December 18, 2006
Last weekend, I flew up to Seattle to see a reunited Juno play two shows. I discovered Juno shortly before I moved away from Seattle, and managed to miss them the two or three times they came to Los Angeles. In the last nine years (really?) since I saw them, they happened to release two completely amazing albums, become one of my absolutely favorite bands, and then break up.
I almost didn't make it, though, as the night before I was due to fly out, I awoke at about four in the morning, propelled to the bathroom by the power of insane vomit. I felt better afterwards though... or at least, for about an hour. And then I repeated the previous excursion to the bathroom, except this time, without any sense of relief afterwards. I instead pondered the bathroom tile for some time... and then I commenced throwing up roughly on the hour every hour thereafter, up until the point I was supposed to be leaving for the plane.
Anyone who knows me knows I get sick quite a bit, and that I'm a pro puker, with years of experience under my belt. But I'd never experienced anything like this - it was so intense that I started to wonder whether one could choke on their own vomit while fully awake and aiming into a receptacle. This would be a great deal less of a bad-ass way to perish by vomit, than, say, like Bon Scott, all choked up on vomit and booze and passed-out rock 'n' roll excess. Awake and throwing up a bad burger just isn't quite the same.
I had to see Juno, violently revolting stomach be damned. Also, a delayed one-way ticket was going to cost more than my entire round-trip ticket cost in the first place. So, at about 4 pm, I boarded the plane, changed my seat to the very back, next to the bathrooms, and held on for dear life. While I managed to avoid throwing up any more, I was pretty shaky for the rest of the night and most of the following day.
And, in fact, I didn't feel better until I got to the club and the music started. This was either due to the healing power of the rock or the fact that my 24 hour food-poisoning might have actually been a 48 hour affair. I dunno.
We caught the Junior Boys first, who were great, and, well... far less sexy in person than their music lets on. But their lead vocalist/guitar player/bass player was a big bearded fellow in a sweater - representing! For comparison's sake:
Sure, he looks cooler than me, and he's got a bass in his hand. And, um, we really don't look alike. But you get the picture. I CAN TOTALLY BE A ROCK STAR.
And then, Ghostland Observatory took the stage. I hadn't heard of them, and they were sort of co-headliners for the first show. And they're probably going to be huge, or at least as huge as a jet-black-Willie-Nelson-pigtailed skinny-androgynous-Jagger-Mercury dancing machine with a voice that conjures Cedric Bixler wrestling Screamin' Jay Hawkins type & his baby-blue-Dracula-caped masterminding partner can be. This song doesn't really capture that vibe, but it's still pretty good:
I'd recommend checking them out when you get the chance. I've never seen a crowd that excited about a group maybe ever, and they won me over despite a) my sister and I commiserating pre-and-during-set with jokes about the frontman's likeness to a certain Black-Eyed Pea and b) the super-obnoxious frat raver boys who kept bumping into me while throwing up the Roca-diamond and doing the fist and face-ups like we were at some Riverside night club gangsta rave.
After their set, Juno took the stage. I'd recommend you go see them as well, except they aren't likely playing again any time soon. As far as I know. If time proves me wrong, do yourself a favor and check them out - I don't know what to say without sounding like a silly fanboy, but they really did sound amazing, and were even better live than they had been when I saw them nine years earlier. And it was nice to see them at Neumo's, too, as it had been Moe's when I lived in Seattle, a famous venue that all of my favorite bands played that I could never get into because of Seattle's ultra-anti-all-ages dance ordnances and whatnot.
By the way, all of these photos were um, borrowed, from KEXP's Flickr stream. The show was a benefit for the station, who appear to still be pretty great (they were KCMU when I lived up there, I think).
Posted by starlen at December 18, 2006 3:30 AM
