Well, my first solo concert-going experience was a success. The Mountain Goats were amazing. The only thing that disappointed me was how incredibly short their set was. They barely played for as long as one of the bands that opened for them.

After work I went out with a few people to grab a beer during logo glass night at Murphys. Had a nice Sam Adams Octoberfest, and got to keep the glass. Now it can keep my Guinness one company in the cabinet. If they start reproducing, though, I'm out of here.

That kept me busy until about 7:30, when I went home and read for a couple of hours before I got ready to go over to the Canopy Club. The bands were supposed to start at 9, but I knew there were two openers, so I got there around 10:15, which was about right because the second band, The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers, had just gone on. I got a rum and Diet Coke from the bar. I needed the Diet Coke to keep me awake (Shut up! I'm old.) and (it turned out) the rum to deaden the awfullness of The Prayers and Tears, etc. It was all I could do not to laugh out loud at the one guy emphatically bobbing his head to the droning shoegazer rock. (I don't know, maybe they were good, but they were just really not my thing.) The area in front of the stage was pretty well packed, but I think it was mostly with people doing the same thing I was, angling for the best spot for when John Darnielle and Peter Hughes came on stage. I managed, by dint of stepping into spots left empty and edging sideways a few times to work my way to within about half a person of the stage. (There was almost room to my left to step right up to the stage, but it was too narrow, so I ended up standing partly behind the tall-ish bearded guy who wound up with the set list at the end of the night. It was close enough to see really well and to make eye contact a few times, which was cool, since I usually tend to hang back at shows.)

When The Mountain Goats came on stage they started with a few songs from The Sunset Tree, and I have to say that John Darnielle really seems to take such joy in being on stage. It was really infectious, and I kept finding myself grinning. He kind of comes across as the coolest science or math teacher you ever had in high school. The enthusiasm for his subject just spills over onto everyone around him. You can kind of see what I'm talking about here in the video for This Year, but just imagine more smiling, since in concert they weren't trying to convey "forced to sing by machete-wielding teenagers."

They did a lot of songs from older albums, and now I've added Sweden and Full Force Galesburg to the list of albums I have to own. I've heard few things that remind me as forcefully of my own first love as the lyrics to Twin Human Highway Flares.

on the day that i become so forgetful
that all of this melts away
i will burn all the calanders that counted the years down
to such a worthless day

No songs from All Hail West Texas, unfortunately. I thought about yelling out a request for one, but I couldn't decide which to ask for. Plus I'm too shy. Plus plus I think those people that yell out requests are kind of jerks. Anyway, they wrapped up with a few more songs from The Sunset Tree and then finished by midnight. Midnight!! They only went on stage at 11! I could have listened to them for at least as long again. Oh well. Hopefully wherever I'm living next year, whether it's here or somewhere else I'll be able to do this again.