February 27, 2000free your mind and
your ass will follow
I wanted to write this last night when I got home, only two problems. I smelled like an ashtray and it was close to three in the morning. Smoke Girl need sleepy. But this show was the absolute best I have ever been to, hopefully they'll just keep getting better. Anyway, on to the recount.When I first saw, or rather heard, the Soular System in August 1997, I dismissed them without another thought. Ok, that's not entirely true; I never wanted to hear them play again. I stood outside The Palace (basically a brick garage that serves as random party/concert venue) and complained mightily for the two hours the System was playing. Hell, I couldn't even identify what type of music they were playing, I just thought of it as never ending noise. Well, things change a lot in three years. That's the understatement of the year.
I was doing my semi social butterfly routine last night. I met Jeff Houck, brother to Jackie, a girl in my class. He seemed to be pretty cool, although he did look just a little bit too much like Thomas to keep from giggling--he was even wearing his old Sepsis shirt. Dionne showed up with two of her friends, Mary and Kim, who I had gone to middle school with. They were very cool, and we found common bonds with Weezer and Blink-182. They even agreed with my assertion that Gavin Rosdale is turning into Michael Hutchence. Basically he's looking like shit, even though his back should be mounted in the Sex Hall of Fame. Yum.
Crescent Fresh is fast becoming one of my favourite bands, local or national. This was only their fourth paying show and already I can see a vast improvement. As I told Erik, it's the attitude that carries them. The music is getting better all the time, but it's the stage show that really rocks. For instance, Ponder did this whole rant on George W. [Bush] and our beloved [ha!] Dictator, excuse me, Governor Jeb. I was laughing my ass off, and poor Ponder carried it so far that he stopped one point during the "free lyric" song and had to laugh himself. Their music itself has this nice little punk edge to it that I really like, and since I've firmly planted myself right by the giant speakers I now get to hear more of the lyrics. Not to mention I get a nice view of the stage and the guys, a beam to lean against, and a place to put my IBC. One of the members of Soular System came up towards the end of the set to apparently tell the guys to finish it up. Ponder then informed the crowd that they could only play one more song, and then we all [by the lead of Erik] started in on a "Fuck the Man!" chant. That and Ponder's desire to wear his "hat" won out. The hat turned out to be an old camo helmet that Ponder had decorated for the last song, Bugs. The helmet was done up with what looked like a spatula on steroids, a tooth brush, and even a package of Lucky Strikes taped on. Think Forrest Gump on acid. Hee! Something was telling me that Ponder was watching a bit too much Starship Troopers. Erik assured me later that that wasn't the case. I still have my doubts. My only complaint was that they didn't play You Make Me [So Very Happy]. I love their treatment of that song, in fact I find myself chalking up oldies songs that Crescent Fresh could do very well with. Oh well, at least they opened with Othello, which is probably my favourite song of theirs.
Dionne and Co. left shortly after the System started their marathon set, after we ascertained the existence of an after party. It was great seeing D again, no matter how much time goes by between meetings we just pick right back up again. I guess the Dionne and Cher of LHS will never die. By the time I got back inside the Cow Haus the floor area was packed and everyone was groovin to high hilt. I made a beeline to the corner after getting my IBC. People wonder why I stake this place out during shows. For the System at least, it's a pretty good venue. I can stand against the wall and dance with limited movement and I get a view of the band playing and the crowd responding. It all works out really well. Since it was the System's CD release party [if you're in Tally, get this CD! "Five Pounds of Funk in a Ten Pound Bag" Ya can't miss it, it has Desmond's back on it--butt crack included, with FUNK tattooed on it.] the band had sprung for cake [tira misu?] from Au Piche Mingon. I saw Erik out of the corner of my eye coming that way [the cake being right by me--I'm always staked out near the food or booze, that way people come to me. Hee.] and I figured that he would probably ignore me. I was mistaken. Lemme just comment on the state of the Viking Prince this particular evening. C'mon, I have to do it, it's required in the Girl Friday by-laws. Of course he was looking damn fine, even though his hair was taking on aspects of David Cassidy. It's an absolute joy for me to just gaze at him, and even have nice little shagging thoughts. Maybe he's just been downgraded to a sex object? That's a novel idea. Anyway, we chatted for a bit: I complemented his band, he offered me a bit of his cake, he invited me to come dance...
Fi: Sorry. I don't dance.
Erik: C'mon...I don't dance either.
Fi: Oh yes you do! I saw you at the party over Christmas!
Erik: So? C'mon, everyone's over there.
Fi: Sorry, but go have fun. I'll watch. <shoves him, laughing> Now go!The System played non stop from around 11.30 till around 1.30 or so, non-stop hard funking going on here folks. The thing about the System is that their music can get even little rigid girls like me dancing a bit, they're so fucking positive. The groove is happy and free and so infectious I believe that if you have an ounce of goodness in your soul that you have to love them. The best way I can describe their impressiveness is that for one song the entire band freezes in mid blow, strum or vox for thirty seconds or so while the crowd goes nuts and shouts "Start!" over and over and reaches wildly for the stage. They do this three times at least, and every time it rocks. They don't move a muscle, and from my traditional vantage point I can assure this. If any band deserves to make it out and into the mass public arena it's the System.
The guys took a bit of break and the place cleared out considerably, leaving the faithful or just the very drunk. I took the opportunity to grab a chair at the tables our group was occupying. The System returned and everyone got up dancing again, Erik not five feet from me looking like blond 2000 version of David Cassidy with his shirt sticking to his sweaty body. I was a happy girl. But I was was also getting ill from the smoke inhalation so I retreated outside for a bit. When I returned there was no way to get back to my seat so I finish the show in the back of the room by the no man's land between the floor and the bar. Desmond, the consummate front man for the System, had a great line that I have to include:
After playing their rocking cover of People are Strange:
"Be careful driving home, there are some strange people out there this time of night."
- Yeah Desmond, and most of them are in this room.The lighting was really strange for the System set as well, lots of red. It gave this very weird demonic trippy tone to the entire show, especially when juxtaposed with all the positive vibes coming from the music. It got even more trippy when during one song the slow rhythmic nature of the beat got the crowd going in a slow wave emanating back from the stage, very cool when observed from my position in the corner. Then during the last set the bubbles started flowing, literally. They had provided those little wedding bubble bottles for the show and for this one song they created this sea of bubbles--and with the red lights it was like a demonic version of the Lawrence Welk show.
After the show finally ended, somewhere around two am, I made my rounds for good byes. I rounded up on Erik and he gave me one of his weird hugs [fists clasped, then pull into one armed hug]. I clasped his neck, forgetting how long he had been dancing, and got a nice full hand of Erik Sweat. I had to laugh, "You know, three years ago having Erik Sweat on me would have been the highlight of my life...now I just desperately need to bathe." Whereupon Erik and I started to jokingly shake sweat off on to one another. I started laughing again after he ran this hands through his hair resulting in these two little tufts sticking out right above his ears. "What?" Giggling horribly I responded, "You look like an Ewok." He looked at me and smiled, "Yip yip!"
I left after informing him that I would be bailing on the after party and set off in search of Dave to tell him the same thing. Now my relationship has shifted a bit with Dave since he's declared me "fine". I find him outside on the "porch" and tell him about the Erik Sweat and bailing thing, he hugs me and lightly kisses my neck. Dave's been continually boosting me ego since I was eighteen, and I love him for it.
So I hopped in Sparky, blasted the techno emanating from Meltdown and made my happy, smoke-saturated way home.
