I took the TIG recommendation for Friday and saw Ms. Led and U.S.E. at Ye Ole Firehouse (sadly, I missed The Snakebites and Pirates R Us). The show was rad. R.A.D., rad. It was complete with every under-21 body possible jumping on stage for the last song and some of us over-21 bodies waiting for someone to get hurt. But, that's a sign of a good show.

Saturday, H Is for Hellgate played a kick-ass set with Sumac and The Dead Americans at the Skylark, but I'm biased ;)

I didn't make it to any club shows this weekend, but I did see "Rent" at The Paramount. It's much like a show actually, with a live band on stage -- and more bare skin and gyrations at 3pm than I usually see at midnight at a rock club.

The performers, across the board, had *killer* voices -- most of 'em could easily switch from the theatre stage to a rock stage and be able to hold his/her own. In fact, the dude who played Roger has his own band on the side, sumladfromcov (http://www.sumladfromcov.com/index.php).

I'd never previously seen the play nor the movie, and I did find some of the more subtle plot points tough to discern -- again, I blame my distaste for the sound at The Paramount. But all in all, I think I'd see it again. It's definitely not your grandmother's musical.

I went and saw Califone and Eric Johnson of Fruit Bats, two of my all-time faves, at the Tractor on Saturday. Whiting Tennis was playing when I got there, and I was glad to finally see him/them play.

It was a great show overall, but it kind of made me hate the Tractor. It seems if there's a show that's full to the point that a large number of people are on the bar side, the number of people talking is very high, and it can be distractingly loud, even if a full band is playing (during EJ's set, which was mostly just acoustic guitar and voice, it was the worst). The problem is when you're on the bar side you can't hear the music very well, so people feel at liberty to talk as loudly as they please, probably assuming the people on the stage side can't hear them. Unfortunately, their voices carry all too well.

That said, it was a great show. EJ was terrific, and had Tim and Jim from Califone sit in for a few rootsy numbers, which were wonderful. Califone was, as always, brilliant, and they had some cool projections going on, too.

I saw both shows of the Posies at the Triple Door on Friday night (I don't think they played any song at both shows). It was the first time I've seen the band acoustic and it sounded amazing! I was also in the very front row for the second show and managed to see about 65% of the people I love in this world.

All in all, it was a pretty remarkable night.

This weekend I think I suffered from indie-pop withdrawal. My laptop died while in the midst of a big freelance project (due last Friday) and I was in Salem, OR for the weekend with parental types. At least the drive to and fro was safe and I have gmail (so most of my email from the last year is in tact).

Bright side you know... perhaps I need to listen to some Bright Eyes to find some consolation. Or maybe just some outrageous YouTube video or some really really good new indie-pop on MySpace.

What do you all have?

Sounds like Lily Allen is down in Seattle, too.

Poor Lily!! Tears and everything...