Poms Not Bombs

On March 18, 2008, a few friends and I took a road trip out to Columbia, Missouri to see a show at a club called the Blue Note. Man Man, a band that I am a fan of, was on tour, but not coming to St. Louis, so I was willing to endure a two-hour car ride to see them. Anyone who's seen Man Man knows, their shows are definitely worth going to. As a bonus, this date on their tour coincided with the tour of a band called Islands, who I had never listened to, but a few friends of mine were fans so I figured I would enjoy myself.

Upon entering the Blue Note, I noticed these interesting shirts hanging above the merch table. They were of an extremely simple design, a maroon shirt with a large yellow heart and the word "Pomegranates" along one of the sides of the heart. "Must be one of the openers," I thought.

My group of friends filtered into the area where we would stand during the show, and I noticed "The Lonesome Crowded West" by Modest Mouse playing over the speakers. One of my favorite records, and it made sense because Man Man had just finished a tour opening for Modest Mouse. It got pretty far into the record before the lights dimmed and the first band walked on stage. I asked, "Which band is this?" and my friend Gabi responded, "I think it's the Pomegranates."

The second time I had heard that name, and I had no idea how much it would mean to me by the end of the night.

The guitarist came up to the mic and introduced the band, and I noticed that he was looking at the floor. He seemed incredibly nervous, and I started thinking they may not be the best performers. They started playing, and I realized I was wrong. They delivered an extremely solid performance that I was thoroughly enjoying, even though I had never heard any of these songs before.

The band had built up to very dynamic song that I would eventually come to know as "Osidius the Emphatic, and I was nodding my head along with the very powerful beat, when suddenly everything cut out. The only member left playing was that same guitarist, playing a four chord progression and quietly repeating the line, "I don't seem to see so clearly." After a couple repititions, the bass gently resumed, and the other singer joined in with another melody, singing, "Starry skies don't know my name, and starry skies won't pull me from the grave." Again, a couple repititions, and just as suddenly as everything cut out, the entire band started playing an instrumental outro louder and more powerful than anything they had played that night.

I was genuinely, deeply, and profoundly moved.

After Man Man's set, we decided to relocate to the balcony Islands' performance, and I decided now was the time I should buy the Man Man t-shirt I had brought money for. I arrived at the merch table, and I saw that shirt I had seen when I first walked in. Sitting under it this time were the Pomegranates themselves. Right here I had realized that I had really liked their set a lot more than Man Man's, so I went to buy their shirt instead.

I started talking to the drummer and singer, who introduced themselves as Jacob and Joey, and eventually asked if they would sign my ticket. Jacob looked at me and asked, "You know we're not Islands, right?" I told him I knew who they were and that their set really blew me away.

We kept talking and he found out that I was from St. Louis. He informed me that they would be playing at a place called Off Broadway in St. Louis the next day, if I wanted to see them again. I told him I would have loved to, but didn't have enough money to spare at the time. Eventually, I told him that I needed to get back to my friends before the next act started. But before I left, Jacob offered to put me on the guest list for the show the next day, if I wanted to see them again. Of course, I agreed.

I was able to get my friend Nick to go to the show with me, on the condition that we split a ticket, instead of me getting in for free and him paying the $10. This was very fair and I agreed completely. After another amazing set that totally won over Nick, the band announced that they would be returning to St. Louis on April 15, playing the Lemp Arts Center. I recognized this as the same date that Robby Ritter, formerly of Ghost of the Forest, was debuting his side-project, Bear (The Ghost). I had seen Robby at the show, and decided it was worth a shot to ask if I could put my band on the date as well.

After a couple days, he recieved an answer of no from another performer who was on the fence about the night, so he sent me an e-mail saying that we could indeed play.

That's the story of how I heard, met, and played a show with my now favorite band. I have played with them once since as an acoustic duo with my friend Ray, and been to two other of their shows as an audience member. I try to see them every time they come in town, which is actually a lot. If you haven't heard them, you should definitely check them out.

Pomegranates.

Speedbump-bump-bump.

So some things in my life have been kind of not very good at all, but I feel like I shouldn't complain, because about an equal amount of things are going good. And of course, things could be much worse.

On Wednesday, my brand new (to me) bike got a flat tire. I actually think the flat may have happened on Monday, on my 17-mile ride to my parent's house. (I've stopped calling it my home when I realized I will probably only spend a month there total this calendar year.)

This happened mere days before my new iPod came in the mail, which of course is a good thing, but I was looking forward to combining the iPod with the bike, to try to get my 10-mile a night bike rides started again. Biking alone can be terribly dull when you follow the same route over and over, so I find music almost necessary for anything longer than three miles.

The big thing though, is my computer. I've had this desktop since about 2006. My friend Mike helped me build it from scratch, telling me which parts to order and then helping me physically assemble it. We overlooked a hard drive, so it has a whopping 75 GB of storage capacity that was just built into the motherboard, but I bought a $250 graphics card for it, so it plays a few of my favorite RTS's very well.

However, suddenly it's stopped working. I have no idea what I've done to it, but now it will only run for about 15 minutes before every application running freezes, except for iTunes, inexplicably.

I'm able to run it in safe mode to do work, but needless to say, it's time for a new computer. I've got my eye on a $300 netbook, but until I get it my computer use will be reduced significantly.

But, this brings up the issue of money. Because of this now necessary purchase of a computer, I will probably not be able to buy a ticket to Bloc Party at the end of this month. I don't really regret having to miss them, their latest album made it very clear that they are not my favorite band any longer, but I was really looking forward to going to the show with my two best friends. I'm thinking I can borrow (with the intention of paying back!) money from my mom, but we will see.

I will probably feel a lot better about everything after seeing the Pomegranates show tomorrow. They have the ability to do that, I think.

So long,

andy.

First Post

Hi there. My name is Andy. If you are reading this, you probably already knew that, though.

I recently registered for an account on Twitter, on the suggestion of my friend Elliot, and decided a blog was also something I wanted. Once again, this decision was influenced by my friend Elliot, but I swear I am not trying to be him. Even though he is an excessively cool person.

Ultimately, the decision to get this was this: I like to talk about my favorite things. However, my favorite things are not my friends' favorite things, and I feel I am really boring to them most times we talk. So, this blog will be for me to talk about my favorite things, to get it out of my system, and to therefore make my conversations with friends more interesting.

Also, I intend on making this a journal of sorts, and just writing about things that happen in my life. I like writing, but I feel school is making me bad at it, because I don't do things well when they are forced. So, this is my outlet.

I will also probably eventually post song lyrics and poems here, hopefully with matching mp3's!

That's all for now.

andy.

PS: The title of this blog is a line from my absolute favorite song by my absolute favorite band, "Osidius the Emphatic" by Pomegranates. This song has incredible meaning to me, and this line in particular, but I'm sure I'll talk about in a future post. For now, though, farewell.