![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
We left in plenty of time from Stephan’s. In fact, time enough to get a spot on the street outside the venue in DC, after a really well-driven 2.5 hours. It could hardly have gone better. I wanted to print the My Love revisions I’d made, so we looked up a Staples on Julie’s phone and I took the gps with me as I ran-walked intermittently there so she could hold our place in line and I’d be back before doors. I made it, printed the revisions, and made it back in time to put everything extraneous (book, sunglasses, gps) back in the car before joining her in line and waiting the ten minutes left before the doors opened.
And we got our spots. There was a pair of college boys on my left, as I had the edge of the rail, who both had brand-new CK shirts on (the new one, with pictures of the boys, that I’d gotten at the Friday show). I struck up a conversation and they were glad to hear that they’d get new material tonight, since they’d only seen the band do things off the album before.
Before too long, Civil Twilight took the stage, and Julie and I both agree by now we’re bored of them. The singer/bassist/keyboardist is much too aware of his own rockstardom, and all their songs are very self-absorbed. After their set was over, and I donned my raincoat for a costume, someone came onstage. Lo, it was Jimmy and Craig setting up for our boys, but what was this? They were both in sensible below-the-knee old-lady dresses. Jimmy looked awfully good in his peach patterned satin slit up to here, pinned in to fit him, with eyeshadow and lipstick to complete the ensemble. I even yelled out, “Yeah, Jimmy!” and he turned around and did a double-take at me, so I saluted him and he grinned. Craig’s zebra-striped cotton was an eye-catcher, but didn’t interfere with his crew duties, as we saw when he brought the last piece of business on the stage. It was unfamiliar, this big round sign; a drumhead hung on a boom mic stand, in fact, with the Evans tag under the Sharpie-delineated show announcement:
^*^ ^*^ (bats drawn in Sharpie)
CRASH QUEENS
9:30 Club 10.31.2010
Would they? Had they really?
They had. They came onstage in all their glory. Tony first, in a metallic mesh-knit long-sleeved shirt open but tied shut in the back over a black top. His little black skirt had three loose-flowing layers, and I don’t even know how he slid himself into those black tights, but he has the legs for it. His shoes were the same hipster boots, but the string of pearls and tasteful, restrained makeup completed the ensemble and set off his pigtails.
Jason followed, in a white-trash hooker minidress in tiger print with gold chain spaghetti straps, killer red lipstick, and a heinous sandy-blonde mullet wig. He also had the legs for it, not to mention the arms. I bet he was the least overheated he’s ever been during a show.
Mike went all out, with a dress that could have been called little and red if the top hadn’t had to be so loose to accommodate his gigantic balloons. His wig was a similar shocking red, in afro curls, as was his lipstick (though he ate the middle out of it and had the edges all over his jaws by the end of the show), and his won string of pearls with the little red dress made me think of little orphan Annie. The beard helped overcome those associations, though.
Despite their transformation, the show was nearly the same as ever. Tony was giggling so hard he flubbed a bunch of the words at the beginning of 1985 when they opened with it, but they really held it down the whole show, enough that I didn’t even know till Tony told me afterwards that they were already drunk. In retrospect, he did bring a martini glass onstage with him, set it on the piano, and sip from it at the occasional appropriate moments. And Tony still seemed inordinately amused after finishing 1985, and pointed out Jason's wardrobe malfunction: "Jason has a nipple out!"
During Non Believer, the second in the set, Mike’s outfit was especially incongruous at his throaty masculine shouts of the days of the week. Sadly, the bouncer for our stage-right community let me know there were actually no recordings allowed. Ah, well. The rest of that song and the rest of the night I had to be subtle, so some of the time the camera was “off” or on “still mode” the steadiness is not so great, and sometimes the boys are out of the frame entirely. Indeed, sometimes the frame is hanging from my wrist and twirling wildly. No matter, you can hear the rock, and I got some important bits steady. Like Mike’s riff in You Got Me. Which is a whole new kind of dirty when he’s lunging into it in a little red dress, licking his lipstick off. And Tony’s swirling arpeggiation to the top of the keyboard in the middle of Raincoat looks especially graceful in such elegant getup. It’s Only Wednesday featured “My sister Michelle on the bass guitar” rather than the customary appellation, and it was hard to hear the end of that solo for the screaming. Saving Grace was a tour de force. It’s a pity I couldn’t see Jason behind the piano, but he sounded like a monster. Mountain Man featured lots of Tony turning forward so we could see his face and the front of his outfit, and the crowd latched onto the response and never dropped it. I got only the end, but it was a deathtrap of rocking out. And then came War Pigs, during which Tony had to hold onto his monitor pack at the back of his skirt to keep it from flying off while he was rocking out and jumping to the beat; it wasn’t intentional, but I could hardly avoid getting the upskirt shots that jumped right at me. The answer to the age-old question for Tony, at least on a Halloween show, is black bike shorts under sheer black pantyhose. He took his hair down about halfway through the song, too, so by the time he was jumping he was just a wild sketch of black onstage. Again, during War Pigs I wished I could’ve seen the drumming monster; he lost a stick into the crowd in between drum solos in War Pigs, had a different rhythm for one single beat, and swiped up a replacement stick within the next beat and killed the solo that came right up.
