[San Diego CA] Even though it felt like the first time I
was home in the evening in months—because my socializing, traveling, etc levels
have become problematic—I went to this show because I was sick of being at
home. I figured I could mull over my week of rejections at a show as well as I could
at home. IN FACT, I was home, all dressed up in my cute outfit with nowhere to
go, because CameraSmoothie had stood me up. CameraSmoothie, my go-to example,
my former go-to example, of a “nice guy.” But mostly, I was realizing BrightShards
had accomplished an absolute triumph of mindfuckery… … and, worse, that I was hoping
it would happen again. Back to the music but really. This venue was pretty much
perfect. Just down the street from me, unassuming, diversely aged, scenesters
and non-scenesters. It was mellow – it was chill – but it felt real. A guy in a nerdy shirt with molecules. I
started thinking about how I sort my people, when possible at least, according
to their tastes in music – is this wrong? The venue’s billing was especially correct for Old Man Wizard: “Holy Grove’s openers for their hometown show are stylistic
brethren—Boston’s similarly-badass Worshipper and San Diego’s folkier, proggier
Old Man Wizard.” They were a gentle sort, no posturing, which disconcerted me
because I came expecting metal. It’s possible there were twins in there? After
their first song, the guitarist, kindly, gently, suggested we buy their CD. The
lead singer got all ruffled, mocked him for being unclear (which he hadn’t been
– see, sibling rivalry), and did an exaggerated restatement of the plea to buy
their CD. And so the guitarist did an Extra Exaggerated restatement of the
plea. Now I’m wondering if it was a genius plan to say it three times… there’s
trickery everywhere. One had a Witch Ripper shirt on – whose slogan, google
tells me, is “Hail Satan?” jaja. Were they metal? I don’t know. They had hippie
hair. The air smelled of rank sweat (which I don’t mind if it’s right). I was salty and I have a hard time being fair when I’m salty—I noted their
sound as “weird,” which was probably me trying to adjust for my saltiness. Sometimes
they were almost like dance-metal, which I think I just invented. Sometimes
they were the dreaded prog-metal—untrue, some prog metal is gorgeous, some
makes me want to turn my back on humankind. They just didn’t sound right and I
was trying to figure out if it was the venue’s sound (first time) but their
youtube videos tell me it wasn’t… although I find myself seriously liking their
extremely Love-sounding song “If Only,” which is pretty rare for me with bands
I don’t know and have only seen live. So maybe I was salty.
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