Weekend Recap: Saturday

CatDirt and CatDirt Wife came over for some beers before we headed over to the Ken Club. The Muslims were already playing when we arrived. The room was packed and everyone that I talked to liked them a lot and kept saying they are very "Velvet-Underground-y". The Ken Club band side was packed. Unfortunately, I don't have much to add to what Catdirt said about the show. The Muslims are good and their shows this weekend should prove to be as good if not better. (Friday at the Ken Club, Saturday at the Beauty Bar)

I didn't realize I was missing Jeremy Jay until it was too late and only caught 2 songs. I definitely thought there was a Morissey-esque sound to the vocals which to me can't be bad. Still there was so much going on at the bar...lots of local bands were present and the alcohol was flowing.

The Prayers played last. I was chided for never having seen the Prayers before but I just hadn't. I don't really follow the whole Art Fag/Skull Kontrol/Plot/et al crew so I didn't know what to expect. I thought the band would be screaming and sloppy and in fact was surprised by how mellow and clean their sound is. In fact, they reminded my of my mom's 45s from the 60s with their poppy pep. The crowd had thinned significantly but there was still a good showing of people.

As the night drew to a close everyone went their own way so I ventured home at last call and decided to watch a movie. At 3:30ish, the movie was ending and I started to hear some crazy noises outside...tons of yelling and glass breaking. I didn't look outside because I had no idea what all the commotion was. I tried to find the non-emergency number for the police but couldn't locate it and called 911. The operator informed me that all the noise was from the house fire next door. I went outside and saw the house adjacent to me on fire. I went upstairs to wake up Sara who happened to not be at home. I went out front to see at least 4 full fire engines, at least 4 police cruisers, and 3 or 4 fire investigation team trucks. I talked with the police letting them know that the house is empty...it is leased by a landscape company so nobody actually lives there. They suggested I prepare to evacuate. Being that I pretty much have my own zoo (a dog, 3 cats, 5 frogs) I wasn't exactly sure where I would go at 4 in the morning, but I got out all the cat carriers just in case.

It was amazing to me how quickly the fire was contained and the mere fact that someone drove by and saw the smoke and called it in when I was right next door and didn't notice a thing. Eventually they told me I was safe to stay home and told me that the fire had started from the wall heater...they had left the pilot light on and turned down the thermostat, but the house temp dropped and triggered the heater and the stuff covering it up on the wall caught on fire. It was a scary thing, and the second house fire I've been witness to, the other one happened directly across the street and as far as I know was also attributed to a faulty heater.

It was a scary night though everything ended up being ok for me. The lights and trucks and all the commotion continued all night so I wasn't asleep until after 6 am deeming Sunday another completely unproductive day. In the morning I talked to the wife of the owner of the landscape company and they said the fire was amazingly contained to the living room. They were lucky. I guess so was I.