Oh what the hell, I'll take the time to banter about a show that I'm pretty certain I was actually at, there are witnesses.
My decidedly not a soccer mom, Starbucks loving, never heard of Frank Turner wife warned me that I was bound to fall asleep at the Luna show, but alas I did not! Solid, fun show from the band. Wish they had played Bonnie and Clyde and IHOP, but nice set list nonetheless.
My favorite stage banter was when Deaner told the story about doing lines of blow off of a groupie's chest at the old 9:30 with members of Galaxie 500 and Minor Threat. And then years later doing blow off of the same groupie's somewhat saggier chest at the new 9:30 with members of Luna and Fugazi. I also enjoyed Britta's story about running into Frank Turner buying a case of asparagus water at the Bowery Whole Foods. The guitarist wasn't able to string together a coherent story, try as he might, but he did deliver some nice guitar licks. The weird thing is that I've heard that the drummer does almost all of the talking in the Mercedes tour van.
Luna seem like they would be a Julian-approved band, as Dean and Britta can't possibly weight more than a combined 225 between them. And it seems like their tv viewing habits would be strictly limited to prestige tv only. That's assuming they even own a tv. It's quite possible Deaner spends all of his spare time reading first edition books to their cats, while Britta meticulously plans the salad-only bi-weekly shared family meal.
But the true joy of the evening was felt offstage. First, thanks to Vas for hooking me up with a free ticket. It's always a pleasure seeing you, Vas. But there's even more...I got to meet the legendary Bearman, who is every bit as sweet and genuine as he appears on this forum. And wait, there's even more. Toward the end of the show, a crazy haired guy and his entourage of merry bald (sorry, follically-challenged) men came bopping past me. Holy cow, Jesse Eisenberg is at the Luna show. But wait, this guy is too tall to be Jesse, and the other guys are too bald to be Jesse's girls. Bearman exclaimed, "That must be Hutch, with the hair." I was a bit skeptical at first, as he wasn't wearing his signature Member's Only jacket. But when he pulled two LP's out of his NPR totebag and started frantically waving them at the band as they left the stage, hoping to get them signed, I knew FOR SURE it was Hutch. Somebody mentioned that Sidehutch was part of the entourage, but true to his name, Sidehutch was so non-descript that he barely registered. Note to Sidehutch: If you want to get the attention you deserve, you need to start your own band. Or at least get something catchy tattooed in Helvetica to your forehead, like "I Hate Sports", or "Not a Bigot".
I'm a but tired from being out and up so late, but the tiredness is well worth it.
