Do you ever fall in love with a song on the radio? The spontaneous musical experience. Ok, now you like a new song, what now? You download it/ buy it/ search it on youtube, right? Yeah, that’s what you do. Now you have this brilliant song at your fingertips, to play at at your whim! But wait. You don’t want to hear it. It doesn’t have that same drive that it once had. You play the song and think about other things. That hook that once reeled you in, now seems like a greased pole and you slide right off. You miss your “favorite part.” Eh, this song is no good. I don’t care for it anymore. You no longer listen to it and it becomes just another notch in your iPod scroll.
A few weeks ago my former SGA advisor hinted that I’d be very fortune to see a show featuring Surfer Blood and Turbo Fruits. If you know anything about me, you’ll know that I’ll try just about anything. And if you know any more about me, you know that I don’t like to go alone. So I hit up a few pals. Out of the three only one came. It was alright; it turned out to be awesome anyway.
My buddy Jeremy and I ventured to this venue called the Engine Room. The vibe is nice. Booths line the east and west red walls. Separating the booths from the main floor is a single row of cocktail tables. The bar is located in the back. It was stocked with a wide selection of beer. After we purchased our tickets, we headed straight to the bar. I ordered an Old Rasputin RIS(Russian Imperial Stout). For those that have no idea what that is: just think of a Guinness but 10x the flavor and 2x the potency.
So the bands… Out of the two(I’m not counting the Holiday Shores or Curious Animals), Turbo Fruits (http://turbofruitsmusic.com) played first. The three members came on stage and their sound was sonic, lo-fi, and raw. Jonas Stein, guitarist and lead singer looked like he could have been a Jonas brother, but that notion soon faded. It began much more laid back then I was expecting. Though, once the set started up it progressed into more of a thrashing and intense experience. Stien’s guitar wasn’t your typical power chord rhythm. He added groove filled riffs and belted out the songs while the drums rolled the beat into raucous fun. The bassist Max as well got in to it as well. Which was a relief; I am not overly thrilled with static characters just playing music. The emotion not only was conveyed through their faces and music but through their leg kicks and jumps. Luckily Surfer Blood wasn’t playing next, this gave me time to collect my face after it had been melted off.
Like I said, Surfer Blood wasn’t after Turbo Fruits. So, I decided to head down back to the bar to pick some more beer. I picked up two Lagunitas Maximus IPA (I ran out while hearing Turbo fruits and I didn’t want that mistake again). IPAs are known for their strong bitter flavor while still having some citric notes. This one was no exception, loved it. This will definitely be my go-to-beer at the Engine Room. After Holiday Shores played their set, Surfer Blood was now ready to take the stage.
The finale: this part of the story explains the title. While I certainly don’t believe in “love at first sight”, I accept that I was clearly infatuated with this girl. Short black hair to the shoulders, cute smile and interesting personality.
After most of the crowd from Holiday Shores cleared, I signaled to Jeremy that we needed to move and get to the front. He agreed. We maneuvered through the sea of patrons that were headed away from the front of the stage. Once in our ideal location, the feeling of inebriation started to kick in. I looked over to my left and there she was. She looked at me and yelled “Hey, I guess you’re my ‘elbow buddy’”
I replied “‘Elbow buddy’? What does that mean?”
She goes ” You know, Elbow buddy.” She motions her as to elbow me in a dancing sort of way.
“Oh! I get it” I acknowledge.
Double-fisting at the moment(hands occupied with two beverages), I glanced over to her and noticed she was drinking Delirium Tremens, which is a pale ale. Reflecting on previous experiences with this beer, the taste really surprised me when I tried it at the Fermentation Lounge. Starts off a little dry from the carbonation with the suspected fruit (peach, apricot, melon) but, then the warming alcohol hits with a wonderful sour aftertaste. Most enjoyable, as it warms it continues to increasing depth. It is one of my favorite beers.
We converse a bit more about the beer. Though before we exchange any personal information the band starts. Surfer Blood, comes off as melodic and but with buzz. I could say maybe Vampire Weekend or Band of Horse with more bite. This kind of reflects on their album cover of Astro Coast. Though I felt that this show was slightly lacking, but I’m certainly not saying that I didn’t enjoy it. I was getting into it so hard that my beer wouldn’t stay in the bottle. My previous exposure to Surfer Blood was their “Swim” single. The studio version’s vocals were filled with reverb and had a thick sound. I didn’t get that same feeling at this show. It wasn’t too disappointing, though. The percussionist (different from the drummer) took his tom drum and place it in the crowd during one of the songs. He handed out drumsticks and allowed us in the audience to play along. “Swim”, their last song, created a frenzy. Everyone knew it, including my ‘elbow buddy’. Ah, I nearly forgot to mention her. Throughout the entire set, my ‘elbow buddy’ and I had been dancing along with each other. She would “elbow” me and then punch my arm, but not hard, almost in an endearing way. We would constantly glance at each other just to keep ourselves in sync with each other and the band. I felt a connection. It was there. If you don’t believe me, ask Jeremy. Anyway, about half way through “Swim”, it started to get out of control. People from the audience climbed up on stage and one of the band members jumped into the crowd. He crowd-surfed for a moment; his leg came at my face and knocked off my glasses. Luckily for me, Jeremy was there and had miraculously ended up with them. After that moment I lost track of my ‘elbow buddy’.
I never saw her after that. I regret every moment that I had to ask her what her name was. I can only hope that I’ll see her in the Engine Room again. But of course, my perception of this whole event could have been biased and totally skewed from reality.
The writings contained in this blog will consist of my travels at my new school. I won’t focus on my academic pursuits. I focus on that too much anyway. You’re more likely to hear my experiences in the local music scene, social exploits, and happenings in my life. I might also give reviews of new stuff I hear, see, drink, or read. As a warning, my opinions and emotions will more than likely fill this text and you might not like them. Just letting you know.
As I have already learned, people view things differently than I do. What makes it worse is that I have such a hard problem conveying myself through words. I’m not the most gifted talker. I jumble my words much like a vocal dyslexic. I’m sure there’s a word for it, but it currently escapes me. I also have a problem with conjugation but, I’m also working on that. To be cliché: practice makes perfect.
