my alabi: where I was May 20-22nd
Had drinks with Erin on Friday. She moved to a different house in our neighborhood which may or may not be haunted by the man who died in her bedroom.
Saturday I spent the day on Haight Street where i got the Jon Stewart book for Jesse's birthday and bought a new shirt for $3 and a Mates of State CD at Amoeba (using all the self-control I could muster to get to the register with only one CD). Saturday night was a birthday gathering for me & Jesse at his house--good friends, a special serenade a la Interpol, bonfire, belly laughs, pizza, gifts and cake. We stayed there until 2:00 AM discussing the Le Tigre controversy, our disappointing girl/boyscout experiences, and all those rumors about Thome York's weird eyeball situation. The Chrissy Huffard fan club ate her gifts of water chestnuts, star fruit, and Black Black gum. By the way, the NPR interview with Chrissy can be heard here.
Sunday we checked out Brooks Park (in San Francisco), which has a beautiful 360-degree panoramic view of San Francisco. It's a very tiny park and it was peaceful and private when we the only people there, but then a group of 20-something guys came with a video camera, 40s of beer, and blunts...so we decided to head to Dolores Park instead, which was as entertaining as it always is. I think it's among the best places in the city to people watch. At home, we watched the first season of Three's Company (best sitcom ever!) and then headed out to the MakeOut Room to see a show with Mattthew & Sid. Yet another bargain with three amazing acts for only six bucks! Man, do i love that place.
The opening band was Jug Free America, which had a multi-talented ensemble of 5 vocalists harmonizing, plus guitar, banjo-mandolin, washtub bass, kazoo, washboard, pots and pans, bass and snare drums, harmonica, banjo, harmonium and of course a jug! They played some old-timey bluegrass, some bluesy stuff, and did some truly amazing covers of early Marley stuff like "Who Feels it Knows it."
The middle act was this crazy (cracked out in a good way) dude Curtis Eller. He yodeled, played banjo and kazoo and stomped around, pouncing the stage like a marionette on vicadin, dangling his leg over the neck of the banjo for long stretches of his song or standing on one leg on top of a chair. He played as if the concert was for thousands, though the room was filled with only 50 or 60 people, running around off the stage and into the crowd doing laps while playing and singing. That was some Superbowl halftime shit!
The headliner was Iron & the Albatross, a quintet of horns, stand-up bass and drums. Ara Anderson is hogging all the talent! In Iron & the Albatross he plays trumpet, baritone horn, glockenspiel, califone (whatever that is), keyboards and pump organ, but he's also in the group Boostamonte, and plays with the comedy troupe Killing My Lobster, and the variety show Pickle Family Circus. He's also been on a few Tom Waits albums and he plays with Jolie Holland too.
The funniest thing was looking over at Sidney during the set, the room filled with wailing horns and pounding drums, and he's fallen asleep sitting up! I swear, the performance was anything but boring. Sidney wasted all his energy at the 2 AM show of Star Wars (dork!).
Saturday I spent the day on Haight Street where i got the Jon Stewart book for Jesse's birthday and bought a new shirt for $3 and a Mates of State CD at Amoeba (using all the self-control I could muster to get to the register with only one CD). Saturday night was a birthday gathering for me & Jesse at his house--good friends, a special serenade a la Interpol, bonfire, belly laughs, pizza, gifts and cake. We stayed there until 2:00 AM discussing the Le Tigre controversy, our disappointing girl/boyscout experiences, and all those rumors about Thome York's weird eyeball situation. The Chrissy Huffard fan club ate her gifts of water chestnuts, star fruit, and Black Black gum. By the way, the NPR interview with Chrissy can be heard here.
Sunday we checked out Brooks Park (in San Francisco), which has a beautiful 360-degree panoramic view of San Francisco. It's a very tiny park and it was peaceful and private when we the only people there, but then a group of 20-something guys came with a video camera, 40s of beer, and blunts...so we decided to head to Dolores Park instead, which was as entertaining as it always is. I think it's among the best places in the city to people watch. At home, we watched the first season of Three's Company (best sitcom ever!) and then headed out to the MakeOut Room to see a show with Mattthew & Sid. Yet another bargain with three amazing acts for only six bucks! Man, do i love that place.
The opening band was Jug Free America, which had a multi-talented ensemble of 5 vocalists harmonizing, plus guitar, banjo-mandolin, washtub bass, kazoo, washboard, pots and pans, bass and snare drums, harmonica, banjo, harmonium and of course a jug! They played some old-timey bluegrass, some bluesy stuff, and did some truly amazing covers of early Marley stuff like "Who Feels it Knows it."
The middle act was this crazy (cracked out in a good way) dude Curtis Eller. He yodeled, played banjo and kazoo and stomped around, pouncing the stage like a marionette on vicadin, dangling his leg over the neck of the banjo for long stretches of his song or standing on one leg on top of a chair. He played as if the concert was for thousands, though the room was filled with only 50 or 60 people, running around off the stage and into the crowd doing laps while playing and singing. That was some Superbowl halftime shit!
The headliner was Iron & the Albatross, a quintet of horns, stand-up bass and drums. Ara Anderson is hogging all the talent! In Iron & the Albatross he plays trumpet, baritone horn, glockenspiel, califone (whatever that is), keyboards and pump organ, but he's also in the group Boostamonte, and plays with the comedy troupe Killing My Lobster, and the variety show Pickle Family Circus. He's also been on a few Tom Waits albums and he plays with Jolie Holland too.
The funniest thing was looking over at Sidney during the set, the room filled with wailing horns and pounding drums, and he's fallen asleep sitting up! I swear, the performance was anything but boring. Sidney wasted all his energy at the 2 AM show of Star Wars (dork!).
posted by Freewendy @ 12:09 PM
1 Comments:
At 3:23 PM,
Dustin said…
Curtis Eller came highly recomended by the Dark Lord. I'm jealous, I had wanted to see him :(
Post a Comment
<< Home