fun birthday party, you really should have been there. i am consistently amazed at how quickly college people amass around and then dispose of free alcohol, but i guess that’s pretty much the whole idea behind having the party, so it was a success. we had two kegs, a 6 gallon batch of punch, and a few dozen jello shots all around, not to mention some other random stuff that people brought like cases of beer and whatnot, and there isn’t a drop left in the house. when we had our big halloween party we only had one keg and some liquor and that lasted until around 1 i think…last night we had easily twice as much, and it was all gone by 12:15, apparently. i’d say easily 200 people cruised through our house at one point or another. we sure know how to throw ’em.
so on to some more reminiscing. i counted up my ticket stubs, and i went to at least 27 live shows in the year 2002 (i’m sure there were a handful that i didn’t get or lost stubs for too). that’s a pretty high number. something to be proud of, and probably the highest of any year of my life so far. i didn’t think it would be that many. it’s so satisfying though, i really feel like i’m doing a good job of staying into the music scene i want to support, even when other people are happy to spend their nights at parties or bars all the time. it’s sort of a quantifiable measure of me being a dutiful music fan, and that’s nice.
so i looked over my stubs and thought back, and picked a favorite 5 live shows of 2002. this list might have less pertinence to you since you can’t go back and catch these shows like you can buy dvd’s or books, but still it doesn’t hurt to try to catch these guys live when you can.
honorable mention: coalesce — april 7th at chain reacion; anaheim, CA
i think this show was great more because it was coalesce in person than for any other reason. the opening bands were crappy and the crowd was alright if you ignored the crazy windmilling/jumpkicking hardcore kids, but i mean come on…it was freaking coalesce, live. they know how to play hardcore like no one else.
# 5–ozma — september 7th at chain reaction; anaheim, CA
ozma is from pasadena so they have a lot of fans in the area, and out of any band i listen to i think ozma is the one showing the most technical improvement in their playing over time. they just play a really tight set and it sounds great consistently, and their songs are really fun to listen to with a mass of teenagers rocking along. we saw them again later in the year but they were testing a lot of new stuff at that point for their album coming out this year, so it wasn’t nearly as fun even if the new music was solid.
# 4–shiner w/ houston — may 12th at spaceland; glendale, CA
after over a year of shiner fandom i finally got to see them play live, and it was fantastic. they play intricate, heavy tunes and they come off loud and lovely in person. houston was also a pleasant surprise with similarly heavy but technical music that impressed me. spaceland’s a nice venue even if the crowd is older and more immobile, but the set was so good it didn’t matter. plus they played the one song i wanted to hear off lula divinia as the encore, so i was thrilled.
# 3–david cross — june 6th at the galaxy theatre; santa ana, CA
this wasn’t a music show, but it was the funniest live show i have ever seen. i laughed nontstop for a full 90 minute set and probably harder than i ever have, so don’t miss your chance if he decides to tour like that again. hard to compare experiences alongside rock shows so he gets smack dab in the middle for being outstanding anyway.
# 2–hey mercedes w/ piebald — july 29th at chain reaction; anaheim, CA
LA clubs are notorious for their unenthusiastic crowds, so if a tour hits both places we usually make the drive, because those suburban kids know how to have fun, i have to give it to them. not to mention these are probably my two favorite still-together, still-touring bands right now (r.i.p. #1 band), and they played TOGETHER, and both ripped it up, and it was a beautiful thing. still good again the next night at the troubadour, but not as hyper. i guess it’s the kid in me, i still feel like jumping around at a good rock show.
# 1–dismemberment plan w/ death cab for cutie and cex — march 16th at the middle east; Boston, MA
oh. my. god. let’s run through this: cex, despite being a goofy white rapper, was really entertaining and clever. death cab for cutie, i love them and all, but i was glad that they weren’t headlining this segment of the death and dismemberment tour like they were in LA a few weeks prior. they’re really great and they weren’t a letdown, but a good buildup. then the d-plan. boston kids love them, and they knew it. they went insane on stage. i danced up there to “ice of boston”, in boston, how cool is that? i got down like you wouldn’t believe to “the city”. and when they played “ok jokes over” i’m pretty sure it went on for almost twenty minutes of mayhem. at one point he was playing the keyboard with the bottom of the mic stand as he was holding it up and screaming into the microphone, and then cex came out and they wrestled while they sang snatches of pop songs and rap tunes…it was unbelievable and unbeatable. good, good show. i can’t believe i may never see them do that again.
time for food. one of the presents i got was a hot dog toaster — this is a toaster with two bun-shaped slots and two weiner-shaped holes, and when it pops up you have two toasty hot dogs! i don’t even have any real thing for hot dogs, but what a terrifically funny and bizarre gift. good job dominic.
(also, my top 5 film list worked and i got about a boy, so if you’re gonna get a late gift you’ll have to think of something else.)
[now hearing this: centaur – in streams.]