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Very quick, very awesome trip. Woke up early Monday and we were off to St. Louis. Drive up had pretty light traffic and was pretty uneventful. We got to the city and went to this place for lunch, but then realized we had been there before on a previous trip (and we hadn't been that impressed) so we went elsewhere, downtown to eat at Rooster which was good. Then we had a good hunk of free time. We went to the Arch. I hadn't been up it since I was a kid (I think for a good while they weren't letting people up it) and Mary Beth had never been. It was pretty fun going up. I love the look inside of the building and underground. I don't remember the pods to the top being so tiny and cramped, but I was smaller too. I liked the tiny crampedness though, adding to the experience. I also like that they look pretty 2001, looking in from the outside. After that we got some gooey butter cake and it was good. Okay, then we went to this place called Iron Barley where we met Jason and Tara! Hadn't seen 'em in a while. We ate and talked and caught up. After that they took us to this pinball arcade (that also has ski ball!). There was some tournament thing so we took a walk for a few minutes til it was over and came back and played and it was awesome! Mary Beth and I ended the evening in a bar that used to be a gas station.
Okay, now we're at yesterday. We went back to Rooster because it was convenient and good. Then we spent a good while at the City Museum which was awesome as hell. Okay, this place is like the Cathedral of Junk meets House on the Rock meets some serious local history museum meets a playground/amusement park. It was pretty bonkers. We got passes to the roof and I had a tinge of heights nervousness at first. We went on the ferris wheel which is old and rickety and feels like it could collapse and it's on the fucking roof. It was fun. It was good that it went fast, I think. Then Mary Beth convinced me to slide down the really long slide (not the 10 story one in the cave inside, time ran out before we got to that one). Then you can climb up it over the part where people are sliding down. I did it, but these kids were behind me and annoyed by my slowness. Hey I'm old and fat. After that climb I'd lost my heights nervousness but gained legs that felt like jello. And we did take the stairs up the ten stories or whatever to the roof. But climbing up the slide is what did my legs in just a little bit. There's also a schoolbus that hangs over the side of the building. Then we went inside,downstairs and ran around and climbed on stuff. There's what's like a little skatepark in one area but on foot. I ran around it for a minute. There's an old decrepit piano I played on a little bit. There are water tanks and they have the hugest fucking catfish. Lots of awesome pieces of old buildings are everywhere. Then frozen custard in the hot sun. Then we swung by Record Exchange, which I had been to years ago. I love the building, but the store kinda stinks. I did find something awesome last time those years ago (Coltrane Village Vanguard box, good find!) but for the most part it's pretty lame and too much bad classic rock to wade through. Didn't find anything this time. Another bar after that. They thought I was weird when I charged my phone. Time was short but I wanted to hit Vintage Vinyl. The Loop was pretty crowded. Five minute walk, maybe five minutes in the store, five minutes back to the car. Didn't find anything there either. Almost did, but not worth checking out. Then we hit a junky little chinese place for these weird St. Louis phenomenon: St. Paul sandwiches. A weird sort of chinese-american meets well, just lowbrow american-american type sandwich. We got 'em for something to eat on the way back after the show. Well, Mary Beth had to go to the bathroom really bad and this was on our quest to find somewhere, but nowhere (the food place and a bunch of gas stations) had a restroom they would let her use. We get to the venue and even though we were running a little late, there was a line outside and they weren't letting people in yet. Luckily we didn't wait too terribly long.
Okay the show! Xiu Xiu was first. Something someone had said online led me to believe Jamie would be playing with one other person and doing songs like "Ian Curtis Wishlist." I'd seen him years ago, around Fag Patrol (I believe, at least that was the style of the performance). It was just him and he'd play either guitar or harmonium with the songs, so very stripped down and "unplugged"-ish. This time, even though it was just him, it was sort of the opposite. No vocals, no "songs." He had a table of electronics and just did a harsh drone kinda thing, almost power electronics. He had an Oberheim SEM, a couple of those handmade modular noisemakers, an ipad, some other effects or noisemaking things. There was a harsh high-pitched piercing drone going through the whole thing, along with other electronics noise textures. The high-pitched thing kinda reminded me of "Peril" from my solo abum thingie. It was really awesome and unexpected. While I would have loved to have heard "Ian Curtis Wishlist," I'm much happier to have gotten the experience I did. Easily the better of the two shows I'd seen. Oh, and even though we arrived a little later than hoped we still managed to get the best spot of any of the Swans shows we'd been to so far. Right in front of the slide guitarist, well, a little between him and the center (Gira). Okay so Swans were of course as awesome as always. Jesus christ so loud and transcendent and moving. Gira was at his bossiest and angry too. Several times he really chastised the slide guitarist. And the ultimate was with the sound guy. After a couple songs, during a pause, he had words with him about the vocals having been turned down and then said in the mic, "Never turn my vocals down." Then either during next song or a little later in the middle he started singing, stopped, walked over to the sound guy during the song while the other wre still going and yelled at him. Then he started singing again and the mic was turned up TOO high and started feeding back. He had a fit and unplugged the mic and continued without it. After that he stopped the show to fix the mic level and really had mean words for the sound guy. At least they kept on going and were just fucking incredible. I think I may need to get more powerful attenuators for my earplugs before the next show. My ears felt a little pummelled afterwards even having worn them. Far from the worst post-show feeling, but stronger protection would be good anyway. The bass player seemed really happy the whole time. Unfortunately Xiu Xiu didn't have any merch (I'm so far behind, the last album I have is The Air Force!). I did pick up some Swans merch. I got two shirts: one that says " Visualize Total Annihilation Swans 1982-∞" and one that says "Swans: To Be Kind World Tour 2014-15" and there's a cartoony picture of a hammer. The latter one, however, they gave me an XXL instead of XL so it's way too big. I'll probably pass it along to someone else and get a better size the next time we see them! I know I have more than enough Swans shirts already. Whatever, I'm a nerd. We also got a poster with these bears on it (and a wasp). I got a couple cds: Swans: Swans Are Dead and Norman Westberg: Music from: MRI 410stairs Plough.