We made our way to the Crash Kings/Civil Twilight merch table while Anberlin’s crew set up their rig, but luckily heard someone mention that they were in the other corner of the room by Anberlin’s merch taking pictures with whoever wanted them. We waited till the picture rush had gone, watching as they boys struck various hysterical poses in their outrageous costumes. Tony pretty much kept to his bright and beautiful but relatively unassuming and straightforward smile. Jason and Mike were both hamming it up with kissy-faces and crazy eyes (Mike’s eyeliner had deteriorated into zombie style, which made the crazy eyes especially effective). Once all the picture-takers had gone, we went up and said hi to the boys. Jason caught me up and gave me a huge hug, saying “Great to see you! How are you doing, sweetheart?” How else could I possibly be doing? Tony immediately hugged Julie and looked absolutely thrilled to see us. We were ourselves thrilled to see him, and told them how great they all looked. They were over the moon, and starting in on the bar (aha, that’s why they were in this corner). Anberlin were starting up, so Tony had to pull me over and yell in my ear for me to tell he was apologizing for already being really drunk but hopefully he played ok anyway. Of course he had. I offered him my revisions and showed him the changes, at which he grinned, and the five of us settled in and rocked out a little bit. Jason looked over at us and obviously wanted to dance; he was jumping on it in his tiger minidress and airdrumming all over the place, and so we danced with him and Tony. I had to take a picture of Jason, since I hadn’t seen him much onstage; he obliged with a crazy face while dancing.Tony turned around and exclaimed with what seemed like drunken surprise, “I’m hot! I’m totally hot! We totally win the costume contest.” He didn’t need the prize (a pair of tickets to every show at this venue this season), with which he affably agreed when I yelled in his ear to tell him. We had, however, no cause to deny that they totally win. The Crash Queens were going to be thrilled, I mentioned. Tony lit up even more.
Jason pulled me in to yell and ask me if it was a good show; I assured him it was. We couldn’t stay too long and hang in the corner to dance with them, though they were heading back to the booth and we were heading out. I told Tony we had to drive back to Boston tonight, and he looked incredulous and then sweetly pleaded with us to have a safe trip. I caught up with Jason again before we disappeared and told him we were leaving for Boston, and he hugged us again and told us travel safe, too. I told him we’d see him next time, and sauntered out the door with Julie in triumph. This is real life, yo.
And we got our spots. There was a pair of college boys on my left, as I had the edge of the rail, who both had brand-new CK shirts on (the new one, with pictures of the boys, that I’d gotten at the Friday show). I struck up a conversation and they were glad to hear that they’d get new material tonight, since they’d only seen the band do things off the album before.
Before too long, Civil Twilight took the stage, and Julie and I both agree by now we’re bored of them. The singer/bassist/keyboardist is much too aware of his own rockstardom, and all their songs are very self-absorbed. After their set was over, and I donned my raincoat for a costume, someone came onstage. Lo, it was Jimmy and Craig setting up for our boys, but what was this? They were both in sensible below-the-knee old-lady dresses. Jimmy looked awfully good in his peach patterned satin slit up to here, pinned in to fit him, with eyeshadow and lipstick to complete the ensemble. I even yelled out, “Yeah, Jimmy!” and he turned around and did a double-take at me, so I saluted him and he grinned. Craig’s zebra-striped cotton was an eye-catcher, but didn’t interfere with his crew duties, as we saw when he brought the last piece of business on the stage. It was unfamiliar, this big round sign; a drumhead hung on a boom mic stand, in fact, with the Evans tag under the Sharpie-delineated show announcement:
^*^ ^*^ (bats drawn in Sharpie)
CRASH QUEENS
9:30 Club 10.31.2010
Would they? Had they really?
They had. They came onstage in all their glory. Tony first, in a metallic mesh-knit long-sleeved shirt open but tied shut in the back over a black top. His little black skirt had three loose-flowing layers, and I don’t even know how he slid himself into those black tights, but he has the legs for it. His shoes were the same hipster boots, but the string of pearls and tasteful, restrained makeup completed the ensemble and set off his pigtails.
Jason followed, in a white-trash hooker minidress in tiger print with gold chain spaghetti straps, killer red lipstick, and a heinous sandy-blonde mullet wig. He also had the legs for it, not to mention the arms. I bet he was the least overheated he’s ever been during a show.
Mike went all out, with a dress that could have been called little and red if the top hadn’t had to be so loose to accommodate his gigantic balloons. His wig was a similar shocking red, in afro curls, as was his lipstick (though he ate the middle out of it and had the edges all over his jaws by the end of the show), and his won string of pearls with the little red dress made me think of little orphan Annie. The beard helped overcome those associations, though.
