blondie!!!

i can't remember if i mentioned it in here that i was going to see blondie, but i totally did, monday september 9, in washington dc!

yeah. so dc. i saw the damned there before because my friend lives there, remember? so i decided to see blondie there too and we could go together and it would be fun! she lives really close to the 9:30 club, where the show was, so she bought tickets and it was settled. hooray!

unfortunately things aren't always as awesome as you expect them to be and she told me a few days before the show that her grandfather passed away and the service was on monday so she was no longer able to go. she still wanted me to go and use the tickets and have fun, but i was sad for her and sad for myself that i didn't get to hang out with her. have i mentioned how great she is? because she's really great. and i miss her.

so that sucked. but i did find someone else to go with me. my friend said we were still welcome to stay at her house, left me a visitor's parking pass, etc., so we went to her house to chill out for a little bit before heading to the show. it was really nice of her to do that and it was great to have somewhere to unwind after that shitty drive. we decided to wander around and see if we could get food somewhere and check out our surroundings. the club is super close to where she lives. we started off in that direction and were just talking and whatever and i looked up to see that clem burke was walking towards us.

CLEM BURKE ALERT CLEM BURKE ALERT HELLO WHAT

i shouldn't have been that surprised to see him but i totally was. unfortunately he was on his phone; when he was right in front of us i said "hi!" and he said "hi" back but just kept walking. oh well. i wanted to actually talk to him! and see if he remembers me! and ask him why he's not drumming for hugh cornwell on the upcoming tour! and how did he get to be so awesome! so many things! again: oh well. it was still really cool to see him and i freaked out afterwards. then we just killed time until it got close to 7, and went and stood in line to get in.

oh hey, did i mention who the opening band is on the tour? it's x. yep. x. so that was really awesome.

the show was fucking great. the whole thing, start to finish, minus a few little things here and there, was just fucking great. i never got really into x, but after seeing them, i'm a believer. billy zoom is really fun to watch, and we were kind of right in front of him. their drummer is really great too. but it was hard to see exene and john doe from where we were standing; however, from what i could see, she looks fucking awesome, and sounds the same, too. they were a lot of fun. and then blondie. holy shit, blondie. i've been in love with them for many years and this is the first time i got to see them. watching clem drum blondie songs in front of me was really fucking cool. my only real complaint? the set. they played a bunch of songs off of panic of girls, the new album, which was fine, because i really like that album. it's very dancey and fun. but the rest of the set was like the greatest hits album. and i get it, i really do, i mean, that's what people want to hear, right? but what about the rest of us who listen to full blondie albums and like the songs that weren't the big hits? instead of "rapture" (i could go the rest of my life without ever hearing it again and that would be ok by me) why couldn't they have done "11:59" or "picture this" or "fan mail" or "rip her to shreds"? that would have been fucking amazing to hear. i still had fun! i'm not really complaining. i just like it when bands pull out the unexpected songs. i didn't go to hear the best of blondie; i could've stayed home and listened to that album. it would have been a much cheaper night. but yeah; finally got to see clem play along to "dreaming," which was a great moment in time for me.

oh, i kind of forgot about the most important thing: i saw debbie harry in real life. there was that time i was supposed to meet her but hugh cornwell fucked up and didn't tell me she was there and then she left. ugh. anyway, i still hope i can meet her someday because she is so cool. seeing her, on a stage, in front of me, singing blondie songs, it was a really big deal. and she looked so cute.

overall, yeah it was fun. although the fans were really annoying too. just gonna throw that out there. sorry. but it's true. except the guy who let me have his spot after i was violently shoved out of the way by some dude and his dumb girlfriend. during rapture, of course, because i guess some people only came to hear that song. which is fucking stupid. that's really it. we had a good time. i will definitely go see blondie again sometime, maybe when they play the keswick on this tour, which is considerably closer than the 9:30 club.

