Plaidophile

So after making my way to the East Village and finding my way to the bar, I paid the $3 cover. I arrived just as the band was starting up. They had the video projector pointed at the front window. They started the movie but the band didn't start playing until the opening credits were nearly over. Not that it mattered since I couldn't make out crap (since the only really visible parts of the image were where some menus had been stuck to the window), and since I wasn't familiar enough with the movie, the album, or the supposed amazing synchronisities between them, I decided that I was just there to hear the band play.

They were okay, though most of the time it was just the guitarist playing/singing against a CD burnt with approximations of the album's effects tracks, with the bassist occasionally joining in. Though the guitarist was rather good.

A couple of songs in, I decided I needed alcohol, so I got a pint of Guinness. It was $6 for the most vile, flat, stale Guinness I'd ever had. I guess it should have tipped me off that everyone in the bar was drinking cans of Budweiser.

After they finished covering the album and took a break, they came back and covered a lot of popular music from the likes of Sublime and Weezer. They were good covers, but I've been spoiled in that most of the concerts I've been to have been independent artists performing their own songs. The guitarist did play a few of his own songs which were pretty good (and I was inspired to drum on the table during many of them), but that set was brief.

After that I chatted with the bassist a bit, mostly just random idle chit-chat about the use of color in the movie and the problems with the venue. Then he wandered off to use the bathroom.

By this time, what little crowd there was had thinned out, and the bar owner told the guitarist that they'd played enough. After waiting a few more minutes to see if the bassist would ever come back (so I could get his phone number or similar), I gave up and decided to head home.

Oh well.