Ten More Musical Moments, Mostly with Matt Berlyant
It’s Anne, and I’m back for another week. Between you and me, Matt said he was honored that I wrote the first list, and I twisted his arm into letting me write another one. Honestly, I wasn’t able to fit all my moments in last week. And, I had a couple of moments before I met Matt. Like the time I sped home to Philadelphia after an evening meeting to see Les Savy Fav, just to find out that the show was cancelled. Actually, the dozens of bands I missed seeing because I had to work. Or when I saw a then-unknown Arcade Fire as the opening act for the Wrens. Or how I literally almost ran into Lenny Kaye. He’s so skinny, really anyone would knock him over. I met Jewel once, after some inspired yodeling. So here goes nothing…
March 23, 2003
I spend an agonizing evening waiting for Cat Power to perform. Her two opening acts, Gamelon and the Entrance Band, were so thoroughly awful that the two people who came with me to this show actually left, came back, and left again. Cat Power performed well, but I’ve seen her at both extremes. One day, ask me about how she hid behind a piano and made some poor girl from the audience come onstage to play guitar instead.
June 28, 2003
I win tickets to see a Wilco/Sonic Youth show. I never win anything!
April 29 – May 3, 2004
I go to Coachella, where it is very hot. Don’t let anyone tell you that the low humidity makes it better, because hot is hot. I almost fainted, saw a transcendent set by the Pixies, faked my way into the VIP area where my friend Carolyn and I have a great conversation with a journalist from NME, and then…am dreadfully bored by seeing the Cure? This made me so sad, but the rest of the weekend was awesome.
July 22, 2004
I go to see Ken Stringfellow and well, not too many other people do. At some point during his set, he stops his song to chastise me for talking about Elizabeth Montgomery. Actually, I was talking about my job, but he doesn’t know that. Until now.
February 24-25, 2005
Oh gosh, the Teenbeat 20th Anniversary show. I finally get to see Unrest perform. And Versus (again). And +/-. And Tuscadero! Hot diggity, this was a good time.
February 14, 2007
Matt and I spend a very snowy Valentine’s Day at the Institute for Contemporary Art seeing Espers and Daniel Higgs perform. Daniel Higgs travels lightly and plays a mean mouth harp. It’s very romantic, and no, we weren’t the only people there.
October 25, 2008
Sometime before this date, and sometime before the Dead Milkmen reunite to play a show at Austin’s Fun Fun Fun Fest, I casually mention to Matt, “Don’t you think that the Dead Milkmen have got to play a show here in Philly to warmup or something like that.” I was right! Thank goodness for Facebook, or we might not have ever figured this one out.
November 15, 2008
David Byrne at the Tower Theater. This show was awesome if only for the fact that we were in something like the 4th row. And this is pretty much the biggest theater in the Philadelphia area, unless you start performing at amphitheaters or basketball stadiums. This show involved lots of emotional upwellings, David Byrne/his band/his dancers all clad in white. And the dancing was amazing. I’ll stop now.
April 1, 2009
I met Chubby Checker and he gave me a candy bar. And this isn’t an April Fools Day joke. Matt was there! He got a candy bar too
July 17, 2009
This may not seem like a big deal, but I took the day off from work to go to New York City to see Superchunk. I’d never seen them before this show, which was at the lovely South Street Seaport. It was worth waiting for. It’s so nice to see a band enjoy itself on stage as much as they do.
