The original plan was to hit a club in Manhattan called the Bowery Ballroom, where an all-girl cover band called Lez Zeppelin was playing. Evidently this band is big, because the show sold out that afternoon. So we had to scramble for another fun activity (thankfully there is never a shortage of that in the city!) and settled on going to a local band competition (that is evidently being held at locations around the country and world) called Emergenza at the legendary Arlene's Grocery in Soho. After hitting a tasty little Soho burrito place for dinner and a few brews, we headed over there. The place was small and dark - the entrance led into a long and thin bar area with a fireplace and couches and chairs in the back. Halfway back was a side hallway to the music room - another equally small and dimly lit cavern with a spacious bar on the right and small stage in the back.
Beer was reasonable there (for the city) and so I quickly and heartily worked myself into a nice buzz before even the second band came on. Since I don't drink that much anymore, this level of consciousness is becoming increasingly easier to achieve! The bands consisted of a wide variety of styles, skill and entertainment levels. The first band was a thoroughly and perhaps purposefully disorganized and rowdy punk band. The lead singer careened about the tiny stage in a drunken swagger-stumble and mooned the audience (which consisted at this point of about 20 people, with Aelis and I sitting as close to the stage as possible while still having bar stools) several times and knocked down several pieces of equipment as well. He was cute and had a mischievous look about him, but he couldn't sing for shit. The backing band started slow but built up to a fast-paced, crunching crescendo but was still limited in skill and originality. To be honest tho, these guys were the most entertaining band of the night. I was laughing the entire time they were on stage! The rest of the bands consisted of several tolerable metal bands, and one each of bluesy christian folk, pathetic synth-heavy prog-rock, wildly off-key jam music, and fun but soul-empty funk.
But my fave band was called Quitter - a trio of cute, talented guys who can also write decent blisteringly-fast metal songs. And the lead singer had an awesome voice - distinctive and clear and dripping with irony. After each band played, people were asked to raise their hands if they liked the band and so the top 5 bands got to move onto the next round. As you can imagine, half the audience for most of the bands consisted of friends and family members so talent did not always win out. My newly-adopted fave band Quitter didn't have a lot of that, but Aelis and I both voted for them as did a bevy of other converts following their set.
Needless to say I was a bit tipsy by about the 7th band and Aelis was getting tired so we took our leave, but not before I bumped into the Quitter lead singer, mumbled something nervously about how I loved their set and asked him about getting a CD, which he promptly handed me. A good night!
Saturday found Aelis and I both sleeping late. The day was gorgeous and warm so we took a leisurely stroll through a nearby park that surrounded a little pond and then hit a diner for some cheap lunch. As is my wont when vacationing, Aelis and I spent the rest of the day lounging around, listening to music, trying to get a girly crew together for the evenings' festivities and catching up since we hadn't seen each other in a couple months. Unfortunately, several online friends in the area were otherwise occupied and could not make it out, but one friend, Jenn, could. A couple of Aelis' friends (who were in fact the cutest couple you can imagine) would meet us at the destination as well.
Our destination was Brooklyn and a little dive bar called Vegas Bar. Every once in a while they have a queer, mostly lez punk-indie party there and my aforementioned friend Jenn (herself a cute as a button lesbian) had alerted me to this party a couple days before. The price was right ($5) and the party looked fun so we went.
The Vegas Bar is a little one room place - low-key and with a minimalist decor. Drinks were again reasonably priced, but since I was driving this evening I did take it slow. When we got there, it was about a dozen or so pierced and tattoo-laden lesbians, a cute male bartender, and us. But right away the bartender and the woman organizing the party came over and introduced themselves and made us feel right at home. The music was awesome - lots of heavy punk and industrial music at the beginning - NIN and similar and of course right up my alley.
A little while later the place was getting packed and Aelis' friends, Phoenix and Nicki, arrived. These are two intelligent, fun, gorgeous women (they made the hottest couple there). Phoenix is an F2M and looks amazing. All during this I was trying to keep an eye out for my friend Jenn, who I had actually never met in person. I only knew she had short spiky bleach-blonde hair and had a general idea of her face from her MySpace pics. About an hour later I still hadn't located her and had just about given up when I started talking to this girl next to me who had a purposefully crude (I would hope!) but interesting looking turtle tattoo on her arm and I asked her about it. When I introduced myself she mentioned that her friend was looking for someone named Dana. Lo and behold I turned around and there Jenn was! So after introductions and when I had finished my beer, we headed to the dance floor for a spell. I still can't dance, but the floor was dark and crowded so I felt ok engaging in a little dirty dancing with Jenn - hahaha.
Next we started talking to this sweet ts (and maybe the only other one in the place!) named Bobbi. As chance would have it she was also on my MySpace friends list and just happened to hear about the party from a girl named Kaia who I had tried to get to come out (but she was not feeling well). It's a tiny world sometimes!
So in the end I got to spend some quality time with my good friend Aelis (and her adorable, huggable cats) and meet a good amount of fun and interesting people. No doubt a fantastic roadtrip - I can't wait to go back. Special props to Aelis for making the whole thing happen and for being my tireless tourguide! You rock girl!
No comments:
Post a Comment