The City Veins

I meant to write this earlier, but it’s been a busy week.

The best live band in America is hands down The Roots. It’s not even a question in my mind. No other band is that gifted, that versatile, that flawless, and that fun. I saw them a week ago in my hometown of Allentown, PA, and they blew my mind. And this is after I’d already seen them seven times previously (yes, seven).

They have to be one of the hardest working bands in the business today. They are seemingly always on tour, and they also crank out incredible albums every year or so. And still, with all that travelling and recording, they never half-ass anything. Everytime I’ve seen them, they’ve blown me away, but I’ve seen them in a lot of cool places, like DAR Hall, Warner Theater, and the-no-longer-existent Veterans Stadium in Philly. The thing that’s so amazing with them is that every show is how effortless they make it look to be that f-in good. If you’re a fan of music and/or fun, you must go see them.

That’s sort of not the point that I wanted to make though. My original point was to convey how impressed I was with their show last Thursday. Allentown is a fairly insignificant little city, halfway between NYC and Philly. Most artists usually skip in favor of shows in Philly and NYC. The ones that do come are usually has-beens or wanna-bes, and on the rare chance a big, current artist comes to town they often half-ass their way through an hour or so.

Not the Roots. The Roots f*in brought it like they were playing a sold out stadium. These are guys who’ve done things like back up Jay-Z at Madison Square Garden and play to tens of thousands at Bonnarroo. They had no reason to be in Allentown, no reason to be at such a relatively small club, and certainly no reason to give performance they did - especially on a Thursday. But they put on 2.5 hours of one of the most energetic sets I’ve ever seen out of them (or anyone) and it was amazing.

THAT is the kind of band I aspire to be in. Not one of these trendy indie bands who stands motionless on stage and bores the hell out of you. I want to be in the band that can play the big rooms and the small rooms alike and always blow everyone away. The Roots get why people come to shows, they do right by their fans. That’s why I’ve seen them 8 times, and that’s why I’ll probably see them at least 16 more times.

Oh, and Questlove might be the greatest living drummer on Earth.

Thanks to those who came out Saturday night for our benefit show for the Sunbeam Foundation with our friends Anchorage, My Friend Autumn, and the Forest.  Over $1700 were raised, their most successful night of the year.  The bands were awesome as well, especially Anchorage, who despite only playing shows very rarely is hands down one of the best bands in DC.  If they weren’t so lazy they could go places (j/k guys).

The DC Arts Center made for an awesome (and quite intimate) location too.

As for us, it was fun-filled night of equipment failures and sliding drumsets, but that didn’t stop us and we played alright. Besides, it was worth it to help the cause and for the general fun of the evening, which included a quite spirited auction and Terrence from Anchorage taking shots of bacon vodka.

Also, this place is the shit. I’m rarely ever in Adams Morgan, but I might go back more now that Charles introduced me to it.

Wow…wow…wow.

Tom from These United States shared this with me. Someone made a MySpace dedicated to my high school band (I suspect it was probably Joel, Tom’s brother and the bassist of said high school band).

So without further ado, I present to you…the one… the only…

BANE’S WISH.

Yes that is me in the window. You have to love the 1990s “sad band” pose.

You can relive all of our shortlived glory here: www.myspace.com/baneswish

(Be kind please…I was like 14 or 15 and it was the ’90s.)

One of the many things that kills me about both the radical right and left is their inability to see the world as it truly is, which is a muddled shade of gray. The right’s blindness to reality is redundant to discuss at this point as they’ve spent the last 8 years demonstrating to the detriment of everyone else, in the nation and the world. But the left’s blindness to reality is also very real and potentially just as dangerous.

I find it curious, though, that outside of true conservative circles the delusional left seems rarely discussed. Maybe I just run in scenes that are too liberal (a definite possibility considering the amount of time I spend in DC and New York), but I think it’s worth noting.

