The Long Blondes (and GBV-ishness) @ Bowery Ballroom (and Don Pedro's), NYC [6/9/07]

So you might be wondering what the hell that blog entry title means... well, in layman's terms, it means an evening-long dick tease.

First up tonight was the Guided by Voices 33 1/3 Karaoke Party at Don Pedro's in Williamsburg. The show was billed as a celebration of Guided by Voices' Bee Thousand album and Marc Woodworth's recent book on the album as part of Continuum's 33 1/3 series. Moreover, we were promised that Robert Pollard and Tobin Sprout would be in attendance. Although Bob's website warned us that there would be no performance by Bob or Toby, I don't think any of us believed it, because the place was absolutely packed. We got there right at 8, when the show was scheduled to start, and stayed until 11.

What did we get? Some abominable "dramatic art", some even worse "musical art", and zero performances, let alone even a "hello" on the mic, by Bob or Toby. Granted, they might have played some songs after we left, but we walked out the door about 30 seconds after Bob left around 11, and it sure didn't look like he was coming back.

Here's a pic of Bob while he was still in the house:



The one good thing about the "show"? One of the most attractive blonde bartenders of all time. I repeatedly made a point of buying my beer from her for no reason other than having the opportunity to gaze at her. Holy crap. Hottest.. woman.. ever. It may be a 40 minute commute from my apartment, but I need to get my ass back to Don Pedro's soon.

After the (not quite) GBV-ishness, we headed to the Bowery Ballroom to check out the Long Blondes. Gotta admit, I've never been a huge fan of the band, despite the fact that WOXY loves 'em, but I figured it was worth a shot given the amount of good press they've been getting. Plus, I heard that their lead singer was really hot. Well, she was, but that didn't mean that their live show was anything special. It was pretty much exactly what I expected - so so.

The only good thing was that, encore included, the band played for a total of about 55 minutes. And it's hard to get bored when the lead singer is hot. (Not Don Pedros bartender hot, but still...)




So at the end of the night what did we learn? Guided By Voices still makes me drink a lot of beer. Hot bartenders make me drink even more. And mediocre live bands make me drink even more.

And now I need to sleep.