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ok i wrote this a while ago and i'm only just posting it now. i did not go to the keswick show and i'm trying to not be sad about it.

david johansen

i have a lot to catch up on but i'll start with this one: david johansen at the brighton bar...

which is kind of difficult because i was excited about it that night and then got less jazzed as the night went on and now i almost don't care. almost. yes, the new york dolls are one of my favorites, obviously. but, compared to the sylvain show, and i know i'm in the minority here, david just didn't hold up for me.

i know, it doesn't make sense. david had a whole backing band, who sounded amazing by the way, and he sounds pretty much the same as ever; and i do love that raspy voice of his. but there was just something missing, i guess, i don't really know how to put it. sylvain only had an acoustic guitar, and a bassist at the brighton show, but he made his performance bigger. by sharing stories and being cute and funny and stopping in the middle of songs to reminisce about something... i know that's not everyone's bag, but i really enjoyed it a lot. and if i'm gonna see david johansen on a stage singing new york dolls songs (which was most of his set, interspersed with a few solo songs) i would rather see sylvain and the rest of the new york dolls (well, the new new york dolls, if you know what i mean) up on stage with him.

besides that, yeah, it was great. it was fun. everyone else was having a good time. i made friends, etc.

oh and also i met him after the show which was not easy (and that's weird for the brighton) and he was not very nice. i don't expect everyone to be a ray of sunshine but come on man. there were only a few of us waiting around to talk afterwards, and i had brought my record that sylvain signed, and he kept trying to avoid me but there were some dudes looking out for me and they kind of forced him to pay attention to me. i ended up not saying anything to him because i could tell he didn't give a fuck. my friend offered to get a picture of us together so i said ok. it's horrible, you guys. i can't bring myself to post it. i mean, i look ok, but his face looks like it's melting off his skull and he looks absolutely miserable. it's just sad.

so yeah, that kind of marred the show for me, too. again- i don't expect everyone to be sylvain sylvain, mr. cheerful friendly nicey nice, but you don't have to be rude to someone who just paid to see you.

that's really all i have to say about that. yeah, go see him if he plays around you, it's still a good show and fun to hear those songs. but i don't know that i'd go out of my way to see him again.

alice cooper!

hey so i decided to go see alice cooper play at house of blues in atlantic city last night! i asked my favorite show buddy if he wanted to go and so i paid for tickets and he drove. hooray!

since i only recently started doing this blog again, i didn't write about the time i saw alice open for iron maiden last summer. and how i saw alice again a few days later play at sands casino in bethlehem. but those things happened, and i was happy to see that he was coming around again because he was fantastic when i saw him those other times.

last night was no exception. unfortunately, due to my show buddy not being the best at judging time and whatnot, and also with the addition of his friend and the friend's girlfriend, we ended up getting there a bit late and missed a bit of the show. i just found this set list so i can see that we missed "hello hooray," which i thought i heard last night...i guess i was right. we walked in during the second one, "house of fire." at least we got there just in time for "my" song; i call it mine but i'm sure it's like a million people's favorite alice cooper song. "no more mr. nice guy." just something about that guitar riff and the way he sings it..."i got no friends 'cause they read the paper, they can't be seen...with me." i love that pause in there. and when he goes "no more, mr. clea-he-he-hean!" it's just the best. right? i'm always right. so he did 2 songs off the new album (welcome 2 my nightmare...i didn't read any reviews of the album but i fucking love it. even the weird "disco bloodbath" song and the song that ke$ha sings on. yes i really put the dollar sign there. what. i don't know. i feel weird that i like it but i do...it's alice fucking cooper, ok), "i'll bite your face off" and "caffeine." he did both of those the last time i saw him, and he didn't do it last night but he would put on a jacket that had "new song" painted on the back, and just turn around so we could read it. brilliant, and so alice. what else...my friend was so psyched when they did "department of youth." hehe. oh and "dirty diamonds"! you guys! dirty fucking diamonds! that song is so awesome! that whole album was so good! and all the band members soloed and it was good. and, uh, "feed my frankenstein." you know he has the monster that comes out and hurls itself around the stage? it makes me feel like a child. like, that excited feeling that you get when you see a giant monster walking around in front of you. what, you guys don't like monsters? whatever. actually the night i saw alice and iron maiden, i got to see the frankenstein monster AND eddie. you have no idea what that did to me. or maybe you do?

