Dumbek's Random Stuff

The "Washington Social Christmas" show was a blast. I've seen Washington Social Club about 20 times now and their set was among the best I've seen. They opened with a cover of The Ramones' "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)" and never let up. Olivia totally rocked her Xmas cape. The festival arrangement worked well, with Caverns playing between bands. Pay attention to them. They're good. A dc-all-star "Fairytale of New York" was in there somewhere. Nice.

Thanks to Bob, Rich, Nick and Amber for letting us stay in the club following the show, while they setup for Blowoff. We weren't looking forward to hanging outside in the 40-degree rain for an hour while they made the switch. Blowoff was terrific. I guess because of the weather and the holidays, the crowd was a bit smaller. Fine by me. I hate it when it's jam-packed. Lots of room to move around and very easy to find all of my friends, who were out in abundance. Even bear-santa was there. We got to stay to the very end for a change, which was a treat. A very late breakfast got us back to our room at about 6am. I couldn't do that every month, but it was a great night.

Work decided to give us off on 12/24, so I get a 4-day weekend. woohoo!

Staying local for Xmas. Dinger and I are combining our families for the day, as usual. It makes for a long day, but it's just one day. No traveling. No overnight stays. Hopefully less drama than at Thanksgiving. We're hoping to wind-down the evening with friends.


This is my new favorite Xmas cd. How can you not love a Christmas song that directly addresses hipsters? Gotta love Rufus and Pancake Mountain.

We got a tree on Wednesday. We went to decorate it last night and remembered that we threw our lights out last year. Oops. Dinger's off to buy new lights today. We almost didn't get a tree at all, but changed our minds at the last minute. Having the tree just changes the whole mood of the holidays.

It looks like I'm the only one at work today. I'm literally the only person in our suite. Slackers.

Upcoming shows...hmm... Patti Smith next week. The Slickees return to Baltimore. Editors in January. Tickets for Bob's show in March went on sale earlier this week. That'll be a fun one. Another double-header with Bob playing an early gig, followed by Blowoff the same night. Yowza. I should start resting now.

There's a great local bands show next month at 9:30:

"30 Years Over DC"
feat. 9353, Ottley, The Howling Mad, Rambling Shadows, Rustbuckit, The New Standard
1/12/08

Old-school DC goodness. The "30 Years Over DC" heading is a play on one of the earliest DC punk compilations - ":30 Over DC" which features the Slickee Boys, White Boy, 1/2 Japanese, Nurses and a bunch of others. Many thanks to Henry Rollins for finally getting this released on cd. Go buy it. While you're there, pick up his Trouble Funk release. It'll change your life. And while I'm at it, here's a plug for the awesome "30 Under DC" website. More info about early DC punk records than you ever needed to know.

hmmm.....that's it for now. Someone just walked in. I should at least pretend to work now.