The Rocking Horse Winner

Turns out I can Predict the Future to a greater degree than I was aware. Matt Pond PA is indeed now carried and featured over the in-store play at Best Buy. I guarantee that Panic! at the Disco will follow suit by April. There have been a few additions to the in-store play that caught me off-guard, such as Dresden Dolls' "Coin-Operated Boy", but even the songs that seem good and out of place can usually be linked to one of the soundtracks of The OC or One Tree Hill, of which they have volumes.

I went and caught Matt Pond PA with Alex down at the Barrymore in Madison last Wednesday. They opened for The New Pornographers, who I was familiar with but not schooled in. MPP was more than I could have asked for, amazing live and they had a Cellist who was kind of hot. The people standing next to me were idiots and I don't think they actually knew any of the bands that were playing. One of the girls kept trying to dance to everything with anyone who would pay attention. I'm pretty sure she was doing this without the benefit of alcohol.

Speaking of alcohol- the Barrymore has amazing Beer deals. I'm used to The Rave where--if you play by the rules--$6 will net you a tiny plastic cup of flat Miller Lite, and that's before tip. I generally do not play by the rules and find a bartender that would rather pocket a $5 and give me a glass of actual alcohol, undetected. At the Barrymore, however, I didn't have to do any reconaissance. $4 nets you a 16 oz plastic cup and beer of choice. New Glarus refills after that are only $3. Done! While I was waiting in line post-Matt Pond PA a guy that looked vaguely familiar called me out on being from Milwaukee. He took a moment to try and place where from and then asked if I ever went to Downer Wine & Spirits. That's right- the guy from the fucking Liquor Store spotted me and called me out! What the fuck! I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to happen. Eh, I guess I did go there quite a bit over the course of a year and a half, especially when I was working at Gamestop. They were, and sometimes still are, my Clove outlet. Plus the people that work there rock, as evidenced by the attendance at this show. In the brief exchange he seemed pretty impressed that I was there for Matt Pond PA over New Pornographers, I'll have to hit up Downer again soon and see if I get any sort of kickback. The chick that works there already told me to show up any time she's working past close and she'll help me out, now I've just got to work on owning that shit on all fronts.

New Pornographers were impressive, I picked up their disc after the show. I wasn't entirely unconvinced that the keyboarder/vocalist filling in for Neko Case wasn't a 12-year old boy. Once she took off her sweatshirt I realized that if this was the case then she was a 12-year old boy with a bit of a problem. I guess what I'm getting at is short hair is all well and fine and has potential to be hot, but there is a point where it's kind of frightening.

Rogue Wave is coming up with Nada Surf, Jenny Lewis is in about a week, Death Cab is playing two shows in April. I think I'm trying to say good times are ahead? I left a DCFC cd behind last time 'round and my dad has decided they are now his new favorite band. He even bought himself and my mom tickets to their Madison show. Huh. I'm not sure what that says.