Ironic Twist
seeking irony, because sarcasm clashes with my outfit
Thursday, June 16, 2005 :::
Thanks to the miracle of blogging, and Mr. Red Line in particular, I'm going to the sold out Bloc Party show tonight. Yay!
Also in the "yay!" column today -- it's my last day at Team America, which may or may not have been called out in thisWashington Post article. Thanks to MG and BV for the heads up, live from Rehoboth Beach. Yes, I think I'm getting out of here just in time. And what better way to end the day than with a Bloc Party show? Well, there's also the Architecture in Helsinki show at DC 9, and the Bettie Serveert show at Black Cat, both of which will probably be a lot less crowded, but I'm still stuck on Bloc Party since seeing them at Merriweather on Monday.
I couldn't resist watching the final episode of Chaotic last night. It was the wedding, ya'll, and I was curious. The press made it sound like it was all pimp tracksuits and fried chicken, but it was actually a lovely, classy ceremony and Britney looked lovely as a bride. Except for those stupid gloves. But otherwise, lovely. Although tainted by the horror of the previous episodes of Chaotic, with all the smoking and stupidity and looking up Britney's nose in night vision.
In other celebrity wedding news, IMDb reports that Nicole Richie wants elephant rides, swans, horse-drawn carriages and salsa dancing at her wedding.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005 :::
If you like indie power pop, be sure to check out this Dressy Bessy e-card and then go enter this week's bluestate contest to win the band's new album.
Last night’s show was definitely worth my $26 lawn ticket. I was a bit cranky because of the heat, but almost as soon as The BellRays went on, it started raining, lightly at first. I really liked The BellRays’ music – a combination of punk, soul and a big ‘70s rock sound. Lead singer Lisa Kekaula strutted around the stage like a diva/preacher hybrid and even got some people on the lawn to wave their arms in the air and yell “amen” like they were in church. (And no, it wasn’t just me and my friends doing that.) Towards the end of their 30-minute set, they sang a song about revolution that sounded really familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Like the rest of The BellRays’ songs, it sounded like it could have been written in the ‘70s, so I thought that it sounded familiar because it was either a cover of another band’s song or because it had been around for a while. I looked it up today and found out that the reason this song, “Revolution Get Down,” sounded familiar is because it’s in a Nissan commercial. Because nothing says “revolution” like a Nissan. Stream it if you’re curious.
Next up were Bloc Party, and I have to say that they lived up to the hype. It seems like lately I’ve had the chance to see the next-big-thing even before they became the next-big-thing, like catching The Killers open for stellastarr* at the Black Cat right before everyone started talking about them, so when the hype grew, I knew whether or not it was justified. (For the record, I like The Killers but think they put on a better show before they got really big in the U.S.) So, despite really liking the Bloc Party album, I was a bit apprehensive about seeing them after months and months of hearing and reading how amazing they are. But they were really great. I really like the way Kele Okereke uses his voice on the album, and was surprised that he pulled off some of those vocal tricks live, and seemingly without much effort. They opened with “Like Eating Glass,” followed that one with “Positive Tension” and went through pretty much all of Silent Alarm, including a few of the slower songs like “This Modern Love,” ending with “Pioneers.” I was really surprised that more people hadn’t gotten there early to catch Bloc Party, and that more people down in the pavilion, especially those standing in front of the stage, weren’t dancing. During Bloc Party’s set it started to rain really hard, and we got soaked and MG and I danced in the rain and it was just really amazing to be listening to a great band and dancing in the rain. Yeah, I know I sound like a dirty hippie right now, and I don’t even care.
Then, the Pixies. I don’t listen to the Pixies that often, so I don’t know many of their songs outside of the ones on Surfer Rosa and the big hits off of the other albums. They opened with “In Heaven,” which reminded me what a pretty voice Kim Deal has. Deal looked and sounded great. As for Frank Black, he sounded great too, and looked a bit like Alfred Hitchcock. Last night was a happy occasion for the band – after the first two songs, Black announced that Surfer Rosa had finally reached gold earlier that afternoon, thanks to Suzie Johnson in Topeka, Kansas, Black joked. Some people (their management, I'd guess) came out on stage with the framed gold records to show off, and then the show went on with “Where Is My Mind,” from the now-gold album. Over an hour and a half, the Pixies did pretty much all the hits and a bunch of songs I didn’t know, and came out for a one-song encore with “Gigantic.” Surprisingly, no “Here Comes Your Man” anywhere in the set, but that’s not really one of my favorites anyway. MG took some pictures, so I’ll link to those once she posts them.
A few asides from last night:
* If someone drops a cigarette in ketchup, it tastes like tomacco when you try to smoke it. (No mom, I wasn't smoking, I just wanted to see what tomacco tastes like.)
* Merriweather’s “gently sloping hill” is really slippery if it’s been raining and you’re wearing flip-flops.
* Thanks to the high school boys who caught me the first time I fell down the muddy hill. Well, more like ran down the muddy hill in order to avoid falling. Thanks, kids.
* Falling down the hill without anyone to catch you kinda hurts.
* If anyone has an extra ticket to Thursday night’s sold out 9:30 Club Bloc Party show, please get in touch.
I wasn't going to go to the Pixies/Bloc Party/The BellRays show at Merriweather tonight, but MG and BV talked me into tagging along.
I didn't do much this weekend, but I did get a taste of D.C.'s "velvet rope scene" or whatnot with a trip to Georgetown's Blue Gin to celebrate my friend EK's engagement. Another friend of her likes the place, so that's where we ended up. It was nice - like the reviews promised, Calvin Klein-looking bartenders and a conventionally good looking "international" crowd, with the women showing off their Louis Vuitton handbags. Both of my $12 martinis (raspberry and classic dirty vodka) were incredible. But then again, for $12 before tip, they better be. I had a better time than I thought I would, once I got over the fact that I paid $10 just to get in there. The DJ was playing the sort of electronic music I don't normally go out of my way to hear, but it was actually pretty good for what it was. An expensive evening, but how often does one of your oldest friends get engaged?
(Okay, so actually it seems like every time I turn around someone else has gotten engaged... but I've known EK since we were 13 or 14.)
01/05: Taint and Bliss present INFAMY, 9:30 Club
01/10: Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton, 9:30 Club
01/19: Benjy Ferree, Meredith Bragg and the Terminals, Greenland, Black Cat 01/24: Hej Hej, Cafe Saint-Ex