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2004-09-22 - 9:31 p.m.
artists only
Less than a week after seeing Travis Morrison at the Talking Head, I found myself back there to see my friend Chris’s new band. Kelly had invited me out after calling to ask me if I knew where they were playing, because she couldn’t remember and rightly assumed that I am a walking index of Baltimore venues. But it just so happened that I had seen the band’s name, Private Eleanor, on the website listing and knew they were playing there. I had seen Chris’s old band a couple times, but he had just started playing this one a few months ago. So Kelly and her friend Megan and I drove downtown, with me giving directions from the passenger seat, and we found Chris upstairs by the pool table. Of course, while everyone was catching up and socializing, I was drawn in by the hypnotic pull of the Ms. Pac Man machine. It’s sad, even though I have it on Game Boy and can play it whenever I want, I still jump at a chance to play it in the arcade. Their machine runs so much faster, though, which makes the game a big more exhilarating, and sometimes easier, and sometimes harder. After playing it on GB for like an hour a day for most of the summer, I’d pretty much quit lately and hadn’t played in a month or so, so I was out of practice and didn’t play that well. But it was still fun. I was kind of annoyed at how late the show got started. As usual, it was scheduled to start at a reasonable hour, but things fell behind, probably because the Talking Head wanted to wait for more people to show up to let the first band start, and when all was said and done, it was almost 1am when the last band, Chris’s band when onstage, which is pretty ridiculous for a school night, especially when I’d been at work and in class since 8am that morning. The first band, Metropolitan, was alright, I got the feeling I’d seen them before, but I couldn’t place where. I think they’re from D.C., so I probably saw them open some show down there, but it annoyed me that I couldn’t remember exactly where. But they were kind of forgettable like that. The 2nd band, Schooner, was pretty good, but not really my thing. Private Eleanor is a 5-piece band but on a fairly mellow, singer-songwriter-y tip, I think it started as just the singer’s project and then formed a band around it. You can always tell those sorts of things. But it was good, kind of an Elliott Smith sound, mostly quiet but with some rocking parts. Their last song, “Photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy”, was their loudest and by far their best. And I was glad to come out and check out Chris’s show, since he’s come out to see Zuul once or twice and it’s always good to return the favor. -al
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