wipe away the blahs

A Saturday night in August in Tampa…  Too many mosquitoes for a bbq (but we sat around a huge, toxic citronella candle as if it were a bonfire and put back liquid jello shots) and too damn hot to go to a crowded bar to stand around drinking brew and be moved by the music (but how can you resist an aestheticized presents show at the NWB?)

We fought off the blood sucking critters long enough to greet darkness and rolled to New World in time to catch Falterboy in mid show. I was there to show love for fellow MNF’ers Scott “Saturday Asylum” Imrich and Stephen Hammill & co.’s Life of Pi, and looking forward to Brooklyn’s Say Hi to Your Mom.

Even though I had friends in tow, it was the kind of night where one could have ventured out on their own, as I often have on many previous occasions. I like to think of NWB as having built-in friends. Like the dudes who thought nothing of skanking to Falterboy and LoP. They are everybody’s friends. And the bartenders – they’d like you even if you only ordered water.  Not that you would with 1,400 beers on tap. Of course the more you go, the more faces you’ll start to recognize and begin to know.

A lot of these social/drinking acquaintances I only see out at shows such as this. But it has its place; is its own community.

Scott introduced me to a quiet friend of his named Eric. As per usual, I asked Eric what he did and he replied he’s a musician. “Oh, that’s nice. Are you in a band?” I asked as if I was some nerdy kids’ mom (which I am surely destined to become).

“Mm-hmm.”

“What’s it called?”

“Say Hi to Your Mom.”

Dur. Of course it is.

The only thing I could think to say at that point was that I played one of their songs on the radio the week before. He thanked me for the spin. Then I got quiet as I thought about the listener call I got in the middle of the song.

“Is he saying, ‘I want to drink your blood’?!”

“Um, yes sir. I think so.”

“Isn’t that –weird?”

“Yeah, I guess. But it’s a really pretty song, isn’t it?”

With a new record forthcoming, Life of Pi played some new stuff and sported new bassist and Hub fixture Mark. John was the former bassist but took the place of beloved guitarist Anthony O. Drummer Andy, as always, was banned to the back where decent pics are virtually impossible to capture with amateur cameras.

The crowd densified for Say Hi to Your Mom and by then everyone was dancing around. I don’t know what is considered a successful show for AES but anything that brings the people together on a sweltering night smells like success to me.