Yesterday morning I got up,

Yesterday morning I got up, wrote some crap for NaNoWriMo, then was forced to walk around the neighborhood in the bitter, bitter cold distributing political pamphlets reminding everyone to vote, then got home and began to read Memoirs of a Geisha, which I am absorbed in entirely and enjoying immensely [each word of that clause excluding "which" began with a vowel xD], then around 6:00, 6:30 Stasia Ork called and was like. . .

S: I'll pick you up around seven, mmkay?
M: Huh?!
S: The Yeah Yeah Yeahs in concert. . . tonight. . .
M: AHHHHH, that's tonight?!
S: Yes. . .
M: Okay, well, um. See you at seven, then.
S: Okay.

Fortunately I had already taken a shower today or I would never have been ready in time. Actually, I probably would've been because Stasia didn't arrive until 7:30ish, but still.

We arrive at the Trocadero at around 8:00. The doors actually opened at seven, but it would have just been the DJ for an hour, so I didn't mind missing that. We got there right before the first set and had just enough time to get our tickets, buy Stashy a t-shirt, go in, sit down on the edge of the main pit in front of the stage, and stand up almost immediately after we sit down.

Before I talk about the bands, let me introduce the Trocadero atmosphere. First of all, it was no Unlimited Sunshine at the Mann Centre. Much smaller, much more indoors, much scenier, if that's a word. On the whole, it felt more like a club than a concert. The fact that there were no chairs contributed to this. Also, the crowd was a little more hardcore than Unlimited Sunshine. Everyone was wearing Bohemian/punk rock style clothing, and then there was me with my black peacoat and turtleneck sweater [it was cold!] feeling disgustingly preppy and out-of-place. Of course, I did have the short hair and thick glasses going for me.

ARGH, I HAVE TO GO TO CHURCH NOW FOR MY COUSIN'S CHRISTENING. I'LL FINISH THIS AFTERWARDS.

[5:02 PM] As I was saying, the Trocadero crowd was. . . older is the right word, I think. But it was a lot of fun, anyway. Quite soon after Stasia and I arrived, the first band came on stage. The Trocadero site is updated to the minute, it appears, because they already took down the information about Saturday night's show, so I can't get the band's name from there. And the Yeah Yeah Yeahs site seems like it hasn't been updated in ages. I'm pretty certain their name began with the word "Rave" and I remember them saying they have an album coming out this month. Maybe. But they were kind of blah, anyway. A girl and two guys with guitars and a guy on drums—the girl and one of the guys sang, if you could call it that, while the other guy with the guitar jumped around on stage. All their songs sounded pretty much the same. And the audience didn't help either. They just sort of stood there like zombies the entire time. Stasia and I tried to liven it up with "WOOOOOO!"s, but it didn't work very well. The girl guitarist/singer sort of half-laughed, half-smiled when I went "Woooooo!" one time, though, so that was cool.

There was a little break between sets, so Stasia and I explored the Troc a bit; however, there wasn't much to explore, so we quickly returned to the main pit area in front of the stage and sat down while waiting for the next band. This was The Gossip, who were a fat girl with short dark hair on vocals, a guy with glasses and hair that fell in his eyes on guitar, and a girl with short frizzy brown hair and glasses on drums. They were amazing. Really. The moment the music began, the singer, let's call her "Beth," started dancing like crazy. She was hardcore. And then the people in the crowd were kind of reluctant to start dancing [not me, of course], so she was like, "Y'all gotta dance! Here, let me help you get rid of your inhibitions. . ." and she zipped down her jeans and stepped out of them, and was wearing just a white t-shirt, black underwear, and socks for the rest of their songs. So she was really fun. She used the word "fucking" a lot, too, but I suppose that can't be helped.

At one point she came down into the audience and was like two feet away from me, so I felt famous. ^.~ And at another point she dedicated a song to all the "fat queers," and then said "Queers representin'!" and everyone cheered, except for me and Stasia and maybe two other people, so I felt a little bit left out then. Damn my heterosexuality. And at yet another point she was all, "I wouldn't change my body for anything in the world." I was q. proud & envious of her self-actualization. Yeah, so I definitely give The Gossip a thumbs up. If you ever get a chance to see them, you should.

Oh, tee. In line for the bathroom between The Gossip and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Stasia and I overheard these three women talking about how hot Beth is and how she made their hearts go pitter-patter. That amused me. ^__^ I am such an eavesdropper. ^^;

And then there was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Karen O on vocals, Brian Chase on drums, and Nick Zinner on guitar. Karen O was mad cool. She definitely got all into the songs and was leaping about the stage and drinking beer and being crazy. She used the word "omniscient" and that earned her my respect, because of course if people use big words that means they're very intelligent. ;D

There were these crazy kids to the left of me and Stasia who were bouncing into each other during the fast parts of certain songs, and while I can bounce into other people with the best of them, on my other side were these boring people who didn't dance and gave you the impression that if you bumped into them, you would pay dearly. Or maybe I'm exaggerating, but I rather enjoy swaying towards the dramatic, as Elly might say. Anyway, that was really fun. Despite the boring people behind me and to my right, I bounced and quasi-moshed and got my groove on, etc. :D

When the band got up and went offstage, everyone started stomping loudly [including myself ^^;] 'cause there always has to be an encore. So after a while, they come back on stage and Karen is all, "Well, we were halfway down the block in our limousine when we heard y'all stomping, so we decided to come back and play a few more songs." And everyone found that amusing because they did nothing of the sort and were planning to come back on stage anyway. So they mulled over what songs to play and a guy to the left of me was all, "Mystery Girl!" And I was like yeah!

When Stasia invited me to go to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs concert, you see, I went online and downloaded all of their songs, and my favourite, or if not my very favourite, then at least one of my favourites, is "Mystery Girl." So Karen [or maybe it was Nick] was like, "Okay, who wants 'Mystery Girl'?" And everyone raised their hand, so they played it and it was hardcore. :D And then they played another song and then they went offstage for good, and I rushed to the merch stand to buy myself a sexy t-shirt. xD

So that was last night. And then this morning Leo got baptized, which was dreadfully boring, and I'm so glad I'm not forced to go to church weekly. But I managed to sit through it for my cousin's sake, and afterwards there was food, so. ^__^ Oh, and when Laura saw my Yeah Yeah Yeahs shirt, she was all, "Hey, I had a ticket to that."

Me: Really?
Her: Yeah.

And then she told me she and Tom [her special friend] went to the Sleater-Kinney concert that Stasia and I had tried to get tickets to! I told her as much, and she was like, "Aww, you should have come with me and Tom, it was really great, &c."

Silly old Laura. ^__^

Almeda | 03.11.02 09:44 | TrackBack