Concerts.

6 bands, 4 days.

Wed. 4/6, Tallahassee, The Red Elvises: "Your faaavvvvooorite band!"
Lyric: "We gonna rock this joint, we gonna roll this joint, we gonna smoke this joint... until we sound like Pink Floyd."

Thurs. 4/7, Gainesville, RX Bandits: "You know something's wrong when the female to male ratio isn't equal here in the middle. If that's happening, it means you're being too much of a tough guy when you're dancing."
Lyric: "We've had enough of these politician's wars / All we need right now is love... (ain't no hippy shit!)"

Fri. 4/8, Melbourne, Bye-bye Birdie: "There are a few words I never wanted to hear in this house, and 'puberty' was at the top of the list! 'Mussolini' was second!"
Lyric: "Gray skies are gonna clear up / Put on a happy face."

Sat. 4/9, Orlando, CAKE: "If we play that song, if we play 'The Distance,' will you stop screaming at us?? Let's make a deal, we play that song right now and you leave and shut up. If we play it and you don't leave, I'll stop the show. I'll do it. I don't really care- I'm fuckin' crazy! ... Nah, it's not worth the risk."
Lyric: "If I threw my guitar out the window, so far down / Would I start to regret it? Or would I smile as I watched it slowly fall?"

***

No, I didn't count Bye-bye Birdie as being three bands; the other three bands were opening bands for RX Bandits and Cake, and they're not worth mentioning.

I think the trip was well worth it, though I didn't think Ticketmaster tacking on $12 in fees (including a "US Postal fee"... when they didn't even mail the tickets- I picked them up at the booth) was very cool.

Cake sounded pretty good live, considering they've changed lineups over the years, it sounded very clean and nice and good. Yeah, and opening with "Daria" was a good move. :)

Portraits of Laughter and Joy.

These two are unrelated:

There was laughter. A faint, tickling laughter coming from nearby—around the corner, perhaps, in the small shop nearby. It was a vibrant sound, intriguing the people passing by; a purely joyous expression uninterrupted by breaths or words or even other laughs; an exuberant fluctuating wave of rapid giggles and uninhibited gasps of delight. A grown woman’s laughter that sounded very much like a small child’s unabashed squeals of indulgence when he has discovered a wonderful new experience in the world. It vibrated gently through the air in the street, emitting a cloud of happiness that saturated the passersby, one by one, with the woman’s joy and pulled them (for just a moment) into the realm of exciting new experiences that they remembered from their own childhoods.

***

He sat, cross-armed, slouching, with eyes aware but barely open, scanning the crowd. Watching the people. He noticed a small girl running about, shrieking in twinges of delight. Smiling, she stomped around the food court with unabashed excitement, running into people and spreading small moments of joy to them. Anyone who saw her would stop and smile, their eyes gleaming, faces lighting up in response to the vigorous spirit of the youth before them. Then, the moment passed; they would continue walking and soon their faces would slump back into the dour expressions they held before their joyful encounter.

Simply amazing.

Across my near two years at FSU, I've heard people from various administrations outright diss SCE for their incompetence/inefficiency/unprofessional behavior. High-level people from the Club Downunder, the Student Life Cinema, and now the FSView (and Matt said the WVFS [radio] people have mentioned it too) have ranted to me about how awful SCE is and how the people are impossible to work with and how SCE takes credit for everything, but provides nothing. Until now, I've taken these people's words for it.

Now, I have firsthand experience.

I contacted the concert coordinator for SCE over a week and a half ago, asking for any information on the Battle of the Bands they're hosting this year, and I had to send another email this week to prod some more. So I get a response yesterday that they would "finally decide the lineup" last night and let me know today, even though I told him my deadline was tomorrow morning.

Then I had to contact some band, Presence, 's agent to try and talk to them about their "headlining performance" at the battle of the bands. This is the response I got:

Call DJ Stange at XXX-XXXX. He is the nucleus of the band. He will answer all your questions.

Funniest. Response. Ever.

He didn't set up a time, just sent me the phone number of one of the guys in the band. Yeah, so....

I'm going to see the Red Elvises tonight and I'm not gonna write this article, nor conduct a crappy interview with a crappy band (I already got an extension on it, my editor even mentioning that I wouldn't really have to write a piece for it if "worst comes to worst").

Then, I'm going to see the RX Bandits tomorrow night... for free! (...in Gainesville)... (...hopefully).

THEN, I'm going home, and then going to Orlando for CAKE this saturday (missing the Wrens, but ohs well).

THEN, I'm coming back Sunday to write a crappy article for another crappy band that's doing a show at the beta bar. That one is due Monday morning.

Sweeeeeeeeeeeet.