« later today i'll write thoughts about success for one of my favorite bands, but for now, links! | Main | fog and parks »
July 19, 2004
modest mouse and my overful life
so aaron, matt, kristy and i worked as ushers at the modest mouse show, which meant we got in for free. it was at the warfield, which is owned by clear channel, which is a horrible media and advertising conglomeration that i hate a lot. my job was seating people in the balcony. i worked with a 15 year old girl from here who goes to tons of shows as an usher, it was very strange to talk to someone of that age. she was very insecure as i'm sure i was at that age, and i ended up asking her a lot of questions to see what her responses would be, questions about bands but also about if she likes being 15, what she looks forward to in her life, ect. her answers were kinda vague and she said "like" an inordinate amount, but it was a neat experience to chat with her.
the first band sucked, but the second band, the walkmen, were totally good, i'm not sure who to compare them to, aaron said the singer sounded like the guy from the strokes, but the music wasn't like the strokes at all. they had good rockout parts i guess, and the singer sounded british even though they're from the east coast. i ran into anna from reno, which was a strange coincidence, we had a quick chat. i guess i feel kinda proud when i run into someone from my old hometown and get to tell them i'm living here. i also met 2 kids in their early 20's from reno, they were so excited for the show and fumed about how the kids here don't dance. i agreed, and helped them sneak onto the floor seating so they could shake it.
modest mouse came on, and we got cut from working. they gave us drink tokens, then we tried to figure out where to watch the show from. the warfield is my least favorite venue in this city, the floor is always way packed and watching a band from a balcony seat feels too old for me. but we tried to get down to the floor, and they had ushers all over the place keeping people out of walking lanes, it felt so shitty that we went back up to the balcony.
i watched the majority of the show from up there, and had some observations. the first thing i told aaron was that since modest mouse got on mtv and the radio, that the band, and specifically the singer isaac brock, just seemed like they were going through the motions, not like they used to when they were smaller. i compared this show, my 8th time seeing this band so i'm officially a geek, to when i first saw them, now 6 years ago. back then the shows in chico and portland were amazing, and the band really put it out there. at that first show, there were only 3 of them onstage, and isaac brock was drunk as hell and speaking in tongues, and when he sang he opened his eyes as wide as he could and looked completely possessed. the crowd was dancing and seething as a good crowd will, and it may have been my favorite show ever.
at this show they didn't have the energy, and the fucking sf crowd, full of young kids who only wanted to hear the radio songs, they didn't move at all, just stood around with mouths open as the band trotted out the radio songs and some old ones that didn't sound the same. it was a bummer to tell you the truth. kristy said the sound just like the records. i remembered back to when greenday "sold out" as many called it, when they got on a major label and ended up on the radio and mtv. i guess modest mouse never made any pretensions about not wanting to get rich off their music, and part of me says good for them cause they are talented musicians, but i hate that fame has sapped what i used to love about them, or at least in my opinion it has. i won't pay to see them again, and probably wouldn't usher a show for free either.
when i first moved here i didn't know so many people, and i had lots of free time. now i've been here 3 and half months and i feel like i've reached a saturation point of things to do, to where i have to choose between 2 or even 3 cool events taking place on the same night. today i awoke, went to punk rock breakfast, which we're holding at my house next week, then went to a meeting about organizing a san francisco cluster of people who will be at the republican national convention at the end of august. the room was full of dedicated activists, and hearing them speak inspired me to think that maybe there is a change that bush won't make it back into office. i'd been feeling really pessimistic before, but now i have a glimmer of hope in my heart. i'm gonna hook up with a group of about 15 people to protest with when i'm there, so that we can all watch and take care of each other when the police begin to riot, which they undoubtedly will. i expect i'll get arrested down there, even though i don't want to and will try to avoid it.
i left the meeting with my friend aaron marit, who lives at station 40 with matt and a bunch of other young people. marit as they call him is heading out tuesday to travel the states for a few months with just his backpack, hitching and riding trains. part of me is jealous, thinking i should be doing the same. i'm sure i will cull down my needs to a single backpack soon enough, for now i'm very happy in this city.
matt was at station 40, and he and i had a long bike ride up to the outer sunset neighborhood, to attend the stern grove festival. my roommate simon is interning for it, and he'd said that the bands for today, from senegal, were excellent. we rode out there against the wind and watching the fog roll above us, and met up with aaron and kristy. the grove is a basin of sorts, we sat on halfway down from the rim, listening to the music and watching all the other people in the trees. it's a really cool spot, we plan to go back there sometime at night when it's empty. the band we heard was ok, i'm not really into afropop at all, but it sounded cool vibrating off of all the trees. there were tons of yuppies dancing like acid burnouts, which maybe they were.
the show ended and we rode out the ocean, then back along the beach to golden gate park. usually when i go to the ocean it's sunny, but today it was foggy, and the light filtering in through the fog had an amazing aura, very diffused and soft like a bright pillow. we stopped on the way home and i bought 11 pounds of carrots for $3.50 at this russian owned farmers market, literally the cheapest produce in the world. we rode back to our house and i juiced the carrots, then left to go watch a film near megan's house.
the film was outfoxed, and it was distributed by moveon.org. it detailed how much the "fair and balanced" monicker fox news has labeled itself with is a pile of horseshit, by highlighting how the "news" station tows the party line of the bush administration to the letter. it's owned by rupert murdock, a shriveled evil old fucker, and it was so gross to think that a huge percentage of americans get their news from fox news every day. it made me want to puke watching all the footage they'd compiled, and everyone in the room alternated between guffawing and gasping at the temerity of those conservative assholes. i hope america can figure out to see through all these lies, we can't be this stupid.
the film ended and i rode over to the mission, for the vegan potluck. as it was last month, the food was amazing, and i met some new people in between stuffing myself way too full. they were gonna start with charades so i hit the rode, riding with megan back to the lower haight. megan is thriving here as well, i'm excited to attend a party at her house next weekend.
i stopped by fuzzy dave's to hang out with him and tamara, a rad person he met while in israel the second time. i played the readyville mp3's for them, i'm really into this band, and it's cool i just found out about them cause i'm gonna go see them play tomorrow night at someone's house. ahh, house shows, how i have missed thee.
i had planned to meet up with aaron buskirk and kristy after they got done watching spiderman II, but tamara volunteered to do some acupuncture on my knees, which have been hurting a little from riding the fixed gear down hills. she stuck a bunch of needles into my knee and dave's too, it was unnerving to feel her push the needle into my muscle tissue and have the entire muscle twitch and spasm. she then turned the lights and i fell asleep right away. i awoke as she pulled the last needle out, to find that my knees were sore as hell. she said it was lactic acid and that i should drink some water. i'm at home now and i've been drinking a bunch, but it nearly ruined me having to ride back up here. i'm gonna catch a shower and let the hot water fun on my knees for a while.
so as you can see, my life is pretty full now. this week i have that show tomorrow, then drinking dollar drinks at the el rio bar with james, then tuesday night there's a bonfire, wednesday i interpret, thursday i'm climbing with fuzzy dave, friday is megan's party, saturday night we prep food, and sunday tons of people are showing up for punk rock breakfast. it's a good life these days.
we're having a party at my house the 31st, friends are invited to attend, this includes out of towners, there's plenty of places to crash. i think daveo and billy are coming up from reno, gonna try and convince daveo to move on up here, it's so much fun.
Posted by bendan at July 19, 2004 01:57 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://drewish.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1062