the sky resembles a backlit canopy with holes punched in it...

So last night I called up a few friends and we decided to catch the Incubus show downtown at the amphitheater. As we learned last year, when we checked out Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, there really is no point in paying insane ticket prices and service fees and dealing with large crowds of people when you can sit on the guardrail by the bridge just across the railroad tracks and the acoustics are perfect.

There were other likeminded people with the same idea, friendly assorted hippies and metalheads having a musical tailgate party with lawn chairs and beer who came around and told us we could see better over by their side. It was a perfect night, clear and warm, the skyline and the bridges lit up, and listening to great songs and nostalgia tripping to back in the day.

I was a huge Incubus fan in high school, back in the days when I was wearing really baggy pants and too much jewelry, when that was about the only good thing on Clear Channel and I had yet to immerse myself in college radio. Some of the earlier albums sound a little dated now, but their sound has evolved so much. I guess they're like the Soundgarden of my generation, huge albums with a lot of hits, and enough weirdness to keep it interesting. Hopefully Brandon Boyd doesn't go the way of Chris Cornell.



But they put on a great show, it sounded perfect, and we were also massively entertained watching high school kids attempting to sneak in by shimmying down the bridge onto the other side, climbing the fence, scaling trees, and jumping over the restroom while being chased by beefy security guards in yellow shirts.

A good time was had by all, and it was just what perfect summer nights in Cleveland are made of... cheap thrills, good people, sweet music.

Setlist (youtubes for some of the favorite cuts)

Pardon Me
Nice To Know You
Anna Molly
Stellar
Megalomaniac
Circles
Love Hurts

Just a Phase

Drive (acoustic)
Make Yourself (acoustic)
Dig (Acoustic)

Redefine
A Certain Shade of Green
The Warmth

Quicksand
A Kiss to Send Us Off
Wish You Were Here

Aqueous Transmission


Encore:
Are You In?
A Crow Left of the Murder
Let's Go Crazy (Prince cover)

can't wait for this

Anyone who knows me or has read this for any length of time knows that I have a deep love of Mark Lanegan's music. I have this thing for singers that I would never date in real life (hello, Greg Dulli!) but whose music resonates very deeply for me.

I've missed him every time he's come through (Gutter Twins, Twilight Singers, QOTSA solo, etc)...So I'm very much looking forward to the Soulsavers show at the Grog on 9/26.

That last album gives me shivers in the way that only the best music can. I know that when I hear them play "Revival" and "Kingdoms of Rain" I will begin to sob uncontrollably and feel no shame.





And as a bonus: Lanegan & PJ Harvey backed by most of Queens of the Stone Age

today I hate everyone

Some people need to grow up and get a life and stop thinking that everyone's out to mess up their day. That's not what I do, and I can't help it that you're unhappy with your life.

"And if I hurt you I am sorry that was not my intention..."

playlist 7/28/09

incubus - agoraphobia
telescopes - spaceship
ataxia - the sides
bitter:sweet - our remains
the verve - life's an ocean
me'shell ndegeocello - bitter
mos def - no hay nada mas
the roots - baby
portishead - wandering stars
diplo - big lost
vulpes vulpes - inevitable instances
georgia ann muldrow & mos def- roses
gnarls barkley - who's gonna save my soul?
andrew bird's bowl of fire - satisfied
ollabelle -see line woman
natalie merchant - soldier
rokia traore - mouso niyalen
oumou sangare - wele wele wouton
esau mwawaya - funa funa
t-bone burnett - baby don't you say you love me
aretha franklin - save me
elsie mae - do you really wanna rescue me
watusi - oi gere
george benson - the ghetto (bossa remix)
the don, isaac, ezekiel combination - ire
mountain goats - jaipur
afghan whigs - citi soleil
ride - leave them all behind

photoweekend

And of course, life in Cleveland is not all mid-20s angst all the time...

There is still graffiti to be photographed, even as it looks like the Metalcrete building by the funwall is being buffed and fixed up (who would buy that anyway) and there's a camp of homeless people now living underneath the 25th Street bridge.









And, on the way out to the east side, we had an encounter with the Heaventrain in a parking lot on East 30th.





I need to start carrying my camera with me everywhere. There's too much I'd miss otherwise.

dramatics

I tend to be pretty social just because I enjoy people and find them interesting, but I just get so drained when everyone decides you're the perfect confidant to talk about tension regarding mutual friends. Sometimes I don't answer my phone depending on who it is because I get to the point where I just don't want to deal with whatever the inevitable conversation will be. I don't know who to believe or if I can believe either side of the story because it seems like everyone thinks they're the hero and the victim.

And I find that I still prefer to avoid large groups of people I don't know. Or what's worse, when half of them are people you do know and their friends are standoffish because you've got the wrong style or the wrong zipcode or the wrong pigmentation and therefore you're assumed to be a certain way. And you realize how little you relate to your generation and that most people aren't like you.

It seems like a lot of us in our mid-20s are either partying themselves into oblivion or getting married and not hanging out anymore or just hanging out with other couples. And it's awkward sometimes being around people who just talk about what they bought from Ikea and what was on TV last night.

And I don't like the club scene, the bar scene, and parties where everyone's drunk and all I want is a cup of strong black coffee because even a glass of wine will make me fall asleep. I'm not interested in dance moves, hookups, drama, how artsy you are, Top 40, trendy indie band of the week, or how many shots of tequila you can handle. I'm still a geeky kid from the suburbs who happens to prefer the city and all that it involves.



I just like to keep it chill.

My best times have been with a couple good friends chilling on a balcony or a front porch, walking along the shore at Edgewater, driving through Cleveland listening to music, taking random road trips, staying out late drinking coffee at eating pancakes at some 24-hour place having absurd conversations where you laugh a lot and get profound without trying.

Sometimes I wonder if it's weird that this is all I need.

loca

I got to have some fun at work today, with me and a student digging through crates of old donated records that have been sitting down in the basement for how long. We were trying to pull albums that would actually sell on the booksale shelf, something other than Barbra Streisand and Mantovani's 101 strings. Found some good stuff that's now ripe for the picking by the masses that frequent my place of employment.

I keep thinking "I'll take a day and chill" and it just hasn't happened... every day is something new and crazy and while I love it, I haven't touched my paints, haven't picked up a colored pencil, haven't had a night to light candles and sketch and listen to music and get introspective.

In other words, be the antisocial kid I was in high school and the eccentric college roommate who spent her weekend nights listening to records and painting while her roommates were out doing whatever else.

And I guess it's good that life is full and people actually make an effort to hang out with me and life didn't end once I entered the "real world." I feel like I've learned more about life in general since I moved back to Cleveland than I ever did in college, simply because similar musical and literary taste is not the basis for most of my friendships anymore and I've realized how shallow that criteria can be.

I'm beginning to believe that while subculture can make you feel more cultured, it can also narrow your perspective just as much because of its sheer insularity. More on this when I'm more coherent.

And I need another graffiti day. I haven't had one since February and I know there's all sorts of new art to discover.