hmm. so. I forgot to tell you about Hot Water Music. Tynan and I went with Jason, Noel and Shandra (all from Langley). It was at Grandview Legion Hall. Jason said, "remember, we parked in the Itchy lot," and I'm ashamed to admit that I missed the Simpsons reference. Ah well. We all make mistakes once in a while.
When we got in the bouncer told us we weren't allowed to leave, and it was sweltering in there already. Suck. Well, I was wearing a skirt, tights and a tank top, so I didn't suffer too much. Red Light Sting were playing, which was a pleasant surprise. They're cool. We all ate licorice and rocked out.
The show sorta went downhill from there. Small Brown Bike played next, a really generic sounding emo band from Florida. We went and checked out merch after that. I bought a Red Light Sting pin. Up next was Leatherface, which apparently was the band everyone had been coming to see. Don't ask me - I didn't get it. Boring, predictable punk with bad raspy vocals. All old guys. Maybe they're some cool old-school band, I dunno. I'm not punk enough to get it, apparently. We all stood at the back waiting for Hot Water Music to play, discussing Iron Maiden (well, that was more Noel, Shandra and Tynan). Being bored.
Finally Hot Water Music came on, so Tynan and I edged up to the front. After the first couple songs, though, we both agreed that we didn't understand what the big deal about Hot Water Music was. Like, they were good musicians and played emo very well, but the music was boring. Predictable. Maybe they've been around for longer than most emo bands or something. Again, am I not punk enough to understand this? We went and stood at the back until they finished their set. We stopped at Sev on the way home.

I also forgot to mention that I spent five days at Tynan's that week because of the bus strike. That was nice. Neither of us had tons of homework, so we spent a fair amount of time together. Watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, eating in the caf and going to Magda's every five minutes, going for walks, reading together, and other stuff you probably don't want to hear about. Things have been really good between us lately.

And I worked all that weekend. Yeah. And dicked around on Monday.

Tuesday was Locust day. Jason and Noel and Shandra and Aaron showed up at my house at 6. It was sunny. We listened to a mix tape of britpop and 80's music I'd made for Jason that day, fingering white people over 60 out the car window. It was cool. We stopped at Kripp's Superdrugs on Granville to buy earplugs. We got to Miss T's about 5 minutes before the show was supposed to start (the tickets said 8:00 sharp, but that means an hour later in punkrock terms). So an hour later Mercury the Three-Winged Messenger started to play. I saw on them on Hallowe'en, too. They're an instrumental Iron-Maiden-type band. About halfway through their set, these two complete fanatics pushed up in front of us and started rocking out. One guy kept kneeling in front of his skateboard, and the other was taking tons of pictures, and every five seconds one of them would yell "MERCURY THE THREE-WINGED MESSENGER!!!!!!" Which was, of course, hilarious. Everyone else I was with enjoyed them more than I did (though they were funny). My favourite was when somebody yelled out, "A fair maiden slain on an unfair Tuesday," in a pirate voice. But I'm not much into Iron Maiden. (And I can't believe Noel paid 50 bucks to go see them.) Maybe I have some deep dark soft spot because I used to actually take metal seriously, while none of these kids ever did. They were Langley punks. Yes, I actually listened to Metallica and Pantera and Megadeath in seriousness. Hey, we all have clouded pasts. You be quiet.

The next band was Witness Protection Program, formerly Target, formerly Bloom. A local hardcore band. They were alright. I liked the high-pitched screaming, but I've definitely seen better. I didn't dislike them.

Next up, Tourettes Lautrec. They were also from San Diego (the Locust's hometown). When they first started playing I was like, fuck, this is terrible. But as they continued it kinda grew on me a little more. They're new-wave-y hardcore, like Red Light Sting, but less catchy and interesting. And the keyboardist/lead singer is this girl with long black hair and shaggy white bangs who reminds me of my Gothic Literature teacher (definitely a plus) except that when she sings, it comes out in these high-pitched yelps, which I didn't care too much for. The guitarist, we all agreed, was really good. Really creative and also technically really good. (And supercute.) I wouldn't buy their CD, but I'd see them live again if they were playing with someone else cool. For some reason I think that if they'd made a movie in the 80's that was supposed to take place in the future and there was a band playing that was supposed to be playing music from the future, it would be something like Tourettes Lautrec.

We remained up front until the Locust came on. I'd forgotten about their gigantic Ampeg amps all painted in camouflage. I was totally giddy waiting for them to start, especially after the keyboardist started testing out his keyboard and it fucking blasted out. We noticed that the drummer had a much smaller drum kit this time - last time he had a ridiculous number of toms. And the first drumroll he did sent shivers up my spine. We were standing in front of the bassist (Justin, obviously the "hot guy" in the band) and the drummer. The guitarist and the keyboardist were on the other side of the stage. They were all wearing these furry black vests and big fat black goggles which made them look incredibly insect-like. Funny.

