Immersion: to Swim and to Swim

Early in the morning, I downloaded the app that has the tickets for the Immersion/Suss/Nanocluster show that was last night. I opened the app to see it showing I had...four tickets instead of two! Was something wrong? I go back through my emails and sure enough...I had bought tickets (probably when they first were announced) back in January. Then in February I was asked, "Have you bought tickets for that show yet?" And I must have responded, "Hm. No, I sure don't remember doing that so I'll go buy them now." So yeah, bought the tickets twice like a dumbass. I did a little asking around and was able to at least get Corbin to take one (for the other, I just asked them to give it to the next person coming in trying to pay). Oh yeah, and before we went to the show I was practicing a little on next week's solo set (and I realized while we were at the show that I'd forgotten to turn my synths off so they were bleeping and blooping into some headphones for the whole night!). Being there was a bit productive in terms outside of the show. I think I managed to talk to someone who's able to provide a rehearsal space for the live score scrap metal orchestra. Also, Delara got me in touch with a couple of musicians who may be interested in doing the Electroacoustic Chamber Ensemble thing. So that'll be sweet if that ends up working out. Also, before the show started I went to the bathroom and ended up peeing and then washing my hands right next to Colin Newman! (When I peed, he was in a stall so I didn't know it at the time but then he came out and we washed hands right next to each other.) I didn't say anything, because I'm sure the absolute last thing he wanted to hear while he was in the bathroom was "Uh hey, you're Colin Newman," which I'm sure is about all I'd be able to think to say which is why I most likely would not have said anything to him in any other type of room as well. Okay, so the show! Immersion played first, just Colin and Malka and they were good! Then Suss came out and played. They were doing it in a very back-to-back manner with almost no break between. I'd never heard Suss before and they were really good: ambient country. Lots of slide guitar and slow, open sounds. Then it was Nanocluster last, which was Immersion and Suss playing together. It was cool 'cuz they have pretty different sounds but then them playing together happened to sound exactly like their two different sounds fused together (even if you hadn't envisioned what that would be like beforehand, as soon as you heard it it was like, oh yes, I couldn't picture that before but THIS is exactly what that would sound like!). So yeah, really good show. And their penultimate song, while it definitely wasn't "Options R" had elements that sounded very very much like that song (Mary Beth said she heard several nods to old Wire songs throughout the set, but I only caught that one). Then after the show I picked up merch. I got a couple of cds from Colin: Immersion with Thor Harris | Cubzoa: Nanocluster Vol. 2 and Immersion: Sleepless as well as a Nanocluster (Immersion | Suss) t-shirt. I apparently got the last two cds as Jacques tried to get some shortly after and they were out. And Colin told me while I was getting those that they'd been cleaned out of all the others they had (they weren't expecting to sell many cds!). Then from Suss I got a couple of t-shirts. One of the shirts I'd referred to as "the grey one" and then as he was pulling it out from the box he was like "actually they call this color 'heather'" to which I quipped, "well now I don't want these shirts anymore" and he got a pretty surprised and annoyed look on his face (he'd had to dig around a good bit to find the shirts in the right size) so I had to quickly say "that was a joke" and I felt kind of bad. Corbin bought a record right after me and he was wearing this Wire shirt (cover of "I Am the Fly" single) and asked Colin to sign it. Colin said, "Is that a bootleg?" and Corbin was like, "Yeah, probably," and then Colin said he'd sign his lp. He felt a little embarrassed so I told him the story of when I saw Wire in the early aughts and someone in the audience shouted for "1 2 X U" and Graham replied in a sarcasm dripping with contempt, "Now that's an original thought." Anyway, really good show. And saw a good number of people there and it was fun! I had trouble falling asleep last night though. Let's see how well I make it today!