tygertyger

So I just got back from the Weakerthans gig. It was superfantastic. I may have to re-evaluate my whole anti-emo stance now, actually.

I went with Lotus and her boy, and just kinda chilled for the hour between doors and show. This guy named Lorrie Matheson opened the show - he's usually pretty good, but he was playing with a band (he's usually solo), the bassist couldn't sing and liked making really dumb faces, and Lorrie (an odd-looking man as well, BTW) was trying to be funny and failing miserably. When he finished his last song, he literally threw his guitar down on the stage and stormed off.

Then Mico came on. These guys are good. They did a half-hour power set, and the singer took a minute to commend the local anti-war activists and encourage others to take up the cause. Then they rocked.

When we first arrived, I had seen this girl Amy kinda flitting around. I wanted to say hi and stuff, but she was hard to track down, until the show started. She was standing a couple rows behind me, and she kept coming up to take a few pictures, then moving back. I asked her once why she didn't just stay up front, and she went off on some weird tangent for a minute, then moved back. I decided not to try that again. I did, however, introduce her to Lotus and friend. She said "Oh, so these are your cute emo kids from Kelowna?" Of course Lotus heard that. I never called them cute, but whatever. She thought it was sweet or something, I guess.

There was also this supercutie that I first noticed standing about ten feet to my right when Mico came onstage. I *wanted* to talk to her, but as Lotus can attest, I was hardly at my wittiest at the moment (four hours sleep after a 12-hour shift will do that to you). So I just stood there staring straight ahead, because she'd already caught me glancing over a couple times and I had absolutely no opener. Didn't want her to think I was just checking her out all night.

During Mico's set, she gradually inched her way over, closer and closer, until she was standing *right* beside me. I should mention here that I was standing second row centre, more or less, and the floor was really starting to fill in. So our arms are brushing against each other and I still can't unglue my tongue from the roof of my mouth, even just to say "Hi."

Then Amy showed up. She started talking to the girl, then introduced us, right out of the blue. Sugar! So her name is Jessica (or friend-Jessica, according to Amy), and we chatted for a bit. But then the Weakerthans came onstage, and the place grew dark and quiet. They played a truly awesome show. I didn't get a chance to talk to Jessica too much more, though. Amy's kinda weird around me (or maybe just in general, but I kinda think she doesn't really trust me in terms of the pickup), and I doubt she would have given us enough time and space to really hit it off.

So after the encore, we just booked. Ah well. Amy's got my number, if Jessica's interested enough to ask for it. Speaking of the encore, when John Samson (five-year bassist for Propaghandi - woo!) came out to kick the thing off wth a solo number, some kids wanted "My Favourite Chords" and some wanted "One Great Town." The debate went on for a minute or so. I just yelled out "Play both!" That earned some points with Jessica. She turned around to face me and said "Yeah, totally!" In the end, though, we got One Great Town.

At one point Lotus whipped out her patented Meteor Forehead Strike when I leaned over to ask her something. SMASH! Right in the face.

Weakerthans songs are stuffed to the rim with great lyrics, but here's something from Pamphleteer that really stuck:

How I don't know what I should do with my hands when I talk to you.
How you don't know where you should look, so you look at my hands.

Why do we get so awkward around people we want to get to know better? If there is a God, he's got a sick sense of humour, building people that way.