Friday I saw the Thermals with Rachel. I don't think she and I have seen a concert together in like 2 or 3 years. We got dinner at Tabaq first. The mojitos there are pretty good and my calamari was excellent but I had this meatball plate that was only okay. They also played Toy Story 3 on their projector, even though that movie isn't out on dvd yet. I think they pirated a copy because after the movie there was a powerdvd error and the program quit to windows. AND, I was kinda pissed because there was this team at trivia, not long after toy story 3 came out in theaters, whose name was "Woody Dies at the end of toy story 3" which was upsetting both because Woody was such a likable character and because this team had spoiled the movie! But, (spoiler alert) he doesn't really die. What a bunch of jerks at trivia. That's probably the same bunch of jerks who stole "the better half" 2 weeks ago.

The thermals were pretty decent. One of their opening bands had their treble-base balance soooo off, all you could hear were the vocals and the drummer's cymbals. You could see that people were playing the guitars/base, but you couldn't hear it at all. Black cat drops the ball. But in this case I think it actually improved the band because you could hear the vocals so clearly and it gave it a folk-music sort of feeling. Also I was sitting on a bench with Rachel and I could hear her when she spoke without having to yell "what??" So it was really much more pleasant. The new thermals stuff is forgettable. They played most of the classic songs, which was essential, but I kinda feel like the momentum was killed by the interjection of new songs, or crappy, repetitive songs off that older new album. Really, the only worthwhile album of theirs is the body, the blood, the machine. Had they just played that album it would have been a great concert. Instead there wasn't really any moshing because of the weaker opening bands and the constant insertion of new songs.

Why do bands even play new songs in concerts? Nobody wants to hear them. I mean after a band has a legitimate album out, they'd expect that the audience came because they liked the album. And you can't really appreciate a song until you've heard it like 2 or 3 times. You certainly can't mosh to it.

Rachel drank a beer or two with me at this concert, which I appreciate. Usually I'm drinking by myself because Rachel is driving everywhere.

(talking about moving out of DC)
Rachel: You can't leave. Think of Sonya!
(Puja's daughter likes me.)