NOTNICE/NICE

DAMMIT.

Today I found out that my flight was altered by a full day, and I will be arriving back from a trip around 9PM on the same night I have tickets to go see the band X, a long-time favorite of mine. You tell me: 3000 mile flight that may or may not be on time, wait for luggage, drive home and put my son to bed, get re-dressed and drive to the club in Seattle, is that gonna happen? It's hard to imagine. Shiiiiiittt. I might as well give the tickets away now.

It's not very easy for me to get to shows and there are so many that I would like to see, and so many I miss. This one hurts particularly. PLUS now I have to fly out of here on my birthday. Watch for a pissy post that day, folks.

Ah, well. There is absolutely nothing I can do about it, out of my hands, so that is that. I'll go punch a pillow or a squirrel or something.

A small consolation was being able to watch two live video feeds from SXSW today, one from KEXP and the other sponsored by Little Steven's Underground Garage. I saw PJ Harvey and John Parish do an impressive set. The highlight for me was a new song, which will be released this month, called "Leaving California." PJ sang at the upper reaches of her voice, which is a very brave thing to do live as that can easily collapse, but she did an amazing job. Well, she seems a very bold sort anyway. I also got to see Andrew Bird play, a very unique sound he has, and very good live. The High Dials started a little shaky but got it all together and did a good set, and now I am watching Outrageous Cherry, another cool band from UG. Damn, these dudes all look older than me, sweet! Rock on, bald grey men!

Anyway, thank you so much KEXP and Little Steven for providing this. I could not go to SXSW, but I could enjoy some of the great music live anyway, and that is really nice. Someone out there really appreciates it, and that someone is ME. Still to come tonight: Magic Christian, The Breakers, The Urges, Cocktail Slippers, The Woggles, The Shys, The Chesterfield Kings, and Arc Angels. If I can stay up late enough to see the Chesterfields, I can see Greg Prevost, whom I used to correspond with a zillion years ago about music and Kinks tapes. He's hanging in there, and so will I in my way, as best I can.

The Chesterfield Kings -- "I Don't Understand"