Tuesday, August 27, 2002
np: gin blossoms - "follow you down"
admit it. you love that song.
so i've been back at school for a good bit and i haven't gotten around to saying much after my grandfather died. i went and saw paul westerberg on the night of my grandfather's wake. it was kind of surreal to go from the wake to a crowded, jubilant show. paul westerberg was amazing though. it's so..i can't say what it's like to listen and soak up every word a person has written for going on seven years without having seen them perform in person. and he sang "man without ties," "left of the dial," "can't hardly wait," "i will dare," "let the bad times roll," "here comes a regular," "swinging party," "love untold," "best thing that never happened," "looking out forever," "it's a wonderful lie," etc. just..amazing. i still get shivers. hearing him do "swinging party" was a great experience. it cast a whole new light on the song. breathtaking.
there's a song by le tigre called "bang! bang!" it has to do with the amadou diallo shooting in new york city a couple of years ago. while i, on the whole, much prefer bruce springsteen's "american skin (41 shots)" in dealing with this issue, there's this part at the end where the entire band counts to 41. it's absolutely spellbinding. by the end, all the music drops out and all you hear is people counting shots. and you think about amadou diallo. gunned down. 41 shots. 19 bullet holes in his body. you count every one.
