magicbeans. nothing if not awkward.

so. ida's record release show in nyc. i had talked chris.k into coming along (well, it didn't take a whole lot of convincing, especially when i offered to buy the ticket because i had never paid him back for the built to spill show) and so we headed out a little past noon.

the drive into nyc wasn't that bad. a little hot, but we didn't hit any greatly congested traffic. and got there a bit shy of four. found unmetered parking on the street. and walked down to east sixth for indian food. we ate at a place called passage to india. it was pretty good, the prices were certainly reasonable. and the atmosphere was nice enough, but the furniture seemed somewhat antique and smelled like moth-balls. that would probably keep me from going back.

we walked back up to the nyu tower where chris's friend cora is staying for the summer. they were in school together in wisconsin, he transfered to risd, she transfered to smith. she had been "excited to meet me" as chris put it, and apparently had asked him all sorts of questions about me when he was in new york over the weekend. but we didn't really have much time to hang out before the show, and they talked about friends from wisconsin for much of it.

we got to the venue (the angel orensanz foundation for the arts, an old synagogue that has been converted into a performance space) at about quarter to seven. the show was supposed to start at seven sharp, but they weren't letting people in yet, some problem with the ticket lists or something.

we eventually got inside, and it's really quite a spectacular place. as i suspected there were chairs set up for the show. we got seats in the second row, right in the center.

the secret stars played first. their "first show in two years" was geoff's blanket excuse for anything that might go wrong. but it didn't. they didn't play my favourite secret stars song, "melt", but did play my favourite song off of geoff's first solo album, "not about a birthday", and probably the cutest moment of their set, covering ida's cover of their own song, "shoe-in".

his name is alive is a much reduced band from the version i saw in san francisco in support of stars on esp. it's just warn on guitar and lovetta on vocals these days. with karla and dan from ida and violinist extraordinaire ida pearl helping out on some songs. i had to force myself to drop my his name is alive preconceptions to fully get into the new sound, but it was quite something when i was able to. warn told a few stories, one about a bear, which of course had flipped him off. and requested that people buy their records so that they don't have to sleep in the park and eat bugs and sticks and rocks. so of course i did buy some cds from him, his second solo album and two homemade hnia cds, one live one, and one of new songs that didn't make it onto the forthcoming official new hnia release. he gave me a free melody farm 7" ep and shook my hand.

low were amazing. i can't believe that i don't own more of their albums. very, very beautiful music.

and ida. wonderful, of course. they played a bunch of things off of the new record. unfortunately they had to cut their set short because the show had not gotten underway on time, which was the only downside.

we had a slightly harder time leaving the city than getting there. there was all kinds of traffic jammed up trying to get onto the fdr. and things like traffic lights that were both green and red at the same time. eventually we got to the bridge that we had come into the city on, but then did not see any signs for the highway that we should have been on. and eventually signs for long island. which was not the way we wanted to be going. found a road going north, which wherever else it lead, was at least away from nyc. unfortunately we ended up having to cross another bridge, and paying another toll. but we didn't pay for parking, so i guess it's okay.

got back to providence a little after three. straight to bed.