Last night was grrrrreat. The Art Walk was even cooler than I was hoping it'd be, despite our bumpy late start getting there (I took a nap and overslept, and then R discovered he'd lost his debit card...turned out it'd been missing for a week, ever since he left it at Three Angels). There were a few artists whose work I really, really liked, like Mary Catherine Floyd-level liked (Katie McWeeney was the super standout, so I don't forget, and Hillary and David Butler's art and frame thing on the side was good too), and I always get excited whenever something creative local pushes my buttons. We ran into Jack and chatted briefly, ate a "Wonder Dog" on a street corner which seemed fitting, munched popcorn out of those striped boxes, and then R bumped into his favorite coworker Mr. Duckworth. Turned out he was playing in one of the galleries, but we'd just missed it, alas. He was so nice about R! Kept telling him and me what a great job he's doing, how the surplussing thing is BS, etc. He and his wife were a delight. I'd like to check out her studio sometime; he mentioned she had one on Madison and...Marshall I think he said?
Then we headed to R's last show with Ben (Ben's moving to Chicago at the end of April, already has a sweet job and apartment in the Ukrainian village lined up). It was at that funny little hipster-lookin' house I always walk by when I go my morning route, with the standard ratty couches on the porch, orphan beer bottles and cigarette butts. It was about what I'd have guessed, hipster-y and a bit hippie-ish. I was surprised how many people were there, but then, I never go to house shows anymore (too old and never cool to begin with so...). Saw an old coworker I hadn't seen in 3 years, lots of girls wearing goofy UO-mismatched outfits, and flasks of whiskey. A young lady randomly chatted us all up on the porch, telling us all about how she was originally from Memphis but moved to Florida "to get away from the drugs" and was in a sober living community or something there, but was in town for dental/jaw surgery reasons, and how she received a couple's luggage or something by mistake so she was wearing the woman's name tag ("they had boarding passe and everything"). And R enjoyed that while we were in the living he noticed the people who actually live there have both a retro gaming pack and a monotron. I met R's friend Tristan and enjoyed talking with him intermittently through the evening. He made me laugh when he came back from a beer run with an uber-generic beer no one had ever heard of that looked like grape soda from the can design and was simply called "Beer 30". Had this goofy clock for the zero where every 15 minutes were marked "Beer 30". Yeah, I don't get it either.
The opening band, who we heard as we walked up the steps, was so good for my ears; derivative maybe, but precisely what I love to listen to--shoegaze-y, all awash and flooded and underwater-vocal-sounding. And still interesting too. I don't have a tactful way of putting this, but I rarely hear local bands out I really, truly enjoy, so I was so happy. Like, I wanted to be able to hear that music again whenever I wanted, as in, own a record and listen to it. It was just two guys, and I think heard one say afterward to a fan they'd only formed like 6 weeks ago or something. Warm Girls, I think they're called. R hadn't heard them before either.
Textile was great; I could be wrong but it seemed like one of their best shows I've seen (or maybe I just really like intimate acoustics? Dunno). R recorded it with his fairly new recorder and it sounded pretty good! We're listening to it this morning, right now even.
Turns out the last band included a member from another band, the one that happens to be playing with R soon. They seemed quite popular and reminded me of Broken Social Scene, something about the consistent beats and vocal style.
Ox Ice, if I heard right.
It was a lot of fun and I was just so thrilled to be at a show of local bands where I actually LIKED, actively enjoyed everything I heard. I know it sounds really bitchy but that just doesn't happen too often for me. I need to go to shows more often...
Afterward R and his friends were going to the Cove so we tagged along. We were pretty tired at that point, but we still had fun. Really enjoyed talking with Ben about food love (he makes me jealous; he's worked in some of the nicest restaurants around town--Sweet Grass, the Grove...). I even got the skinny on Andrew Michael, since it turns out Andy and Michael are buddy-buddy with Ryan at Sweet Grass.
I hope R gets permission from Textile to upload the show onto YT.
