Ups and Downs
It’s been a crazy, busy couple of days.
On Friday I went up to Portland for what will be my last Interpol show for a while. They wrapped up their touring for Antics in New York on Sunday night. I had originally planned to go to that show, but then Hope was born and plans changed. The Portland show was good, but kind of strange for me. I was hoping they would play a song or two that I’d never heard live before, because they’d been playing them at other shows recently, but they didn’t. I had also hoped to take pictures with Ezra’s camera… and I could have taken AMAZING pictures because I was in the front row, slightly left of center, and security was pretty mellow. But, alas, the camera wouldn’t turn on. I also had a raging headache from not eating much and probably also from not sleeping properly last week (that’s another story…).
But here’s the good news story of the Interpol show. I drove up and arrived at about 1:00 or 1:30, and met up with Interpol friends Lacinda (from DC) and Michelle (from Israel via Dallas). We hung out around the theater. Michelle is pretty young and was very excited and hoping to meet the guys (especially Carlos). We didn’t have any close encounters or anything, but there were a few pre-show sightings…
John met up with me at around 4:30 or so. I’m sure my Interpol friends and I made him chuckle. After arriving quite early, I easily managed to perch myself in the front row. I had Ezra’s camera (it’s much smaller than mine) and I would have been able to take amazing pictures, but alas, his camera wouldn’t turn on. I was pretty bummed about it for a minute. The barrier was SO close to the stage that the photos would have been great. I did get an up close and personal view of some sort of speaker or monitor seriously bursting into flame during Not Even Jail. It was on Daniel’s side of the stage, and I think it went unnoticed at first because of their smoke/fog machines. The security guy in front of me was just eyeing it helplessly. There was a huge plume of smoke and I started coughing. When Paul noticed what was going on he stopped playing and tried to stop the others. One of their roadies emerged from backstage with a load of towels and pulled off the flaming equipment. Daniel showed that it hadn’t affected his ability to play, so they started up again and all was well. It was pretty dramatic for a minute, though.
The opening band, Boom Bip, was really pretty good. I may seek out their recordings, though I’ve heard that they have a lot more energy live than they do on record.
Though it wasn’t my favorite Interpol show, it was a good one, and it was cool to be up front. Paul threw cookies out into the crowd at the end of the main set. I didn’t get one, but I did get Paul’s setlist and one of Daniel’s picks at the end of the night.
After the show, I was totally wiped out and was grateful for a nice place to sleep in John’s cozy apartment with John’s cozy cats.
The next day I was dazed and still had a headache from the previous night. Ez and I gobbled some wonderful goodies at a place called Mims down by the water, did a little more in Portland, but then had to get back home. I was exhausted.
Next day I dragged my sorry bones and drove to State College. I hadn’t done the drive on my own in a while. It was a bit surreal, but I stayed awake and made it just in time to see the beginnings of a beautiful sunset over the Pennsylvania countryside.
Then on Monday I drove down here, to Virginia. I met my sweetie tweet niece, Hope, and have been able see her, hold her, and feed her each day I’ve been here. She is soo soo tiny and so totally unblemished and sweet. I have taken approximately a zillion pictures of her. Here are a few of my favorites, in case you haven’t already seen them:
Well… this has been a totally wandering post. Somebody get me a cozy, uninterupted nap–stat!
