Newer Bohemians

while ben is jumping off amps and making jokes and ooh-oohing, we realize that we're in the midst of a posse of high school kids. actual, honest to god teenagers. some decide to mosh in five second bursts. others slip their hands in their boy/girlfriends back pockets. one sings along to every song and just *explodes* with energy, her hair flipping about her head, her arms and hands trying to evolve into hummingbirds via kinetic expression. even ben, on stage, seems so young (although madhavi notices his wedding ring...).

all this makes me smile. i do feel old, but not in a crotchety, flibbity-floo, damn-kids way. it makes me feel old in a "ah! i remember being young!" way. i can recall so clearly going to see my first rock show; Sting playing on the ...Nothing Like the Sun tour. how i howled along with Roxanne and Don't Stand So Close to Me. my hair (i had hair then!) flipping about my head.

now, of course, i wouldn't go to see Sting unless i had it on good authority that he was going to get a good Passion of the Christ -style scourging at the hands of Andy Summers and Stewart Copland mid-way through his first song. in case you missed it, not only does Sting suck so hardcore now that it's almost a challenge to appreciate the stuff he made when he didn't suck, but he also now is saying the whole tantric sex thing was a misquote. he said "frantic" sex, not tantric. thinking about Sting makes me feel as if i found out Grace Kelly was secretly alive and turning nickle tricks in Gary, Indiana for glue money.

um. sorry. Sting rant over.

I also remember seeing Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians at the Orpheum in Boston. how she spent the whole show standing with her toes pointed at opposite ends of the stage doing her hippie moan thing. she was probably as old then as ben kweller is now.

ben fails to play "Lizzy," which is the song we wanted to hear most, but he was going to. i know because the teenagers ripped the play list off the floor after ben's set ended and i saw it on there. he had to cut a song because one of the teenagers invited him to her prom and that prompted him to tell a long story about how he accepted an invitation like that once. some girl at his holiday inn in mussel shoals, alabama asked him to join her so he bought a mustard yellow suit at the salvation army and came along. he's still looking for copies of his prom pictures if you happen to know that girl...

then madhavi slipped her hand in my back pocket and we pretended like we didn't have thirty year old aches. Death Cab for Cutie closed the show and they made me happy, too. i don't really know their stuff but i think i might have to get one of their albums now. if you're a fan of theirs, feel free to make a recommendation.

on another topic, i'm turning thirty-two in a month. i can't decide if i want to throw a party or just lounge about with some close friends. if i do throw a party, i'm thinking i'd like steal an idea i read about on another blog and have an "All Kinds of Stupid" party. that just sounds like fun. my house sucks for parties, though. anyone else feel like hosting?