2003-06-04|10:13 a.m.
I�ve been going to see a lot of musicians perform. Pinback, Iron and Wine, Gillian Welch (with David Rawlings, as always), Angela Correa, Starlight Mints, Liz Phair, The Flaming Lips, and Coldplay. All of which was very entertaining.
Pinback was in a really small, local venue. Their music is sort of bittersweet and the lead man had tons of funny between-song chatter. The worst part of the show was the weird indie kids that come to shows to talk through the whole thing. You know that term �conspicuous consumption� which describes the modern rich and how they have to be hyperbolically wasteful (example: driving an H2, servants for the servants) to show their status among other rich people? Well, these kids need their own term: �conspicuous jerkiness.�
Iron and Wine was really awesome. Again, another small venue but in Los Angeles and the people I was with had reserved a table on the balcony, center of the stage. If you like good folky type music you should listen to this guy. He�s a heartbreaker. The best thing was that before the show started and we were getting drinks outside the performance room, he was standing right near us doing the same.
Angela Correa, who performed with her friend, Tom Brossseau, is still relatively unknown, though and another delightful folk singer. I saw her in a coffee shop for free. She lives in San Diego and is kind enough to give shows like that. I want her lip ring.
The Starlight Mints and the lovely Liz Phair opened for the The Flaming Lips in another relatively small venue in SD. The Starlight Mints were pretty fun. They had a huge screen behind them with all this psychedelic film behind them as they rocked out. It was pretty cool. Liz Phair, who I used to listen to in high school, was really awesome mostly because it brought me back to the time I used to listen to her all the time sitting on my bed thinking I was badass for listening to a song like �Flower.� The Flaming Lips. What can I say? Let�s see. Um, I remembered while watching them (with the gigantic balloons bouncing around in the crowd, glitter thrown at us, singing nun puppets with teeth, fake blood, the ten or so people dressed up in animal costumes on stage, and the crazy films played behind the band) that it felt like I was in some secret, adult version of a little kids birthday party and I had somehow been slipped some LSD. But no. I wasn�t high and I wasn�t at a party. But it was intense. I had a lot of fun. I think probably I missed out on something though. Everyone who I�ve talked to about seeing The Flaming Lips describes it as a religious, life changing experience. I think I missed that train.Coldplay was last night. It was an early birthday present from a good friend. Seeing performances at a large venue always sorta sucks because you have the younger fans who every five minutes or so yell out their unyielding love for the band (often right into your freakin ear). But, it was still very good. The best part was the light show they had.
I saved Gillian Welch for the end, because that was my most enjoyable show. She�s one of those people I�ve had on my list as someone I MUST see before dying.
In the transitional summertime before my junior year, I applied to a program at the University of California, Riverside to take classes for both college and high school credit. Living too far from Riverside to make the trip everyday, I just stayed at my grandma�s in Colton, a nearby city. My grandma�s house didn�t have air-conditioning and I didn�t have any friends. So, I spent all my days reading and re-reading my texts and doing homework and lying on her bed anxiously waiting for the oscillating fan (which wouldn�t stay in place) to rotate back to me and cool me for a second.
My uncle, who passed away last year from cancer, felt sorry for me I think. Never having that much money, it was very kind when he asked to take me to the local mall to buy something. Plus, it was nice to just go to a place that had air-conditioning. So, he sat down while I walked around the mall. It was one of those sad malls that started to become a ghost town because at the time a neighboring city was building another gigantic mall. You know the ones. They look like amusement parks.
I made my way into the music store. I saw a few things I wanted to get-- things people had said were good or that I had heard already. Then I saw this album:
I�d never heard of Gillian Welch. And I only had enough money to buy one thing. And I am not typically someone to spend money on something I am not sure about, probably because I never have that much of it.
But I got it, her first album.
And I brought it home and listened to it. It was nothing like I�d ever heard before. It was almost Country. But it wasn�t. It was more wholesome. It spoke to me.
I listened to it over and over as I sprawled out on my grandma�s bed that summer.
It was love from then on.
She met up with me many times over. New albums. Playing with Ryan Adams. This show.
She was dazzling and so was her other half, David Rawlings, who I like to imagine is her lover (which probably isn�t that impossible). Sweet and unassuming, he never has his name on the cover of the albums. He also plays the acoustic guitar like a wild man to which the live audience always bursts out in applause following his solos. He gently adds to her brilliance (and to others including Ryan Adams). The best parts were actually meeting the two of them, shy chatting, and autographs.
I look forward to her bumping into me again.