Friday night was a bit surreal to say the least. I went to see Rose Melberg play with Pants Yell!!! and Brown Recluse Sings (I think that was Herbie's band's name). Andrea from My Favorite was singing with Rose. Now, I only got to see My Favorite once in their fourteen year career because they rarely made it to the West Coast and never played in Olympia, but after I saw them live last summer they went from "band with that amazing single that got me through high school" to "band I love for presenting me with the alternate view of what my life may have been like if I went to NYC instead of WA after high school". Rose holds a similar place in my heart, although I am guilty of using her lyrics as weapons of mass obsession and generally focusing on one song that I will listen to on repeat over and over and over again ("Golden Gate Bridge" and "Love You More"). The thing is, there were five years of me having adventures with boys who were obsessed with the Softies (and being obsessed with boys who had adventures with the Softies), ending in feeling like the coolest girl ever when she gifted me a t-shirt and cd at Ladyfest 2000, and then she dissapeared and went off to make babies and live in Canadia, and I was okay.
Well, in a little over a year I've seen her play seven times:
1. that gallery in Vancouver with P:ano (since she hadn't played in five years it seemed like a wonderful occasion)
2. Bellingham Pop Fest spagetti dinner (Tullycraft were playing the fest, so of course I was there!)
3. Olympia Eagles Hall ballroom with Math and Physics Club (Charles and I set up the show)
4. Vancouver BC opening for Belle and Sebastian (because I wanted to see Belle and Sebby three nights in a row and Rose opening was the deciding factor)
5. in store with Calvin Johnson and mini-Softies reunion (because I love Calvin too)
6. Olympia Midnight Sun with Jenny Jenkins and Onyx (I put on this show!)
7. Tritone in Philadelphia, Friday night
So living out in the middle of nowhere (literally, about ten miles away from the nearest Starbucks, which I know is not like the Midwest or something) as a fangirl teenager a typical fantasy of mine would be something like "Bikini Kill's tourvan breaks down in front of my parent's house and I get to sit in the kitchen with Kathleen Hanna drinking coffee while phone calls are made to try to get the tour back on the road".
So somehow during the night it was decided that Rose and her entorage would like to stay at my house. So around two a.m. we pulled into my parent's driveway and I snuck the band upstairs past my sleeping parents to the guest bedrooms on the second floor. And after we settled in, it was a little wierd to think "Dear God, these women are my riot grrrl heroines, and we're all grown up and things are going to be okay, even in this corner of suburbia. Thank you."
Unfortunately I had such a busy day ahead of me I didn't have time to make breakfast so we made do with fancy coffee machine coffee. Then I was off on other adventures....
(My inner 17 year old is so jealous of me, now if I could only always look as cute as these ladies and get through library school like Andrea)
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