so the Gorillaz show was ... interesting. i realized later it's been years since i've been to a big show like that. quite fun purely for the enjoyment of the atmosphere. we sat in the second to last row of the Warfield where pretty much all the pot smoke of the entire venue collected. no need to bring your own! enjoy the contact high!

Dennis and i sat around bitching about this or that just because we could. complaining is a very satisfying pasttime. "these seats are broken." "these concessions are too expensive." "those tshirts are thirty bucks??!" i will be a REALLY good grumpy old man.

anyways, the show itself was curious. we never saw the band. you heard me. they hid behind a pair of screens that showed Gorillaz cartoons and other multimedia imagery. we agreed that tripping on something was a necessity to really enjoy something like that. i felt deprived not being able to see the band. there's something intimate about watching the band play, like they're doing it just for me. and i feel like i'm participating. i could sit and watch a video screen with really loud music coming out of the speakers at home. by myself. what's new about that?

but they sounded really good live. it just about made up for the video screens and the fact that their encore consisted of repeats of two songs they'd done in the regular set. (pfft!) and i'm not really complaining. it was lots of fun. including getting Burger King on the walk back and watching JAG episodes.