Please stop the music

I’ve written that now that MB is in music school, we’ve been going to hear a lot of live music. Mostly it’s been fun. We’ve heard folksy stuff, jazz, and of course his classmate’s metal band.

Wednesday night that band was playing again. Last time they were in Brooklyn in a very mellow bar. So mellow that for the first half of the show, there were hardly any people in the audience. But it was still fun. This time it was in Brooklyn again, but it was anything but mellow.

First off, for some reason we have a really hard time figuring Brooklyn out. We’ll HopStop a place, and it’ll show us some crazy route involving two or three trains when we could have just taken the L somewhere and walked.

But even walking is not direct. Wednesday night I swear we ended up walking all the way down one street just to cross to the street parallel and walk all the way fuck back in the other direction! Twice we did this! And me in uncomfortable shoes.

The show was supposed to start at 8:30, but they made us wait outside for at least an hour. And it was freaking cold. I had my winter coat but was still chilly. Plus my feet, grrr! When they finally let us in, I expected to find the place packed, but it was half empty.

Then more standing around, listening to this mediocre reggae band. Luckily MB had brought us earplugs cuz that shit was ear bleedingly loud. With the plugs it was normal. The band wasn’t bad, but the lead singer was such a faker. Sometimes he had a Jamaican accent, and sometimes he sounded like he was from New Jersey.

The finally, FINALLY, around 10, MB’s classmate’s band started to get ready. But of course that took at least half an hour. My feet were hurting more and more. We sat for a while on the edge of this platform but it wasn’t super comfortable.

So the band was fun but they didn’t sound as good as the first time we heard them. Part of it was the sound. One of the guitars and the bass were really loud, but MB’s classmate’s guitar was almost silent, you could only hear part of the drums, and the lead singer kept coming in and out. As soon as they were done, we were outta there.

We’ve decided we’re way too old for this kind of thing. How old? The club was 18 and over, and some girls waiting in line couldn’t get in. (The band members are 17 to 21, and a had a shitload of little groupies.) MB and I – 34 and 36, respectively – were laughingly out of place. But I don’t really care about that. It’s more like no more schleps out to frigging Brooklyn on a week night to stand outside in the cold in uncomfortable shoes and then hear music that’s just okay.

Tonight we’re hearing this jazz/disco/house improv group. Now *that* should be interesting.

1 comment

  1. You are old enough to be their parents! :)
    4 guitars? How many did he have when he started school? They are only going to multiply……