two weekends worth

[jazzfish]

Two weekends ago I went backpacking in Shenandoah, on the Jeremys Run / Neighbor Mountain loop. A lot of little things went not-quite-right and so I came away with a general sense of dissatisfaction with the whole thing, instead of the calm solitude I'd been hoping for. The best parts: catching a glimpse of a startled bear, watching the clouds roll quickly past the moon on Friday night, sitting on a rock in the middle of Jeremys Run and watching the moon's reflection rise in the water on Satyrday night.

I'm pretty much done with my external-frame pack, since it prevents me from craning my head back. Also, I got a pretty serious blister on my pinky toe; not sure whether that's a result of weirdness in my socks or if my Good Boots are actually too small. Also also, a 1600-foot drop over 2.5 miles is No Fun.

This past weekend I went to see Girlyman at the Birchmere. They were of course totally awesome. They played mostly stuff from the new album, but also a handful of older pieces (notably "Through to Sunrise," which is always amazing live, and "Young James Dean," which is I think the last of their songs that I'd badly wanted to hear live and never had). (No "Saint Peter's Bones," which is the song that turned me into a Girlyfan. Oh well.) They also borrowed the drummer (and her full drum kit) from the opening act, Po' Girl, so most everything got the full drum treatment. This is especially impressive on songs like "Storms Were Mine" and "Through to Sunrise." Ty and Nate both had colds; this maybe detracted a bit from their vocal range but, still. I wouldn't have missed it. I picked up the new album and wound up in the front of the line to talk to them, completely unexpectedly, so I had nothing prepared to say, not even "You non-gender-specific guys are the awesomest." Maybe next time.

Also this past weekend it occurred to me that yes, I can in fact go spend a couple hours talking with a good friend even when I'm not coming apart at the seams. I should do that sometime.

Comments

[jude.livejournal.com]

yes, you should. ;)

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

(Me too, come to think of it...)

[jazzfish]

It's harder than it seems. Particularly since I do poorly in crowds and groups, so parties are nigh-worthless.

I decided / recognised a long time ago that two to four is my ideal groupsize for being sociable. Two's easier to wrangle (especially around here where everyone seems to be overscheduled) but sometimes feels a little awkward to arrange. Add to that the difficulty I was just discussing with someone else, where I click with one half of a couple but not the other. . . yeah.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Yeah, all of that.

Plus, I just spent several months trying to schedule with a friend only to culminate in a firm date last Sunday which got cancelled because she had nasty sinus ick. Neither of us has quite had the heart to try again.

[jazzfish]

Ick ick ick. Yeah. I can understand that.

[jazzfish]

:) *hug*

[nixve.livejournal.com]

So the new album sounds like it'll be good from the songs they played?

[jazzfish]

The new album is bloody well amazing (after 1.5 listens, plus having heard about 3/4 of the songs live on Sunday night and a few of them at previous concerts). So far there's nothing that's smacking me upside the head the same way that "Superior" did or that makes me as gloriously happy as "Through to Sunrise" or "St. Peter's Bones" but overall I dare say it's better than either of those two albums.

And frankly it's worth the price of admission for "My Eyes Get Misty," which Nate introduces in concerts with "I always wanted to sing with the Andrews Sisters. . ." And for "Easy Bake Ovens" and "Storms Were Mine" and "Somewhere Different Now" and "Everything's Easy" (which sounds inexplicably sluggish to me in its studio version) and and and.

(I imagine there are samples available on their website. . .)