Thursday, September 23, 2010

Live Long and Prosper over your porno collection

"You should tend to your children", yelled a heckler from the crowd as 'The Sea and Cake' paused between songs. The heckler was one of the few in the crowd without a wristband indicating he was 21, surely he was the one who needed tending to.

Northampton's Calvin Theatre is a magnificent place. Imagine Sydney's Enmore Theatre, but if someone actually took care of it. Matt, Michael and I all managed to get into the general admission area in front of the stage where for the first time in Massachusetts, neither of us was out of place for wearing skinny(ish) jeans. The general admission area only sold enough tickets to fill the seats behind the dance floor, leaving an empty looking venue when everybody got up the front for the bands.

The collective that is Broken Social Scene made it on stage at 9:30. I lost count of how many members were on stage at one time, but it appears they have a revolving door policy on who comes and goes. Beyond that, they also switch instruments throughout the set and all seem freakishly proficient at each as well. Hell, there aren't many bands who can get away with four guitars at the same and not have sound as cluttered as my old share-house.

Immediately I started feeling funny at the knees when Lisa Lobsinger came on stage. It could be the nose ring, the slightly ginger hair or the fact that she is a wicked singer, but my god, she is something else.

The band played 7/8 Shoreline (it's in 7/8, amazing) third in their set and it superseded any live song I've heard this year. There was something about the harmonies, the brass section at the end or the hipsters who couldn't nod their heads in time that culminated in a sonic assault of awesomeness.

Next up was Fire Eye'd Boy, another personal favourite that was immaculate in its live rendition. Forced to Love was third, and the flute driven melody rounded out my three favourite songs of theirs early in the set. Surely the rest would be boring right? Nup!

They kept swapping instruments and dynamics throughout the set. At one stage a few members of the band jumped off stage and made their way through the audience sharing hugs with their followers. Michael was lucky enough to get one and after 10 minutes, the rest of the band was ready to play more songs while the singer was still spreading the love with the crowd.

They closed off their two-hour set in a typically artsy Broken Social Scene way. The trumpets were blowing air and opening the valves, making sounds like birds as the rest of the band kept their rocking sauce flowing (sorry, that's a bit too Jack Black).

It was a truly brilliant show, and if you have to spend $1000 to see this band live, then you are still getting a bargain. They were unbelievable and the three of us (and half of Northampton's lesbian population who was at the show) left the venue absolutely beaming.

The next morning I had to wake up early for a judicial meeting for the 30 pack of beer incident. The person doing the ruling was lovely and very sympathetic to the situation I presented her with. I fashioned a story that I was visiting Michael after a day out to celebrate our new skateboards and school with a few quiet beers and had no idea about the quantity. It was a good story that earned some personal sympathy, but as expected I was found guilty of breaking the rules. In a Machiavellian and unfair way, I transferred some of the guilt back by claiming that this was always the case, and that my time shouldn't have been wasted over a stupid hearing. Now I'm on housing probation for a year ad have to attend to counselling sessions. It all seems a little severe given that I'm 24 years old, but for the sake of my year away I'll have to toe the line.

After that Ellen and I went to Northampton to check out some of the art galleries. We had shared a drunken conversation about art on the Saturday night where I forgot most of events. The focus on most of the places seemed to be on local artists, and for the most part things were great. Sure the prices were exorbitant - hardly unusual amongst the self-inflate art community - but there were a few I thought would like nice on my dorm wall.

There was a section in the back that was fairly hidden from the general view. It featured an exhibit of Leonard Nimoy's photography. The first room seemed kind of tame, save for one risqué image depicting uber-femininity. The next room was a whole other category. It was all tits. And whilst it was funny because Spock is a bit of perv, parading porn as art seems...illogical.

Today in class we had a debate over wikipedia's democracy. The side I chose was for democracy and proved to be the least popular, being outnumbered 15 to 9. Yet, because I had picked the same argument as some extremely clever people my team prevailed. One argument put forward was a typically American perspective, stating that democracy can never function under a monarchy. For the first time in a long time, I felt a need to stand up for my country, and odder still, the Queen. It's amazing what a bit of American ignorance can do to wind you up, even if I am a borderline republican in Australia.

Anyway, tonight at dinner Lee-Roy passed on his Jack Kerouac book to me. It was an absolutely gentleman gesture and as soon as he left the table I was more than happy to share the story with the girls at dinner, who seemed as equally impressed as me. This tops dinner from the other night, where halfway through he received a phone call from a friend of his affectionately known as Trotty...who happens to be a current English cricket player. This whole American university adventure is absolutely brilliant for odd cameos and making the world a smaller place and a constant reminder of how important it was for me to temporarily get out of Wollongong again.



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The Weakerthans - Aside
I could give a blurb about how great this band is and why I love them, or you can do the right thing and find out for yourself. Serial.

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