So right after the show we started our drive back home! Those sandwhiches driving back were so damn amazing. Oh, all in all a really successful trip. Mary Beth has finally started to like St. Louis! It was really awesome hanging out with Jason and Tara. It was just a lot of fun (with incredible music to cap it off). The drive back went fine. We got in close to 4:30 in the morning. Luckily I slept in pretty late that morning and had gotten a lot of sleep. I was a little surprised at how little effort the drive was to me. I mean, I knew I could do it, but I didn't really have any issues at all. So we got in and I got to sleep for a couple hours (a literal couple). Well, maybe two and a half because we overslept. My phone had fucked up and was off (along with its alarm). The other alarm did go off, but it's a radio alarm and not as effective at waking me up. Anyway, we were awake about the time my parents wanted us over. Yeah, I was a little panicked 'cuz my phone wouldn't turn on (later I eventually fixed it, had to reset it by holding down the power button a very long time, but I didn't figure this out in the rush at the time so I borrowed Mary Beth's phone). Okay, I drove out to Germantown to drop her off at my parents'. We met them in the middle, because they couldn't leave Jason alone and had to leave. So I dropped them off and drove back home. I was "on call" for the trial. Where they'd call me and I'd come over to the juvenile court if needed. I showered and shaved and all that and got my suit ready and took another nap. I think I squeezed in another two and a half hours. They ended up settling outside court so I wasn't needed at all. They let the other grandmother have more visitation than they'd wanted (and, really, more than is reasonable and more than she deserves) but now my parents have custody. It's a temporary situation, I don't know when it will be revisited, but whenever that is they solidly have the upper hand now. So in the long run it's good and a huge improvement over how it had been. Met them and my sister for lunch. Came back and picked Mary Beth up and took our tired ass selves home. And that's it! Hopefully I haven't forgotten nothin' in all these ramblings.
Okay, now we're at yesterday. We went back to Rooster because it was convenient and good. Then we spent a good while at the City Museum which was awesome as hell. Okay, this place is like the Cathedral of Junk meets House on the Rock meets some serious local history museum meets a playground/amusement park. It was pretty bonkers. We got passes to the roof and I had a tinge of heights nervousness at first. We went on the ferris wheel which is old and rickety and feels like it could collapse and it's on the fucking roof. It was fun. It was good that it went fast, I think. Then Mary Beth convinced me to slide down the really long slide (not the 10 story one in the cave inside, time ran out before we got to that one). Then you can climb up it over the part where people are sliding down. I did it, but these kids were behind me and annoyed by my slowness. Hey I'm old and fat. After that climb I'd lost my heights nervousness but gained legs that felt like jello. And we did take the stairs up the ten stories or whatever to the roof. But climbing up the slide is what did my legs in just a little bit. There's also a schoolbus that hangs over the side of the building. Then we went inside,downstairs and ran around and climbed on stuff. There's what's like a little skatepark in one area but on foot. I ran around it for a minute. There's an old decrepit piano I played on a little bit. There are water tanks and they have the hugest fucking catfish. Lots of awesome pieces of old buildings are everywhere. Then frozen custard in the hot sun. Then we swung by Record Exchange, which I had been to years ago. I love the building, but the store kinda stinks. I did find something awesome last time those years ago (Coltrane Village Vanguard box, good find!) but for the most part it's pretty lame and too much bad classic rock to wade through. Didn't find anything this time. Another bar after that. They thought I was weird when I charged my phone. Time was short but I wanted to hit Vintage Vinyl. The Loop was pretty crowded. Five minute walk, maybe five minutes in the store, five minutes back to the car. Didn't find anything there either. Almost did, but not worth checking out. Then we hit a junky little chinese place for these weird St. Louis phenomenon: St. Paul sandwiches. A weird sort of chinese-american meets well, just lowbrow american-american type sandwich. We got 'em for something to eat on the way back after the show. Well, Mary Beth had to go to the bathroom really bad and this was on our quest to find somewhere, but nowhere (the food place and a bunch of gas stations) had a restroom they would let her use. We get to the venue and even though we were running a little late, there was a line outside and they weren't letting people in yet. Luckily we didn't wait too terribly long.
