i fell in love with a band, but she 's a rejecter
I didn’t spend my entire hiatus alternately staring at the walls and watching Everybody Loves Raymond reruns. Me and Jaymog also went to an Of Montreal concert. He had told me it was coming up when we saw G. Love but when I finally got around to emailing him that I was up for the concert it was sold out. No problem says Jay, either he will find a ticket on craigslist for me, or we will find a scalper at the show, or worst case scenario we’ll go do something else if it doesn’t pan out. The first option didn’t pan out, so we head on out to the show and Jay’s made up a handy little sign asking for a ticket that I was just a little too embarrassed to hold up. Heh. After awhile the doors open and the line files slowly by us and there are no tickets to be had. At this point, I am feeling like a real ass because he’s already got a ticket and he’s my ride. With 5 or so people left in line a guy comes up to us and tells us he’s a member of the opening band, Psychic Hearts (which I heard as Second Carts at first, heh) and he’s got some spots open on his guest list and throws me on there. It was a weird moment for me – because I was so grateful and overwhelmed by his thoughtfulness/kindness but I also had this thought in the back of my head – “What if his band sucks? I’d feel so guilty.â€A heartbeat or two and we’re inside and I go straight to the merch table to buy their cd before I hear them, just in case. No luck – they have nothing there. So, I go buy a beer and recognize the other two members of the band standing there and buy them beer as a thank you. The total, by the by, was $11. How awesome is that? Three beers for $11? The band didn’t go on right away and Jay and I hung out on the patio. I had actually never even heard Of Montreal before so Jay was bringing up clips on his iphone for me to listen to. I had assumed, for whatever reason, that they were one of those kind of slow, dreary, melodic bands that aren’t my style. In fact, that was precisely the reason I decided to go – I wanted to see what the shows were like when you saw bands like that. The songs he pulled up seemed a bit poppier than I expected, but it was basically what I was expecting. In the meantime, I was checking out all the kids around us. There were boys in pants much, much tighter than mine. There was a boy in a neon green tube top. And I sat there, kind of dismayed, thinking that I had finally gotten old and was just realizing it. “Today’s fashion†has passed me by and I was just an old imposter in the midst of the new freshness. I said something to that effect to Jay, and he told me that – no, it was just the fashion of these particular kids. That comment didn’t really make too much sense until later.A bit later and Psychic Hearts gets on stage to play. I was so afraid they’d suck and then I’d see them after they played and they’d expect me to tell them how much I enjoyed their set. I had serious anxiety going on folks. It melted about 30 seconds in. Because about 30 seconds in I was completely transfixed by this band. I was absolutely fucking giddy as a matter of fact. I felt a love I haven’t felt since I heard Authority Zero for the first time. There were only three people in that band – the singer/guitarist, the drummer, and the synthesizer player – but they created this enormous wall of magnificent sound. I kept struggling to figure out what it reminded me off, what strings in my soul it was tugging and the very closest I could come was Smashing Pumpkins, but it wasn’t quite that. I still don’t know what it was. All I do know, is that they took me back in time. I closed my eyes about two songs in and I was grinning like a fool, swaying to the music. All I wanted at that moment was to buy their cd and take it home and put on some head phones and sit on the floor in my bedroom just like I did back when I was a kid and listen until I knew every word, every sound that they made. After the set ended, I went out to have a post climatic cigarette and we ran into friends of the band. I gushed, just a little incoherently, and mentioned that I didn’t see a cd for sale at the merch stand. It was explained to me that they’d only pressed two EPs and they didn’t like them and that’s why they weren’t for sale. It was also told to me that this was one of their last shows. They were going to dissolve and create a new band. I didn’t ask what the name of the new band would be. Or how I could get news on when they’d release something. Or anything else I should have done. This upsets me. One other thing that happened during this conversation was the lead singer’s girlfriend telling me that I’d love Of Montreal when they came on, that it would be a “great dance party.†I thought that was curious based on the clips I’d heard.Here's the band I fell in love with just to find out it was only to be a one night affair:Since this was an Of Montreal show, I suppose I should mention them. I told you earlier what I thought Of Montreal was all about. I was wrong. Yep. So completely wrong that I should have my mog card revoked. All the curious things that had happened earlier: the boy in the tube top, Jay saying it was just these kids’ fashion, the “great dance party†comment – they all started to make sense. In my defense, I have since bought the latest Of Montreal cd, and I understand now why I was so wrong. The show I saw bears very little resemblance to the cd I now own. The show was electric and had so much more soul than the cd. I wish that I had seen them with a different opening act though. They just could not live up to Psychic Hearts. In any case, they put on a show and if Psychic Hearts reminded me of Smashing Pumpkins, I should say that the lead singer of Of Montreal reminded me of Chris Crocker, of youtube/Brittany fame. I was exhausted from my earlier exhilaration and didn’t enjoy their show the way I should have. Actually, it was fun at first and a good bit of that fun came from the girl standing right in front and slightly to the right of me. She was very pretty and very, very 80s. She looked just like the chick from Flashdance. She did not, however, dance like the chick from Flashdance. She danced like an arthritic robot. It was one of the most fascinating things I’ve ever seen in my life. She was so enthusiastic and interesting and I remember actually thinking “thank god for bands like this, that let this girl feel so comfortable dancing like a complete spazz.†Then she elbowed me in the boob. I wanted to take her ass out, but instead I used my arms to form a protective cage around the boobage and glared at her…haha. Glaring at her distracted me from her dancing and I noticed what I think was an adam’s apple. So, then I spent the next 10 minutes or so trying to figure out for sure whether she was a girl or a boy. I never did figure that out, it was my one and only real life Pat situation. And, of course, I was so mesmerized by Ouchy McRobot that I kind of lost the music. So, here ends the post – I can’t say much about Of Montreal’s show because they weren’t half as interesting as their fans. I will leave you with this song – the one song they played that pulled me from my examination of she with the evil elbow:
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