Slowdive and More!
May. 5th, 2024 08:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ateolfNow where was I? Oh, YES! The hippos! So this part of the zoo is all a long one-way path through to each animal and such. Anyway, after some animals and stuff there's eventually a sign pointing to the hippo overlook, "no outlet". Okay, so to see the hippos we have to go that way! So we go up the little trail and right before we get to the end we hear a bunch of people who were already there start laughing. Okay cool, sounds like the hippos are doing something cute! We get to the end and there's one hippo standing up kinda near where we are and two more in the water just next to it. Then it poops and starts wagging its tail and drops of shit start flying everywhere including right towards us so we're all shrieking and laughing and running away. We (at least Mary Beth and I) came away unscathed (or unbeshitted) but it felt like a VERY close call. Then we go back out and around to what is the front of the hippo exhibit and there are signs about seeing the hippos from behind glass (it's down in the water tank area), like the zoo's mocking us knowing what we probably just went through and now how we want to see the hippos (behind glass where they can't fling their shit at us!). Then even after that at the very end of the exhibit (remember, this is all on a one-way track so the order isn't just happenstance) there's a big sign ALL about how hippos flick their tail when they poop and fling their shit all over the fucking place! Why the fuck is this at the END well after one's exposed to getting splattered in hippo feces!? I think the St. Louis Zoo is prankin' everyone with this one. So yeah...the hippos!
Okay, then it's off to do other stuff in the loop area before the Slowdive show. I had the foresight to bring a change of clothes (shirt and socks) as I knew I'd be sweaty and stinky after walking around the zoo all day (I was!). So I was able to do a quick-change and be presentable for the show and stuff. We get to the loop and park by Mission Taco Join where we ate. It's actually a regular and big restaurant but there's a small tiny little shack/bar thing next door to it that's part of it but separate. We didn't even realize 'cuz that's the door we encountered first and we went in and were welcomed and ate there and it was good and stuff. Had a very refreshing non-alcoholic piña colada and then some tacos and one taco, portobello mushroom taco, was really fucking incredible. Then a little time to kill before the show, I went to Vintage Vinyl and got a few cds: AC/DC: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, AC/DC: Let There Be Rock, Elvin Jones Revival: Live at Pookie's Pub, John Zorn: Redbird, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet: Savvy Show Stoppers, Moebius & Beerbohm: Double Cut, Kim Gordon: The Collective, The Smile: Wall of Eyes, and Broadcast: Pendulum. Oh and while I was there, Simon Scott (Slowdive's drummer, yeah I had to look it up) was being interviewed in the store by someone. I didn't know who it was at first but after walking by a few times, I gathered by a few things being said (and his British accent!). Then I met back up with Mary Beth and I was off to the show. Street parking is limited to two hours so we couldn't park on the street for the show. We go around looking for the lot that's for the venue and drive through what we thought it was but it was full. Then we see another lot back behind that and it seems like it should be good but then we see a sign saying something about for being metro parking only. So we're like, where the fuck do you park!? This is a big venue with a lot of people coming to see a show and no one can park on the street and where the fuck else is there even to park!? I look it up online and see people talking about that same parking lot so we tried it again and it was fine, maybe they open it up for shows or it's only a certain section that's for the metro? Whatever, everyone parked there and it was the place so crisis averted!
