Goodnight, Hollywood Boulevard

(watching: Red Sox at Angels)

Went out in Hollywood last night. The Brian Jonestown Massacre was playing at the Vanguard. The Brian Jonestown Massacre is a band. The first time I heard their name, I thought it was some sort of death punk metal band, but they're actually quite mellow. You'd be mellow too if you were as high as these guys.

I was exposed to The Brian Jonestown Massacre for the first time earlier this summer when I watched the rock documentary "Dig", which is about them and The Dandy Warhols, both from LA. Really good movie, really good music. The singer, Anton Newcomb, is completely insane (and high), and in the movie he got into an onstage fistfight with a bandmate. Later in the movie he kicked an audience member in the mouth from the stage. Insane. Good music, though. Anyway, I found out they were playing here, and the tickets were cheap, so Amanda and I went, after some prodding by me. I love going to see live music, but with these guys, I just wanted to see if anything crazy happened. Nothing did.

Kind of a crappy show. The opening band was actually a lot better, they were The Quarter Afters. Anton and his boys took the stage about an hour late, and he seemed pretty messed up. After rambling to the audience for about 10-15 minutes, they finally started playing music, and sounded ok, but they didn't quite have it together. And they were LOUD. I listen to music all the time, pretty loud, and I've been to a lot of loud rock shows, but last night was the first time I ever felt like my eardrums were being pierced by icepicks. Amanda and I saw a bunch of people with earplugs in earlier in the the evening, and we were wondering why anyone would wear earplugs to a rock show. By the time they hit their 3rd song, I would have signed over the rights to my first born for some. Live and learn, I guess. Anyway, by the time their 4th song was coming to a close, they decided to do some extended jamming, and man, did it suck. They jammed for like 20 minutes, and it was another 5-10 after that before they started the next song. We'd had enough by that point, and took off. My ears stopped ringing around 3:00 this afternoon.

In other news, the Sox just gave up 2 in the bottom of the 8th, and they're tied with the Angels at 3. I'm going to watch the rest of the game. Maybe more later.