He Plays Piano, too?

To top off a long day of errand running and sewing and housecleaning, Jason and I saw the Imprints and James Low last night at the Laurelthirst.

The imprints feature two members of the James Low band, and one of them was a member of the Baseboard heaters. They were at two (sometimes three) guitars, bass, drums and keyboard outfit.  They had some good songs, I think one was about Tarzan and some forgettable ones too. They really started to shine towards the end of the set when they started pulling out their store of covers. We heard Can’t Hardly Wait by the Replacements. After that song, they started stumming some chords that sounded familliar so I said “What’s next, Red Eyed and Blue?” but no, an original song. But! Next was I’m Always in Love by Wilco – I so called a Wilco song. Jason said there were all of six people in the bar who knew the song, and the band had five members… plus jason and I. They ended the set with a country-fied version of the Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again.

James Muthafuckin Low was up next. For some reason he decided to play the entire set in a wifebeater, which is unlike him. The set was also unlike him. About five songs in I realized he was playing stuff that wasn’t on albums. Some of it we had heard before, but most of it was new. And it was Happy! Then, he started playing keyboard which I had never seen before. If I had handed somone on of his records before the show and said “here, listen to this” and then that person came to the show… it was completely different than anything I’ve ever heard him do before. And it was good. We started wondering if he had gotten a girlfirned and that’s what created this change. He did pull out You’re So Mean towards the end, and he ended the show with Black Heart which is my favorite.

I won a James Low Blackguard’s Waltz T-shirt by being the first to bug him about it afterward. He confirmed that we had RSVP’d for the Bite Me Fest next weekend. And then the night was over.

One more thing: I broke the almost two month no beer spell. I had intended on going from June 9th to August 9th without having any beer (alcohol is okay, just no beer). However, the Laurelthirst only serves beer, so I had an IPA. I’m back on the no beer till next weekend. I think one beer in 60 days is quite a feat, I think I lost 5 pounds because I gave it up!