Thoughts in a Very Loud, Very Dark Room With Hundreds of Strangers

That was to be the title of a stream-of-consciousness blog post that I wrote in bits and pieces in my head last night during the Modest Mouse concert. But now it's just a persuasive argument for keeping a notebook in my pocket at all times and writing things down as I think of them. Because when we got home last night, I didn't have the energy to actually write it out. So I sat down to recreate it just now, and discovered that all the magic had gone out of it. It would be hard at this point to remember everything I had wanted to say, and hard to achieve the effect I wanted, and I'm not interested enough anymore to put the effort in.

So instead I'll just say, in conventional blog fashion, that the concert--which we owe our friend Katie for, since she let us have the tickets she won--was awesome. We were in the front row in the orchestra pit, directly in front of the guitarist and his guitar-only speakers, which convinced me that it is possible to be too close to the stage during a concert. The singer's vocals were often drowned out by the guitar, and the unique vocals and lyrics are one of my favorite things about Modest Mouse. But that's just an observation. I wouldn't complain. The music was great, the venue was gorgeous, the gin and tonic was tasty, the people-watching was interesting, and the vibe was extremely positive. People love that band. It makes them smile. And for good reason.