Someone Has a Case of the Mondays

“No. No, man. Shit, no, man. I believe you’d get your ass kicked sayin’ something like that, man.”

But in all seriousness, this Monday is spent in recovery from a weekend I won’t soon forget.

It’s good to get back to work. Part of my day job is rifling through other people’s blogs, and it consistently reminds me why I should keep up on my own internet real-estate. Because there are people like me out there who blog-hop. And it’s good to give blog-hoppers some fodder.

So, for my sake, update your blog. My job relies on it (well, probably 30% of my job, but still, that’s a 30% we can’t do without).

In any case, good weekends tend to bog down Mondays. I saw Kid Koala at the Echo on Friday night, and I haven’t been to a concert of my own volition in a long time. When I do go, it makes me remember why I have my job at the bar.

I Live for Live Music.

And in turn, live music has kept me alive. As an unstable element unto myself, I bond well with other chemicals. I smoke cigarettes, I like coffee, anti-biotics work wonders for me, acetaminophen keeps me sane, the way females smell sedates me — and that’s why drugs, though I may enjoy them, I must keep away from. If I weren’t a musician, I’d probably be a junkie.

And if I weren’t a musician, I wouldn’t have my night job. (You like that segue?)

The Cocaine had a great night for only a 4 band bill:

You Forgot brought me back to my high school playlists. They even acknowledged that everyone could connect with straight up melodic punk as this is how a lot of kids these days are grown. Raised on Misfits, Descendants, even NOFX if you please. And yes, I did like myself and my friends in those anti-establishmentarian days. And even though punks and metalheads are of two different camps (and I learned how to play more on the metal side), it was never difficult in high school to get along with punk-rockers. If everyone in their teen years is cynical, you tend to gravitate towards those that express it best. Thus, punk rock. Oi oi, my friends, oi.

The Girl With The Violent Arms: Though Mario never explained to me why his band is called this, I still like how easy he is to work with and how easy his music is on the ears. This isn’t to say he’s easy listening; it’s just so immediately accessible. He’s a catchy, minimal, electro-dance act, but for some reason it’s not overbearing like a lot of electronic acts I see come through the venue. People can definitely hear him outside, but you don’t have to fight to talk over him. Interesting. I also wish people would get more drunk by the time he hits his set because then they would dance, but as an emcee you can only do so much prodding at the audience until it becomes confrontational. Maybe I should book him in a later slot…

The Dust Pilots played their second show at our venue, and they had vastly improved since the last time they took the stage. They have way better control of their levels, the lead channels cut through everything else cleanly and not overbearingly, and their stage presence has become exponentially more confident. Even their banter in between songs has become more clever! Quote the singer: “Hey! All of you outside! The party is inside! Are you paying attention? Wh- don’t turn around! That’s right, I see your… blonde… ponytail…” You have no idea how proud I am that I was able to give them the little push they needed in moving from “new band” to their current level of “rock band.” I sense good things from this band in the future. I’m glad they can call our venue home.

Good Friday was also a great surprise — I had actually heard their name in passing when they had played our venue long ago as a starter band and has significantly matured since, but this is another success story for us. It takes a seasoned band to be able to pull off lighting controls (which they did) and clever major-minor parallel work without “over-writing” the parts. They understand simplicity vs. complexity, they understand consonant vs. dissonant, they understand loud and soft. Hell, they even understand light and dark. And they use this knowledge well. After the show, I did notice they were kind of shaken at how their set went, but our bar staff really enjoyed them and didn’t catch their slip ups. Granted, I was able to count and catch them, but it wasn’t enough to take away from the performance. I think that because they have such high standards from practice, they would have considered it a “shitty” show, but I was still somewhat impressed. Also, on the way home a couple other staff members and I listened to their $3.00 CD, which has absolute genius for an opening track. You probably don’t know what I’m talking about, but that’s why you should get the CD for yourself.

But anyway that’s my two cents. Back to the freaking grind of daily life. Speaking of which, I should really get back to work…