Baby Blase

The Chows and Chuck arrived on the same flight from San Francisco Wednesday night, and seeing as how they were on CA time they had no problem eating a little, having some beers and chatting for hours. I, on the other hand, had already been asleep for an hour, so said a quick hello and retreated to bed.

The next morning we left a house full (4 kids and two babysitters) without a second thought (it is SOOOO good to have a nanny whom we trust) and headed downtown.

The day started at the Paste/Brooklyn Vegan Party with The Pains of Being Pure At Heart canceling. Which is a bummer because I imagine the sound would have been better than outside at Red 7 where we saw them the previous day. The Wheel filled in – and unsigned band from Denver – which I really enjoyed though you wouldn’t know it ’cause Kara and I pretty much talked the entire time – GEEZ… SORRY! It had been a while since we’d seen each other! Marc says we saw New Villager next, but, I don’t remember that. I might have been outside waiting for Bishop Allen

and discussing plans for John & Kara’s 11th Anniversary Party – 11 years married – 17 years together… that’s, like, a long time and stuff…

Then it was the pretty, pretty, pretty Au Revoir Simone. Did I mentioned that it was pretty?

Standing behind the sound board for Daniel Johnston the sound guy asked me “who is this?” in a why-on-God’s-green-earth-are-all-of-these-people-here, for THIS? I answered him with a “are you serious?” Because I thought sound guys generally knew the music their were setting up for – I obviously know nothing about the music industry. The girl next to me very helpfully explained to the sound guy that “he is the guy that painted the frog… on that building… near campus”. I chimed in with what little knowledge I had gleaned from the documentary (it’s a riveting film) about the insane, genius. It was good to see him live – much better than I had anticipated.

Then it was time for some good ol’ fashioned rock with These Arms Are Snakes, Cursive and The Wrens.

Our buddy Tim recommended that we see The Avett Brothers. A fun show, for sure.

Again, it was just awesome to get out in the sun and walk around our town. It occurred to me, after reading a post by the lovely and oh-so-knowledgeable OCMD that I have a tendency to be under-critical when it comes to shows these days. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that I leave the house once-a-week if I’m lucky and when I do it’s to pick up Pho. Last week, the week of SXSW, I brushed my hair EVERYDAY! And… wait for it… put on make up. I even wore clothes that were not slept-in the night before! It is clear that the number of EXCELLENT’s and AWESOME’s that appear in my posts for SXSW are not necessarily indicative of a band’s quality but, more a reflection of my overindulgence of beer and vitamin D.

Listening: The Mad Cow String Band (TIM! I miss you!!!)