not emo

The great shows continue as Death Cab for Cutie pulled into town with Pretty Girls Make Graves to shower the city with cred. It looked like some people in the audience got new clothes and did their hair just for this event, and I wouldn't be surprised if they did. The pairs of black-rimmed glasses were in the hundreds, and there was no shortage of people who were way cooler than me. Seriously. I'm starting to get sick of going to shows where I am clearly the lamest dude in the building.

It was painfully obvious too, since I was probably in the upper age bracket, especially if you exclude the super cool rock parents who chilled in seats in the back while their kids had a rollicking coming of age experience. I'm totally going to take my kids to all the rock shows they want to go to, and I hope I hate the music they listen to and think it's just noise, but I'll be happy that they had a good time. That's the healthy and natural order of things.

Oddly enough, of the two bands, I was more familiar with the opener, Pretty Girls Make Graves. I think I interviewed one of them a year or so ago; in preparation, I listened to the CD a bunch of times. Of course, I'd completely forgotten most of the songs on the CD, but a couple did sound vaguely familiar, and I think I liked their sound better live. The group is really dance-punk-ish / new wave-y, and I thought that would translate into an energetic live show, but really, PGMG just kinda stood there. Maybe they were tired after being on the road for a month straight. Still, they sounded pretty damn good.

I was probably the only person in the audience who didn't own a Death Cab for Cutie album, again, excluding the rock parents sitting in the back, but I knew this would be another "event" type show, and I was more concerened with the spectacle of the whole thing than anything else. Well, I also got in for free, but I would have paid if I had to. It was half the price of the Built to Spill show, after all. Unfortunately, Death Cab isn't big on spectacle; they're more about good songwriting and such. Can you imagine? They were really fucking good, and it was the second time in less than a week that I went to see a band I was unfamiliar with and had a really great time. More proof that I should just go to every show I can. It's a lot more productive than hitting up the bars, and my liver could use some time off. It's time to start fucking up my hearing again. Take that ears!

Apparently, Death Cab's performance was so powerful that it caused some poor little spock kid to puke all over the floor of the auditorium, which cleared a huge spot. No one wanted to fuck up their new clothes. The clearly fabulous gaggle of hipster hotties in front of me--not to bey stereotypical, but it seems that everyone who goes to these indie rock shows is very short; I'm not a tall man, but at 5'9", I tower over a good portion of the crowd, except of course for the one beanpole dude who always ends up in front of me--all decked out and well-haired, kept holding their noses and giggling. Before I realized what had happened, I thought I was the bearer of the offensive odor; the show was pretty packed and I just seem to be genetically disposed to sweating. There. I said it. I got all self conscious and put my jacket back on and crossed my arms. It wasn't until I left the show that I found out about the indie vomit-rocker.

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Death Cab left me all emo so I came home to watch Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind, which was just about the coolest movie ever and left me even more emo. I always knew Jim Carrey had it in him, and Kate Winslet moved up ten notches on my favorite actress list. She's also devastating with blue hair. Roowrr. Excellent movie! I know everyone says that, but it's true.