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.

greatest cover art ever

coco rosie

everyone i know is creaming themselves over this show tomorrow night at the rock n roll hotel. if they are half as good as their art work, it will be awesome indeed.

you are invited

despite having grown up in d.c., the dismemberment plan's "final" show at fort reno was both my first fort reno show, and my first time hearing the band (my teen years were punctuated by horrible choices in music -- my first c.d. was c&c music factory if that tells you anything). last nights sold out reunion show reminded me how much i love them; something i havent thought about since seeing their actual final show at the 9:30 club.

my plan for last night had been: dance rehearsal and laundry. at 10:30 am i received an email from a friend offering up a ticket to the nights sold out show to the fastest responder. i believe my exact response was "me! memememememe! pick me!" fortunately, i was not only the most enthusiastic but also the fastest.

i arrived at black cat at 930 to meet m.m. who was running a little late. the music in the club was deafening; somehow despite owning hundreds of pairs of ear plugs i, once again, found myself without any (hence why i own literally hundreds of them). since they vend in the machine for 50 cents, i needed to buy something that would give me quarters (or at least this was my logic and the only acceptable reason to ever order a pbr). i dont drink beer and it took me a good hour to knock it back - only half way through did i notice they sell earplugs upstairs at the bar meaning i could have ordered a drink that was actually drinkable. it was around the same time that i remembered m.m., l.w. and i's mutual lust for the bass player which gave me new cause for excitement.

something about dismemberment plan makes me feel like im in middle school; something more than the fact that the average age of concertgoers in the room was 17. their lyrics are dramatic, and wistful, passionate and intense. they remind me of the days when you would spend hours dissecting every word a boy said to you, interpreting every glance and feeling like the fate of your future happiness relied entirely on how he responded to your "do you like me? check yes, no or maybe" note. which for me was just last week.

m.m. and i had an amazing time dancing, laughing, singing loudly and out of tune, and watching the tweensters rush the stage before the set was even over. plus, the passing around of an R rated cake made it feel like fort reno's annual "night of a 1000 cupcakes."

in the car on the way home, m.m. reminded me that we actually have dismemberment plan to thank for our friendship. l.w. met m.m. through a "mutual friend" (a.k.a. a boy who picked them both up separately at bars) at a dismemberment plan show. it was love. the three of us (and the boy) have been friends ever since.

so to them, and to you, i say:

you are invited
by anyone to do anything
you are invited for all time
and you are so needed
by everyone to do everything
you are invited for all time

besides, how do you not love a band that does a punk cover of beyonce's irreplaceable?!