So Sonic Youth was in town last night. Of course I went. I failed to take my concert camera (my busted one, the one I have to smack a couple of times before it works), so words and crappy photoshop drawings from poor memory will have to suffice.

Now, I love rock concerts, especially ones that involve ear-bleeding, inner-organ-vibrating noise levels, but my favorite part of concert-going is people watching. While we were waiting for the opening band to play, the boy and I stood there, sipping beer and snarkily commenting on the fashion of the concert-going populace, funny looking people, and molestaches.

Such a serious mug on such an overall goofy ensemble. I hope the 3D glasses weren’t just for show. The back of his shirt read “young, rich, and beautiful.” Indeed.

We couldn’t decide if that was a wig, or if she had just deep-fried her hair. I felt sorry for her scalp. Also, I wanted to buy her a sandwich.

AMBER ALERT

I feel bad laughing at this guy, because he cannot help that he has a protruding jaw, but every time I looked in his general direction, he was making this face, and I couldn’t stop laughing. I kept picturing his jaw unhinging itself from his face and going to town on all the hipsters down in front.

Also, about 1/3 of the people in the crowd were over eight feet tall.

Now onto the bands:

My friend Indie Dan mentioned that SY have a tendency to tour with unknown and generally crappy noise bands. Since we’d never heard of Awesome Color, I was a bit concerned. Yet they were generally all right, not too bad, and some of their songs were kind of catchy. I did wonder about their sometime-lead-singer, who came out for a couple of songs and had an okay voice, accompanied with T-rex gestures:

The style of music is kind of garage-grungish stuff, nothing terribly out there - certainly not as bad as I was expecting, from Indie Dan’s dire predictions.

Sonic Youth, as expected, were amazing. Since my last experience in a Sonic Youth concert, I decided to stand towards the back, so I could a) see better, and b) not get trampled by rampaging assholes. I wouldn’t get to touch Thurston Moore’s hand this time, but that was okay. He started the set by holding up his cup and announcing, “let me down this velvety cote du rhone here,” doing so, and then proceeding to wail on the guitar.

He is forty eight, according to Wikipedia, but still looks like he’s eighteen. Botox, maybe? He also appears to be over eight feet tall, or everyone else next to him are midgets.

I love when she screams. They closed with “Shaking Hell,” from “Confusion is Sex.” Joy! I definitely prefer this to when she sings slower songs (see: “Turquoise Boy”).

He’s got such an awesome voice. Also, he looks very happy and friendly.

Also, I am too lazy to draw them, but I think Steve Shelley was playing the drums (though I thought he quit after Sonic Nurse?) and some other random dude was up there playing bass.

Overall the show was awesome, and my ears are still recovering. I hope they come again. Next time I will bring a camera, to spare you all the PS drawings with my crappy mouse!

“Stand up for your man,” said the grandmother of a friend of mine. This was at the bridal shower of said friend, and everyone present was asked to offer some words of wisdom for the bride. “No matter what happens, you’ve got to stick up for ‘im.”

My friend’s mother had been squirming during most of the advice-giving session, and now spoke up. “I’m from the seventies, and I just can’t get behind that last one!”

The grandmother ignored her and continued on. “Your first year is going to be the hardest.” A couple of the other older women nodded and “mm hmm”-ed. “Living with him is a very different thing from dating him. You’ll learn all sorts of things, like he’ll wake up in the morning kind of sweaty and gross, and sometimes he farts. They hide that sort of thing from you when dating.” Laughter and more nodding. Thereafter followed more advice, such as “don’t let him touch your laundry” and “enthusiastically please him, and he’ll be sure to reciprocate.” All innocent, well-meaning, almost-joking offerings with troublesome subtext and implications.

During the shower, I realized two things: 1) that I’ve managed to grow up being a girl in this society and completely miss out on wedding know-how and etiquette, and 2) gender-role communication plays a large part in the wedding-planning process. Weddings are the time when the older women step in and carefully instruct the younger generation on how to be good wives and mothers. I guess I knew that from before, but it was a tad creepy watching how blatantly the process took place at that particular shower. They were all very nice ladies, but I do kind of wish there was some way I could have spoken up and said “but my boyfriend is perfectly capable of doing laundry!” or “what if he beats her? Should she stand up for him then?” without sounding like a total bridal-shower-spoiling tool.

Instead I just sat there and ate my scone and mused on the absurdity of weddings.