then alice gets his head chopped off, "i love the dead," then he comes back out and they did all these covers, the doors, the beatles, jimi hendrix, the who...pretty fucking cool. followed by "i'm eighteen." no, alice, you haven't been eighteen for a long time...but it's ok because that song rules. and "poison." fuck yeah.

and then of course he does "school's out."

and i was so sad that it was over. it felt like he was playing for 20 minutes, not the hour and a half that it actually was. i was having such a good time. seriously, i hope he lives forever and never stops touring so i can keep going to see him. forever. it would never get old.

savages

so the third band in my crazy weekend extravaganza was savages sunday night at union transfer.

you guys know i'm not really into a lot of newer bands right? when i'm at work, my boss will put on new releases so he knows what they sound like, and a lot of the time i find myself going "what the fuck is this shit? ugh, turn it off!" then one night he put on something new, but it didn't sound new. it reminded me of all the post punk bands i'm into. it was angry, but without being thrashy. basically it was perfect. so i asked him who we were listening to, and he told me they're called savages, and i was hooked.

my friend had bought a ticket for this show a while ago, and she was meeting up with another friend in the city before the show, but she kept encouraging me to go. i wanted to, obviously. but i knew i was already going to see the dictators and wire that weekend and wasn't sure if a) i'd be up for it and b) have enough money. but tickets were only $15 and she started bugging me early in the day about going so i decided to do it.

the opener was johnny hostile, but we missed that set because we got food and drinks elsewhere before the show, and we got there during his set but didn't actually see any of it. he sounded awesome; i don't always like comparing new bands to old bands, but to give you an idea, it kind of reminded me a lot of suicide and a little bit of joy division. so i was a little disappointed we missed his set, but oh well.

so we finagled our way up front and waited for them to come out. did i mention that savages are a bunch of ladies? i hate when people are surprised that a band comprised of females is good; i hate when people say "yeah, they're good, for a bunch of girls." i hate it. we're all supposed to be equal aren't we? stop with that shit already. if you're a good musician, you're a good musician. male or female has nothing to do with it. however, it was delightful for me, as a female, to watch four ladies killing it on stage. it's inspiring, you know? i guess i hang around a lot of old punk dudes, so it was really refreshing.

ok. so the show. holy shit. i knew it was going to be good, but i didn't know HOW good. it started out really strong and didn't let up until they left the stage. and the singer, jehnny beth, has this really awesome stage presence. she's super intense. and she'll just stare at you. THROUGH you. and her voice is so cool. people compare her to siouxsie, which i get, but she doesn't wear crazy costumes and makeup. just black clothes and pink high heels. super short hair. minimal makeup. they all wore black and just looked cool. i didn't know who to watch. they were all so focused and into what they were doing and i didn't want it to end. it was just like...really fucking cool. my friend and i would look at each other after a song ended and just go "holy shit!" all the hype about them is completely deserved and when they come back here you better go see them.

