A Show and A Night

A short trip to Denver had me standing before the Bluebird Theater. Alone as I was, I made my way to the back of the line and awaited orders. Earlier that night, I had contemplated riding the L-train into town just for kicks, but I figured it would be too complicated for me to understand. I had gotten there fairly early, just when the people began a steady trickle in. I sat and chilled and played the part of observer in my new world. There seemed to be a lot of couples there so I thought about what that must be like; what it's like to take someone you really care about to a good show. I bet its cool a lot.

The female foursome from Montreal took the stage first. I remember smiling a lot when they played. Something about them made me feel happy and safe. It seemed like they had good hearts. Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed a little Asian girl squeeze through the crowd to claim a plot of concrete just in front of me. After the second song, appeared in her hand a pom-pom. She took photos of the band and shook her tassels in a jumping frenzy. She was also alone and the shear absurdity of pom-pom shaking made the whole crowd laugh, in a good way. The band recognized her and were happy to have such a devout fan. At the end of their set, she placed a brightly colored gift bag on the stage. The lead-singer knelt down to see what they had been given. "Pringles!" she exclaimed as she held up the cylindrical can. There was also some bubbles and a huge bag of candy. I laughed a lot.

Between sets me and this guy started talking. He said he was surprised that this many people had heard of this band that was about to go on. I asked him how he knew about them and he said he just likes a lot of music. This man must of been in his fifties, and to see people of that age at shows, is a little strange. He told me that he was a comedy writer and for a living he writes comedy for comedians. He said he writes jokes for Larry the Cable Guy. I thought he was weird. Apparently he sits around in his underwear all day, and thinks of jokes, and emails them to people, and gets paid tons of cash. Again I thought he was weird. We started talking about music, everything from The Strokes, to The Good, The Bad, and The Queen. He seemed very opinionated about music.

Then Camera Obscura came on. I always love the moment when a band comes on stage because for the first time, you see these people come to life. You realize that they are people like everyone else and it's fun. She said in her very Scottish accent that she was impressed that there was so many people at the show. They had heard that Incubus was in town on the very same night. She said, "we were at the bar last night doing karaoke and everyone was singing these Incubus songs. We don't even know who Incubus is." I thought it was hilarious that they didn't know who Incubus was. I laughed again. They then proceeded to play an absolutely brilliant show. Being alone allows me to enjoy things more sometimes. Since I have no other distractions, I can focus wholly on the band and listen to the intricacies of the music. It was nice to do that. If you ever get a chance, I recommend them in concert.