I recognized a lot of the songs they played, and they played some of my favourites like, of course, Moth-Eaten Deer Head, and also Head Hits Concrete and Skin Graft at Seventy-Five Miles Per Hour. I think they played even better this time than last time. I'd forgotten what good musicians they were. I could see the band more this time, too. I liked the keyboardist's and guitarist's vocals better than the bassist's, though of course they were all good. I remembered how loud it was. The crowd was a lot bigger, and practically everyone was rocking out. It's pretty difficult to sit still to the Locust. And when you dance you basically vibrate and pump your fists into the air at all the shots. Tynan and I hung onto each other to prevent getting pushed over.

After the first couple songs, the two guys yelling "MERCURY THE THREE-WINGED MESSENGER!" as loud as they could 7 times after every song started to get annoying, and the bassist said something like, "What, are you guys like, in that band or something?" After the next song he told them to shut up. Things kind of went slowly downhill from there. It turned into a match between some guys in the audience (who were undoubtedly drunk - and who says all-ages sucks?) and the bass player. They were standing on the guitarist's pedals, or they'd yell, "You guys are the worst black metal/death metal band I've ever seen!" Or whatever. It sucked. Like, if they didn't like the Locust, fine, but why the fuck were they standing at the front heckling them? Certainly Justin's developed somewhat of an ego, and he wielded it a bit strongly at times, but I'd be pissed off at those guys, too. I was.

So although they played incredibly well, the show was kinda bad because of all the people yelling at them. At one point, the bassist said, "Hey, are you guys afraid of my pussy? I can understand if you are... it's pretty intimidating." I yelled, "I'm not afraid!" And someone else yelled, "Right on, sister!" But the assholes won out in the end. I was complaining about it after the show ended, and a guy behind me said, "Yeah, Vancouver sucks. That's why no one wants to play here." Poo. I hope they come back despite all this. They said at the end, "I'd like to thank all the transsexuals for coming out tonight... too bad a few assholes had to ruin it for you."

I bought two pins and a CD at the merch table. I was gonna buy the CD last year, but I was afraid I'd get sick of it because they seem like such a novelty band. But I decided that if I still like them a year later, this may not be the case.

And thus ended our evening. Jason drove us back to UBC, and we stopped at Sev on the way there. Bless Sev.

On Wednesday we slept in until noon or 1 or something, ate in the caf, and dawdled for a while before heading to the library, where I gathered various stuff I needed for school (including painstaking hours looking for journal articles). A pretty uneventful day. Thursday, Tynan had an exam, so I got up at 1 in the afternoon again and played on the internet in my underwear. Then it was cold so I got dressed. After some political work, we went to the Starfish Room to see Low. When we got there with our bags of dinner (I had taco time, tynan had chinese food), the opening band, the Danielson Famillie was already playing. The show started at 8:15 sharp. Apparently the Starfish Room had, once again, double-booked that night. Arg. We didn't mind missing the Danielson Famillie (however the fuck you spell it) too much, though. They didn't sound that good from outside, where we sat on the sidewalk like skids (heh) eating dinner.

We saw Tynan's friends Miranda and Raph right when we walked in, and after some searching, saw Nick and then finally Larissa. I couldn't see Matt and Chantille anywhere. Raph told me later that she'd seen them, so they were there. Ah well. I looked. We killed some time by drinking Kahlua and Cokes. We got up near the front, directly behind Larissa and Nick, and chatted while they set up. About the equipment and what they were gonna sound like, et cetera. Tynan was eager to see the girl's (I don't know their names) drumming skills. Right when they started playing Tynan said, "Wow, she's got amazing time. She must practice with a metronome," Nick, who we hadn't even talked to yet that night, turned around, glared at us and told us to, "SHUT. UP." Okay, so you don't talk during Low, but he could've been nicer about it.

Of course they were beautiful, and played fantastically, and sounded almost exactly like they do recorded except better, and it was really, really nice. They sang beautifully, rocked out just the right amount (and the guy did cool poses when he rocked out). It was a really short set thanks to the folks at the Starfish Room, who said they had to finish at exactly 10pm, and then got a guy to go around and shout at us to get the fuck out as soon as Low stopped playing. I hate the Starfish Room.

We all ate at the Naam afterwards. I had Caesar salad that tasted kinda like feet - maybe it had goat cheese in it or something. I dunno. And we drank Jamaican Spice tea and ate Tofulati. I forgot how good that stuff is. Yum.

Today's Tynan's birthday. He's finally legal age. Wooo. Now we don't have to worry when we go to bar shows (though he never gets carded anyway). So HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Tynan!

I have to get up early tomorrow but I wanted to tell y'all about the shows, so goodnight, I'll write more later.

Oh, and, of course, if the pics from the Locust don't suck, I'll put them up when they get developed.