01-19-03

The Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR

thanks to Natalie Jane:

I shouldn't be posting at work, but what the hell...

Last night was super cool. There was this free shindig going on at the Crystal Ballroom (large venue with bouncy floor where Elliott has played in the past), so I went there and immediately ran into Kara, Tiah, Katie and Sean. Then I got separated from them and ran into my friend Ross (who was briefly a member of Neutral Milk Hotel, and is a true Southern gentleman), who was with a woman named Chantale who books shows for two notable PDX indie clubs, the Blackbird and Satyricon. (Connections, baby!) I asked her to try and book Beulah on their last tour. I said I needed to find a drummer for my band, and she said she'd just been talking to one and would send him my way.

So then Blues Goblins, Sam Coomes's solo thing, played. It was pretty cool, it was just Sam on guitar and sometimes on keyboards, doing fucked-up bluesy stuff. I noticed the older people in the crowd were getting way more into it than the younger people. Sam particularly rocked out on the keyboard (his "roxichord" on a piano setting) - I know he thinks of himself more as a guitarist, but his soul really comes out on the keyboard. He was wearing a shirt that said "ANTI-WAR" and he had a moustache. I still think Sam has the sexiest shoulders in rock, but I'm funny like that.

So then, with Kara as moral support, I managed to get Sam's attention while he was talking to Janet and Neil Gust. He came over and I gave him a tinfoil devil (with gold horns and hooves, holding a gold champagne glass) I'd been planning on giving him for months. I was kind of worried he'd see my hand shaking from nervousness when I gave it to him. He asked if I made it and I said yes. I said I had one for Janet too, and he went over to her, but then paused, turned around, and shyly said, "Thanks." Janet was friendly but very brusque - she clearly didn't want to make conversation. That was OK. Sam fuckin' Coomes, my fuckin' HERO, has one of my tinfoil sculptures! YEAHHH!!!

The drummer guy Chantale had mentioned caught up with me. He was drunk. We exchanged numbers. That was cool.

After that, Jonathan Richman played. He was wayyy too cute and quirky for me - it got on my nerves a lot. But he did play the Song That Changed My Life, "Pablo Picasso"!! (The song that proved to me, when I heard it in junior high, that cool music and cool people existed outside the horrible confines of my adolescence.) I was grinning like a fool and an old hippie guy next to me said he "liked my smile." (Why can't cute young guys say stuff like that to me?) Anyway, I took it as a compliment. I was ready to go home after that.

Keep in mind that this was all FREE!! I fuckin' love Portland!!!

*If you feel that a picture above infringes on any copyrights, etc. please make the webmaster aware & it will be removed.