After Monday’s adventure, Tuesday was not a super active day. It was pouring, which I guess was appropriate as we were both pretty sleepy and hungover (at least, I think we both were). We had seen a Starbucks by the hotel bar, so we drove over there in the morning seeking caffeine. We cut through the hotel lobby, and who did we see in the bar but Elaine! That woman never sleeps. We stopped in to say hi and to thank her for being so awesome.

Once we got our caffeine we got in the car and I somehow managed to drive back to Boston safely (I am a safe driver, I think, and I would have stopped somewhere if I was in truly bad shape, but I was pretty tired). The rest of the day was a blurry daze for me. I was too wiped out to do too much work, although I did try. Sarah did a bit of reading and we ended up watching Frasier re-runs.

On Wednesday I did actually get some work done in the morning. It was a beautiful day, so Sarah sat on the porch and read (she may have even finished her book). Then I had to figure out what the heck to wear to the Interpol show at Agganis Arena that night. Sarah talked me into wearing my old green velvet dress, which I bought at a vintage shop when I was in high school. Needless to say, it is pretty snug, and due to its apparent vintage, very short. I found some leggings and braved it for the color and the occasion. Poor Sarah had to watch me go through about 6 different unsatisfactory outfits before I settled on the green.

We set off for Agganis early, hoping to hear soundcheck, but several factors meant that was not in the cards. First, after getting gas at a station near the house, my car wouldn’t start. A mechanic at the station got it going again, but fearing that we’d get stuck in Boston with it, we went back to the house to get Sarah’s car. When we did finally get over to the arena, we got the rock star parking, but we were probably too late for soundcheck. We also found that Agganis Arena is like a big fortress of a complex. Even if we’d been there all day we probably wouldn’t have heard anything… it’s just too big and soundproof. It was a beautiful day, so we hung around outside and saw Sam and a drum tech (not his drum tech, but maybe the Liars have one?) chatting by the buses. Then we went to get a couple of drinks.

Our seats were supposed to be in about the 10th row, and that’s where we sat for Liars. They were really fun again, with the singer taking off his jacket at one point to reveal a big Celtics jersey that fit him like a mini-dress. I think a number of Interpol fans who’ve been seeing them open the shows haven’t liked them–they’re not for everyone, but I’ve enjoyed their sets.

Note the green jersey peeking out. Full credit to Pitchfork, which was the only place where I could find decent pictures from the show.

In between sets we went looking for a friend in the first row and, low and behold, once again there were two empty seats right next to her. Well, we took them. So it was front row for us again.

The show was really good. Here’s the setlist:

Pioneer to the Falls
Obstacle 1
C’Mere
Narc
SHTTA
Pace Is the Trick (YES!)
Mammoth
Hands Away (!)
No I in Threesome
Slow Hands
Rest My Chemistry
The Heinrich Maneuver
Evil
Not Even Jail
—-

NYC
Stella
PDA

The setlist included a fourth song for the encore… Untitled! But they didn’t play it.

I think I’ve read a few people talk about Interpol’s pre-show rituals, and the way that Agganis Arena is set up, we could see a little bit of those rituals from the front row. Right before they took the stage they stopped and I could see Daniel literally jumping up and down.

I forgot to mention in my Albany tale that Sam has a bird (a pigeon? a dove?) attached to his drum kit. The stuffed sleeping cat still tours with them, too. At one point I found myself singing “Doin’ the Pigeon” (yes, as you may know, I am that dorky sometimes). I think Paul might have heard me because he made a little face and kind of laughed.

It felt right to have Obstacle 1 back in the set. Narc sounded great, and Evil was really good again, too. I think we were all just totally enraptured when they played Pace Is the Trick. Not having heard it live before, I was just kind of sucking the whole thing in.

They jammed again before PDA. Sam sort of took the lead and then Carlos and Paul and finally Dan added their bits. Sam has a new Ludwig drum kit which I guess he “premiered” at this show.

This was pretty much my view. Again, full credit to Pitchfork for this one.

I was more to Carlos’s side, which is kind of weird for me because I’m used to being more toward Daniel. I did miss being able to feed off Daniel’s energy, but he made his way over to our side a few times and gave me a little look of recognition, which was cool. I gave Sam the thumbs up at the end of the show and he waved and smiled.

Sarah had to drive home that night, and then I had to try to get some work done and pack for New York the next day…

…to be continued.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 7:10 pm and is filed under Blather, friends, me and my brain, music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.