wire

so, to continue from the last post, i worked saturday, then i came home and tried to take a nap; it lasted an hour, which didn't really do much for me, but whatever. so i got ready to leave and headed to philly for the wire show at union transfer. i've never seen wire before so i didn't know what to expect. and when i asked my boss about it, he pretty much just said they're "a wild card" and you can't really expect anything from them. that sounds fun to me, it's cool when bands just do whatever they want. i was just having this discussion with someone else in a band, i've been in my band for around 10 years now and he's been in his for a few years, and we both get sick of older songs after a while. my band hardly ever does songs that came out on the first album. and that's only 10 or less years ago that we started playing them. so i said i wonder how it feels for bands that started playing certain songs in the 70s and 80s to feel that they still have to play them at shows now. i know that it totally makes my night to hear a song that made me fall in love with a band, and i appreciate it a lot because i know they're probably forcing themselves to do it every night. so it was cool that wire didn't do stuff like "12XU" and "mannequin" and "reuters" and "i am the fly" and "outdoor miner." yeah, i would have loved to hear those songs live, i won't deny that. but i loved watching the band play the songs that THEY WANTED to play. oh before i forget, the opening band, bear in heaven, were really cool. even though technical difficulties fucked up the end of their set. i'm going to have to check them out. so anyway, wire- i was so tired but managed to enjoy myself anyway. i found myself getting entranced by little things, like colin newman's hand as he would play a bunch of really fast downstrokes, and graham lewis's hand going up and down the bass neck methodically, and i found myself getting endlessly entranced by robert gotobed's arms. a lot of the songs consist of him playing sixteenth notes on the hi-hat all the way through. i couldn't bring myself to look away. it was just a really great show. totally different from the night before (party central) but still really, really great. it's really cool to see legends like those guys up on a stage playing anything, even if it's not your favorite song, just because of who they are and how amazing they still sound. it was a little slow going, the show, but it slowly picked up the pace and by the end of the night they were really tearing it up.

oh and their newest album, change becomes us, is fucking KILLER. i will leave you with that.

oh, except this- my friend and his wife that i saw the night before were at this show too and i saw later that they posted pictures of themselves with colin newman after the show. i hung out for a while but left around midnight because i was tired and still had to drive for an hour to get home, so i was bummed that i missed out on meeting him. oh well.

oh yeah, and also i'm going to another show tonight! when i party, i party hard, just like andrew w.k.

smell ya later.

the dictators (nyc)

hello. this is my brain on 2.5 hours of sleep.

so, once again, the brighton bar pulled through and booked the fucking dictators. it's the dictators nyc because it's not technically the actual dictators, but it does consist of ross the boss and god damn motherfucking handsome dick manitoba. he's so fucking cool, you guys. well, anyway, i drove for 2 hours to go to this show. the girl that sylvain was talking to (remember when i said he was holding her hand while she was talking? and i was just sitting there? yeah, that girl) met up with me there (yeah we're facebook friends now what of it...but she said she would get me a cheap ticket in advance and also she's like really awesome) and introduced me to a dude in one of the opening bands (they were rad as well but i will get to that) and then we went in and hung out at the bar together. we talked forever and she said she'll come to philly for a show sometime. she actually didn't let me pay her back for the ticket because she was so impressed that i drove so far just for a show. i guess that's not a thing that people do much anymore but i don't like letting things escape me so i just fucking do it. i pay the consequences, for sure, but it's always worth it. she also bought me a shot because she wanted me to have a good time. as if i wasn't going to already! but yeah. so i was reintroduced to the bottle of fireball whiskey. we meet again, you delicious bastard. wait where was i? so we're hanging out and the first band starts playing and they were really awesome but i forget the name. then it was the disconnects which is the band that guy was in that she introduced me to. she warned me that they would be my new band crush and she was 100% right. it's kind of rare to find little local bands that kick as much ass and are having as much fun as those guys are so definitely check them out. he was like deep throating the microphone which is always a good time. and then frankenstein 3000 but you know i like those guys already, right? indeed. and meanwhile i am getting introduced to a ton of people because this chick knows everyone! and some other dude bought me a shot. i was like COME ON PEOPLE I HAVE TO DRIVE HOME but ok.

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wow, that is really rambly; sorry about that, but it pretty much gives you an idea of how exhausted i was that night. that's as far as i got friday night/saturday morning with talking about the show before i was like "oh shit i have to wake up in a couple of hourszzzzzzzzzzzz" so i will continue this now. except everything is really fuzzy because i didn't sleep much and i went to another show last night (which i will write about in a separate post of course). what i do remember is that the dictators are really just a fucking great rock and roll band. and you know, handsome dick manitoba is the man. i remember they did "the party starts now," "i stand tall," "who will save rock and roll," "baby let's twist" (that might be my favorite...), "faster & louder," and, of course, "two tub man." i would have been so sad if they didn't do that one! fun fact: i like to sing that song to my sister, although i'm not entirely sure how that started, and it doesn't really make sense to sing it to her. i just like that it confuses her i suppose. we'll be out shopping and i'll just be like "iiiiii drink coca cola for breakfast!!!" and she just rolls her eyes at me. the crowd was really into it, everyone was jumping and singing along and it was really just a good time. probably the most fun i've had in a while. they sounded great. i'm so glad i went.

