Imaginary Conversations and Random Thoughts

So I took a drive in the rain to the Nothing Less command post for a little New Year’s Eve extravaganza. Which is a pleasant little house on a pleasant little street filled mostly with old people. How they penetrated the Valley of the Gray Hairs I have no idea. But it works because they are considerate of their neighbors and pretty much cool guys all around.

Of course it’s dark and raining, but that challenge was met by a convenient red light on the lamppost. Even I could find it. Fortunately, it helped that Uncle Dem lives just a few blocks over, so I already had an idea about the neighborhood layout generally. I arrived just about 10pm.

The place was really nice, a nice house. Good kitchen, nice and square rather than a long narrow rectangle. Looking to my right, I found the treats. I must tell you, these are the kinds of food that are good. Snacky type stuff. Cookies, chips and cheese dip, soda, crackers, that sort of stuff, and peanut M&M’s. How cool is that?

Beyond the kitchen you get to the living room, which is a good size and was set up to play. Huge speakers, amps and all the other stuff that makes things nice and loud. This may have been a special arrangement, just for one night, but for a band this is like a dream room. Sort of like the underground basement TV bunker I’ll be excavating once I win the lottery. I might even throw in a fog machine, which was pretty cool, except that it set the smoke alarm off once. Don’t forget to reconnect the battery guys!

You can’t set up a room like that without playing, and play they did. There were a decent number of people attending, some came and went, and a few times it was really jam-packed in there. They played for a little more than an hour, plenty of old songs, toss in a Green Day and Bad Religion, and new stuff too, which was cool. They did a great job, but Henry was in a tight corner with the drums and I kept wondering if he would smash his elbows into the wall. I’m happy to announce both walls and elbows finished the show intact. Tim stayed pretty much in the stage area, but Tommy wandered through the crowd a few times. Which was brave, because he was sort of taking his life in his hands. Or at least his butt. I swear, his cheeks got more pinches than a six year old boy at a grandmother’s convention. Did I mention Tim was wearing a tie? I guess that would be three for three of the times I’ve seen these guys. If you ever run into them on the street, Tommy is the tall one, Henry is the short one, and Tim is wearing a tie.

It was a great show, a whole lot better than the time I went to a small meet-n-greet show put on by Flying Blind. Which, you won’t be interested to know, had one member who is Mr. Texas’ little brother! Small world and all that.

Look I am terrible about describing songs, but the new ones were good and I’m looking forward to the new cd which they are finishing up now. Don’t just sit there like a lump, though; that’s my job. Your job is to go check out their cool website. It’s over on the left there, or if you’re left challenged like Derek Zoolander, just click here. You go look now!

And make sure you check out the cool stuff you can buy, like the Beyond Therapy CD, which has cool music, or a hoodie just like Tommy wore for the show, which has a cool hood, or the Record Store DVD, which has a cool video for that song, and a cool bonus making of the video thing too. You can get all of the above, and much more, so how sweet is that? No ties so far, though.

What else? Oh yeah. No one was sure of the exact time, so we decided to watch the countdown on TV. Somehow the only channel to be found with rabbit ears was a slightly blurry Spanish station, so we got to ring in the new year en espanol.

Did I cover everything? Good food? Check. Rocking show? Check. Bumper stickers? None to be seen. They were all gracious hosts, everyone was really friendly, and a good time was had by all.

Actual Update: Allie Cat has some cool pics from the festivities here. You go look now!