¤ jetless heights

+ Sun, March 13

15. Interpol – PDA

This past weekend me and some buds packed it up and high-tailed it down to Chicago to catch Interpol sexily swagger their way through the Aragon Theater.  Similar to last time, they played as spartan as possible.  Beyond singing, I think Paul said between two and three words to the audience.  That, in conjunction with the precision they perform with and Carlos’ gothic coroner’s jacket/Dracula suit made it very much an Interpol set through and through.

Interpol - March 12, 2005 - Chicago, Illinois - Aragon Theater

  1. Next Exit
  2. Slow Hands
  3. Narc
  4. A Time To Be So Small
  5. Stella Was A Diver And She Was Always Down
  6. Public Pervert
  7. Not Even Jail
  8. Hands Away
  9. Evil
  10. NYC
  11. Take You On A Cruise
  12. PDA

    Encore
  13. The Specialist
  14. Obstacle 1
  15. Roland

One of the things I like most about Interpol is the motion that each track seems to carry.  Take PDA.  The way I envision this song is as something running towards a cliff and taking flight at that ultimate moment of danger and tension.

Check out those first three minutes of flight check, building up material and laying much foundation.  Plowing through this and that, muscling its way through to that moment, 3:09 in when the ground cuts away.  Soaring free, propelled by their own weight, outward those guitars fly.  They hang aloft for a full 45 seconds before those wings of Sam Fogarino spread and pump, propelling that flight further still.  Cruising past the hazy cirrus clouds of Paul Banks’ vocals, the stage is set for a brush with the angels in the following track.

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+ Wed, March  9

14. Weezer - The World Has Turned And Left Me Here

Hello dear, I know it’s been a while but spring break time is simply not computer time.  However, spring break has ended and to you I return.

This past Sunday was the first surprisingly warm, sunshiny day of the year.  With the sunlight reflecting off this year’s record breaking amount of snowfall brighting all, light on white, it was very hard to not feel fantastic.

Driving to my parents’ having the windows down and Weezer’s blue album on was a perfect fit.  Rounding the corner to the exit of the student ghetto, there’s a couple stereotypically smiling, running then embracing.  What’s with these homies?

Arriving there, Chadwick the iPod went back to sleep and my original blue album disc spun up.  Cracked case, worn and weathered by many hundreds of plays, it’s just as good as it was that May day in 8th grade.  Baccus still sits there in the insert, smoking his pipe with antennae buzzing.  There’s the amp Rivers sets his juicebox down on in the Say It Ain’t So video in what’s possibly the most perfect moment in all of publicly documented Weezer history.

8th grade.  My, how long ago that was.  I had just discovered this fancy technology that was starting to catch press called “MP3”.  MacAMP was still in beta, encoding took 15 minutes per song, your best bet was still to download songs off Hotline servers.  With your 56k modem.

I was a paperboy then.  Trusty Discman in bag, out I went.  Ah, there it is.  The tambourines at the beginning of My Name Is Jonas always remind me of how yellow-green those maple leaves were against that brilliant blue sky you only see in May.  The way The World Has Turned And Left Me Here seemed to be oh so perfectly written for me and my middle school crush.  I’m not sure whatever happened to her, but I do know is that the solid, carefree-ness of those early summer days in that carefree time of early ‘99 are forever imprinted on the blue album.  Top of my 8th grade game—gigantor glasses, Yoda shirt and all.

Now, to go to my garage and play my stupid songs.

3:02 AM  ×  3 Comments  ×  0 Trackbacks