Catchin’ up

Blogging very little as of late, but hey, I’ve been busy.
The big news is a promotion. I’m enormously excited and perhaps the only down side is the realization that with work-induced elation, I’ve taken another scary step toward full and complete adultness.

Wednesday night was a Luna show at Congress. Phenomenal. I know very little of the band, save one song somebody threw onto a mix tape for me years ago. But the urgency of a farewell tour and the lack of other good touring shows lately drew me in. Once again, damn.
Luna is in many ways indescribable - simple descriptions like mellow to mid-tempo indie rock just don’t come close. The two guitarists and the bass player all trade off with leads and the tunes are these ever-shifting collaborations that really hit home. Early off I hung toward the back, but toward probably the latter third of the show, the floor opened up enough to mosey through and I joined Freaktown right up at the stage. Glad I did, ‘cause only then did I get to really see the blend of energy and precision the band played with.
The songs were all great, and especially in the encore (both encores!), the band was wild, loose and passionate. You could just tell they’re putting all they have into every show, knowing that it’s all coming to an end and wanting that end to be the band’s highest peak.
Dean Wareham is a unique songwriter, merging bittersweet, mysterious lyrics with music that brings soaring guitar leads.
And Britta Phillips is abolutely gorgeous.
I urgently need to get more Luna albums. I’ve thrown Bewitched on a half dozen times since the show.
It’s a strange bittersweet feeling to finally catch onto a band at the end of their run. I felt the same way getting into Warren Zevon when he was already diagnosed with terminal cancer. I never caught a Zevon show (but did see Dylan play Accidentally Like a Martyr and Lawyers, Guns and Money), and I’m damn glad I did get to see Luna. That, and I’m damn glad they’re not all dying.
Regardless, never have I been so impressed with seeing a band I knew so little about. That’s probably a top-10 all-time show.

Rocked out with a few folks on the porch last night and then woke up early (yes, 11 a.m. is in fact early) to watch the Wildcats pound the shit out of Stanford. There’s nothing like an absolute, thorough demolishing to set the tone for a day. I’ll go right out and say it: Salim and Channing are the best senior duo in the country, the perfect inside-out combination and fiery, hungry competitors. Even after some terrible missteps, there’s reason to feel real strong about this team heading into March. And I’ll get one more chance to see them, having just picked up tickets for the Tempe game, me and Stu’s Christmas gift to Gramps.

And in the ever-lasting saga of Truth being quite Stranger than Fiction, here are some of today’s headlines:
Linguist unearths a new language
Police hit pay dirt: 3.6 million nickels
Woman sues after girls try to deliver cookies to her door