rock show

Here is my expanded synopsis of the happenings of March 21, 2008. I had one class that morning, and so I was free at 9:00 AM. With nothing better to do with myself, I decided "Screw it. I'll go up now." I pahked my cah in the pahking grahge on Froynklin Street abowt a half moyle from the club. Between roughly 11:30 and 3, I did the following: escaped a giant homeless man looking for food, went to Dunkin Donuts, browsed a record store that only sells vinyl, browsed a bookstore, went to Wendy's for lunch, went to the Middle East box office to see what was up with will-call, hung out in the LeMeridien hotel fancy classed-up lobby, browsed the Star Market grocery store, attempted to nap and kill time in my car, and walked maybe 10-15 laps around Central Square. As I was walking down Mass Ave on one of these laps, I caught out of my peripheral vision a silver van towing a white trailer. This peaked my interest when I thought I saw Virginia license plates. I walked the Mass Ave-Brookline St circle again, and five minutes later, I find myself assisting band and crew members unloading a packed trailer full of road cases with "MAE" stamped on the majority of them. I had never seen so much gear move from point A to point B at a high rate of speed considering the small narrow staircase that served as the load-in point. When that was done, I went along my merry way and by now, it is 4:00pm-ish or so. I went to a McDonald's across the street for dinner, completely passing up the opportunity for a chicken wrap from the Middle East, which is delicious. No, Mickey D's it was. Immediately after began the waiting process. Three hours in unbearably windy and below-freezing temperatures. The five of us that got there early to experience the cold were dead-set on a Mae acoustic performance roughly an hour before doors opened (after all, that was what we all read). 7:00 went by. 7:15 went by. By 7:30, we all figured that either a.) we missed it, or b.) there was none. I was on the brink of hypothermic disaster by the time doors opened, so I was pretty stoked to finally get out of the cold. The Middle East lets people in 5 at a time. I was number 1. I got a pretty got spot, visually, in the place as you can depict from photos and various youtube videos that have been posted. 8:15 rolls around, and whaddaya know, 3/5ths of Mae come out to do an acoustic set. The setlist comprised of "Going to School," "Ready & Waiting to Fall," "Home," "Sun," and "Tisbury Lane." I looked like a complete idiot during Going to School, but that's another story for another time. Showtime.

Farless - not gonna lie, they lacked presence on stage. I dug the music.
Between the Trees - too much presence on stage. I dig the music, and these kids look like they should still be in high school.
The Honorary Title just gained another fan. Enjoyable performance.
This was my 8th time seeing Mae, and they sounded better than any other time I had seen them. People wouldn't shut up because I guess they couldn't hear Dave, but I knew that was going to be the case right away when they ditched the floor wedges. You can't blame the band in that situation, it's just that the Middle East has a strange way of setting up their PA system. If you're standing in the front row, you're essentially standing behind the mains, so all you really hear is what's on stage. People are just too ignorant to realize that and needed something to complain about so there was a lot of "TURN UP THE VOCALS!!!" Sorry, I'm sure it sounded good in the back. Blame the venue, not the band.

During "The Everglow," the crowd was split in half like Moses splitting the sea and this one belligerantly drunk fella stormed the stage, shoved everyone out of the way, and continued to look like a complete douche. Another dude tried to push me out of the way, but I gave him the ol' elbow shove, pushed the kid back like 15 feet, gave him the dirtiest look I could muster, and retained my focus on the stage. I stayed around for a few minutes after the show and made some short conversation with Jacob and I think a southern comfort-influenced Zach. I picked up an old-school globe shirt on my way out and drove the hour from Boston to Uxbridge. I went to sleep at around 3:00 AM and had to be in for work three hours later. Needless to say, I was exhausted.