So the show! We were there before doors opened and got a pretty good spot. The Pageant has levels kinda like the New Daisy did. We weren't in the pit, but we were on the first level and right in front of that so Mary Beth could see the best of anywhere in the venue. Our feet were pretty damn sore after walking around the zoo all day, but had thing to kind of lean on (though mostly didn't really work 'cuz it's too low). A lot of the overhead music before the show started was good. "I Have Known Love" by Silver Apples played and I a guy in front of us shazam (or whatever that thing is called) it. Yeah, good song to know! Drab Majesty was the opening act and they weren't very good. They had kinda-sorta shoegaze-adjacent guitar with smooth 80s synth and drum machine. It was all real slick and boring. I can see overlap with them and Slowdive fanbase but they weren't really hitting the good stuff. Though between songs while the guitarist was retuning, they had some pretty good ambient synth pads that were nice, but their actual songs didn't do anything for me. Slowdive was really great. They put on a good live show. They only did one song from Pygmalion: "Crazy for You" and it ruled a lot. Really, everything they played ruled (they leaned on Souvlaki pretty heavy) and it was a great set. I mean, I didn't expect much from Pygmalion, but was cautiously hoping for two songs (any songs, but especially "Trellisaze" but especially not expecting that) from it. I was really happy with the show altogether. We hit the merch table afterwards. I got a couple of t-shirts and the newest cd Everything Is Alive.
After the show we walked over (ouch ouch ouch...our feet were killing us) to this nearby diner called The Peacock. We just wanted a little bit of sitting and beverages and talking. I ordered just the side of breakfast potatoes to have a little something more and had the most confused and disbelieving look I've ever gotten from someone at a restaurant about what I was ordering (of course combined with the tone of voice of "really!? that's what you want!? uh, okay, I guess we can do that?"). It's a retro kinda diner but the lights have a modern led color changing thing going on. Okay back to the hotel once again.
Now we wake up a little less early for today. We start with breakfast at City Coffee House & Creperie (I probably should have had crepes but wasn't up for it and had a waffle instead, it was good!). Then we go to do some more art gallery stuff. We went to the Pulitzer Art Foundation which is this art gallery in this huge building (well, it's very very spacious, not so huge area-wise, but has high high ceilings and lots of space, pretty cool). There were some awesome exhibitions. One maze thing where it was cinnamon-scented with (painted, I think) earth on these giant wire walls. There were a few films downstairs and one had this three-screen setup with the screens touching but at a 45-degree or so angle between them. It was about brickmakers in Egypt and it was really really incredible. Hard to describe, I guess. We also went over next door to Contemporary Art Museum in kind of a similar building and there was a great exhibit there too. Oh yeah, and outside the Pulitzer there's an outdoor sculpture that's a giant metal spiral you can walk inside and it was cool (gasp! we kissed inside the middle!).
Then before leaving town we grabbed some barbecue to go from Sugarfire. Their ordering system is confusing but whatever. We left the city. The drive back was mostly fine but in the boot heel we hit the worse downpour of rain I've ever been caught driving in, I think. It was just a white sheet of water with zero visibility and I had to pull over to the side of the road. It didn't take too long for it to pass though. Now we're back home and relaxing! It was a fun trip. There's probably stuff I'm forgetting about so if I remember I'll throw it into a future post, and if I don't remember then, uh, what was I saying?
Okay, then it's off to do other stuff in the loop area before the Slowdive show. I had the foresight to bring a change of clothes (shirt and socks) as I knew I'd be sweaty and stinky after walking around the zoo all day (I was!). So I was able to do a quick-change and be presentable for the show and stuff. We get to the loop and park by Mission Taco Join where we ate. It's actually a regular and big restaurant but there's a small tiny little shack/bar thing next door to it that's part of it but separate. We didn't even realize 'cuz that's the door we encountered first and we went in and were welcomed and ate there and it was good and stuff. Had a very refreshing non-alcoholic piña colada and then some tacos and one taco, portobello mushroom taco, was really fucking incredible. Then a little time to kill before the show, I went to Vintage Vinyl and got a few cds: AC/DC: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, AC/DC: Let There Be Rock, Elvin Jones Revival: Live at Pookie's Pub, John Zorn: Redbird, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet: Savvy Show Stoppers, Moebius & Beerbohm: Double Cut, Kim Gordon: The Collective, The Smile: Wall of Eyes, and Broadcast: Pendulum. Oh and while I was there, Simon Scott (Slowdive's drummer, yeah I had to look it up) was being interviewed in the store by someone. I didn't know who it was at first but after walking by a few times, I gathered by a few things being said (and his British accent!). Then I met back up with Mary Beth and I was off to the show. Street parking is limited to two hours so we couldn't park on the street for the show. We go around looking for the lot that's for the venue and drive through what we thought it was but it was full. Then we see another lot back behind that and it seems like it should be good but then we see a sign saying something about for being metro parking only. So we're like, where the fuck do you park!? This is a big venue with a lot of people coming to see a show and no one can park on the street and where the fuck else is there even to park!? I look it up online and see people talking about that same parking lot so we tried it again and it was fine, maybe they open it up for shows or it's only a certain section that's for the metro? Whatever, everyone parked there and it was the place so crisis averted!
