We're A Dog Band, Not A Cat Band

Apologies to Chris Walla

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So how was your Halloween? Mine was merely an interstitial between concert gigs...and kinda boring. Although I do have to say that taking a ride to the Publix at around 8:30pm and seeing lots of little Buzz Lightyears and ghouls really did perk up my "be aware of pedestrians" senses and added a little excitement to the evening. At one point on my way home, coming to a stop in a poorly lit intersection, I was stared down by a 3 foot Batman. I love it when kids really get into their characters. I wanted to yell "I killed your parents Bruce Wayne!" Speaking of Halloween costumes, there was an onslaught of Anne Geddes-type ladybugs and bumblebees combing the streets this year. Babies are cute and all but the fascination with them as insects and common animals? Where I'm from, you dress your kid up as a deer or some other type of critter, they're as good as wall mountings. Why doesn't someone have the grovers to dress their kid up as Gage from Pet Cemetery, then you'd have my complete respect...and fear!

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I just wasn't in a spooky kind of mood this year. I didn't even buy candy for the young'uns this time around. It is kind of hard to hand out candy when you live in a secured building because you want to make sure that you aren't inviting little grabbing hands into places where they aren't wanted. So I basically watched them try to pull open the locked door to the building in frustration all evening. That was almost as fun as watching the kids who live next door fend off Trick or Treaters because they chose to sit outside all night with their porch light on drinking their Boone's Farm.

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Halloween for me this year was festive in so many other ways because it marked the beginning of my concert extravaganza. It began with the NIN show in Orlando which was amazing. I am continually impressed with Trent Reznor every time I see a Nine Inch Nails show. From the lighting to the way each song is connected to another, the man is a genius. NOT the skinny geek riding in the back of a pick up truck that my art school friend Kebra said he used to be (I swear she said she knew him!). But it's not really name dropping because I can't say that I know her very well anymore. I do remember her riding in the back of a pick up truck, however.

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Halloween brought about the Death Cab for Cutie show at the Hard Rock Live. Can I just say how much I hate HATE hate this venue? I frustrates me to no end too how many good acts they are bussing through that place! Hard Rock wasn't designed for anyone but the Death Metal freaks. Thanks to it's vault-like innards, all you can hear are inaudible lyrics and the sound of settling, WHICH I might add was my favorite song of the evening! Man, even the Hard Rock couldn't stop Ben Gibbard from turning out a pitch-perfect show. The set was like I had put together a Death Cab playlist. At one point Christy told me "Aren't you glad I let Ben out of my iPod for the night so he could entertain us?" It took a while for the comment to settle but it really was true, it was as if he was coming straight to you out of your earbuds. Well, if you had your equalizer set to "Large Echoing Cavern." As you may or may not know, the DCFC boys put on a second surprise show on Halloween night for (in honor of? as a benefit to?) the South Florida kiddos who missed their show because of the hurricane. Which if you ask me is like dangling the Death Cab carrot in front of them because most of those folks still couldn't make it up for this show as they are still without power, gas, air conditioning, Golden Girls at 9am, etc..., but score for us because they gave us two shows! I am not sure why I thought it was genius but the highlight of the night came when Chris Walla from Death Cab felt the need to explain to the crowd that they were a dog band, not a cat band. Ha! Take that cat people! Eerily, that is one of those things that I think about all the time, "They seem more like a dog band, not a cat band"

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Examples of dog bands: The Faint, Cursive, Tilly and the Wall.

Examples of cat bands: Thin Lizzy, The Bravery, Right Said Fred.

So I wrap everything up tomorrow with Depeche Mode and token cat band, The Bravery in Tampa. Which promises to be a great show as it is only the second show of their North American tour. I am too excited about this because #1, the new album Playing the Angel is the best thing since Andrew Fletcher started making love to his keyboards and #2, it will be my first time seeing them live! If you spent any time around me in the late 80's (sorry mom, dad, sis) I was practically superglued to my Violator and Depeche Mode 101 albums and I was so jealous of those freaks that got to see Dave Gahan's tour bus in D.H. Pennebaker's Depeche Mode 101 movie. Now in my (ahem) early 30's, I will finally get to pretend that I am at the Rose Bowl just like in that movie except that hopefully they will play stuff from Violator, which if you think about it kinda sucks for the people in that movie because they were clueless as to what was on the horizon. Anyway, let's hope that kicking the needle has finally done Dave and the boys some good. I am sure that the pain will be just as beautiful.