Love'll get you like a case of Anthrax

Have you ever looked forward to a show for months, and then the day comes, and you're tired or cranky. You're thinking you should just blow it off, that the performers can't possibly meet your incredibly high expectations. Then you go anyway, and it was better than you had hoped?

The Gang of Four show last night was off the fucking chain. See this tour. Lots has been written by people better with words than I am, so I won't try to deconstruct it. I will say the highlight song for me was At Home He's a Tourist, but there was a whole lot to choose from.

Shoutout to my friends in The Swayback, who played a kickass opening set. Even with all the great GoF songs to choose from, my internal soundtrack was playing their song Distinguished Guest when I woke up this morning. Check these kids out. Otherwise more kittens will die needlessly.

The support band, Men, Women and Children, didn't really do it for me. First off I was biased a little by the fact they took 35 minutes to get their gear set, even though most of it was on the stage already and they'd had a lengthy soundcheck. They were very energetic, playing in a disco-revial style, and obviously put a lot of time into their lights and choreography. Unfortunately I thought their lyrics were uninteresting, and their singer's voice was totally unexceptional. Once you got past the flash in the arrangements, there wasn't any there there.

In other news, the stalwart quintet of Monofog is now a quartet, but I actually think I might like this version better. There's a little more room for everyone in the arrangements, and you can follow some of the really neat rhythm stuff they do a lot better.

Saw The Symptoms Friday night as well. I've slowly developed a mad love for this band, unfortunately it was their second to last show :( Rumor has it one of them is going to be going to Law School out of state.

Closed out the night Friday with a tasty and bootilicious set from The Sleepers. They stopped just short of a full instrument-smashing frenzy, but it was a near thing. Kat was rocking her keyboard back and forth so hard she knocked over her bass, and only quick action by the audience kept the keyboard from going all the way over and landing on top of it.

More rockin' tonight maybe, Frontside Five, Love Me Destroyer, and Zeke at the LL. I'm planning on going, but the flesh is a little weak at the moment.

Alan fills his head with culture