Tonight my favorite indie musician Bitch played with her band The Exciting Conclusion at the local lesbian mega-dive “Sue Ellen’s”. Even though I have seen that girl perform a few times before she never ceases to amaze me.
To set up the stage I was there by myself. I was on a “me date”. The friend I was going with ditched out on me so instead of just saying screwit and staying home I decided to take myself out, PAY for parking, BUY myself dinner, and GET MYSELF AT LEAST A LITTLE DRUNK and maybe take advantage of myself. Which I now am, thanks to Jagger.
I should have taken myself to the Olive Garden for dinner, because the only people that go to Olive Garden on weekend nights are married couples and single women/gay men on a “me date” that would rather gorge themselves on some seriously fattening food in an environment nobody they know will ever spot them in instead of sit alone at home and eat one more TV dinner. Hell, they can even get dessert..
So there I was, at the bar, made it in for free because I’m just ME; I was a lone gunman amongst a group of like a billion women and maybe three men of various sexual preference standing in a room waiting for my fair Bitch to grace the stage with her presence and make way for the second band “Girl in a Coma” which I had never heard.
Texas bands are great because Texans love the hell out of them. If you are a band in Texas you may as well order that gold plaque for the wall because you’ll make it. Bitch, in the many times that I’ve seen her perform has totally been out of her element, which can be totally cool.
The first time I saw her was on the last leg of her former band Bitch and Animal’s farewell tour (which we, the audience didn’t know was a farewell tour at the time). They played to a house of less than 50 people and rocked the living hell out of it. It was called the Red Blood Club I think. I never went back there so I wouldn’t really know. The second was in a little bar in Denton, she was on the tour promoting “B-Sides” with her lady love Daniela Sea (The L Word) and drummer Liz Kelly and they played a great show considering it was her first tour as a solo artist. The third time I saw her was last spring at a yoga studio in Dallas. Although it was an AMAZING acoustic set, I wanted to see her with the band that I had heard so much about. I wanted to see her chemistry with theirs, I wanted to see magic…
But alas it was a small studio and her band, poor adorable babies were sick as dogs and let the Bitchlay it on us solo. She played a few songs totally close to my heart by I already wrote a whole blog about that months ago and you know how I HATE to repost info.
There’s always an “in between” point when an artist goes solo. That goes for any kind of art too really weather it be music, design, writing… the process is all the same. It takes a project of experimentation or so for them to find their solo voice but she has totally coined it. It seems though through relationships, no matter how battered and bruised – in fact the MORE battered and bruised they are the better. For an artist, at least. I’ve found during the past (nearly) year of being single I have had the most amazing pruning period. It’s like my body knew when the universe was ready for me and now I have stepped out into it.
Anyway…
I was standing in the Vixen lounge alone trying to look busy txting people that didn’t exist when I realized – there I was – trite as an early 20th century movie standing right in the middle of a spotlight. There was no denying I was there all by my lonesome – on a date with myself. Which prompted me to wonder – if you’re alone at a bar does it still count as drinking alone.
After that they came on and rocked the hell out of this club. She was in her element and the entire room could feel it. It was like being in a cat house, women were calling and screaming to her from every angle. She belonged in this bar the first time she came to town. She kicked out a lot of new tunes from an album I’ll be stalking iTunes for that totally rocked my world. It’s amazing to see an artist come out of their pruning stage, it’s like it inspires creativity in all of us.
Time wore on and the bands finished, and if the evening *wasn’t* complete one of my famed exes decides to come out of the woodwork RIGHT before I left. We gave each other an awkward, uncomfortable hug that I could have done without then I had to jet. After that he persisted to TXT me the erst of the night asking why I didn’t say goodbye…
OK is it *just* me or are exes only around to show you how much of a loser you are when you feel like nothing more than that? They only show up at your favorite band’s show with their new boyfriend when you’re completely alone and defenseless against your own loserdom. WTF man???
So tomorrow I’m hopping a train and heading towards Austin. I’ve had a shitty week, and yes I’ve been REALLY REALLY REALLY trying to slack off on the blog cursing but this had been a bloody fucked up week. The office I was moving into fell right out from under me. My business itself is dying. The only exciting thing I have going on right now is this damn mini-vacation which I’m in desperate need of and this damned BLOG that I can’t stop writing in. I need to get away.
A million miles away from bullshit.
A million miles away from bills and shit.
A million miles away from exes n’ shit.
Because f’real, it may be drunk and I’m 2:30 AM, but everyone can SUCK IT.
