I Go To Music Shows Some Times

I very rarely go to shows. I've never quite been able to commit to knowing about bands that are awesome but still affordable to see. I have always relied on others to help me in this matter (M.Lady comes to mind, as do T., and J., oh and P. and B.). A few years back M.Lady introduced me to the music of Say Hi To Your Mom (now just Say Hi). Over the last year I've been listening to the motley collection of Say Hi's music that I have on my iPod a lot. It's the kind of music that just gets to me. If I'm not paying attention I can bob my head enthusiastically and feel all 'this-is-my-soundtrack-as-I-drive-to-the-grocery-store', but when I do pay attention (as best I can) and listen to the lyrics, my appreciation of what's going on grows. For example, one of his earlier albums is a concept album. About what? Um, vampires. Maybe you don't know this, and maybe it's not relevant or that special (it's not like I have the Joss Whedon appreciation market cornered) but I am fascinated by certain versions of vampires!

And, often I pick up and tune in just when the dude is singing a line that could have come right out of my diary, if I had a diary, which I don't, it's a journal. Besides the point. So, when I saw that Say Hi was coming to Philly I decided I wanted to go and asked A. and B. if they'd like to go as well. They were willing to come though they weren't familiar with the music, which I appreciated...since I am not sure I really would have gone all by my lonesome.
I have problems with live music. The sort of inner-neurotic-crazy sort of problems best kept right on inside. But I'll give you a taste, just for fun. Okay, so, when I am watching a band, whose music I like, perform, I am apt to do at least a few of the following things:
1. Begin to wonder why I am not a musician.
2. Begin to wish that (a la High Fidelity) I dated/was good friends with a musician (I think I fall into Dick's perspective...ie maybe I could be in the background somewhere).
3. Begin to wonder what I am doing with my own life and why I can't make things that make people want to be in the background of my world.
4. Begin to wonder if I'm staring too hard at the musicians/whether I seem like I'm enjoying myself in the midst of wanting to kiss somebody/make something amazing/crawl into a corner and bob my head.

It's not good. But it's kind of great. It's all very confusing.

The show was at Johnny Brenda's. It's a nice venue, far less scary than I had expected. I guess what I mean by that is that it wasn't too big, all the patrons seemed into the music but not overly into themselves, the bartender was nice and refilled my water...you know, not scary.



I thought about taking the blue out of this shot. But then I decided not to. Then I decided to. Then I decided not to again.




Two especially enthusiastic fans wanted to be backup dancers, this was met with approval and up they went and danced for two songs.
At one point, I didn't get a good picture of this, the drummer actually got up and danced with them as well. It was sweet and funny, all at the same time.





I took nine million photographs in an effort to feel like I was doing something with my life.
But none of them came out awesome.
If Say Hi comes to your town, you should go see them.