My ears are ringing, my liver contains more alcohol than it should, and I just had another great night seeing this band live. There are plenty more photos where this one came from, just click on the Flickr thing-a-ma-bob over there with all of my links. Unfortunately, most of them look pretty much the same... I had a great spot real close to the stage again tonight. I wanted to move over toward the middle to get some different angles, but it was too damn crowded and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get my spot back over on the side. I tried a handful of photos without a flash, I wasn't sure if the flash from my camera was annoying the band or not so I tried to space out the shots as best as I could and time my shots with some of the others taking photos.
In the cluster of photos on Flickr you'll see that I bought three of their albums and got two of them signed by the entire band. The first time I saw them I got an album signed, but it was all just remixes of their songs and I felt pretty stupid having them sign it. The LP that I bought was not signed, just the CDs. I don't have an LP player in my room, actually I don't know where the only one in this house is located at the moment, and I'm not sure if I'll open it to listen to it or not. It's a limited release so maybe there's more money to be had down the road if I keep it sealed up like a collector's item...
I can't really say much more about them that I hadn't already said back in February other than GO SEE THIS BAND!! They are amazing musicians and incredibly nice if you talk to them. Not being a musician myself, the best conversation I could come up with was asking about their next album, which should come out in April or May I'm told. And holy hell! It is damn hard to talk to someone with your ears ringing and even more difficult when those people don't speak fluent English. Add on to that the buzz I had going at the time and I'm surprised that I came away from the talk with more than just thoughts that they all sounded exactly like the adults in Charlie Brown cartoons.
It's 3 am and I've got a test tomorrow afternoon. Time for me to get some sleep.
UPDATE: Okay, now that I've got a clear head again I can add some things that I forgot to mention before. The show was at this dive bar called The Proletariat. I checked out a review of the place because I didn't find a site for them until after I got home from the show, and it sure didn't look like a dive from the photos I saw. DAMN was I wrong. It was good though. I feel more in my element in a dive bar than some swank "Sorry, you're not wearing enough Abercrombie to come in" piece of shit bar. Those places just have no soul. They are the undead of bars/pubs/taverns. It wasn't nearly as crowded as the last show I went to. Don't really know why, but it might have had something with the change of venue just a few days before. All I read was "Fat Cat's gone" and I don't know if it was damaged in the hurricane or not. I hope not because it was a decent bar and I'd go back if somebody played there that I was interested in seeing. Same with The Proletariat.
There were two other bands that played, first up was Sharks and Sailors which, I regretfully, missed. I listened to the two songs they have posted on MySpace and thought they sounded pretty good, but I got lost on the way to The Proletariat and didn't get there until Bellini was into their first song. Sharks and Sailors didn't have any swag with them, I'd have bought a CD so I could hear more. I may try to catch their next show later this month. We'll see how the level of funds are at the time and who else is playing that night.
On to Bellini. Didn't really like them. The music wasn't horrible, but it was repetitive. There was one song that I found enjoyable and then they made some odd changes in the rhythm and it lost me. They had a lead singer who appeared to be doing nothing more than screaming into the microphone as she shared some poetry that she wrote during high school, and she looked like she'd been out of high school for quite a while. I couldn't understand a damn thing she said, which is good I suppose because I didn't really care. Which is odd for me because I'm usually interested in what the lyrics of a song are. Perhaps I could chalk up this lack of enthusiasm to the fact that I was trying to be patient in waiting to see Mono up on stage again.
Which brings me to the reason I was there in the first place, Mono. I'll be honest, I was pretty buzzed once they finally got on stage and started playing. I'm pretty sure the first song they played was new, perhaps off of the Pelican/Mono LP or one of the new tracks recorded for the CD next spring. I could try to say more about their performance, but it would just be a rehash of what I said after the last show. I'm really pissed that the video I tried to get of them is so dark. I was hoping to show those who haven't seen them just how well they play and the theatrics that they add to the show. I say theatrics, because on their bio pages a few of the members actually list their favorite movies and film directors, so I tend to believe that they like to add a little bit to their music with their presence. Unlike most bands that just kind of groove along with the music like most of their audience does.
I guess that's all I've got. Let's see... Damn good show... Check. Go see them... Check. I was drunk, again... Check. Photos posted, go see them... Check. Oh yeah! I didn't have that test today. That's it.
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