Hearts of Steele, are you from the Waterford/New London area? I do some playwriting and teaching at the O'Neill, which is affiliated with Conn. College. Beautiful and sketchy at the same time in that uniquely New England way, but I love it there.
I love TL/Rx lyrics, in part because they obviously mean something, and they have this great poetic cadence, but they can mean whatever you want them to. For a little while I liked to pretend that "C.I.A." was being sung to Tom, like Tom did something that Ted can't forgive, but they're still friends.
I'm from RI, right outside of Providence, but New London is not very far, a little less than an hour away. I saw a Slim Cessna's Auto Club show at that place near the train station (The Backstage Pass?) and have used an expired college ID to get a 1/2 off entree at Margaritas. My friend was a Conn. College '05 alum. He told me to come down for Floralia '08 because Ted was playing. Having gone to a school with a dry campus, I had never seen so many drunk kids in my life. It was a little overwhelming, and no one would smoke me up. And it was a little cold that day, too. I almost got into fight with some meathead (probably a lacrosse player) during Ted's set, due to his and his "bros" pushing and shoving. These two poor girls who were standing next to me were getting crushed against the metal barrier. I got the elbows going, and he started to give me some S Hit, about "throwin' 'bows at his bros." I told him, "I'm giving you 3 seconds to get the eff out of my face before I smash you." He totally backed down (which was surprising as he was a head taller than me), and we kinda made peace (ie he didn't push, and I didn't elbow). Worst crowd I've ever endured, drunk kids jumping the barrier, the student promoters doing nothing and actually encouraging their friends to jump over, things being thrown at/on stage. I saw a pork-pie hat whiz by Big Steve's head. He didn't flinch. Me and my friend helped The Pharmacists lug their gear back to their van as an apology for the shitty crowd. And that's what memories are made of.