I started thinking about this today after reading this editorial by Greg Anrig in today’s Washington Post. I agree with his central theme, which is that conservatives are facing bleak odds in the fall primarily because their policies (mostly) don’t work, and not just because of Bush’s mismanagement (though that certainly didn’t help).

However, he goes on to state that John McCain is running a “limping, message-free presidential campaign” as if this were a fact. This has been a common theme liberals have been pushing lately, though nothing could be farther from the truth. McCain’s campaign has a definite three-point message, and anyone who’s been paying attention has heard it clearly: 1). McCain’s the only one who can fix gas prices, 2). Obama is a defeatist who wants to lose the war, and 3). Obama is a scary outsider that you can’t trust. Moreover, IT’S WORKING. RealClearPolitics averages the results of all polls together; on June 24th, Obama had a 7.5 point lead over McCain. His current lead is 2.3 points. Does that look to you like McCain’s campaign is “limping”?

For all his faults, I would rather see Obama than McCain. I hope his advisors are more in touch with reality, because he could very, very easily lose this race. John Kerry was up big in summer polls in 2004, just as Dukakis was in the summer of 1988.

Oh, you’re still here?

Thank you to the (maybe) 5 people left reading this after we neglected to post for about a week.  We’ve all been busy with stuff outside of the band like jobs and such (you know, the stuff that actually pays us) so we’ve been pretty bad about posting.

Not much going on City Vein land this week as a result. Although, like Aaron said, we had 2 practices last week in which we tried to write new songs and they were awful.  In one practice, Charles completely forgot how to play the guitar.  He had an audit earlier that day at work and I think our poor Rickenbacker bore the brunt of his frustrations.  In the other, we had some good ideas but nothing coherent or particularly moving.

I will say this about our band, though: I like that we don’t force songs. Writer’s block sucks and can be demoralizing, but we don’t commit to songs unless we really like them. I wish more artists did this. I feel like some artists record and put out every little musical thought they’ve ever had, for better or for worse. Others just phone in it and make mediocre records just to make more money or fill obligations. We don’t do either, which means we might not crank out new music as quickly but when we do, you can be guaranteed we’re excited about it. I like to think that translates on stage as well. Several people have remarked that we seem to have a lot of fun on stage, and we are, in no small part because we really like our songs and njoy playing them. Shouldn’t more artists have that attitude?

Now, some random stuff:

• Velvet Lounge: Has anyone else been blown away by the changes at Velvet? It’s like a whole new place. The boys and I went over there to see Imperial China and Len Bias (both of whom put on excellent shows BTW) and we felt like we were in Bizarro World.  The narrow hallway to the bathroom now has a decent size sitting area, and upstairs walls have been knocked out to create way more space and accommodate a bar. All in all, the changes have been pretty positive (EXCEPT, of course, getting rid of Rob, the best sound guy in all DC). The one complaint I’d have, though, is that the stage now needs to be higher.  If you’re in the back of the upstairs area by the bar, it’s very hard to see the bands.
• I’m Going Hungry: We have been called out by our friend Spencer, and I think I might be down for this. I do love me some Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, and hybrids thereof.
• Running Music: Yesterday at the gym I was running on the treadmill while rocking Radiohead’s K Computer on my iPod.  CNN was on mute, but it was the same old high-school-type political bullshit they run incessantly: “Did you hear what McCain said about Obama?” “Yeah, and then Obama was like that’s bullshit and no likes you.” The usual garbage that passes for “the best political team on TV”. Anyway, they come back from commercial and go right into this crap, when “Electioneering” comes on my iPod.  I had to laugh because as soon as they showed the candidates, Thom starts singing:

I will stand…I will stand for nothing. Say the right thing when electioneering. I trust I can rely on your vote.

Happy weekend everyone. Next weekend (August 9), we’re at the DC Arts Center in Adams Morgan for a bone cancer benefit with Anchorage and My Friend Autumn. Great show, great bands, great cause.