I'm still alive, suckers!
Having survived Institute and a whirlwind road trip, I have landed myself back in The Cleve. I swear, my life feels like a country song lately.
Regardless, the highs have certainly been high. These include four nights of concerts in four different cities: Mark Kozelek in Athens, GA; Ben Folds with Weezer in Nashville, TN; They Might Be Giants opening the Fourth Annual LebowskiFest in Louisville, KY; and finally, The Cleveland Orchestra in the Cuyahoga River National Park, OH.
Each concert blew my mind, and each was so distinctly different - from solo guitar, to blasting bass - that it's truly hard to say which night was the best. For me, it was the most fun seeing Ben Folds live again. It was a short set (Weezer was the headliner), but packed with a string of unstoppable songs. Afterwards, I met a kid named Jordan at the shirt booth who revealed to me his man-crush on Ben Folds, and who high fived me for the belief that Weezer sucks live. As an interesting side-note, Weezer actually did a decent job of rocking. Rivers was much more charismatic this time around, and they seemed to be taking more liberties with the music than before.
Mark Kozelek was a trip. I swear, the guy had less stage presence than any other show I've been to. Regardless, he also rocked, though slow-core, and with no backup to his vocals beside his own amazing hand work with the guitar. I did actually take some videos of the show, and I'll see if I can get them posted. The best part of the night was that Lindsey and I got to watch the whole thing from a couch!
Finally landing here in Cleveland, I'm now doing laundry and recollecting myself from the trip before heading back into the fray in Raleigh at the end of the week. The slow breath before the storm, as it were.