Saturday, October 08, 2005
The weekend, part 1
I can't believe I've had such a fun-filled, jam-packed weekend and it's still early Saturday afternoon.
It started with a fairly uneventful drive to Philly, then meeting up with our friend Bob for a bit of happy hour bar-hopping. After drinking our dinner, we headed over to The Troc for the Mould show. It was pretty full, but it didn't seem very crowded at all. We positioned ourselves about 10 feet from the stage and waited for the show to start. After about 4-5 songs the people in front of us left and we found ourselves one person back from the rail, directly in front of Bob. Perfect. The band tore through the standard setlist (minus "Man On The Moon") and they sounded fantastic. The new songs sounded great live and definitely held their own against the classic material. The Husker Du stuff just blew me away. I've been waiting for that for 20 years. Yowza. That part of the show itself was worth the drive to Philly. Wow. Bob's got a nice, tight, rockin' band behind him. They did not disappoint at all. By the time it was done, I was already looking forward to Friday's show back home.
Ran into a DC friend after the show and hung out for a while. Eventually the band came out and we chatted with them for a while. Bob seemed pretty anxious to get back to DC and sleep in his own bed. Can't say that I blame him. That's gotta be a great feeling after being on the road. I briefly talked to Brendan about the Burn To Shine series. He said Portland is being edited and they expect it to be out in 5-6 months. Next up may be Reykjavik (!) and Louisville. Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum. It was nice to finally meet Brendan. Having grown up around the DC music scene, it was pretty cool to meet someone who was a vital part of its history.
Since we drank our dinner earlier, it was time for some food. Off to get a late night breakfast. The BF and I were ready to call it a night - made a bit sleepy by the food we had just scarfed down. Bob insisted that we head to The Bike Stop. That was our original plan, but we were ready to bail on it. No such luck. Bob was determined. Off we went. We should have trusted our instincts. It completely sucked. There were maybe 5 other people there. They were showing these weird Japanese wrestling videos. Slightly homo-erotic, but mostly just pretty violent. In the two matches we saw, one guy was basically beaten unconscious, the other one appeared to have a guy breaking his leg, falling completely limp on the mat. It definitely ain't your daddy's wrestling. Yikes. We've been to The Bike Stop a few times in the past. It's always been fun. I guess this was just an off night.
Not a bad start to the weekend. A trip to Philly, a fantastic show, some bar hopping with an old friend and a rather odd leather bar/japanese wrestling experience. We also learned where to find free hard-candy in Philly, should that need ever arise unexpectedly. And that was only Thursday.
It started with a fairly uneventful drive to Philly, then meeting up with our friend Bob for a bit of happy hour bar-hopping. After drinking our dinner, we headed over to The Troc for the Mould show. It was pretty full, but it didn't seem very crowded at all. We positioned ourselves about 10 feet from the stage and waited for the show to start. After about 4-5 songs the people in front of us left and we found ourselves one person back from the rail, directly in front of Bob. Perfect. The band tore through the standard setlist (minus "Man On The Moon") and they sounded fantastic. The new songs sounded great live and definitely held their own against the classic material. The Husker Du stuff just blew me away. I've been waiting for that for 20 years. Yowza. That part of the show itself was worth the drive to Philly. Wow. Bob's got a nice, tight, rockin' band behind him. They did not disappoint at all. By the time it was done, I was already looking forward to Friday's show back home.
Ran into a DC friend after the show and hung out for a while. Eventually the band came out and we chatted with them for a while. Bob seemed pretty anxious to get back to DC and sleep in his own bed. Can't say that I blame him. That's gotta be a great feeling after being on the road. I briefly talked to Brendan about the Burn To Shine series. He said Portland is being edited and they expect it to be out in 5-6 months. Next up may be Reykjavik (!) and Louisville. Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum. It was nice to finally meet Brendan. Having grown up around the DC music scene, it was pretty cool to meet someone who was a vital part of its history.
Since we drank our dinner earlier, it was time for some food. Off to get a late night breakfast. The BF and I were ready to call it a night - made a bit sleepy by the food we had just scarfed down. Bob insisted that we head to The Bike Stop. That was our original plan, but we were ready to bail on it. No such luck. Bob was determined. Off we went. We should have trusted our instincts. It completely sucked. There were maybe 5 other people there. They were showing these weird Japanese wrestling videos. Slightly homo-erotic, but mostly just pretty violent. In the two matches we saw, one guy was basically beaten unconscious, the other one appeared to have a guy breaking his leg, falling completely limp on the mat. It definitely ain't your daddy's wrestling. Yikes. We've been to The Bike Stop a few times in the past. It's always been fun. I guess this was just an off night.
Not a bad start to the weekend. A trip to Philly, a fantastic show, some bar hopping with an old friend and a rather odd leather bar/japanese wrestling experience. We also learned where to find free hard-candy in Philly, should that need ever arise unexpectedly. And that was only Thursday.
