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Intellectual House o' Pancakes Webdiary

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2006-04-08 - 9:11 p.m.

I am unjaded about live music, and although I've seen some bad shows in my day, and some great ones, I am always giddy with hope and positive expectation at the start of every new gig.

And thus it was that I thrilled to The Hold Steady last night at Warsaw, as if I'd never seen a band play before, never tasted a watery Polish beer, never heard power chords.

It was a good show!

My main gripe with the band on record is Craig Finn's irritating song-spiel vocals, but in a live setting that was largely immaterial.

And my main gripe with Williamsburg hipsters is that they are ennervating to be around cuz they just stand there at shows, unmoving and seemingly unmoved, but last night they were mostly hopped-up and excited.

Nerdy guys everywhere should feel encouraged that this much-beloved and ballyhooed band is made up of some of the geekiest-looking fellows you ever saw (although the drummer is hot).


One of my favorite b-day presents this year was from Baker, who gave me an album called Tangerine Dream by an old British band called Kaleidoscope (not this CA-based band).

It is every bit as good as any psychedelic album of its era (1967), so much so that I suspect a hoax, I expect Andy Partridge or Christopher Guest to pop out of the liner notes at any minute: "ha! gotcha!"

And, interestingly, there is no overt connection between Tangerine Dream the band and this album, just a crazy (or subconscious, or accidental) confluence of citrus-y psychic goodness.

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