On Friday, I got a raise. It's nice to get a raise, isn't it?
Especially when I feel I have been working harder than I've ever worked at a job before, it's nice to be given more money as recognition of what I'm doing. Although some would say I'm working my ass off, maybe hire someone else onto the team. We did recently, so I'm working on bringing people up to speed.
And, to be honest, I hand picked these two people because they both worked at stations, and they know how to already kind of do my job.
And they're great.
I love them. My job/my life is already better for them being on the team.
But this isn't a post about my raise. It's a post about this past Friday night.
I've wanted to see Frank Turner for years. Going on like 10 plus years now. But our schedules have not meshed. Frank is in Boston, I'm in Pittsburgh. Frank is over there, I just left. Frank comes to Boston, I move to DC.
Regretfully, while I was living near Boston I didn't buy tickets to go see him in a split bill with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. I hadn't really yet started listening to Isbell, and didn't want to see a split bill with a band I wasn't familiar with.
To this day, I kick myself. Because now, I'm also a Jason Isbell fan, and I desperately need to see him live too. Well. Bad decisions come back to bite.
A couple weeks ago, Frank posted on social media that he was so excited to be opening for Counting Crows. I said, well damn. I had NO idea this was happening. Heck. I'd like to go see that.
Mostly for Frank, to be honest.
Since hearing about the gig, both here at the Casino and southbound down in Richmond, I'd been dropping hints to Doug that I really wanted to go.
Doug muttered "yeah that sounds interesting."
The days went by, and I kept looking at tickets, and quietly mentioning it was happening.
I got "Mhmm hmmm" from Doug.
Friday came. Night of show.
The day after our really fun day trip down in southern Maryland.
I just got the news about the raise. Doug had a bunch of heavy duty work things and a 4pm meeting come up unexpectedly on Friday. I was ready to couch my disappointment as I went downstairs to tell him about the raise.
I pitched, again, the concept of going out to seeing a show.
"We could, you know, go ... see Frank Turner and Counting Crows at the Casino to celebrate, maybe," I said, "or...." cringing as I think about how this could be me passing on yet another opportunity to actually see Frank Turner fer chrissake, "we could just order Chinese food or something and stay home."
Doug said "that's today? It's .... Friday? I thought the show was Saturday."
"No, I replied," they're in Richmond on Saturday. I'd suggested that we go and stay overnight on Saturday but you said that was far and you didn't want to." (It's True. I did suggest such a thing).
"Are there tickets available?" he asked.
I showed him available seats on Ticketmaster for Verified Resale, there were two that looked really good.
"Okay let's go," he said. He went and put on a Hawaiian Shirt, which made me laugh.
I said, "I could buy these or we could just go to the box office, and buy tickets in person and avoid Ticketmaster." He only heard me say "I could buy these..."
And he didn't say back to me, "Yes, buy those."
So in my mind, we were getting in the car and going, and ... I was going to check with the box office for what tickets they have, and if they are too much, buy the verified resale.
Well, we were about 5 minutes away from the venue, and I'm checking some other seats to see if the prices are dropping yet, and I told him that the 2 tickets I'd shown him... were gone.
He flipped out. He couldn't believe I had not bought the tickets, at the house.
He thought I bought the damn tickets. He never heard me say that I was waiting to check with the box office (they weren't answering the phone). I felt confident in my plan. He was irate. He wanted to sit in those seats because no one would be sitting up on him, they were end seats in the side balcony. WRRRAARRRRRR.
Doug and I often have the "I didn't hear you" or "I didn't understand what you meant by that" moments, but here we were barreling down the highway to a concert without tickets in hand as a result. But I was confident in my damn plan. It was going to be great. He didn't see it that way. I told him to turn around and go home, or trust me. And hell, if worse comes to worse let's play some slots, eat a dinner, get some complimentary cocktails or some shit, and maybe go over to that big ass ferris wheel on the Potomac and have a ride.
He didn't say anything and kept driving to the casino.
I felt a little sick to my stomach and looked at other tickets, some were selling for $100 plus, the floor seats 2nd row were $400 each.
In My Head, Screaming: C'mon, man. Show is in an hour, you dicks. Drop your price to something reasonable! You're going to eat those tickets, you shitstain! Drop the price! fer chrissakes.
We got to the casino at about 7:30 for the 8pm show, found the box office, and indeed they had really good seats available for only 20 bucks more than the tickets I missed out on.
I bought them.
