Monday, October 6, 2008

Acid Tongues and Rabbit Fur Coats

I heart Jenny Lewis. A lot. There were maybe 150 people there. Most of them were drunk and slightly obnoxious (like the ones screaming "I LOVE YOU JENNY...DELAWARE LOVES YOU JENNY" every time there was a lull). I hadn't heard any of her solo stuff, only Rilo Kiley. I need her new album. It's awesome. I almost bought a cute Jenny Lewis 2008 T-shirt. It was super cute, but since I just got two Phillies T-shirts, I figured I didn't need a new one.

I have a new guilty pleasure band out of this experience as well... Deer Tick. They're this mix of country, blues, and rock, and the lead singer is really interesting. He's one of those guys who laughs at his own jokes, but they're actually funny. He introduced me to my new favorite political song (it's a song-poem... titled "Jimmy Carter Says Yes")

Can our government...be competent?
Jimmy Carter says yes! Jimmy Carter says yes!
Can our government...be honest?
Jimmy Carter says yes! Jimmy Carter says yes!
Can our government...be decent an open?
As the 39th president...he has spoken yes! Jimmy Carter says yes!


Want to sing along? YOUTUBE LINK!

My favorite part of the show was probably how both Deer Tick and Jenny Lewis and her band ddrank Yuengling the entire time...then switched to Corona because I guess Yuengling ran out. Jenny was drinking beer as if it were water when she needed to clear her throat. Why I found this hysterical, I'm not quite sure, but whatevs. I was raelly hoping that she was going to sneak in a Rilo Kiley song, but alas no. I was also hoping for a Pinksy sighting as well, but again no. (Rilo Kiley's lead guitarist Blake Sennett aka Blake Swendson aka Blake Soper was Ronnie Pinsky from Salute Your Shorts. Sure did have a HUGE crush on him when I was like 11.)

The first band... Royal Family... man. They were painful. Really painful. The lead singer was awkward, had zero stage presence, and often sang with his back to the audience. He was constantly looking at his feet...and he was tone deaf. Every song was flat. His band on the other hand was amazing. The girl who played keyboard and did back up vocals was awesome...she had a great voice and an awesome presence. She did one duet with him...and it was the best song in the set because he did the least amount of singing in that one. Everything was just so flat for him. This will make sense to singers.. but he was going at every note from the bottom instead of coming up over the top if it so it fell really REALLY flat. He also kept constantly sliding into all of his notes, which is fine if you're on-key, but he wasn't.

The night was an overall success though. Strangers thought I was dating my friend Spencer... but whatever. Spence and I went to a local bar that you can walk to from my house and went people watching. It's a New Orleans Cajun bar... and they have this funk bank that plays badly every Friday apparently. Dockta D and the Infirmary. They were worse than Royal Family. But even worse than the band were the women (dressed in late 80s and early 90s clothes... and not in a fashion-forward way...I'm talking cut-out shoulders, giant gold belts, gold alligator heels, and south-west pattern vests) cutting up the dance floor. These ladies were having a grand ol' time, and I was having a ball watching them. If one of these women were your mom, you'd pretend you didn't know them.

I'm still bummed that I didn't get to see Tegan & Sara, but I'm happy that I didn't have to travel far from home to see Jenny Lewis (3 miles. Seriously.) and that I had quite the amusing evening. It really made me miss singing, actually. I spent all of yesterday and this morning while in my car listening to The Last Five Years on my iPod...probably scaring people driving next to and in front of me because I'm singing (and I mean singing as in acting while singing also.. which for The Last Five Years can get a bit emotional) every song. I love that music. It's music like that that makes me miss musical theatre. I keep going back and forth to whether or not I'm going to audition for Seussical in a few months. While I think it would be a lot of fun, I'd have to quit ULTA and I kind of need that job. I don't know what I'm going to do.

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