Congratulations / Old Believers: Structured Calisthenics and a Doorman’s Wisdom (Seattle, WA)-- Local Cut

Congratulations / Old Believers: Structured Calisthenics and a Doorman’s Wisdom (Seattle, WA)

September 8th, 2009 [12:40PM] Posted by: Local Cut | 1 COMMENT

Tour Diary
Day 2
August 26th

Following the Olympia show we drove to Seattle, where my old friend Matt was gracious enough to board us for the evening, as well as book a show for the dudes with two of his bands. Matt is the tightest dude ever and if you see him you should give him 5 dollars or maybe some red vines.

Thomas, Nelson and I began the day with some structured calisthenics at a local skate park. I’m not sure how many people know this, but Thomas Himes, in addition to being a neurosurgeon and a sculptor, is a professional skateboarder. He kills it so hard that women often offer their first-borns for the chance to kiss those magnificent kick-flipping feet. Rembrandt once tried to portray the skill and grace of Thomas’ crooked grind, but gave up in disgrace and renounced painting. Thomas Himes is timeless. You know that dude in those beer commercials who thinks he’s the smartest man in the world or something? Thomas ate that dude with au jus. Sickening.

Alas, I digress. So Thomas skated while Nelson and I watched the majesty, and then everyone convened at Gasworks Park by Lake Union. The park is set up around what I believe is an old oil refinery, a fantastic series of steel tubes and towers rusting away amidst vines and ferns. There’s a big hill right by the water that people fly kites on, and a large flat grassy area where we played baseball for a while. It was a beautiful day and you wish you were there, seriously.

The Seattle show at the High Dive started off on a sour note when the doorman called Dhani “fucking retarded” for not wearing shoes. Apparently they teach you these cardinal rules in doorman school, and since Dhani never attended doorman school he was not privy to this knowledge. Dhani now knows the level of his retardation and henceforth shall wear shoes when entering bars. Thank you wise doorman.

The show itself started off with Bill and Alyssa singing a beautiful acapella song, which was surely a carefully designed red herring for what was to come. In the four songs that followed Bill broke a guitar string, borrowed Nelson’s guitar and broke his guitar strings, shorted his keyboard, and danced like the reincarnation of MJ. The world may never see moves like from Bill again. Yr lucky Seattle.

Congratulations played a wild, shifting set that went from soul jams to folk ballads to indie rockers-or-whatever. Shit was tight and people loved it. Matt’s two bands, Quiet Life and the Horde and the Harem also played some great sets, and I can’t reiterate enough how much we love Matt Badger. Matt Badger is almost as cool as Thomas Himes, which is the greatest compliment a person can give. Period.

Spirits: Oh let me up with the spirit in the sky

Stink-o-meter: Nelson’s feet have holes in the them

Links:
Old BelieverSpace
CongratulationSpace

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