Monday, February 12, 2007
the roseland; a tale of technological and other difficulties
friday night a few friends and i went to see joshua radin in concert at the roseland theatre.joshua radin is sort of becoming famous for being a) liked by zach braff b) on the last kiss soundtrack and c) being a beautiful looking person.
the opening band included all the same band members as joshua radin's band - minus josh and plus (my girl-crush) schuyler fisk. she broke my heart in several ways at several moments. gorgeous voice. gorgeous spirit.
plus they had an upright bass and a cello. i am a sucker for the strings.
so, anyway, the night started out well. i went with two girlfriends to salvador mollies for some good pirate food and rum. the dissapointing thing about this is that salvador mollies has been making some changes. good changes = awesome happy hour prices. bad changes = taking all the fun tiki/flip flop/pirate decor down out of the bar . . . now it just looks like another hipster/ikea hangout in pdx devoid of personality. but my painkiller (vodka, rum, coconut juice and other things) tasted the same so i was happy.
after dinner we headed to the show. it started almost a half hour late and then i was standing behind the three characters who shall be named 1) step touch girl (stg) 2)be tall or be still girl (btobsg) and 3) i'm drunk and i am cute so talk to me boy (idaicsttmb or dcttmb). we didn't notice them until the show started . . . as soon as the show started and i turned around to face the stage all i could see was a head. a very tall and very drunk girl (btobs) was standing in front of me . . . i managed to maneuver away a bit so that i could see around her just as i overheard her say something rude about refusing to move when people can't see around her. i whispered something to my friend char about her and she said "i always tell those girls that they can either be tall or be still. they have to chose. and then the viewing experience can be enjoyed." i had a feeling that this conversation wouldn't go well if i should choose to have it.
then the music started and her friend (step touch girl) stg began to do what she would continue to do during schuyler (pronounced skylar) fisk's entire set. step touch. step touch. turn drunkenly to flirt loudly with dcttmb, flip her hair, sip the latest coctail and then begin to step touch step touch again. the only problem with this was that not only was she "step touch girl" she was also "not aware of your personal space girl" so she was standing so close to me that every time she would step touch she would hit me in the leg, hip, arm or purse with her butt. and every fourth step touch she would elbow me in the boob.
i judged from the things they were saying (loudly) to each other that if i were to say something or to passive aggressively push back a bit on a random step touch that it would just result in a rude altercation that would leave me feeling a bit cut down. so i chose to passive aggressively stand my ground and not move. she could step touch all she wanted, but she was going to have to just keep running into me, i was not going to give way. every now and then i would scoot up a bit to try to crowd her out without giving away that this was what i was doing.
step touch.
step touch. bump my arm.
step touch.
elbow my boob.
step touch.
turn drunkenly to dcttmb and say loudly "i have this album!" and sing a few lines badly. comment on how drunk you are. flip hair while turning back into the step touch and sip the latest drink bought for her by dcttmb.
step touch.
bump my purse.
flip hair.
step touch.
i roll my eyes.
between schuyler and joshua's sets, we were able to reposition so that we were in front of our drunken friends. this way we could only hear them speaking loudly about how drunk they were, how they were so hot and how they were totally promiscuous that one time "remember that one time?! omg!!! i am so totally putting that on my BLOG!!" giggle.
joshua radin was sort of either in a bad mood or a subtle jerk or maybe i just read him wrong. but i could see where he was coming from. the crowd (especially by the bar) was being very noisy. and his music is very soft and mellow. and this seems to always be the problem whenever i go to a show at the roseland. people pay 15 bucks to see a show so that they can talk through it. annoying.
at one point joshua said "you sure are a noisy crowd . . . i can wait." and he proceded to wait for a bit more silence from the crowd before continuing with his story about this one time he saw been harper play "waiting on an angel" live . . . and then he played the song and in the middle of the song, the technical difficulties reared their ugly head. and he stopped the song and said "really? these people payed to see this show so can we get this right?!" this happened a few more times during the set and he was obviously upset at the venue for having such a crappy sound system. there was popping and cracking and the sound cut out completely sometimes and they had nothing in the monitors and couldn't hear each other. eventually the band totally left the stage and he played the rest alone with schuyler coming out every now and then to sing with him.
favorite moments:
1) waiting on an angel
2) telling schyler after the show that i had a girl-crush on her
3) being told by my friend matt that the way schuyler sang reminded him of me
4) he and schuyler singing "momma you've been on my mind" by bob dylan
5) joshua singing "girlfriend in acoma" after a request from someone in the front row
6) when a guy near me turned to the drunk friends and said "can you be quiet!?"
un-favorite moments:
1) when the drunk friends replied to the guy "oh sorry . . . (pause) . . . but it's not going to happen!"
2) the drunk friends in general
3) josh's attitude at times
after the show we went to the shanghai tunnel (a bar playing off these underground tunnels in portland from some sort of underground human trafficing that used to happen when the mob ran portland . . .) to debrief. we decided that as a whole schuyler was perfect and that josh was like an amateur ben harper wannabe with peter galagher eyebrows and a nice voice.
overall the music was good and the experience very memorable.
i still haven't decided what to get for my tattoo.
but i have signed up for four sessions with a personal pilates trainer. i am bartering my massage skills with my friend who is training to be a pilates instructor. one on one time with her and my abs . . . this is gonna kick butt.
peace
~the dread pirate tj
say it don't spray it 1:43 PM
2 i heard that
