That was an unexpected little hiatus; my apologies. I blame four distinct factors: 1) I haven’t been feeling well for the last few weeks. 2) Too many shows to count (rundown of what I’ve seen is below). 3) A whirlwind weekend in beautiful Detroit for the wedding of two good friends and all the hot tubbing and cheap Midwestern beer one could ever desire. and 4) The series premier and my subsequent addiction to The Vampire Diaries.

First things first, though, this being a music blog and all. Who have you seen lately? Any great venues that I’m missing out on? Shout ’em out! Let me know! I’ve recently fallen in love with the bar/restaurant The Light Horse in Alexandria, where I saw Idea Track (including solo sets by bassist Joanne Kim and frontman Derek Evry) play a great late night show (I believe we rocked out until roughly 2am on a Wednesday?). From then on my sights were set on Michigan and a weekend of awesome forgetfulness turned out to be truly unforgettable. The wedding was gorgeous (you can check out all the hijinks from it at the twitter hashtag #erinandbrock!), and got me wondering once again about this whole concept of Limbo, but that’s for another post entirely. Shows. Concerts. Live Music! I was lucky a couple of weeks ago to get to see Kings of Leon up at Merriweather Post Pavilion and while I highly doubt I’ll ever see a show at that venue again (being car-less makes the MPP roughly 42 times harder to deal with as a favorite spot), the band was truly amazing. They, almost weirdly in my opinion, sound exactly like you expect them to. I mean, there wasn’t even any banter. They played like machines for nearly two hours straight. And granted, they played really well and I would probably listen to them count blades of grass through a microphone if given the chance, but it was an odd experience for a show.

I’ve also recently seen Alex Parez play a bunch (mostly at Solly’s nights, you gotta check it out!) and Peter Buck (of REM!) with his side project The Minus 5. I got to see Brian Bonz roughly an hour after he got off the Chinatown bus from NYC; they had some great stories about that bus trip! Caught another Justin Trawick show, this time to benefit a Virginia hospital and celebrate the birthday of Iota’s Burns. The birthday celebrations included Idea Track, Molly Hagen, and a bunch more.

All of the running around at live events has been accompanied by discovering new watering holes (Looking Glass, Marvin), trying to take time to actually rest for once, trying to take stock as we enter cold months of housemate evenings in and hang up our beach partying ways for the winter. I’ve been drinking a lot more tea. Spending more time with those I consider true friends rather than those who toss the title around. Also, obviously, watching a lot of cwtv.com. Gossip Girl is back, too.

I’m just feeling tired, I suppose. The cold has set in and with it Fall allergies, longer nights, and a thoughtfulness that hangs over everything. Reality has set back in, the waning sun has risen. All the running around and romance of summer has finally taken its toll on me…

Best Regards,
from limbo