November 23 2005: The Mountain Goats, Emma Pollock, Jont – Bush Hall, London UK

I got to see the Mountain Goats play in London! Fuckin London! It’s really quite remarkable to what extent I can justify things for a Mountain Goats show. This particular show was part of a series of shows that 4AD put on for their 25th anniversary. Fun times all around. “No, I Can’t” was played, “Jaipur” was done probably better than I’ve ever seen it done before, and the Glenfiddich was only £3. And there was a dude there who was fifteen, drunk of his ass and screaming along with every song. So I bought him a beer. Ah, to be young. Ah, to be young…

And uh, am I immortal now? Because I figure that live music is just as much a piece of art as anything. So I thus present the following evidence, a rough (as I unfortunately have no recording from which to derive a word-for-word transcript) recount of some on-stage banter:

John: So this is our last show of the year! [applause]
Peter: Yeah, you don’t have to come see us play anymore [laughter]
John: No, but there was this guy who literally came to every show we played on our last tour. And, you know, that’s the kind of thing that might make you wonder, like maybe the guy’s a little crazy, but he’s actually a really nice guy.
Peter: He’s actually here tonight too!
John: Really? Peter’s here?
Peter: Right over there [points at me]

So – as far as I’m concerned I couldn’t be more immortal if Da Vinci had somehow painted my name into the Mona Lisa. I mean, did the Mountain Goats ever call out Napoleon at a show? Or how about Muhammad? Or Amelia Airheart? Nope. But they’re all immortal. So there you go.

November 20 2005: Nada Surf, John Vanderslice – Elysee Montmartre, Paris France

So my friend Harmony and I took a vacation as neither of us had been to Europe before. And we got relatively cheap airline tickets. And a certain group was scheduled to play London later in the week, but for now we were in Paris to (a) look around and (b) drink cheap Bordeaux and (c) see Nada Surf play some french songs IN FRANCE.

Unfortuanately the Bordeaux cut into the first few Vanderslice songs because our tickets clearly stated that someone by the name of Howie Beck was to open the show and that the show was to begin at 730pm. And yes, the tickets were printed in French and no I am not even close to fluent in the language but I maintain that the info presented on the tickets mislead us. Because while we were drinking wine back at the hostel the doors must have opened early and as we arrived at the venue just before 8pm we could hear JV playing inside. Goddamn wine gets me every time.

Vanderslice was playing as a two piece, with just his drummer backing him. It was lots of fun. The room was like a fucking airplane hangar, packed and sold out with all sorts of crazy French-speaking people. Easily the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen JV play to, by a factor of ten. And it was nice to hear his songs arranged slightly differently. “Pale Horse” was really cool, with way less guitar than is normally used on it and with the drums playing not so much of a driving beat throughout.

And the French fucking LOVE Nada Surf. I fucking love Nada Surf. It was a good place to be that night. Lots of good songs. Almost a two-hour show. I hadn’t seen them play since “The Weight is a Gift” was issued, and also since I’d (finally) bought “The Proximity Effect” last month. And then they played “Popular” during the last encore (never seen them do that before, even way back in the proverbial day). Fucking nuts. I love hearing songs live that I was listening to in high school and never thought that maybe I’d see it live in Paris. I love Paris. I love Nada Surf. I love cheap Bordeaux.

November 16 2005: Death Cab for Cutie, Stars – Crystal Ballroom, Portland OR

I doubt I’ll ever see Death Cab play again. And that’s kind of sad. Some quick math tells me that this was my twelfth Death Cab show. And on top of that I’ve seen Gibbard play solo three times and the Postal Service play once. Those shows have been spread out over all three west coast states. When I was living in Albuquerque I tried to drive to Boulder to see them play only to be stopped under three feet of blizzard in the Rockies. I mean, I used to LOVE this band. But I guess I used to love that girl I was living with in Albuquerque too. The new songs just don’t do much for me and they always play the same old songs and I don’t think I’ll ever see “No Joy in Mudville” no matter how many $20 tickets I buy. Good show though. Very average, middle of the road, good show.

November 4 2005: The Mountain Goats, Mac McCaughan, Ivan Howard, Reid Johnson, Aimee Argote – Duke Coffeehouse, Crowell Building, Duke U., Durham NC

I was hanging out with my best friends Ryan and Heather in Virginia Beach and talked them into driving me to Durham to see this show. It wasn’t exactly a hard sell though, because it was a Friday night and I offered pay for all the gas and both their covers and drive both ways. It was worth it. Especially for them.

As we were walking from the car to the door after getting there I saw John talking with some folks on a fire escape and waved and said hello. He waved back and then a minute later as I was reaching into my pocket to pay the $10 cover John comes running through the door and asks that I be let in on the house. What a guy.

The show was a solo show and Durham is where John lives and it almost made up for my Halloween debacle. I described it later to friends as like the perfect gift for someone who already has everything. Lots of great songs, many of which had not been played on the tour, and many of which I’d never seen before, period. And perhaps most importantly for me was the fact that before the tour I had informally compiled a mental list of tunes I would love to see played, and at the very top of that list was “The Mess Inside,” a song which was not touched once. However, as the Durham show began John started strumming his guitar. I knew he was playing something he had not played recently, but as many if not most of his songs begin in a very similar if not identical manner I was not able to place it until he stepped toward the microphone and out came, “Took a weekend! Drove to Provo!” Absolutely sublime. Other highlights included a particularly moving “Up the Wolves,” “Whole Wide World,”and the first live performances of “New Monster Avenue” and “Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod?” Towards the end of the show I noticed that my facial muscles were a little sore, likely because I had such a huge stupid grin on my face. I tried to relax the muscles but they refused to do so. I stopped fighting it and just kept smiling.

November 1 2005: Adam Sweeney – Pete’s Candy Shop, Brooklyn NY

The plan was to start hitchhiking south to Virginia this morning but I was depressed and disappointed and hungover and my buddy Adam was coming to town to play a show and so I figured I’d stick around to hear him play and just take the 1am greyhound. It was a fun show, though Adam played to exactly nobody that he didn’t bring himself: me, Josh and two of Josh’s roommates. Oh well, we had a few beers and a few laughs and it was fun.