Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Sometime last month I bought tickets to see Throwing Muses at the Jewish Community Center down the road from us. I'd always been tempted to see them since at least 1987, when I first heard them on the Lonely Is an Eyesore compilation, later bought their 1989 album Hunkpapa (probably my favorite of their early period), and especially when I went to college in Boston and saw ads for them playing around town. I never got around to seeing them for one reason or another--either the show was 21+ and I was 19, or it was an all-ages show and I was just too damn broke. I did eventually get to see Tanya Donelly (post-Muses and post-Belly) at a Fort Apache Studio party, but never got to see the band.

The show was tonight, and started about ten minutes ago.

So, why am I here, sitting in Spare Oom, listening to the new Phantogram, doing a bit of revision work instead?

More to the point, has it come to this? Has it come to the point where I really don't have any interest in seeing rock shows anymore? [This doesn't include Outside Lands--that's a local festival and the lineup has been stellar and well worth the price.] This isn't the first time we've wussed out and blew off a show, even after we bought tickets. We can sort-of afford it, so I don't feel too bad about the money part of it--I think about it this way: regardless as to whether I'm there, the JCC and the band gets my money, and that's a good deal. But really--I'd say the last time I really got excited about a rock show other than Outside Lands was probably seeing Wire during their Read & Burn tour at the Middle East in Cambridge in 2002. There was also the Curiosa Festival in 2004, but even then I found myself leaving about halfway through the Cure's set so I could escape the crowd and start the long-ass drive home from Mansfield back to Athol. There have been a few neat shows here and there, but very few. The last small show we went to that I was genuinely looking forward to was last summer for that Oysterfest in Golden Gate Park, and Mutemath and Devo were playing.

It could be partly the fact that most of our musical outings over the last few years have been mainly orchestral and symphonic. We go to a lot of classical performances, since it's something we both enjoy immensely, not to mention our town having a stellar orchestra. It could also be that I've always been more of a listener than a partier--with nearly all of the shows I've ever been to, chances are I'm up back with a drink and lost in the music, rather than down front in the pit. I'm not the dancer, I'm the wallflower with his eyes closed, singing along. It's just the way I've always been. I could even say that I'm 43 years old and just do damn fucking old to be going to night clubs, especially if I need to get up early the next day. There's even the fact that I was ill from allergies the last two days and I'm just too damn tired to deal.

But either way, I think it's time to bang the nail into the coffin, as A. and I said earlier today. It's about time to officially say that I'm not going to bother with any further club or hall shows unless it's something truly worth going to, something the both of us are truly excited about. It's time to admit to myself that, though it would be neat to see a band, we're probably not going to be revved up enough to want to truly go. Sure, I'll back the band by buying their albums--no way in hell I'm getting rid of that particular habit any time soon--but I'm probably not going to shows anymore, with rare exceptions.


Man, it feels really freaking weird admitting that.

Cool.

An AWESOME-SOUNDING MUSIC FESTIVAL looks to be coming to Golden Gate Park this coming August. Jack Johnson, Tom Petty, and Radiohead are listed as performers.

WE MUST GO.


ETA: The official website is here. For those who are wondering, "Outside Lands" was apparently the old name of the western part of the city, back when it was mostly sand dunes and not much else. :p