random thoughts – Day 1,684 – (Sunday) - saturday night out

The Saturday morning mystery music theater with Kiki took place simultaneously with the latest episode of my own long-running drama series, What Should I Wear? This drama has tragically repetitive episodes each Wednesday morning as I stare and swear into the closet and stress out over what to wear to the office. Considerations generally include outside temperature, best guess of the freeze level of the indoor office temperature, and what items might fit that day based on recent meals and activity. There were five or six outfit changes during the weekend morning episode. 

The wardrobe plan needed to include packing for an overnight stay at my friends' house after we attended a concert in Boston. The night would involve standing in a line outside in weather that was significantly cooler than recent days and then standing indoors for several hours. The standing ruled out all high heels and pants that are too long and require heels to not drag on the ground. A coat was an important factor for the outside segment of the night.

Waiting in line.

The winner of the morning fashion show showdown was a green and black open weave sweater paired with jeans and lug sole boots. Several additional options were packed in the overnight bag including multiple tops and jackets. Also packed was the Sunday dance bag with hip scarf, costume veil, yoga pants, and tops. Sometimes I come with a lot of baggage. 

At my friends’ home, I decided to wear the long velour and sequin coat. As we readied to leave, the sequins on the collar were scratching my neck, prompting a last-minute change out of the sweater and into a pleather (now rebranded as “vegan leather”) vest over a white and black striped blouse with a collar high enough to save my neck from sequin destruction. Oddly, this was the original morning outfit until the last-minute remembrance of the sweater as I was about to walk out of The BungaLowell.  

The show was at Roadrunner Boston, a 3,500 capacity venue in Brighton. It was chilly and a bit breezy with the sun setting during our 45-minute stint in the line, and I was glad to have worn the longer coat. IDs were checked and bright orange wristbands issued as we stood in line. The doors opened close to the advertised time of 6:00.

As we approached the doors, a woman in front of us was asked by security to show her wristband and they took it off her wrist and marked her hand with a black marker “X” as they confiscated the nip bottle of Fire Ball that she was drinking from. Security cited her violation of the Massachusetts open bottle law, and told her she wouldn’t be allowed to buy alcohol in the venue. Ouch.  

The show lineups and times were posted on Friday, and the night followed the schedule closely. The first band, Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band, had 18 musicians on stage delivering what they very accurately describe in their Facebook page as “A joyful cacophony of Balkan, Klezmer and funk, with a tasteful thrash of metal thrown in for good measure.” They were a lot of fun to watch and looked like they were having a great time themselves.

Backstage action on view.

The next Band, Gogol Bordello, has been on my “must see” list since falling in love with their brand of Gypsy Punk music back in my Tennessee days. The high energy set was everything I had hoped for. During the very efficient stage changeout after Gogol Bordello, we could see the crews clearing all the instruments and rolling out platforms with the keyboards and drums for the final group. It's possibly the first time I saw all the backstage stuff on display like it was.

Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls.

The Dresden Dolls (Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione) were amazing and really delivered the goods. They can play soft or loudly pound the heck out of the keyboards and drums. Their music is predominantly those two instruments, but on some songs, Viglione played guitar. The lighting was like another member of the band, changing with every song and passages throughout the songs.

It was a great night and also a late night. Luckily it was also the night to change the clocks back by one hour so sleep was a bit less short-changed. I felt okay in the morning and in dance group, and managed to get to the grocery store on the way home. During the afternoon, I crashed on the couch for the first nap of fall-winter hibernation season.