the universe has an interesting way of exposing opportunities that we allow ourselves to be open to..
Yesterday at work, I found myself thinking of two bands that my friend (one of the physical therapists that works for my mom), Carlo, could appreciate. I turned the corner, into the break room and wrote the two names down so that I would remember to mention them when I saw Carlo next.. I wrote "Grizzly Bear" and I wrote "Band of Horses" down on the note pad I keep handy.
Maybe I was just thinking of good harmonizing vocals or maybe I was covertly receiving and translating a message.. who knows? What I do know, is that within the next half hour my phone relayed to me the rest of the information that I may have been picking up on. The text was from Colin. Said he had an extra ticket for Grizzly Bear, at the Palladium! Crazy!
So I take off early from work and pick up In and Out on the way. And after a short nap, I'm on my way to the Palladium to meet up with the Long Beach posse. Colin hands me the ticket at the door and we walk inside to greet Dion and Mendee..
[Mendee is the singer in Colin's roomate's (Ikey Owens) band, Free Moral Agents. They are really good, you should check 'em out. Also DJ Nobody's band Blank Blue is in the same circle of friends.. A great act as well]
It was a night of Jim Beam and coke with lime.. where we could sway and watch our shoes catch slivers of the stage lighting and listen to Beach House open the evening up.. Grizzly Bear was an amazing and at times a chilling reminder that the most captivating instrument of all, is the human voice. Swelling and sprawling, the human voice.. when it moves through the room like fog or like a mountainscape, calls to a unique rib in your chest. Makes you swallow differently, y'know? Makes you want to call back from that same rib, in that same tongue..
Grizzly Bear was very good! And after a lost walk back to my car, the four of us were good.. 'cause we were Canter's Deli, eating halves of pastrami sandwiches and matzoh ball soup. Actually, I just had the soup. And Dion ordered an eggplant pita wrap. Colin got a bowl pesto penne and we all shared an order of fries. For which Colin would soon proceed to pour out an entire bottle of ketchup onto the pickle plate and the remaining pair of halved pickles.. Dion had to wipe some of that ketchup from his neck and shirt (which, fortunately was reddish to begin with). The ketchup that was flung from Colin's fork. Then we split the check, bid each other farewell and headed back south to our respective homes.
