Nights Out on the East Side and A Rousing Game of 21 with Nat Baldwin

Hello there fellow adventurers. I would like to recount some highlights of my weekend for you. Let's start with Friday. I had just worked the first 10 hour work day of my life (more of those coming next week, yuck) and dazedly returned home around 5:30. Dinner was served and provided me with my commentary for the evening. I won't get into it, but let's just say I had a stomach ache, and it was my own damn fault for A. having poor communication skills, and B. using way too much butter to fry pasta. I tried to solve my problems by drinking beer. It sort of worked, but mostly not. We had an early X-Rays practice because among other reasons I wanted to get down to Progress Coffee for the Brazos/Nat Baldwin/Weird Weeds show.. Brazos is playing every Friday this month there and with the exception of the 25th when we play Hole in the Wall, I plan on attending all of them. It's always been known to me that that crew has got it goin on musically speaking, but on Friday lets say my reaction was less "you guys got it going on," and more "holy fuck, this is amazing, what the fuck."

Weird Weeds opened the show and were great as always. I have seen them a ton this summer---they have been playing for free most Monday nights at the Moose Lodge, which happens to be very bikable from my house. Its on EM Franklin, right north of MLK, and if you get a chance to see them there its a great time. The Moose Lodge is supposedly "members only" (and 2 of the Weird Weeds are members) but in actuality it is not members only. Most beers are 2 dollars, not just lone stars, and it is just a really great laid back atmosphere. There are tables which is cool, and a piano that more than one week someone ends up hopping on. Anyways, yes, its a great room.

Next Nat Baldwin played. It was just him solo on the stand up bass this time. I really enjoyed it and listened to it much differently than when he plays with a full setup. Nick Hennies said something about him using a "german grip" on the bow, so if you are interested in hitting up wikipedia to see what that means, I would be supportive of that. I am wondering right now sort of, actually., even though he explained it to me. What I really liked about tthe set is that you could hear all the harmonics off the bass. It was like essentially 5 notes at all times, across the full spectrum of pitch, and tons of glissandi and really controlled harmony. Really badass.

Then Brazos played. They blew my mind. You really need to go check them out. It was probably my first time seeing them in 6 months at least, but I'm going to catch them a number of times coming up here, so thats good. I suggest(ed already) you do the same.

So then a bunch of people all went down to The Broken Neck where I had never been before and where SUNSET was playing. The show was awesome. It was the first time I had seen a 2 Rhodes alignment and it was really cool. One thing you gotta say about Sunset---they are willing to carry a dickton of heavy equiptment to bring the rock. I scored a burned copy of The Glowing City off Mark Ashworth in San Francisco and listened to it on repeat nearly the entire 9 hour Greyhound ride down to Santa Barbara (which is to say....5 times since the disc is 80 minutes long). That record is stunning. I hope whats going on in Austin right now breaks, and honestly I dont see why SUNSET and Brazos wont. They really are talented above the rest.

Anyways, The Broken Neck was like my childhood fantasy, if I was a skateboarder (which is what my real childhood fantasy was). It was a giant clubhouse (aka warehouse space) with apartments in it and a giant half pipe and bands playing and it was a big party. There were people skateboarding the whole show, it was great, and you could tell the SUNSET crew was having a great time. It was my favorite show of theirs I've ever seen. So yeah, The Broken Neck. Its the shit.



---Unordered list---
Venues in this town that have lots of shows and are good to see shows at::
The Moose Lodge
Rancho Relaxo
Progress Coffee
The Broken Neck
Carousel Lounge
Beerland (only place downtown)
Hole in the Wall
I would assume Natrix Natrix house, although its so far south I have never made it there



* * *

Friday night at the show Nat had mentioned something about finding a game of basketball the next morning before his trip up to Abilene. The JCC ended up being the spot, and the crew ending up being myself, Julian and my brother Daniel and we played a couple games of 21. Then I retired to the pool and those guys played a full court 4 vs 4 game I think with some late arrivals.

So you're probably wondering: whats the inside scoop on Nat's game? It's an old story all over the press that he was MVP of a championship high school team who turned down scholarship offers to pursue music. Well I've come to report: while a new focus may have robbed him a quick first step, boy can still ball. First thing, he's got a great stroke. Everytime he would score a bucket he would nail all 3 free throws afterwards and they all looked great and exactly the same. Around the basket he could finish, and he could sink long jump shots. For me at least, his game was really mostly beautiful to watch because he has a great basketball IQ. He was rarely using more energy than needed, but often seemed to find himself in the right spot for rebounds. He knew when to drive and when to pull up (although against us he could have done both most of the time) and won 2 out of the 3 games, despite giving up significant inches against all of his opponents. And I will say I witnessed a nasty split of a double team too, so don't let it be said he lacks ball handling skills. I'm sure if I had stuck around for the full court game I would have bore witness to a different part of his skill set too. Anyways, yeah it was fun. For those of you wondering, I did manage to score 3 baskets over the course of the 2 games..