. . .and that's not a hold steady reference. sadly.
this past weekend was so chock-full of parties and shows that my poor old aching bones could hardly handle it all. the fun began on wednesday, when i went to pick up my badge and luckily timed it perfectly so that i could catch jennifer o'connor's set at the cmj day stage. i liked her a lot more than i'd expected. sort of quiet, lo-fi singer-songwriting a la early liz phair. worth checking out if you're into that kind of stuff. my picture sucks.
after that i'd planned to head down to the virgin megastore to hear sam champion, whom i've never heard before, but alas the heat and humidity proved too much for me, and i was forced to head back to my chilly office to get my bearings. i had many, many plans for later that night, but was foiled by my (and my boyfriend's) general lack of interest in most of the bands that were playing. sigh.
luckily, we made up for it on thursday. after meeting up with boyfriend john, we hopped in a cab to meet up with ex-roommate jesse at central park for the hotly-anticipated arcade fire show. all of the bands went on early, and thanks to an impressively clueless cabdriver ("I cannot take you to the east side of Central Park, because such a place does not exist"; i'm not kidding; he really said that) we missed the opening acts. the arcade fire though, were awesome. and, as everyone has heard by now, they played with david bowie. it ruled. people were seriously freaking out over the arcade fire and then when bowie came on the stage in a poncy white suit and hat, all hell broke loose. there was something of a surge toward the stage and everyone around us looked like they'd died and gone to heaven. this gives you some idea of what it looked like from really far away.
as soon as they were finished we ran out of the park as fast as we could because we were desperate to make it to the kemado records showcase at bowery ballroom. we met up with my friend hidy outside the bowery (where we also ran into group sounds head cheerleader eric ervin and our friend lei) and headed inside. the doorpeople very kindly allowed me to use both my badge and my guest list spot AND my plus one (hooray!), so we all got in even though the show was sold out.
we got inside just in time to hear part of tarantula a.d.'s set. they're pretty fantastic. they play this kind of classical-meets-metal, heavy, gothic music that you always imagine you wouldn't like when you hear it described but that actually rocks your world once you hear it live. i'm not exaggerating either. even the pictures came out kind of rad, through no skill of my own.
after tarantula we hung about getting drunk in preparation for diamond nights, who were up next. we ran into jeff from kemado.
and things started getting sillier and sillier. did i continue to drink? no idea. and i have no clue what these two were up to or why i took this picture.
then it was back inside because diamonds was about to go on. have you heard them yet? if you need further convincing, look for the feature on them in the special Vice fashion week mini-issue that was everywhere last week. OR check out the article about them that i was lucky enough to be asked to write in this month's Interview magazine. hooray!
anyway, diamond nights played next. they ruled. they always do. if you like loud, fuck-all rock that sounds like the lovechild of billy idol and led zeppelin, check them out. some pictures.
whew. they played a great set and everyone went crazy. after a cigarette and some mingling (i swear the bowery ballroom was like a giant f'ing prom that night-so fun!), everyone's favorite swedish-band-that-hit-it-ridiculously-big-this-year, dungen came on. they rocked, predictably. i was delighted to see all the members of the fame come rushing to the front when dungen came on. apparently they are like dungen's number one fans, which i did not know before.
anyway, although they played a pretty jammy, low-energy set, the crowd was incredibly stoked. it was my first time seeing them live, and they didn't disappoint, although i have to admit that superficial me finds it somewhat distracting that they sing entirely in swedish. all my pictures came out kind of seventies-like. here's just a few.
the show finally ended and we stumbled out onto the bowery, and then somehow ended up at motor city, where i apparently befriended a nice, 20-year-old nurse from new jersey whom i talked to for over an hour. i remember very little.
on friday, we had crazy plans to go to about a million little parties, all of which ended up being something of a bust. first we headed out to tribeca grand for the free hot chip show. i caught hot chip at south by southwest and wrote about it here. i thought they were pretty awesome then and was psyched to see them again, but when got to the basement there was some crap band on. john and david were bored.
when i finally found host/dj james friedman, he informed me that hot chip wasn't going on until 1. we huddled, and decided to skip hot chip in favor of hitting up the secret les savy fav show at cake shop. but not before running into our old friend autumn, who was visiting from denver. she always does stuff like this in pictures, and that's kind of why we like her.
unfortunately we were foiled again, as cake shop was a total mob scene and the womenfolk in our group totally couldn't hack it. the basement was packed to the gills and it felt like it was about 9 million degrees down there. and then, as if that weren't enough, a girl projectile vomited, oh, pretty much everywhere. the only funny part about that was watching ex-roommate jesse come running out of the bathroom in response to our cries (we were actually yelling JESSE WATCH OUT FOR THE PUKE IT'S EVERYWHERE OUT HERE!!!) and sliding in her pretty ballets flats right through the whole mess. seriously, she skied right through that stuff. totally classic. she still smiled dutifully for this shot with frowning phil though. go jesse!
for obvious reasons, most notably the puke and the fact that cake shop was getting more packed every minute, we decided to cut out and drink budweisers on rivington street. boyfriend john stayed dutifully for the entire savy fav set, which he reports was fantastic. when he walked in the door he was so sweaty that we thought it was raining outside. true story.
and that, sadly, was the sum total of my cmj 2005 experience. thursday and friday took way too much out of me and i couldn't handle leaving the house all day saturday. law & order here i came. and then blissful sleep.
the end.
so.. just thought i'd mention my im Eric Ervin's sister.. and i thought it was kinda cool he was mentioned.. but anyways Eric actually told me to check out this blog awhile back and ya... okay shutting up now
Posted by: Paige | April 05, 2006 at 09:05 PM