Okay the show! Xiu Xiu was first. Something someone had said online led me to believe Jamie would be playing with one other person and doing songs like "Ian Curtis Wishlist." I'd seen him years ago, around Fag Patrol (I believe, at least that was the style of the performance). It was just him and he'd play either guitar or harmonium with the songs, so very stripped down and "unplugged"-ish. This time, even though it was just him, it was sort of the opposite. No vocals, no "songs." He had a table of electronics and just did a harsh drone kinda thing, almost power electronics. He had an Oberheim SEM, a couple of those handmade modular noisemakers, an ipad, some other effects or noisemaking things. There was a harsh high-pitched piercing drone going through the whole thing, along with other electronics noise textures. The high-pitched thing kinda reminded me of "Peril" from my solo abum thingie. It was really awesome and unexpected. While I would have loved to have heard "Ian Curtis Wishlist," I'm much happier to have gotten the experience I did. Easily the better of the two shows I'd seen. Oh, and even though we arrived a little later than hoped we still managed to get the best spot of any of the Swans shows we'd been to so far. Right in front of the slide guitarist, well, a little between him and the center (Gira). Okay so Swans were of course as awesome as always. Jesus christ so loud and transcendent and moving. Gira was at his bossiest and angry too. Several times he really chastised the slide guitarist. And the ultimate was with the sound guy. After a couple songs, during a pause, he had words with him about the vocals having been turned down and then said in the mic, "Never turn my vocals down." Then either during next song or a little later in the middle he started singing, stopped, walked over to the sound guy during the song while the other wre still going and yelled at him. Then he started singing again and the mic was turned up TOO high and started feeding back. He had a fit and unplugged the mic and continued without it. After that he stopped the show to fix the mic level and really had mean words for the sound guy. At least they kept on going and were just fucking incredible. I think I may need to get more powerful attenuators for my earplugs before the next show. My ears felt a little pummelled afterwards even having worn them. Far from the worst post-show feeling, but stronger protection would be good anyway. The bass player seemed really happy the whole time. Unfortunately Xiu Xiu didn't have any merch (I'm so far behind, the last album I have is The Air Force!). I did pick up some Swans merch. I got two shirts: one that says " Visualize Total Annihilation Swans 1982-∞" and one that says "Swans: To Be Kind World Tour 2014-15" and there's a cartoony picture of a hammer. The latter one, however, they gave me an XXL instead of XL so it's way too big. I'll probably pass it along to someone else and get a better size the next time we see them! I know I have more than enough Swans shirts already. Whatever, I'm a nerd. We also got a poster with these bears on it (and a wasp). I got a couple cds: Swans: Swans Are Dead and Norman Westberg: Music from: MRI 410stairs Plough.
So right after the show we started our drive back home! Those sandwhiches driving back were so damn amazing. Oh, all in all a really successful trip. Mary Beth has finally started to like St. Louis! It was really awesome hanging out with Jason and Tara. It was just a lot of fun (with incredible music to cap it off). The drive back went fine. We got in close to 4:30 in the morning. Luckily I slept in pretty late that morning and had gotten a lot of sleep. I was a little surprised at how little effort the drive was to me. I mean, I knew I could do it, but I didn't really have any issues at all. So we got in and I got to sleep for a couple hours (a literal couple). Well, maybe two and a half because we overslept. My phone had fucked up and was off (along with its alarm). The other alarm did go off, but it's a radio alarm and not as effective at waking me up. Anyway, we were awake about the time my parents wanted us over. Yeah, I was a little panicked 'cuz my phone wouldn't turn on (later I eventually fixed it, had to reset it by holding down the power button a very long time, but I didn't figure this out in the rush at the time so I borrowed Mary Beth's phone). Okay, I drove out to Germantown to drop her off at my parents'. We met them in the middle, because they couldn't leave Jason alone and had to leave. So I dropped them off and drove back home. I was "on call" for the trial. Where they'd call me and I'd come over to the juvenile court if needed. I showered and shaved and all that and got my suit ready and took another nap. I think I squeezed in another two and a half hours. They ended up settling outside court so I wasn't needed at all. They let the other grandmother have more visitation than they'd wanted (and, really, more than is reasonable and more than she deserves) but now my parents have custody. It's a temporary situation, I don't know when it will be revisited, but whenever that is they solidly have the upper hand now. So in the long run it's good and a huge improvement over how it had been. Met them and my sister for lunch. Came back and picked Mary Beth up and took our tired ass selves home. And that's it! Hopefully I haven't forgotten nothin' in all these ramblings.
