Saturday, July 21, 2007

Coming Soon to a Campus Near YOU!

Hey Ho, Blogsylvania!  I want to get a quick post posted but most of what I’ve got ready for ya is either too wordacious or doesn’t really seem to fit the flow I’ve got going right now.  The flow, such as it is, is listy goodness, and more’s to come so I don’t want to flummox the slurry or whatever it is one does when one messes up the regular course of things.  The last post was a list.  The next post will be a list.  This post seems destined for listaciousness.  And lucky for us all, I happen to have one ready right here. 

See, Kel is out right now at a friend’s pre-wedding party.  I won’t denigrate it with the appellation “bachelorette” because they’re going to do actually fun cool stuff, starting with drinks at one of my favorite brewpubs and finishing up going to a great venue to see one band I’ve loved for years and one I’ve wanted to see for years.  The “known quantity” is SCI, and I’m officially envious of Kel’s going as I would never have been had she gone to tawdry strip joints where I might have accidentally run into her anyway.  The band I’ve wanted to see live and which she’s probably watching EVEN AS I TYPE THIS is the Disco Biscuits.  Not only have they got a burgeoning national rep; NOT ONLY has my wise and monkeyfunny cousin-in-law been lauding them for years; but just this month my college alumni magazine has a big article about how cool they are (since three of them went to ol’ Alma Mater U and did a big show out there this year already). 

The venue where this show is going down is the Berkeley Greek*, on the Cal campus.  It’s so cool to go to school somewhere that really good music comes right to you.  I can say this from experience, because I’ve been making a list of the really good music that I saw while on campus (or no less than two blocks off campus) during my sojourn in undergrad city.  In no particular order, I offer the following list of ARTISTS I REMEMBER REALLY KICKING ASS ON CAMPUS WHILE I WAS IN COLLEGE:

Stevie Ray Vaughn
Psychedelic Furs
Kool and the Gang (same show as syke furs, and also southside johnny which was a really weird lineup)
Laurie Anderson (both live performance and a major fine arts installation)
Robert Mapplethorpe (major photo installation)
The Gospel at Colonus (technically a stage production but featuring Clarance Fountain and the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, all playing Oedipus, with Morgan Freeman as the narrator)
NRBQ
Bill Bruford and Pat Moraz
Marshall Crenshaw
The Grateful Dead
REM
Gyuto Tantric Monks
The Curtis Organ at Irvine Auditorium

Good times, people.  Have a nice whatever.  I’ll be back atcha with a delayed annual recap real soon.

(* photo courtesy of http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/06/berkeleys_greek.php)