Friday, June 20, 2008

A terminal case of the totally sucks

A few firsts for me lately: first time handling a boom mic; first time seeing my mom in six months; first time taking engagement photos (that one with the flag slays me); first time eating an orange since I decided I detested them as a kid. It was pretty tasty.

I should probably write about the incident known as Dinner with De Novo Dahl before I forget it all. Here's the story, from the very beginning:

I was listening to Pandora at work during my closing-student-manager days at the Cougareat. I didn't understand how Pandora worked very well at the time, so I was unwittingly adding some of my tunes to the secretary's station, which was previously composed of Toby McGrath and the like. It was pretty cool. Anyway, when I realized I couldn't reach this station on my own (because I didn't have her password), I went to work and wrote down all the sweet new songs I had been introduced to. I held onto this list for a long time.

Flash forward to nine months or so later, Andy's back from the mission and he finds this list. He decides to find all the songs for me. One of the songs, the one I had really hoped to hear again, was De Novo Dahl's "Jeffrey" from their weird little album, Cats and Kittens. Cats has a bunch of songs, Kittens has a bunch of remixes of the songs that are on Cats under different names("Jeffrey" is remixed as "Dinosaurs!" and is the same song but with roars in it). Andy had a hard time finding "Jeffrey" (he had an account with eMusic at the time), but he found all sorts of other De Novo Dahl songs on the way and became a much bigger fan than I ever was.

We got one of their CDs, found Cats and Kittens for cheap on Amazon, and then he found out they were coming to the Velour, opening for Tally Hall. We bought tickets pretty quick. Then just before Poker Night, Andy pulled up their MySpace page and wrote, "If you guys need dinner before the show, my wife's a good cook and we live just a few blocks from the venue." Crazy Andy. They wrote back the next morning, saying they didn't know when their flight was coming in but they'll get in touch with us and put us "on the list, for being good people. You should buy a shirt or two." Thus began the quest to sell our tickets - not that they were that expensive - which we did, to my coworker.

We didn't hear back from them again until Saturday (the day of the show) at about 3 in the afternoon. We decided to buy a dining table (with matching chairs) that very day, just in case they called last minute, and we had a good coupon for Ikea. They called us on our way to Walmart for our weekly groceries and asked us if we were still up for it. Heck yes we were. Only two or three of them would be coming, though, because everyone was pretty bushed. And no, they weren't vegetarians and they were only allergic to baby seals.

Cue frantic trip to Walmart to buy food and get home in time to get the food cooking. I chose to make taco salad because cilantro, chicken, enchilada sauce, rice, beans, chips, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, ranch, and lime are delicious together and it's one of my best meals. Meanwhile, Andy did his best to put together the new Ikea table. We had to borrow a screw driver and only had time to put together the table and one chair.

They arrive just before the food is done. It's two of them - the bassist and the drummer, Keith and Joey. Keith has big, curly black hair much like Jon's at one point. Joey used to have very long shiny hair, but it's now trim and reputable, and wears glasses. They're very polite. I don't think Keith likes onions or maybe tomatoes. We talk about music a little bit, movies, directors, the Wii (I show off our Mii's). They tell us a few band secrets, like Joel (lead) only listens to his own demos these days, sings along, and usually forgets the words. Matt (keyboard) listens mostly to Japanese video game music and does a fantastic impression of Jemain Clement doing an impression of David Bowie. (Which he does for us, later in the night)

It's pretty calm and uneventful, really, like feeding a couple from the ward, only it's a couple that likes to watch Adult Swim and Quentin Tarantino. Keith and I are the only ones who have seconds. We drink apple juice. We break out the orange creamsicles we bought for dessert, but Keith is too full, and Joey takes a few extra to give to the other members.

We get to the concert a little late after some misadventures with the ATM trying to get some cash to buy a shirt or two. Felt pretty cool being able to tell the lady at the front that we were "on the list" and slip in without paying. The first band is headed by Zaphod Beeblebrox, the second guy sings with his hands, and the third (three opening bands!) is De Novo Dahl. Holy energy on a stage. They're just a fun, crazy rock and roll band, you know? As my coworker put it, "That song was freakin rad. It was like I was listening to the freakin Flaming Lips."

We met the other members (Matt, Joel, Serai) at the merch table, bought Andy a sweet shirt (for $10) and got stickers, posters, their new CD and a set of paper dolls of the whole band (for free). Talked to Serai a little about her name (it was a little awkward - I never realized I got nervous around girls) and boy howdy am I jealous of her dress. I actually wasn't feeling real hot, so all my energy was gone by the time Tally Hall came up, but it's okay because there was enough adolescent girl energy in that room to power a small star.

So that was the night. Nothing too out of the ordinary besides feeding a couple of rock stars.

And now Keith and I are Facebook friends.

1 reason(s) to click here:

LJ said...

I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for this story. Bless you.