So the show! We were there before doors opened and got a pretty good spot. The Pageant has levels kinda like the New Daisy did. We weren't in the pit, but we were on the first level and right in front of that so Mary Beth could see the best of anywhere in the venue. Our feet were pretty damn sore after walking around the zoo all day, but had thing to kind of lean on (though mostly didn't really work 'cuz it's too low). A lot of the overhead music before the show started was good. "I Have Known Love" by Silver Apples played and I a guy in front of us shazam (or whatever that thing is called) it. Yeah, good song to know! Drab Majesty was the opening act and they weren't very good. They had kinda-sorta shoegaze-adjacent guitar with smooth 80s synth and drum machine. It was all real slick and boring. I can see overlap with them and Slowdive fanbase but they weren't really hitting the good stuff. Though between songs while the guitarist was retuning, they had some pretty good ambient synth pads that were nice, but their actual songs didn't do anything for me. Slowdive was really great. They put on a good live show. They only did one song from Pygmalion: "Crazy for You" and it ruled a lot. Really, everything they played ruled (they leaned on Souvlaki pretty heavy) and it was a great set. I mean, I didn't expect much from Pygmalion, but was cautiously hoping for two songs (any songs, but especially "Trellisaze" but especially not expecting that) from it. I was really happy with the show altogether. We hit the merch table afterwards. I got a couple of t-shirts and the newest cd Everything Is Alive.
After the show we walked over (ouch ouch ouch...our feet were killing us) to this nearby diner called The Peacock. We just wanted a little bit of sitting and beverages and talking. I ordered just the side of breakfast potatoes to have a little something more and had the most confused and disbelieving look I've ever gotten from someone at a restaurant about what I was ordering (of course combined with the tone of voice of "really!? that's what you want!? uh, okay, I guess we can do that?"). It's a retro kinda diner but the lights have a modern led color changing thing going on. Okay back to the hotel once again.
Now we wake up a little less early for today. We start with breakfast at City Coffee House & Creperie (I probably should have had crepes but wasn't up for it and had a waffle instead, it was good!). Then we go to do some more art gallery stuff. We went to the Pulitzer Art Foundation which is this art gallery in this huge building (well, it's very very spacious, not so huge area-wise, but has high high ceilings and lots of space, pretty cool). There were some awesome exhibitions. One maze thing where it was cinnamon-scented with (painted, I think) earth on these giant wire walls. There were a few films downstairs and one had this three-screen setup with the screens touching but at a 45-degree or so angle between them. It was about brickmakers in Egypt and it was really really incredible. Hard to describe, I guess. We also went over next door to Contemporary Art Museum in kind of a similar building and there was a great exhibit there too. Oh yeah, and outside the Pulitzer there's an outdoor sculpture that's a giant metal spiral you can walk inside and it was cool (gasp! we kissed inside the middle!).
Then before leaving town we grabbed some barbecue to go from Sugarfire. Their ordering system is confusing but whatever. We left the city. The drive back was mostly fine but in the boot heel we hit the worse downpour of rain I've ever been caught driving in, I think. It was just a white sheet of water with zero visibility and I had to pull over to the side of the road. It didn't take too long for it to pass though. Now we're back home and relaxing! It was a fun trip. There's probably stuff I'm forgetting about so if I remember I'll throw it into a future post, and if I don't remember then, uh, what was I saying?
