patina of shit

Hillary Clinton appeared on Leno tonight and used a hilarious phrase to describe her Bosnia lie: "mismatch of words and actions." That shit should be in Webster's.

I would like to have seen Montana

Mar 20, went to the Vic to see Mike Doughty (& his band). It was a good set, though I preferred the question jar show. This was better in some ways (the full band), but the question jar show was at a more intimate venue, took tons of requests, and was quite long, with no opening band. Anyway, it was a good show, though a bit short. Near the end of the show, Doughty declared 'the next song is the song before the fake last song.. that is, when we do the big rock and roll ending, I thank everyone, say goodnight, then we go backstage for 15-30 seconds before coming back for another song.' In a way, this was an excuse to not actually do a real encore, as they went backstage for about 10 seconds, and unfortunately did exactly what he said: only ONE more song.

Mar 26, went to Schuba's to see Beach House, yay. The first opener, Doug from 'Winter Blanket' or something, was pretty bad. The next was decent. During Beach House's performance, there was a serious problem with flash photography blinding the shit out of everyone, possibly due to the duo's white sequined outfits. I'd never experienced such a problem at a show before. It was bad enough that people in the audience complained and Victoria ordered it stopped. Good performance, though they didn't play all my favorites.

Last night went to Congress Theater to see Explosions in the Sky. I've never had cause to go to Congress Theater before, and it's pretty damn cool. You wouldn't think it from the area or looking at the building, but it's quite large. It's real old and fancy, with a big ornate lobby with a grand staircase up to the balcony. I hope I get a chance to go back there sometime. The doors opened very late because the opening act canceled (or vice versa), but the band was great. We were in the back part of the floor, which gave a cool view of the whole theater and the crowd, enhanced by a lot of moving lights pointed at the audience. Mirrored the Yeasayer show, in that everyone stayed for an encore, prompting a member of the band to come out and declare that there wouldn't be one. We wouldn't have this confusion if you just turned on all the house lights!