holy fuck !!!

ive seen !!! (chk chk chk) twice before, and theyve been both the best, and the worst, concert ive seen. the first time i saw them a few years ago, i literally stumbled onto the show, and it was one of the most fun and intense concerts ive been to in dc. gasp! people were actually dancing! after the show i became mildly obsessed; in fact their song "pardon my freedom" became my theme song during the 2004 elections when i was volunteering in florida. i would play it (specifically the line "you can tell the president to fucking suck my dick") every morning to psyche myself up to knock on strangers doors all day praying they didnt open the door holding a gun.

so, you can imagine how excited i was last year when they played the black cat on my birthday. i drug friends who have never been to u street before, let alone the black cat (or, you know, ever heard of !!!), out to the show which they ruined by sucking. after waiting for them for hours, they finally took stage for three songs. awesome.

understandably, i was hesitant to go to the show last night, but decided to give them another chance (mainly because i had nothing better to do on a monday night). once again, they were on their "a" game and gave a great show. i dont normally need to be close to the stage to enjoy a show, but we pushed ourselves up to front row center which was awesome because it gave me somewhere to stash the big heavy work bag i was dragging around with me. we were so close that not only was my face basically in the lead singers crotch the whole time, but we got tangled up in the mic cord more than once; i would say we were close enough to smell the band, but, trust me, that isnt saying much. there were scalpers outside complaining about the smell of dirty hippies wafting out from inside.

the best thing about !!! is the lead singer. not only did he once stop a show i was at to yell to the crowd "scream if you love cocaine!" but he prances and dances like a gayer version of mick jagger. i heart him beyond what i can tell you. i want to fold him up in my purse and bring him around with me everywhere i go. although there are two people who trade off vocals; one is energy personified, and the other is this intense, zombie-esque person who im sure survives on a meal of brains and virgin's blood.

i mention the aside about my bag because, once up front, we stashed our bags under the stage and proceeded to defend our territory like mama bears with a den full of cubs. normally, im not so territorial (okay, fine, i am), but this morning i had a meeting with someone about being approved for a mortgage (eek!) and, since the meeting was at 830 this morning, and im not a morning person, i had brought all my paperwork with me, in my bag, to the concert. well, that and because im stupid. so basically, my entire financial history (credit card statement, student loans, savings and checking accounts) were all in that bag. its the sort of thing that if it had been stolen, it would have kind of sucked. there was one drunk, drugged out girl who tried to push her way to the stage, unfortunately for her, she underestimated both our wingspan and our willingness to use our elbows as weapons. and while it was cute when she used her headbanger hair toss to compete for space, it was also ineffective seeing as her ear length hair was no match for the four foot circumference of my porno head thrash hair toss. nice effort though and good luck next time.

and, thank you !!! for not playing an encore.