Last Weekend. Part I.

Alright. Before I go and get some food and start on my German final project, let's get some things out of the way.

As I had mentioned before, Ross and I went to go see Rogue Wave last Friday. I have wanted to see Rogue Wave since last year. I got posters sent to me from them (I'm on the street team), promoting their last gig at Bowery opening for Helio Sequence. Damn I wish I could have gone to that show. But time heals all wounds, or is supposed to, and I finally got my chance to see them.

I had come into the city fairly early, as my classes ended at 1:20, and got there by about 3 or so. We had about 5 hours to kill. Larks were had, and I bought Quadrophenia on vinyl in Brooklyn. <3. We also went to the Van Gogh exhibit at the Met. Anyway, back to the point, we got to Bowery to find that we had, in fact, ordered tickets in advance. We were able to get spots right up at front, to wait for the sheer awesomeness to come. But first, the opening acts, none of whom I had heard of before: The first one up was Shelby, and let me tell you, I was not all that impressed. The band consisted of three gents, in the traditional lineup, guitarist/singer (although he did do a little keyboards for one or two songs), bassist, and drummer. The last of this list was the most redeeming of the entire band. He could really play the set. I'm telling you, amazing. The bassist had a bad habit of playing the same note for an inordinate amount of time, and to the same rythym, which made me sad. What did it more was he had a penchant for standing in the "power stance", looking down at his bass, and then every so often, looking up at the audience with a grimace. Errgh... The guitarist also kept it fairly simple, repeating things way too many times, and the few times a solo came around, they were 5 notes, tops, and very simple and repetitive. The music turned out, on the whole, to be fairly sappy. So, Kyle was not impressed.

Next was Mazarin. What to say about Mazarin? Unfortunately, I don't think I can say much, as the levels were really messy, and it was ridiculously difficult to hear anything, even standing right up at front. For the last 3 songs I couldn't hear vocals at all. They did seem like they could be good, not especially good, but adequetely good. But who knows?

Finally, Rogue Wave came out. The stage was completely reset for them. Their amps were decked out with that net Christmas lighting, and all the amps had a colored light underneath. So, they started with "Bird on a Wire", which was really good. They also played a fair amount of songs off of Out of the Shadow; the first two songs were both first tracks on albums. Let me go right into saying that these guys are extremely talented. They switched places often and almost always to different places. It was fairly ridiculous. They were all not only decent at all the instruments they played, but, if I do say so myself, pretty freakin' good. I sure as hell was impressed. After playing a spectacular set, Zach Rogue came back before the others for the encore. He played "Postage Stamp World" solo. I had been hoping for that song, and they weren't supposed to have played it, as it wasn't on the set list, which also had the encore songs. Ross and I both snagged one at the end, so we have mementos.

After the show, Ross and I headed over to the Fey's apartment to sleep. There was some reading of Gravity's Rainbow before we hit the hay, which was... interesting. And the rest is for me to write another day. Perhaps tomorrow if I get all my work done today.

Pictures

Rogue Wave
Mazarin
Shelby

Oh, and the Rogue Wave merch was really good. American Apparel shirts (I'm so happy they're being adopted by more and more bands. Shirts that fit, what a joy), and a free poster with the shirt. They also had a tour EP/Single, which I may have gotten if I had more cash. There were also buttons and stickers a-go-go.