And yeahhhhh. They were incredibly good seats. Hell, if I go back to this venue, this is exactly where I am going to sit. I'll always buy tickets in this spot for the rest of my life. Worth every penny of the 20 bucks more per seat. I pointed out to him where the seats were for the other tickets and he said "Oh what the hell. You can't see half the stage from up there. How do you see anything...?"
So glad I didn't buy them. Because then I would never hear the end of it about how shitty the seats were.
Hell. Yes. I'm going to see Frank Turner. Finally. I could just cry.
Sad that there is no mention of him opening on this ticket, but, that's the ticket. That's the view of the stage. And we were there.
Doug was tired - he didn't eat before we left. And when we got there and secured our tickets he opted not to buy food at one of the concessions because "14 dollars for a sandwich is ridiculous."
Okay. so you're going to be hangry and tired. That's alright. You sleep. Frank would say "Sleep is for the Weak" but. Go on. I'm here, happy you're here with me. Alright.
The people in front of us were discussing with the people in front of them "is there an opener? the ticket doesn't say there's an opener but I heard there is?" So of course, your humble narrator is all "oh, yes there is. Let me tell you about Frank Turner and his mandolin playing sidekick Matt Nasir."
I tell them about how I'm actually there to see them more than the Counting Crows. They laughed. "How do you know about this guy?" the dude bro of one of the couples says to me.
Oh honey. Let me tell you.
I tell him how I was driving to work at the cooking school a million years ago, well, 10. And the favorite radio station of everyone alternative in Boston, WFNX (RIP you wonderful station), played "If Ever I Stray."
I got to work, pulled up youtube and watched the video. Then I told Jo, please look at this. Look at this guy. Listen to this song.
Bloody Hell. I love this. She loved it.
The guy in front of me is beaming, whips out his phone, and says "Okay, what albums should I get."
I told him to watch Frank first, and then I'll let him know. I wouldn't want this young man angry with me cause he dropped a bunch of cash on Amazon Music to buy albums for a guy he turned out not to like.
Setlist link here, by the way.
Frank and Matt come out, introduced by Adam Duritz who long ago shed the dreads and now looks like a high school English teacher who is hipper than all of you.
They start off with "Recovery" which in my heart makes me think of our friend Chris Kelly living his sober life (and they also played Not Dead Yet, which Chris says "It's about me.") It's nice to tie thoughts of Chris to Frank Turner, especially as he is the person who introduced us to Counting Crows one late night in 1993 at a bar that had TVs in the floor, and a DJ spinning tunes to the empty space. Chris asked the guy to play "Murder of One," and he did. And I was hooked.
Matt is a lovely mandolin player, and harmonizer to Frank. When they do songs together like "The Way I Tend To Be" it is just lovely to hear them blend. Frank sometimes "scream sings" but I love that punk energy and excitement. It makes me think of Billy Bragg in his younger years beating the snot out of his guitar and hollering "In a mail order paradise!!!!!"
I'm sitting there, giddy as fuck, as they go into "Photosynthesis," which includes lines that make me think of Geoff in Elementary School and lines that make me think of me:
For Geoff, at the age most of the children are in this video:
"I won't sit down, and I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up...."
"Oh when no ones yet explained to me exactly what's so great
About slaving 50 years away on something that you hate
Look, I'm meekly shuffling down the path of mediocrity
Well if that's your road then take, it but it's not the road for me
... And if all you ever do with your life is photosynthesize
Then you deserve every hour of these sleepless nights that you waste wondering when you're gonna die."
By the way: Please read this wonderful write up from another Frank Fan for some feelings about this song.
All told, the setlist speaks to my heart. A newer song about his marriage and relationships in general called "The Work" made me cry a little, especially the part about memorizing your partner's family tree, and heeding the warnings about when you're close to crossing the line, and about how I didn't buy the tickets at the house but wanted to go with my plan of buying the tickets at the venue.
He told the tale that it was his anniversary of his first video date with The Missus (Jess Guise) six years ago and that she was furious that he was on tour.
But.
He was on tour because he was invited to open for Counting Crows. How could he not?
Frank has often told the story about how his sister introduced him to the Counting Crows as a young lad. They made him the musician he is today. He had been mostly into hardcore and metal, and in fact his first band was a pretty hardcore band. "August and Everything After" became an obsession for him, he learned to play all the songs, and he loves this band.
For as important as Counting Crows has been to me over the course of the last 30 years, I have never seen them live.
