On Monday John and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary by going out on the town. Our night started with dinner at one of our favorite old haunts, La Fontana.
As always, we had a tasty meal in the quaint romantic atmosphere of this little restaurant. And, since we were there early (6pm), we were the only people there. (I think some more people came after we did, but they all ate outside, while we chose to stay inside.)

After dinner we walked over to the Moore Theater and picked up our tickets to see Billy Corgan. Our timing was impeccable, since they started letting people in just as we got our tickets. I got in line to be seated while John went back to the car to get the sweater I forgot. Since the line had stretched around the block, John only arrived about two minutes after I was seated.

The crowd at the show was very interesting. Lately we have been finding that when we go to concerts we are some of the older people in attendance. Here, however, there were a few younger people, but I would say that the majority of the attendees were thirty-something geeks. We fit right in. J No, now that I think about it, we were way out of our league as far as geekiness goes.

So, the first band to perform was The Crimea. They were so awful, I felt badly for them. Nobody could sing in key and the band was really sloppy. It reminded me of bands in high school that consisted of 4-5 people all playing their instruments as if each individual was the only person playing. The only good thing I can say about this band is that they seemed to have a lot of emotion. Although, every time the lead singer/guitarist whipped his guitar around in an apparent muscle spasm I worried that he was going to knock out either a fellow band member or some equipment. Fortunately both were spared.

During the Crimea set I noted that the volume level was almost painful, and I was regretting the fact that I forgot our earplugs. During parts where the lead singer was screaming/whining I actually plugged my ears, because otherwise I could hear my eardrums rattling. (Does anyone else ever get that sensation?)

The second band to perform was Doris Henson, from Kansas City. After The Crimea, these guys seemed awesome. I thought that the lead singer/guitarist's smile was a welcome sight after the doom and gloom of The Crimea, although John felt like he was trying to be too cute. The band's sound reminded me a little bit of They Might Be Giants, and without the screeching vocals I was able to listen without holding my fingers in my ears (though the volume was very loud nonetheless). I really enjoyed watching two of the band members in this set. The first was the rhythm guitarist, who had a very stiff, repetitive way of moving his body which reminded both John and I of his old roommate. The likeness was uncanny and hilariously familiar. The second interesting guy to watch was the trombonist. Yep, there were trombone parts built into all their songs, and it worked surprisingly well! The overweight, geeky-looking guy played it very well.

Finally the set was prepared for Billy. A black curtain was removed to reveal a background composed entirely of white tiles. The only instruments on-stage included a couple of synthesizers and a drum machine. When the band walked on the crowd got so loud that again I heard my eardrums rattling. Billy acknowledged the welcome by pointing a finger in the air. As soon as the group started to play the tiles lit up in a series of light designs, which was really cool. The only uncool thing is that the sound was so loud that I couldn't hear anything. All of the sounds were just mushed into one blob of noise, so much that I could barely tell that Billy was even singing. I had my ears plugged through the entire first few songs, but then my arms started getting tired. Since John was tired anyway from a long day at work, I suggested that we head out early. I was actually really disappointed because I couldn't hear the music because it was too loud, and if nothing else I wanted to stay for the light show but decided it wasn't worth losing my hearing for.

Photo by Will Pham.