Weekend Notes

- Manos, Rock Opera of Fate: can I just say, wow? A Tenacious D-esque narrator, an ending culled from the Usual Suspects (so perfect considering Torgo's large thigh disability), a song called "Can't You See the Torgo (Inside of Me)"- it doesnt' get any better than that. Total hilarity. I'm glad I have things like this to appease my inner geek every now and then.

- Sunset Rubdown @ the Empty Bottle on Saturday: This show was disappointing for a variety of reasons, most of them which couldn't completely be helped by the band. Spencer Krug and crew were late getting into town and had to do their full sound check before their set. . . and it took about 45 minutes to an hour to take care of, making the crowd unbelievably antsy. This wait did not help the fact that I was surrounded by the biggest bunch of douchebags ever to grace the Empty Bottle's grimy floor. We're talking mindblowing levels of idiocy here, which I had to sit through for the hour wait since I didn't want to lose my spot. There was an in-depth discussion of the three lamps on the stage and what their purpose might be (the final consensus: to light up the stage. Wow.) I had to break my silence when the guy behind me starting going on about how he wasn't that into Menomena because they were a Christian rock band (not true, though for the record, two of the members were in a Christian rock band in high school). I just couldn't let this jerkoff spread false information about Menomena; I don't think he believed me, but I do think I frightened him a little (I was getting ornery, ok?). The douchery didn't end when band started either, as apparently someone next to me brought what must have been his frat-boy cousin, who kept dancing at inappropriate times in a manner that made it seem he was prepping for the big fight, waving fists in the air and stomping his feet so hard I could feel the ground shake. He also commented on how "tasty" keyboardist Camilla Wynn Ingr looked and then told his cousin some "chick" in the crowd was "definitely checking him out." Then when someone yelled for Spencer to play "I'll Believe in Anything" and Spencer said he wouldn't because "that's not this band", some really tall guy bounded through the crowd to stand in front of me saying "this is my favorite song!" before realizing he misunderstood the whole "not gonna play it" part of the discussion. Yikes. But beyond all of that, the band just seemed sort of tired; considering this was their last show of the tour and they had just annoyed a sold-out crowd with an hour-plus soundcheck, I suppose they thought they'd lost control of the show and weren't going to get it back. They sounded fine and all, but this was nothing at the level of their Schubas show last year. The deep passion and intensity was missing this time around. Too bad.