all the news that print will fit.
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| notes from underground - societal whispers all the news that print will fit. |
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Sunday, March 09, 2003 np: the bliss of waking at 3pm wow, so, uh, yesterday was quite insane. j. ball became too sick to go with us so ali and i got off around 9a.m. to head down to myrtle beach to see toad the wet sprocket. i gassed up here in town, grabbed some breakfast and then after cursing map quest for sending me down the wrong interstate entry ramp, we were on our way. we made it down to north myrtle beach about 2p.m. and located the house of blues as a reference point and went out from there. myrtle beach is (and always has been) a tourist pit, especially during spring break season. it's a beautiful beach but it's just mile after mile of commercial desert. concrete dunes. we went into a wings (if you've ever been to myrtle beach, you know exactly to what i'm referring) and ali bought easily one of the tackiest key chains i've ever seen. i was set in a foul mood by small ashtray statues in the store. they were designed with characters on the side of the ashtray smoking rather ridiculously large joints. the characters were very obviously black, if you follow. exaggerated facial features including huge lips and buck teeth. it was obvious that one of them was even supposed to resemble bob marley. this is what a legacy can come to now a days. you do a life's work and you are reduced to a racial caricature adorning an ashtray taking immensely out of context the spiritual and religious importance of marijuana. god bless souvenir america. we were eventually able to locate a public access beach and then public access parking. we walked out there for awhile as it was an absolutely beautiful day before finally returning to the car and heading back to town to get dinner before the show. we parked at the house of blues and walked up barefoot landing to this place called the crabshack. dinner was really good, if a bit expensive, and i wish i'd been able to eat more. but most importantly in this restaurant was the portent of the dinner music. what played during our meal? "all i want" by toad the wet sprocket. we took it as a good omen to be sure. or so we thought. we headed back to the house of blues and found a large line spanning outside. i asked a security guard about picking up our reserve tickets and he pointed me towards the ticket booth. now, i had arranged guest list passes through planetary which is one of the promotion companies i work with at wqfs. one of their artists, bleu, was opening and i was supposed to be on their list. except there was no list. the guy said that they may just not have handed it in yet, but as of then, i was out of luck. so we panicked. driving four hours just to get shafted at the door wasn't entirely a new thing for me (the amount of driving, yes, but i'd been fucked over on guest list passes for several shows earlier this year and last from different promotion companies) but it's the last thing i wanted at a concert so important to me. i guess i should elucidate a bit on my history with toad. they were the first band that was 'mine,' you know? in the summer of '94 i was watching mtv and i saw their video for "fall down." i really liked it. and at some point i was able to purchase dulcinea on cassette. i listened to that album repeatedly. in fact, that was also the year that i began writing. glen phillips' lyrics were the key to my inspiration. "crowing" was the first song i learned to play on guitar. i went on to buy all their records. on august 20th, 1996 at memorial stadium in charlotte (one night before my birthday) i saw them for the first (and what eventually i thought would be the only) time. they were opening for hootie and the blowfish. they only played for about forty minutes. but it was easily one of the best shows of my life. the only thing i can describe as coming close was when i saw paul westerberg last summer. it's not that these concerts were necessarily 'the best' on some official scale of how good a concert could be. it's just that both came with immense emotions attached to them. and nothing could top that. after toad broke up in '98, i saw glen phillips play solo three times and each time was really great, but as much as i loved his stuff..i missed toad. and then when i read that they got back together..well. i did a dance in my room. i literally did a jig. the crowd was mostly in by this point and i asked the ticket guy again if there was a guest list. there was! it had just been handed to them. so we were on our way in. at the merch table i decided to stop and talk with joe lyons. joe is toad's tour manager and was formerly lapdog's manager/web guy. lapdog was guitarist todd nichols' band during the toad break-up period. i introduced myself (as he and i have had numerous email contacts back and forth with radio stuff and other things) and we talked for a bit. then he said, do you have passes for the meet and greet also? i said no that i had just gotten tickets from the promotion company. he reached into his back pocket and pulled out two of these. i was a bit dumbstruck. but took them very graciously. i also bought a tour t-shirt. heh. the show was fantastic. the two opening bands were okay, nothing incredibly moving. but then toad came on stage. i'm going to replicate the set list as best i can, but aside from the first song, last two songs, and encores, these are not in their actual played order. first song - "whatever i fear" "something's always wrong" "fly from heaven" "woodburning" "crowing" "windmills" "nanci" "inside" "all i want" "nightengale song" "come back down" "dam would break" "throw it all away" "never was cool" (a new song) glen solo - ? (a song i didn't know, possibly new? or a cover.) and "political science" next to last - "amnesia" last song - "fall down" > first encore - "brother," "crazy life" and "walk on the ocean" (with guest guitarist mark bryan from hootie and the blowfish) > second encore - "i will not take these things for granted" afterwards we got to talk with the band. i, being a dumbass, left my record sleeve of their first album, bread and circus, at home. i had glen sign it during one of his solo shows and had planned to get the rest of them to sign the other four corners. but i'm an idiot and we were half way to south carolina before i realized it. but still, just getting to meet them all was a great time. and ali and i decided to drive home. that is a totally different story. i would tell it right now but it's 72 degrees outside and a book is calling me to head out to the porch and relax. i think i have nothing but love for all of you right now. posted by J. Neas | 3/09/2003 04:27:00 PM
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