Despite their transformation, the show was nearly the same as ever. Tony was giggling so hard he flubbed a bunch of the words at the beginning of 1985 when they opened with it, but they really held it down the whole show, enough that I didn’t even know till Tony told me afterwards that they were already drunk. In retrospect, he did bring a martini glass onstage with him, set it on the piano, and sip from it at the occasional appropriate moments. And Tony still seemed inordinately amused after finishing 1985, and pointed out Jason's wardrobe malfunction: "Jason has a nipple out!"
During Non Believer, the second in the set, Mike’s outfit was especially incongruous at his throaty masculine shouts of the days of the week. Sadly, the bouncer for our stage-right community let me know there were actually no recordings allowed. Ah, well. The rest of that song and the rest of the night I had to be subtle, so some of the time the camera was “off” or on “still mode” the steadiness is not so great, and sometimes the boys are out of the frame entirely. Indeed, sometimes the frame is hanging from my wrist and twirling wildly. No matter, you can hear the rock, and I got some important bits steady. Like Mike’s riff in You Got Me. Which is a whole new kind of dirty when he’s lunging into it in a little red dress, licking his lipstick off. And Tony’s swirling arpeggiation to the top of the keyboard in the middle of Raincoat looks especially graceful in such elegant getup. It’s Only Wednesday featured “My sister Michelle on the bass guitar” rather than the customary appellation, and it was hard to hear the end of that solo for the screaming. Saving Grace was a tour de force. It’s a pity I couldn’t see Jason behind the piano, but he sounded like a monster. Mountain Man featured lots of Tony turning forward so we could see his face and the front of his outfit, and the crowd latched onto the response and never dropped it. I got only the end, but it was a deathtrap of rocking out. And then came War Pigs, during which Tony had to hold onto his monitor pack at the back of his skirt to keep it from flying off while he was rocking out and jumping to the beat; it wasn’t intentional, but I could hardly avoid getting the upskirt shots that jumped right at me. The answer to the age-old question for Tony, at least on a Halloween show, is black bike shorts under sheer black pantyhose. He took his hair down about halfway through the song, too, so by the time he was jumping he was just a wild sketch of black onstage. Again, during War Pigs I wished I could’ve seen the drumming monster; he lost a stick into the crowd in between drum solos in War Pigs, had a different rhythm for one single beat, and swiped up a replacement stick within the next beat and killed the solo that came right up.
We made our way to the Crash Kings/Civil Twilight merch table while Anberlin’s crew set up their rig, but luckily heard someone mention that they were in the other corner of the room by Anberlin’s merch taking pictures with whoever wanted them. We waited till the picture rush had gone, watching as they boys struck various hysterical poses in their outrageous costumes. Tony pretty much kept to his bright and beautiful but relatively unassuming and straightforward smile. Jason and Mike were both hamming it up with kissy-faces and crazy eyes (Mike’s eyeliner had deteriorated into zombie style, which made the crazy eyes especially effective). Once all the picture-takers had gone, we went up and said hi to the boys. Jason caught me up and gave me a huge hug, saying “Great to see you! How are you doing, sweetheart?” How else could I possibly be doing? Tony immediately hugged Julie and looked absolutely thrilled to see us. We were ourselves thrilled to see him, and told them how great they all looked. They were over the moon, and starting in on the bar (aha, that’s why they were in this corner). Anberlin were starting up, so Tony had to pull me over and yell in my ear for me to tell he was apologizing for already being really drunk but hopefully he played ok anyway. Of course he had. I offered him my revisions and showed him the changes, at which he grinned, and the five of us settled in and rocked out a little bit. Jason looked over at us and obviously wanted to dance; he was jumping on it in his tiger minidress and airdrumming all over the place, and so we danced with him and Tony. I had to take a picture of Jason, since I hadn’t seen him much onstage; he obliged with a crazy face while dancing.Tony turned around and exclaimed with what seemed like drunken surprise, “I’m hot! I’m totally hot! We totally win the costume contest.” He didn’t need the prize (a pair of tickets to every show at this venue this season), with which he affably agreed when I yelled in his ear to tell him. We had, however, no cause to deny that they totally win. The Crash Queens were going to be thrilled, I mentioned. Tony lit up even more.
Jason pulled me in to yell and ask me if it was a good show; I assured him it was. We couldn’t stay too long and hang in the corner to dance with them, though they were heading back to the booth and we were heading out. I told Tony we had to drive back to Boston tonight, and he looked incredulous and then sweetly pleaded with us to have a safe trip. I caught up with Jason again before we disappeared and told him we were leaving for Boston, and he hugged us again and told us travel safe, too. I told him we’d see him next time, and sauntered out the door with Julie in triumph. This is real life, yo.
Tags: