go...

Gomez are your friends

So the doors to the show didn’t open till 7 and there was an opening singer girl, so I was content to get there at about 8:30. If I go home after work though, figure I’m not going to get home until 6 and then to be back in midtown by 8:30, I gotta leave my apartment by like 7:15ish... So I decided to just go to a bar and drink. I called up some people I work with to see if they wanted to get some food with me thus allowing me to charge the company for the meal and drinks. They did. So there were 4 of us from about 5:30 till 8 drinking and having dinner. I drank, I think, 6 beers there. Then I went to the show and started to get very excited. Had another couple before the show started and then they have this guy walking around selling beers on ice during the show. I had 13 beers yesterday from 5:30 until sometime in the middle of the show, probably around 10:30. You’ll need to know this later.

So the show was awesome. You know, I’ve only been a fan of theirs for about 4 months now, but I am intimately familiar with all of their songs. I know them all. So they started the show by playing two of my favorite songs which were just fucking awesome. There are 6 guys in the band and they bring a lot of energy to the show and they recreate their music really really well. I’ve been to more than a few concerts where you walk out thinking that the band can’t really play their own songs. But damn.... Gomez can. And how. As you’re neither a fan of theirs nor familiar with their music, I won’t go into any specifics about any of the songs, but it was just fucking awesome. I was surprised when they played their two current singles off the new album relatively early in the show. I was then wondering what would be their last two or three songs. The last song was what I figured it would be; their most commercially popular song and it certainly does translate well to a live performance. They made some changes and shit to some of their songs to give you something you weren’t expecting and frankly, this is very much what turned me on to this band in the first place. You’re listening to a song and you think it’s going to go one way, because most songs you ever hear anymore follow similar blueprints, but Gomez always surprises you and you’re listening and you’re just floored by it. You really have to hear an album of theirs to get what I’m saying but my larger point is that they’ve done it again. Their live show surprises you with every song all over again. And I’m just standing there listening to them and thinking, Goddamn, this is a phenomenal band.

They started playing at about 9:45 and finished at about 11:30 and I’m all sorts of drunk. And then I had to walk back to the train. The thing you gotta realize about the nyc subway system is that if you’re not riding it during normal hours (weekdays 6am-10pm) then it takes FOREVER to get anywhere. So I got to the train station by about 11:45 and by the time I waited for the train and rode local all the way to the stop before mine (long story) and then walked the 20 minutes home, it was 1:30 in the morning. I felt disgusting so I had to take a shower. Now its 2:00 and I’m not drunk anymore, but I certainly knew, by how I felt, that I had drank 13 beers in the last few hours. Also, I had something going on at work this morning wherein I needed to be here at 5:30am. I didn’t have to do anything, but I did need to be here that early. Again, because the subway system sucks during off hours, I had to leave extra time to be here on time. I decided that if I left at 4:15, I should be here by 5:30. I had to wake up at 3:45, at the latest, to be leave by 4:15. So figure, I’ve got an hour and 45 minutes. Do I go to sleep? If I go to sleep, I’m going to ‘pass out’ and will I be able to wake up from a pass out in less than 2 hours? The other option is to just stay awake, but I’ve got such a headache from having been drunk and after the shower I’m all ready to crash, so I do. And somehow I do manage to wake up and drag my ass here and I’m here at 5:25. And now... Here I am. Its unimaginable how shitty and tired I feel. But I’m young. And I’ll tell you... Gomez were worth it. One of my top... Maybe 3 concerts ever.

Oh, and one more thing. Before Gomez took the stage, some local DJ who I don’t know came out to introduce the band and to tell us that this show would be broadcast live on the radio and over the internet on the stations website. Wow. That’s phenomenal because I’ll most likely be able to find an archive version of the show somewhere on the internet. If its of good enough quality, and I’m sure it will be, I can turn it into an mp3, maybe even break it up into individual songs, and then I’ve got a recording of the awesome Gomez show I was at. I’m very excited. The only problem will be finding it on the interent, and I already have a few leads.

Posted by Mike at June 22, 2006 11:20 AM