There were times we could have but those were times we were rolling coins to put gas in the car so we could drive to Florida and stay for free at a friend's condo and eat Ramen noodles while looking at the ocean, just so we could go on "Vacation" with the kids.
We just never got around to seeing them. And as time went on, they put out some live albums where when I listened to them, I said "wow. What is Duritz doing to his songs?"
Doug refers to Adam's live performance style as "Shatnerizing." If you are familiar with William Shatner singing Dylan songs, you'll know what I mean.
He does not sing the song insomuch as he kind of does an oral interpretation of the song. He has said in interviews often that it is up to his mood the night of the show. Sometimes he's happy, sometimes sad, confused. So he just does it different every time.
It was funny because we knew it going in, and sure enough here we are listening to him Shatnerize the hell out of "Mr. Jones." It's kind of cringeworthy, and it's also really weird to see people around us trying to sing along, and being confused by the song changes.
I get it, I get why he does it, why it happens. He's telling a story and pushing the emotional engine to a whine that you can only really do in person sometimes.
Duritz makes his song and stagecraft into an off-Broadway show.
He acts out his songs, the people, what they're doing and thinking. Like "walking on a wire in a circus" in "Round Here," and calming himself with hands over his face and looking up into the rafters as "she has trouble acting normal when she's NERRRRRRRRVOUS..."
I almost feels like it is time for someone to do that, take this band's songs and make a show. Adam can star. The new album, Butter Miracle Suite One, is full of songs that you feel would be amazing in this kind of a setting.
I feel the new stuff is so much like Bruce Springsteen: the characters; the storytelling; the craft. If you watch the film here, you'll hear and see it too. My guess is that Springsteen fans will either hate it or love it. But it feeds into my idea that Adam deserves a musical show. Just like Brue, but. Different. And only Adam can star. No one else can pull this off in a traveling show.
The rest of the band, all of the Counting Crows, a lot of people don't know their names and all because Adam Duritz is Adam Duritz, are just amazing musicians. My favorite member of the band is Charlie Gillingham, who plays mostly the piano, the Hammond organ, and the accordion. You know his organ playing on so many of the songs like "Rain King," for sure.
As much as I love Kevin Hearn of Barenaked Ladies when he is up there playing blue sparkly accordion on songs like "Straw Hat and Old Dirty Hank," seeing Charlie rule that stage like the captain of a pirate ship during "Omaha" was a truly unforgettable experience.
His white hair and beard give him this wild salty look, straddling the stage, going from edge to edge like a pent up animal ready to escape the cage. It was tremendous. I wish I had a photo but I'll just remember the beautiful man doing his beautiful thing in my head.
Musically, this is one of the tightest bands I've ever heard, so for as much as Adam will "Shatnerize" his songs and confuse the sing-alongers, this band doesn't miss a beat, a note, a screaming chord. They took songs that are gentle on the albums and turned them into raging rock anthems.
"Long December" never sounded better.
Frank Turner came out at the end with Matt Nasir to sing on "Hanginaround" and you could tell he was just living his best rock and roll kid life right there. I didn't take a lot of pictures because we were just a touch too far away for things to come out right, but:
The white blur at the left of the shot there, that's Frank, jumping around like the world's happiest boy.
Both Frank and Adam gave between song speeches of their mutual admiration of one another, and at the end, Adam was up on stage by himself when the house lights came up and he thanked everyone for coming out, for making them feel so good, and he said he'll see us again soon...
"...because, we're back."
And yeah. They are.
Oh, two final things.
The guy in front of us ended up buying "England Keep My Bones," "Positive Songs for Negative People," and "Be More Kind." He told me that during the show he was facebooking his buddies to go to youtube and look at videos for the songs, and through the show he'd turn to me and ask "what's the name of that one he just played?" His friends were all writing back and saying "WHO IS THIS GUY!!!"
Made a convert, I think. Maybe someday I'll see him at a show of just Frank and the Sleeping Souls headlining. That'll be nice. I'll recognize him immediately because he reminded me so much of my friend Ben back home, who actually just went to see Jason Isbell the other night and said he thought of me a lot.
And after the show, we found food. It was disappointing, but it was food. We walked around the casino and Doug took out some money for us to play some penny slots.
We won almost $300, which basically totally covered the cost of the tickets, the food we ate, and the tank of gas for the car.
And that, my friends, is the saga. I'll save the fight I had with a guy in the elevator for another post.
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