Rock Shows of Note XII
I am so glad that I woke up in time for this show Saturday night. I've gotten into the habit of laying down for a disco nap before going out some weekend evenings (almost every Friday given the workday and all), and it's a rare day indeed that I don't actually end up sleeping through the very event or activity I was saving up strength for. Sigh. Disco naps: Don't take 'em.

In any event, I arrived at TT the Bear's almost at the end of a solid set by the Essex Green. One of Alex's current favorites, they are decidedly not British -- but are instead part of that wonderful musical collective the Elephant Six. A little sleepy stumbly, I quite enjoyed their performance but wasn't really paying enough attention to comment wisely on their part of the show.

Ditto for Ladybug Transistor, whom I've seen play before -- but which I swear didn't have as many people on stage the last time I saw them live. Ladybug shares several band members with Essex, as is true for many Elephant Six projects, and they, too, delighted with a shimmering set of dreamy, slightly off-kilter pop. Wonderful. Much better than sleeping.

Lesson learned: I'm not very good at pool right after waking -- or while drinking. (I have a bell-curve theory about the relationship between drinks drunk and pool hall performance, but that's a story for another day.) Corollary: The cue ball isn't the purple ball. It's the white ball. To paraphrase Al Franken: Oh, the lessons I'll learn!