September 11 – Ted Leo gets notes from his show at the now-defunct Cobalt

Last November, you and your Pharmacists played a show at a venue in Vancouver that has since shut down. It was really great. The show, not the venue. Although the venue was cool too. Anyway, I wrote down some notes from that night. I don’t stand by them all, but for posterity, they appear here relatively unaltered.

• Anton Chigurh, if he took accounting in university, is on the bus.
• I write a note in my phone: “Jon Hopkins not calling an album ‘University’ is a waste of an opportunity.” That last word autocorrects to “Immunity” on the first try, as I’m listening to his album of that name. So that’s how I know there’s more going on than some people would like to believe.
• In a city I still call home, pizza shops are able to buy cheese at just over cost. This minimizes the appeal of purchasing the contraband from entrepreneurial grocery store thieves.
• Growing up we thought hickeys were things you actually got and had to cover up regularly. What else did TV lie about? Can you not invent a machine to turn yourself into a cooler version of yourself, including a more interesting version of your name!? WHAT ELSE?!?!
• The opener is killer. I move up to the front. I’m tingling. There’s barely anyone there, but at least the right people are.
• Standing at the bathroom sink using a butter knife as a lever to remove the safety thingies from disposable lighters. I don’t give my thumb enough credit.
• I’m at an age (a stage) where I no longer learn the answers to trivia questions. I either know them or forget them immediately after hearing then. I would like to blame my chemo brain, but I don’t think I actually have one.
• I struggle with things I probably shouldn’t, and it seems I’m only getting worse.
• The other day I was peeling a banana and my friend told me I was doing it wrong. “Monkeys peel from the bottom,” she said. — “Why should the monkeys have it all figured out?” I ask. — “Because they do.” — I succumb. The top of the banana is now the bottom, and the bottom the top.
• Your drummer might be Sandor Clegane.
• If (eg.) My entire life was spent sitting around my house, anxious, waiting for something that is a minor, casual thought in someone else’s life.
• For some reason only 200 people will pay $20 to see you, but I bet 190 would pay $50.
• We’re a little too protected now, by society, through the laws and their actual enforcement. Unlike the nursing home my fictional grandmother lives in. We’re too afraid of dying, at the expense of fun or interesting experiences. Like we should be allowed to drink and drive. A few of us will die, the rest of us will have some stories and a lot of fun. We need to control the population anyway, which doesn’t seem like it’s getting brought up enough.
• Do people ask what do you do because they want you to ask them. I won’t return the question either way, but is that why?
• My head is legitimately cold, but I won’t put my hat on because of the toquers (that’s what I call them starting now)
• How are there six different kinds of sparkling wine to buy at the bar here?
• There’s a couple right in front of me that are like 5’3″ and 5’1″. I tower over them. It’s comically great. Looking around, I might be taller than the average male here, which has likely never happened before.
• Come to the Cobalt more, the heights of tonight’s attendees aside.
• Writing a note in my phone is like present me telling a story or joke to future me. I get to hang out with myself through accessible time travel.