Hotel Lights. Okay, okay, I might be biased. If you are on the unawares, Hotel Lights is fronted and well, IS basically, Darren Jessee. If you're not familiar with that, you may or may not recognize a little chorus he wrote in the mid 90s that went something like this- "she's a brick and I'm drowning slowly" Yeah. Darren Jessee was the drummer for Ben Folds Five. And Hotel Lights is the best thing about BF5 splitting up.Lucky for me I was able to see Mr. Jessee last night in Madison, WI at this small little hole in the wall- Cafe Monmatre. Very nice. Though, because I've idolized BF5 for a long time now, it seems weird to me that when I walked in the cafe there he was sitting on the other end, you know, being a normal human being. Ha. Damn me and my idolization of those 3 men that made up that great band. Anyway enough living in the past. (for now, it'll come back up soon)A friend of mine was catching the HL tour in Chicago, but I was working all weekend, so Sunday's show in Madison was perfect timing. And as is our habit we call each other from shows to listen to the track that's probably the rare track, or at least the unusual track of the evening. So, Friday night/Saturday Morning walking home from work I finally was able to check my messages, and I have this really distorted message (as usual) from Brooke. So I'm listening, and then, all of a sudden I hear; "cause there's no doubt, there's nothing to work out" and nearly peed myself. Darren Jessee was playing Amelia Bright, one of those raretracks from whatwouldhavebeenbenfoldsfivesnextalbum kind of thing. That we, who collect raretracks, have a shoddy bootleg of. So, I was a nice little typical myspace user and left HL a comment of "please play it in Madison. that's only fair" or something to that nature. So come Sunday, after I finally got the gall to talk to Mr. Jessee he knew who I was (apparently checks his myspace comments.) asked about Amelia Bright (because, honestly, one of the best BF5 songs, and it never made it out of 2000) and he said that it's recorded for the next album. Well holy shit man! That made my day. Week. Year. Existence. Whatever. So when it was Hotel Lights' turn to play they (Darren and Alan formerly of Sparklehorse) played some new ones which all sound very very good. And then also some off of the Selftitled album that was released off of Bar/None in March 2006. Stumblin' Home Winter Blues, Follow Through, Small Town Shit, You Come and I Go, and The Mumbling Years. In case you were wondering. But when he went over to the keys for Small Town Shit, he then said that the next song was from a request. And out came Amelia Bright. Well. Amazing. Before he played it he apologized because it was on the keyboard and that it was going to sound a little weird because of it. But to me, it didn't matter. I was hearing this song FINALLY. Because lets face it, I was 14 when Ben Folds Five broke up. I'm a little behind on the times sometimes. That and BF5/BF is how I ended up with good music taste if my ex-boyfriend had never introduced me to him, I shudder to think what I would be listening to right now. Oooh, evil thoughts.Anyway, so, after he plays it he gets up to go back to his guitar and smiles at me. As I'm like way giddy. Talk about reverting to inner school girl. Sheesh. Then before he closed he asked if there was anything I'd like to hear. Um. What? Let Me Be the One is probably my top released Hotel Lights track, and he got a sheepish look and told me it was too old. WHAT? Cause Amelia Bright isn't ancient, at all..... not that she's not back from the dead. Pun intended.Talked to him more after the show, got him to sign my Whatever & Ever, Amen and Messner Vinyls. And joked about finding Robert would be really hard. And then he offered me a CD for free. Well. Too bad I already bought them when they came out. Not really. So he gave me the poster for "my troubles" MY TROUBLES. Yeah, I drove 200+ miles. So what, it was Darren Jessee, and I would have done the same for anyone of Ben Folds Five. I DO do that for Folds all the time. Crazy? Yes. Whatever. I feel like I owe Folds, Jessee and Sledge so much that going to shows is nothing. Darren also said that there will be a more comprehensive tour after the new album drops in Spring of 2008. There are already a handful of albums that I'm not so patiently awaiting. This Hotel Lights album, the new Mute Math, the apparent new Folds, the solo Amanda Palmer record, the new Cloud Cult, the Eels b-sides, the new Eef Barzaley/Clem Snide, the list just keeps going and going......Moral of the story: Darren Jessee is easier to talk to than Ben Folds. I think this is because Darren is no longer famous. AND you need to go buy an album/procure an album/see Hotel Lights. Tonight, right now. GO. Be fruitful.