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The show Laura and I attended in Portland was amazing. It took place at the cozy Mississippi Studios (on Mississippi, a block up from the famous Mississippi pizza), which charmed us with its atmosphere and friendly employ. Laura and I arrived late (due to plane issues, etc.) - 15 minutes after the show was to start, but people were still milling about, chatting softly, grabbing beers, and getting in the mood. Mississippi Studios seats maybe 70 people in stadium-like seating: in rows are chairs, mid-stools, and high-stools on two floor levels - there were a few folks sitting already, but groups of people were loosely placed, enjoying dappled quiet conversations.
Ten minutes after sitting down, wriggling from nerves and excitement, enjoying exclamations of the perfect timing and awesome venue, sipping our beers, and swinging our legs like schoolkids, Jim Infantino took the stage as the opener. Jim is incredibly charasmatic, quick-witted, clever, cute, and funny as hell - he has the energy of a 5 year-old punk rocker, but none of the attitude. He quickly made friends with the crowd via his music and banter, and cracked us up at every available opportunity. After 6 songs, he left the stage, only to be replaced by the original opening act, who had had some car issues driving down from Olympia, Washington.
Paul Plagens? Kind of sucked. Okay, he really sucked. Where Jim brought the audience up to a roar of enthusiasm for the headliner, Paul took us down to a yawning depression. He opened with a song that started with, "You'll be so sorry when you open the door to see me hung from the rafters, you bitch," (not completely literal, but damned close). The rest of the songs were similar, mixed only with harmonica and his falsetto-ish voice layered over the guitar. We slumped in our seats, suddenly feeling hungry and tired despite what we hoped the beer was doing for us. Thankfully, he left after 5 songs, never to return.
Jim's Big Ego took the stage and immediately woke everyone up. They played some of my favorite songs during the first set, including "Boston Band", "Los Angeles", and "Prince Charming", rocking the crowd, and making us all chair-dance. During the break, I waited in line nervously to see if the band would be sticking around after the show. Finally, when I was able to talk with Jim, I felt sick with nerves, and could barely swallow the saliva that had grown thick in my mouth, but I somehow finally stuttered a question: "Hey, uhm... will you guys be hanging out after the show? I'd love to talk with you, but don't want to take up your break..." Jim smiled and asked me what I would like to talk about. "Oh, er... I don't know... your music, your website... stuff like that." Suddenly Laura appeared at my left side and, bouncing, asked if she could request a couple of songs. "...'Miss Communication' and 'Stress'. I was in my office in Boise playing them all day today." Jim did a double-take, "You guys came here from Boise? Isn't that, like, far away?" "It's only an hour by plane," said I, "about 6 hours to drive. We literally just flew in to see your show, then we're going to spend some time with some friends that live here." "Wow, you guys flew in from Boise to see us??" "Yeah." "Holy crap. I don't think anyone's ever done that for us before! Sure, we'll stick around after the show. I mean, you came all this way to see us? I'd love to talk to you!" "Awesome." I said,"Well then... we'll see you in a bit."
Laura and I skipped our way out to the back porch where we hopped about like little bunnies and smoked a cigarette, exclaiming, "We just totally talked to Jim and he's all thinking we're kickass because we flew in from Boise and he totally likes us and he's sticking around after the show to hang out with us omg omg omg omg omg omg..."
I am such a fangirl.
During the break, the place had filled almost to capacity, and it was hard to get back to our seats, wedged against the far wall. When the band took the stage again, they immediately played the requested songs, played some more favorites, and did some kickass napkin poetry. They finished the set, and were cheered onto the stage again for a 2-song encore, consisting of "WTF?" and "Feelin' Groovy". The show was over, and chairs were emptying. People walked by Jim, thanked him, and went home to bed, where they surely dreamt of the awesomeness that is JBE. Laura and I went back outside after the show to calm down before talking to the band, and to let them get through all of the folks lined up by the door to get out.
After about 15 minutes, freshly purchased CDs in hand, we went back in to find the place nearly deserted. A woman had followed us in from the deck, with t-shirts she purchased, and repeatedly exclaimed how she was going to sell the signed shirts on eBay when the band got "famous", the profits of which she would use to purchase for herself a new car. From this sentence, you might get the impression that this lady was a bit annoying. She was. And she was there the entire time we were talking to Jim, Jesse, and Dan about politics (Laura & I), the press (Laura), how we found out about JBE (Laura -> Zach -> Me -> LeeAnn -> NPR), Boise (both of us), Idaho in general (us and annoying lady (who happened to be originally from Twin Falls)), g33k1ng (me, me, me!!!) and AJAX (moi again). At the mention of AJAX, Jim almost spit out his beer and ran upstairs to the green room to get the book he had just purchased on the subject. We g33ked animately about this, with Laura rolling her eyes in the background, while trying to make annoying woman leave. Jim finally said, "Well, you should give me your contact info. When we switch everything over, we'll need some developers to work on it, and you don't have to live in Boston to do that." I almost pooped myself. Scrawled on a napkin, Hi Jim! email devlyn (at) gmail (dot) com. AJAX!, which he put in his jacket pocket. By this time, the Mississippi Studios people were totally ready to close up shop (giving us the eye), and we had gotten rid of annoying woman, so we helped the band carry out equipment, hugged them all, and skipped up Mississippi towards Skidmore, clutching our signed CDs and bursting with energy. It was about 12.45am.
When we had gotten about a block down Skidmore, walking west towards the freeway overpass, we heard honking behind us. The guys were in their little white van-jeep at the stoplight on Skidmore and Mississippi. And all of them were waving at us, smiling. That, dear friends, was the best moment of the night. We beamed and waved back, our hands slicing through the harsh wind. And then they were gone.
i want to hear part 2! i just saw the shots on flickr! anymore? i wanr more more more! i'll bring many back
Posted by: Keith at March 6, 2006 12:49 PM