2002-05-13
Music weekend, posted at 3:23 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I'm paying for one of my best weekends in a while by an absolutely shitty Monday. I'm generally a pretty happy-go-lucky guy, but even my kids noticed I was in a bad mood today. I'd like to leave right now, but it's storming something fierce outside. While I already miss baseball (the team got eliminated in the first round on Friday, losing to a well-funded county team 10-0 in a game that was much closer than it sounds), there is a certain freedom in not having something to do every day after school. I have such a great respect for coaches now - they spend so much time with their sports. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all this extra time.Maybe grade papers.
Anyhow, after Melissa Ferrick's phenomenal show on Friday, I had two more nights of good music. Kristin, who is sleeping on my couch while doing some shows in the area on her cross-country tour, played a show with this guy named James O'Brien and this band named Davinci's Notebook in the basement of a church on Saturday night. I was impressed with Davinci's Notebook, an a capella band that most of the crowd was there to see. They were funny. I don't think I found them half as funny as most of the people there, but I loved some moments - especially a song parodying Boy Bands. Who I really enjoyed was James O'Brien. He's the sort of punk/folk songwriter with cool lyrics and an aggressive delivery that I really enjoy. It also helps that he seems like a really cool guy; he may do a house concert at my place eventually.
Kristin was also great that night. I love her voice.
I spent much of the rest of the weekend showing Kristin around, running various errands, and not sitting down once it seemed. Next weekend will be more of the same, with Kristin's house concert on Saturday night.
Sunday night was the Dan Bern concert. It was another fabulous one. James O'Brien opened the show, and was good, then there was a crummy band (I signed up Eleanor to their mailing list as a joke), and then Dan came on. He was in a good mood, the band was fabulous, and the set list was as good as can be expected from someone who doesn't like to play his audience's favorites (no "Jerusalem" or "Wasteland," but he played "Marilyn" and "Chelsea Hotel"). My favorite song was a clever pro-pot song called "A night and a day in jail" that I thought was pretty brilliant. He played a couple of funny talking blues songs solo as the encore, and it was a great night. The crowd was refreshingly unannoying for the most part, which was a change from Friday's Melissa Ferrick show.
But I didn't get in until after midnight, didn't work out this morning, and didn't have that great of a Monday. I had to use up my planning period observing a teaching candidate - a practice I'm getting sick and tired of doing. I'm too nice. I should just say no.
Storm's over. Gotta go.