The Goat Pen

Damnit. Got a free ride but I already paid.

Like the good advice, I didn't take.

Are you referring to the time I advised you to shoot yourself?

The Dead just added two more shows this summer for the Bay Area. The Chicago shows are still the "last" but that's hard to believe. The lesson here is that Stu = genius.

Slow down Cowboy.

Everything Stu knows about the Dead he learned from me....

I've been hearing a guy named George Ezra on XM radio lately. He's not really my cup of tea, but every time I see his name on the screen, I think that if Better Than Ezra ever tours again, they should get this guy to open for them...

Went to see Peter Hook, original member of Joy Division and New Order, at the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill the other weekend, he was the only original member of those bands, he had hired some youngsters to back him up (I think one of them was his son), but they did play all the old songs. Any decent cover band could've probably played the songs just as well, but there was something about seeing one of the original members up there playing them in his own hand that made it more legit. I told my brother this was an all ages show, b/c otherwise they wouldn't let people our age in, which I would say 85% of the audience was in their 40's or older (although some people had brought their kids to bring the average down slightly).

We stayed at the the newly built Hampton Inn, about 50 yards from the Cradle and hung out before the show at Milltown, right across the street, so we didn't venture outside a 100 yard radius after we parked the car.  Went back to Milltown after the show, the band was there, sans Mssr. Hook (they were staying at Hampton Inn, too, I guess Peter needed his beauty rest). 

We talked to them for a little while, they and we were the only folks in there, except for a couple of middle aged pseudo groupie chicks.  It was cool, but I couldn't help noticing how much less exciting it was now that I was 25 years older than them than when I was a coked out undergrad hanging out with Grant Hart in a cramped bathroom at the old Cradle with with a buddy of mine after a Husker Du show circa 1985.  That felt like a true brush with fame. 

At any rate, I met and chatted with the great man himself the next morning as we both made our way thru the breakfast buffet line in the Hampton Inn lobby (I favored sausage and eggs, whilst Hook, evidently with an eye on his cholesterol, helped himself to oatmeal and toast).  He was a man of few words and so was I, I just told him how much I had always admired his work in general and the previous night's show in particular.  He was amiable and I was glad to meet him, but I can certainly say that all those years of listening to Joy Division, I never imagined that I would meet one of the original members one day in a breakfast buffet line at the Hampton Inn...

I've been wanting to catch New Order for some time now. They were at Lallapalooza about 7 years but I didn't get there in time. I'd be happy hearing them do the 30 minute version of Blue Monday.

Its the Inna Godda Davida of New Wave

They played a few New Order songs to begin the show, sadly Blue Monday was not among them...

I think Peter Hook had a falling out with the other members of New Order, particularly Bernard Sumner. Somebody at the show said they had tried to get him back in the band for a recent tour, but he refused and then started his own band but still played New Order and Joy Division songs. He must've really hated Sumner to turn down a gig playing large arenas in order to form his own band and play in smallish college town clubs instead. But I guess he did get to eat at the Hampton Inn breakfast buffet...

I wish you had died in 1989...

Like a morning shit, you know it's coming

EFZ

I really wish I could say that I saw Husker Du circa 1985...

I saw them once in Chapel Hill, at the old Cat's Cradle with a capacity of about 300 and once at The Brewery in Raleigh (probably smaller than the Cradle). Also saw them once after they got "big" at Memorial Hall. The first two were better...

I've started listening to country music again.

There is a shitload of fun music out there since I last listened. I've never heard of any of these people but I'm really enjoying it.

Its like finding a bunch of great black and white movies that I missed.

Alot of it is manufactured crap no different than boy bands - but filter past that it some of it brings me back 30 years.

One song reminds of me of the 17-20 age years called "What was I thinkin"

Thank God I still live close to the city.

Too bad it's not Fallujah...

Fair