Last Night

My friends Brian, Mike and Aliceson came to town last night to go see the Strokes at the Cain's Ballroom. I had completely forgotten to get myself a ticket before they sold out. I was just planning on having dinner with them and hanging out with them after the show. Then, the idea hit me: Scalpers! I cruised by the Cain's to see what I could find.

The trick, I've always believed, is to find the one scalper with the most questionable hygeine and bargain with him. It's always the ones with the nice clothes and combed hair that'll try and screw you. I found my guy: Hairstyle by Reverend Jim from Taxi, Old Marlboro windbreaker, mud-stained jeans and what I can only imagine is a big mustard stain on his shirt. I pulled my car over and asked him how much for a ticket. He said sixty, I told him forty-five or I walked. I guess my Stepdad is rubbing off on me. The guy barely took any time to think about it and sold me the ticket. Considering that face value was $32, He got a pretty good profit and I got a pretty good bargain, especieally since I heard from another friend of mine that his ticket cost him $75.

We all met for dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse. Like a dumbass, I ordered my usual: the lasagna platter. I say like a dumbass because I really didn't realize that in the past few weeks, I've been eating a lot less, so my stomach has shrunk, and I just ordered a huge dish of expanding carbs. There wasn't any way I could take any of it home, so I ate it all, like a dumbass.

We sat around for a while talking and catching up. We didn't have much of a choice in the matter because our waiter was a bit on the slow side. I've noticed that any conversation I have with my friend Mike could be comprised entirely of pop-culture references, and I love it! He and Aliceson are getting married at the end of April, and I can't wait for that. One good thing about all of my friends getting married is that most of the times I see them, we're partying our asses off.

We decided to walk the four blocks to the Cain's rather than find closer parking spaces. It gave us all a great opportunity to walk off a little of our dinners, When we got to the show, the opening act was on their next to last song. They permitted smoking at the show, and it was sold out. so it looked like a Keith Richards sauna in there, and it only got worse throughout the night. Not that I could really complain, being the pack-a-day smoker that I am, but even for me...DAYYYAAAMMMMN!

The opening act was a band called the Eagles of Death Metal. Like I said, they were almost done when we arrived, so there's not much I could say about them except their lead singer looked just like Tyler Durden from Fight Club. As I write this, I feel like I broke the first two rules: You don't talk about it, and you don't talk about it.

The Strokes were awesome. I had never been to a show quite like it. Apparently, the band doesn't like spotlights, so the whole show was lit from the background stage lights. As soon as one song would end, the whole stage went dark, only to blind us with light as the next song began. That, combined with the ever-increasing haze of smoke, meant that I really regret not getting really really high before the show.

They played for two solid hours, and there was no loss of energy throughout the whole show. As soon as the house lights finally came up, I saw the couple hundred people in the crowd wander around in a deafened, smoke-inhalated, drunk daze. Maybe I'm getting too old for shows at the Cain's because I looked at the spilled beer, discarded cups and fott-stamped cigarette butts on the floor and I worried about the beautiful hardwood floors getting ruined.

After the show, we went to Arnie's for a couple drinks. I was in the mood for drinking and my friends had to get up early the next morning, so I slammed down a couple beers and a shot and chatted with them before they left. I got home around one and fell right asleep. My ears still ring from last night, and everything sounds like a blown-out Chevy speaker. The important thing is I had a great time.