i know these pictures are terrible, but i'm sharing anyway. they're still fun to look at.

so after the show, i saw my friend and his wife, the ones that i stood in the stranglers vip line with, and he offered to take my picture with handsome dick for me. so, i went over and asked him for a picture, and he said absolutely, and he put his arm around me. i mean, HE PUT HIS FUCKING ARM AROUND ME. it was unlike any other arm i've ever had around me. ever. my friend took the picture and dick says "i'm sorry, my paternal instinct kicked in." no kidding, man, he was squashing me so hard but it felt incredible. i have been told i've never looked as happy as i do in this picture, so there's that.

also the dude from the disconnects hooked me up with a 7", a t-shirt, and a sticker. and also a cassette and a button; i don't remember him giving those to me, but i guess he did? well, anyway, he rules and his band is my new band crush. so there you go.

ok, so then more stuff happened. i was talking to people and whatever and then i wanted to buy a dictators shirt, so i went over to the table and asked about a shirt. it had cleared out a bit by that point, i think, so it was a little less crazy. first, dick asked me "is that bela lugosi on your shirt?" and i was like hell yeah, man. and he seemed to approve. neat! so then the guy at the table with him was bitching about all the tank tops that they had, because no one buys them apparently. so i said "i'll buy one of those if it will make you happy." and the dude said "YES" so i said "gimme a small." and the dude said "dick will sign it for you, too." you know what dick says? "sure, i'll sign it, but only if you put it on first." HA! so i was like, ok, i'll go change in the bathroom i guess. because i'm not taking my shirt off in a bar. i came back out and he looked super happy and he wrote my name and HDM underneath. then i started talking to him about doing a show at the record store i work at. he ended up giving me his email address, so, you know, BOOYA. then the girl i was there with came over and we all talked a bit about whatever.

then i drove home. and i got home around 5:30am. normally i wouldn't care but i had to work in the morning. so i got 2ish hours of sleep. i would have taken saturday morning off, but i already took off friday night so i could go to the show in the first place. ah well. these are the sacrifices i make; totally worth it! go check out handsome dick anytime you get a chance. i wanna hang out with him all the time.

will i ever stop talking about the stranglers? no.

ok, a couple of things.

first of all, yesterday was one week since the stranglers show and i got all nostalgic and shit. ONE WEEK LATER. what is the matter with me? well, anyway, i've made it my life mission to get my ass to england sometime in the near future to see them play. with jet, ideally. they are supposed to come back here in september to make up the detroit gig they had to cancel, so if they do any other shows aside from that one obviously i'm going. but i have to see jet play in my life. so that's that. i am setting aside all the money i make at my other job to save up for a flight and everything. so, hooray! let's hope that all works out.

second- hugh cornwell announced a show in "philadelphia" in december, along with a few other dates for his tour. yeah. it's not in philly. it's at the sellersville theatre. the theatre that is less than 2 miles from where i live out in bumblefuck pa. no, it's not really bumblefuck, otherwise we wouldn't have a theatre here, but it's certainly not philly with its plethora of music venues. not only did i used to go there as a kid when it was a movie theatre, and have gone there since they converted it for many shows, but my band played there in january this year. hugh is going to be on the same stage i once was on. i beat him there! clem burke is going to be on the same drum riser i once sat on! how cool is that? i'm pretty excited. he told me about it a while ago but i didn't want to blab about it until it was officially announced. but i was like "um, you're going to be 5 minutes from where i live!" and he was just like "oh, well, i guess i'll see you at the show, then."

so classy.