*...though, some past colleagues/editors might argue I never knew how to in the first place!
I went to a show! What's up?!
Saturday night, I went to Costa Mesa's Detroit Bar to check out The Morning Benders (who I've mentioned before).
I'd seen them before, in an opening act role, and was impressed. Add to that, there was a lot of SXSW-generated buzz about them, making this a moderately hot ticket. I just can not express how suddenly age 32 has swooped in and left me grasping at every last thread of coolness. Finding out about and seeing a band before their single becomes a car commercial? Seemingly major.
Saying I was going felt great (I rather relished the faint hint of jealousy in the eyes of the other park moms when they heard of my plans). Being there, on the other hand, was a pain...literally. I needed epsom salts and two next-day naps after that show.
The sets (including the first one, by likable unknowns The Miniature Tigers) were as short and tidy as one would expect from bands with not a lot in the way of a discography. But, for some reason, they didn't start until 10:30, or so. "This is inching up on your bedtime!" my knees seemed to scream out at me. (Though I tried to appease them by wearing sensible-ish shoes, the knees were not happy and they would not be ignored as the night wore on.)
The Morning Benders is a seriously cute band. Their songs are melodic and catchy without being cloying. They're definitely keeping that whole "modern barbershop quartet harmonizing pop song" momentum going and I don't mind it a bit. The audience was a mix of the curious and the ground-floor fans who sang and hugged their significant others through all the songs. I was in the former camp, but I watched them thinking: They are so adorable, I want to put them in my pocket...or, at least, in my earbuds as I'm grocery shopping. One smile- and sway-inducing song led to another. Then they finished up with the pay-off everybody in the crowd had been waiting for — their single, "Excuses," a song so all-encompassingly catchy that any band with aspirations of longevity would put a moratorium on, if they knew what was good for them.
Before the last guitar strap was removed, I made a move for the door. I know now that I am too old to wait for an encore (not that there was one). I had gotten my $10 worth and it was finally time to appease the knees. Will I go to another show anytime soon? No doubt. Will there be a mandate that it be a seated show? No doubt.
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