The day began with Laurie private messaging me (via this very board) her own personal cellular telephone number. Sounds great, right? As my dear pal Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast my friend!" Two hours later (after apparently feeling some remorse), she decides to come clean and messages me again with her actual current working cell number (the other one was her old number -- YEARS old folks). Then, she calls me around 5PM, saying that the show is sold out but one could try waiting in line at about 7 to try to be lucky enough to attempt to get a ticket. TRY AGAIN LAURIE! I bought my ticket Sunday at
Sweat Records; you can't escape me! I show up sporting
my Newbridge Is for Lovers tshirt, the agreed upon dress code, saunter up near the stage, and spot my tiny Asian friend
Sticky Rice (
shown here with Otto Von Schirach), surrounded, as usual, by a pack of hangers on of all types. And by all types, I mean ALL TYPES OF FOTS, because sitting next to my friend of several years is none other than our very own Laurie!!! Turns out we have several mutual pals, most relating to our nonconcurrent tenures at 90.5
WVUM (The Voice of the University of Miami). During the evening, Laurie hit all the beats one would expect: WFMU record fair, S&M,
Venn diagrams, goatse, Joe Francis; she even used "Seance" instead of "Beyonce" for my benefit. She was, however, a little reluctant when I asked where on the beach she lived (
understandable).
Todd Barry was very funny despite mic troubles throughout his set (as if his comedy stylings weren't already poorly suited to a rock club). He did a lot of material from
Falling Off the Bone and the
Comedy Central Presents special. Solid stuff, and he did some crowd work too!
Chick: Smoke weed every day!
Todd Barry (to audience): Yes, and you'll end up like her. (This led seamlessly into his legalize pot/arrest potheads bit.)
He also chastised someone for working at Radio Shack. Laurie said, "I think he means Radio Hut." It was awesome.
Yo La Tengo then came out and played a bunch of songs from their new record
I Am Not a Lawyer But I Will Represent Your Ass, a handful of classics, and a few covers. I'm not great with track names, so it's up to Laurie to chip in with a set list. They rocked so hard; I was really digging it (head nodding and awkward dancing in place). Amazingly, YLT had never played in the Magic City before. Apparently at every annual shareholders meeting, they would ask themselves if they should play Miami in the upcoming year. Until 2007, the answer was, unfailingly, "It's too soon. We're not ready." Although there was some allusion to the upcoming
BIG GAME, it is more likely that they were auditioning for a spot on the main stage at
Castro's shiva (date TBD). They exited after a strong set, promising to see us in another 22 years, but the crowd demanded sweet satisfaction. They retook the stage for one encore and then another(!), at one point joined on drums by the one and only Todd Barry for "an old Jewish folk song" my gentle gentile ears could not identify.
After the show had ended, I made human contact with Mr. Barry, asking him how
his recent dinner with Louis CK went. He laughed and said, "Good."
END
