Long time, no blog. I’d like to say that I’ve been off doing important artsy things, like trekking in Bhutan, or drinking wine and writing songs all night in Montmartre, but I, uh, haven’t. I was at the DMV yesterday – does that count?
One excellent thing I’ve done since my last visit to these pages was a trip to see Crowded House in Saratoga. Are you hip to Crowded House? I’ve never been able to get a handle on how many people are actually aware of this band’s existence: the intensity of my own fanboy-ness for these guys is so intense that it warps the time-space continuum around it, creating an event horizon that I, from the inside, cannot see out of!
Or something. I skipped the astrophysics unit in my high school science class to make out with Shana R. in the nasturtiums by the faculty parking lot.
Anyway, Crowded House is a fantastic band, and they always put on a fantastic show, and this was the most fantastic one of all. See, in the 80s and 90s, they put out a lot of records and toured a lot, but then they broke up, and the drummer killed himself, and when they announced their comeback tour I was very worried that they’d be bald (see: Van Halen) and drunk (see: Van Halen) and would suck.
Not to worry. This post is long enough already, so I’ll spare you the details, but they were every bit as good and funny as they were back in the day, and the show ended with a band/crowd singalong on “Better Be Home Soon” sans electricity (because the power had been cut due to the venues surprisingly draconian curfew). What a great show.
Here’s a pair of handwritten haiku (haikus? Is it one of those singular/plural words, like moose?) from the keyboard player describing the show. It’s almost as good as being there.
P.S. Actually, I’m probably going to the Van Halen show too.