlessly listening and re-listening trying to find where to chop the 40-odd minute set up into individual tracks. It's not that everything sounded exactly the same, but everything fused together so well that pinpointing that moment where things changed is just proving to be impossible for me. Not that it really matters. I really enjoyed the set, and I would definitely go see them again. If anyone who reads this knows this band and would like to help me track the show, I'd be grateful... I'm here.

<------------- dios breakdown takes next to no time at all... the stage crew gets everything ready for the main act, and Allison checks my equipment for me. (that is not a euphemism) --------------> While waiting we meet new friend and fellow Orange Peel/Arcade Fire/Sonic Youth/Pearl Jam fan Darryl... but what's up with everyone and the earplugs?

And, so then... The Fiery Furnaces

Caveat: **If you want a really good review of The Fiery Furnaces, I implore you to check out Scott Shupe's review here on CrazyTalk.** I'm just going to end up rambling and not really saying anything meaningful. So here we go... As I mentioned, I'd been spinning Bitter Tea in the car for a while, and so I thought I was totally prepared. I was going to know the songs and the words and the beats, and I was going to be soooooooooooo cool. Then they actually started playing... "Little Thatched Hut"... a song I definitely know... kicked off the first half of the show, which ended up being entirely devoted to songs off the new record. And I hardly recognized it. Bitter Tea clocks in right at 80 minutes, and they played a pretty healthy number of tracks off the record... plus another equally long "set" devoted to older stuff (and one brand new song). The entire show was almost exactly as long as the record. Everything was blisteringly fast. Combined with Eleanor's voice often being submerged under the sonic wave sent forth by the rest of the band (I had no idea Jason Loewenstein was playing with them!!), I found myself completely lost. But that was great. And hopefully part of their plan. Very little stage banter... No breaks between songs. Just continuous sound after sound after sound. Although I was trying to pay attention to my computer and searching for familiarity in the music, I couldn't help but getting lost in everything they were throwing out to the crowd. Every single song raced off the stage like the damn place was on fire... lyrics were left out, but not Eddie-Vedder-I'm-Trying-But-I'm-Too-Drunk-To-Remember-All-My-Words style... it was all very calculated. Also not a lot of stage antics or really much movement at all. The whole show was 100% about the sound. You really just couldn't get away from it - there was nothing to really distract you from just being there and listening... actually... I guess I take that back a little bit. I have no idea what in the world the point of this was, but Eleanor and the lead singer from dios did end up tossing a softball back-and-forth near the end of the show. Dustin (comic-book guy) Harbin was there begging for the softball but was met with a simple yet firm shake of the head that said simply, "I don't think so." She's smart. So, yeah. I liked it. Not that I've become a huge Fiery Furnaces fan now or anything, but I'm very very glad that I got to see them again with a little bit of knowledge in my head. I'll be picking up Blueberry Boat the next time I see it at Manifest, and the next time they're at The Visulite (God, please don't go to the Neighborhood Theater...), I'm totally there. And now I have to completely rethink my stance on hating bands that tour with two drummers.

I really did not intend for this to be so long... I did record the full audio of the show as well as some video. I was standing next to this girl when Eleanor handed her a copy of the setlist, and she was nice enough to let me copy it down. That turned out to be a Godsend as I desperately needed that when I was tracking out this show. Anyway. For the media-minded of us... (If I'm wrong about the names, let me know, and I'll fix it)

The Fiery Furnaces 09 July 2007 The Visulite Theater, Charlotte, NC 1 Little Thatched Hut 14 Single Again 2 I'm In No Mood 15 Wicker Whatnots 3 Black-Hearted Boy 16 Quay Cur 4 Bitter Tea 17 I'm Gonna Run 5 Waiting to Know You 18 Here Comes the Summer 6 The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry 19 Blueberry Boat 7 Oh Sweet Woods 20 Tropical Iceland 8 Borneo 21 Spaniolated 9 Benton Harbor Blues 22 Inca Rag/Name Game 10 Whistle Rhapsody? 23 Birdie Brain 11 Teach Me Sweetheart 24 1917 12 Bitter Tea (Reprise) 25 Police Sweater Blood Vow 13 [Break]

Labels: Allison, concerts, music

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Thom's first time

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