bill, Republic of Letters, Swim Party, The Sword 4.17.08

I am not gonna disclose how late I ended up staying up on Wednesday night but I was hanging with my Kensington homies and it was very. very. late. Still, a couple Diet Coke refills of my 44 oz cup from AM/PM and I made it through the day. Plus, I had the motivation of knowing I was going to have a three day weekend. After work and a short nap, I was off to the Belly Up for an all local show. Being friends with 3 of the 4 bands certainly has it's perks, so while the first band wrapped up, we hung out backstage.

Bill started and I had to check them out now that Dagart is playing with them, and it had been ages since the one show I saw them at the Alibi. They sounded good, with a little Ben Fold's mixed up with a little jazz and a funky little groove behind every song. My camera just didn't want to cooperate with only the back lights being used, but here are a few pics, apparently almost all of Dag.


We retreated back into the backstage area until Republic of Letters started. Those pics came out even worse, which sucks because their set sounded really great, and I was happy to look around and see other people singing along to their songs.

Last up was Swim Party and I had to stay for a couple songs, even though I was supposed to be heading down to the Casbah, because I had to take them in before their hiatus, and of course, they didn't disappoint.

I left after a few songs, and a short 21 minutes later was at the Casbah. I tried to prepare for the transition in music by playing the hardest shit I could find on my iPod, but nothing quite prepared me for a sold out balls out metal show that I witnessed. I wormed my way around the side, as I do, and I took some pictures, until I realized that the 3 guys playing guitar all looked exactly the same...same length hair and color, and heads hung forward with all their hair hanging over pretty much the whole set. They rocked hard, but it was also entertaining watching the crowd trying to stand upright as they were getting pummelled from behind. It got a little crowded where I was too, so about midway through the set, I realized the sound on the patio was just as good.



After the set I was determined to get a picture of the band's faces, but since I didn't know what any of them looked like, or if they were even on the patio, I just said, "Anyone with long hair, get in the picture." Who knew people would actually listen? I think a couple of them were in the opening bands but I have no idea. Either way, a good representation of the crowd that night.

After all of that I closed my night out at the Ken Club. It was so nice knowing that I had Friday off and I lived up my Thursday to celebrate it.
Then there was the weekend...I'll save that for another post.