tuesday, november 15, 2005
Something on a Sunday night
Asha (my roommate) and I went to a My Morning Jacket concert last night, which was quite exciting and enjoyable. First we got all dressed up, took the 40-minute bus ride into town, and arrived in time to buy tickets. The opening act was a guy named Saul Williams, whom I didn’t expect much of — some spoken word rap musician? But he was pretty cool and not too harsh, with poetic rhythmic songs and a nice theme. After that, the setup for My Morning Jacket took a long time. The crew put little owl figures and skulls on the equipment; the background music ranged from Prince to Kanye West to old country music.
Suddenly, in the dark, they started playing “Wordless Chorus”. Then the lights came on a little bit, then some more, and then the music was very good and noisy and melodic, just like My Morning Jacket should be. The band members all have long hair! The singer’s voice is just as wonderful in real life. They have energy and a sense of humor — they drew out the endings of a few of the songs, longer and longer until people weren’t quite sure whether to stop clapping. They played a bunch of songs from Z and some older ones (of course), a few of which I didn’t recognize but still enjoyed. “One Big Holiday” and “Mahgeetah” were very good. We danced and screamed a little and exclaimed over the sexiness of it all.
Eventually it was over, and we wandered down State Street looking for something that was still open. (Santa Barbara is practically dead after eight o’clock.) We shared a big raspberry-oatmeal-cookie-cake thing at a coffee shop, and then I remembered that we didn’t know what time the buses stopped running. Well, we found out — the last bus was at eleven, and it was twelve. So we strained our purses further and took a taxi.
Then — yes, then! — as we walked inside our house, there were our friends, and they were headed to a greasy burger place in Isla Vista. Well, why not? And we went and ate french fries with crazy boys and talked about syntactical quotations and whether or not tags are good for everything.
comments (6)
Saul Williams has twice (I think) collaborated with DJ Krust, of the renowned Talkin' Loud record label. Never heard him live, but have one rather eclectic tune, which was is pretty damn good.
– Malcolm on 11/15/2005 04:12:24
Hey,
I'd like to talk with you about a project. I've been reading your journal for sometime and was wondering if you'd be interested in sharing your insights. Is there an email address I can reach you at? Mine is jshah28@yahoo.com
Hit me back.
Jinal
– Jinal Shah on 11/18/2005 05:38:01
I like Neutral Milk Hotel. You like Neutral Milk Hotel. We should be friends. At the very least, I figured I should acknowledge your existence. The end.
– Pat on 11/20/2005 10:29:48
lucky!!!!!
but you still couldn't get through one night without talking about snyntazxsomethings?
– lizzy on 11/20/2005 11:25:16
When I first found out about My Morning Jacket, I thought they were a metal band, so I ignored them for a while until album Z came out. My friend lent me the cd, and I figured how dumb I was to resent MMJ for so long. God, I was a dumbass. Though, I am glad, I finally came to a realization.
– Jason on 11/20/2005 14:15:34
ummm...so were you curious enough about saul williams to watch "slam"? just wondering.
anyway, as my 9th grade shop teacher used to say: "be cool; stay in school."
he ALSO used to say (in case you were wondering): "be wise; protect your eyes" and "don't be dead; use your head."
my shop teacher wasn't particularly revered for his rhyming skills.
I called him "coach" because it seemed to make him mad.
– ricky dicky doo on 1/10/2006 13:22:51
comments are off. for new comments, my email address is brittag@gmail.com.
