Live Shows, No Sleep, Road Trip, Vintage Toys : The Last Few Days

It’s Sunday morning. I cleaned up the dog’s little puke pile, took him for a poop walk, cleaned up the kitchen and dining room, and am now in my La-Z-Boy. Fresh cup of coffee next to me and writing.

The process.

So it’s been a busy last few days. Thursday afternoon after work I gassed up the mower and mowed the yard for the first time in two weeks. The unforgiving heat subsided and gave way to a day or two of cool, then humidity. Still gross outside, but not frighteningly hot. The yard was still not super overgrown, but it felt good to give it a little continuity. Afterwards I got cleaned up and the wife and I headed to Kalamazoo, MI for the Kurt Vile concert at Bell’s Brewery.

This was the first time seeing a show in their outdoor Beer Garden. We saw Of Montreal back in October of 2015 in their indoor concert area and it was great. Not too big and with really great sound. The Beer Garden was nice size, but again not too big. We ate dinner indoors(me a smash burger and fries and my wife an Italian Sandwich on Focaccia bread.) Food was great, and the light tropical shandy I had with it was quite refreshing.

The show opened with Emily Robb, a Philly artist that plays guitar, an almost primal guitar vibe. Garage rock with an organ covering the bass guitar. It was just Robb with a guy playing keys. It was interesting, but it literally felt like 20 minutes of her noodling with these blasts of low end organ. The 20 minutes felt like an hour. Not that what she was playing was bad, but I lost interest after 10 minutes.

The next band was Detroit’s Easy Action. Very MC5/Stooges adjacent. 4-piece with a singer that looked like a cross between Nick Cave and Spiral-era Trent Reznor, but if the energy vampire from Lifeforce had feasted on the guy. He was the scariest looking dude I’ve ever seen on a stage singing. He just looked like he wanted to beat up everyone in the crowd. They were a pretty good, primal rock and roll band in the spirit of the “Motor City” sound. They did a pretty good cover of Cheap Trick’s “ELO Kiddies” as well.

Finally Kurt Vile hit the stage around 9:45pm. I was hoping he’d play his song “Jesus Fever” as it’s one of my favorite songs of his and he opened with it! Unfortunately the first handful of songs felt a little wobbly. Vile and the second guitarist seemed to be playing different songs at first, or they were completely out of tune with each other. Needless to say I was worried it was going to be a dud of a show, but once the band left the stage and Vile performed by himself with just an acoustic guitar things seemed to get on track. It was a nice mix of new and old songs, and Vile and his band the Violators found their groove.

We ended up leaving early because I couldn’t get Friday off from work. We saw an hour of his set and hit the road. Ended up getting home sometime after 1am, and let me tell you 4:40am came pretty damn quick. Friday was a rough day at work. I struggled to keep my eyes open around mid-morning but was able to pull through.

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What that whole concert experience opened my eyes to is the fact that a) I can’t do stand up shows anymore. I need a seat. It’s too hard on my back anymore. and b) I DO NOT like drunks. Hey, I’ve been known to tie one on and get goofy from time to time, but I’m at home. Being that messed up in public is just a big turn off for me anymore. There were two guys, well into their 50s, that were so far gone before the show had even started. The first one was sitting down taking a time out when he suddenly jumped up and started walking fast, but his shorts plopped down to his ankles because they were unbuttoned(he made a recovery as he was up and enjoying the music an hour later.)

The second guy bit it right in front of us. Part of the Beer Garden is at a slant, and who knows how many beers he’d consumed by then, but his legs just turned to rubber and he fell backwards. He didn’t hit his head as there was some people around him, but he looked dazed and confused and kind of grey in the face. Security tried to help him up but his legs were still like egg noodles. They got him to make it over to the time out area and he at least looked aware of where he was.

I don’t get it. You spend that kind of dough on a concert and get too messed up to even make it to hear the first note? We were also surrounded by wasted hipsters that kept yelling “TRAIN!” whenever a train would go by. I’m too old for that shit. Papa needs assigned seating and doesn’t need obnoxious drunks. The Herbie Hancock show this past spring was maybe one of the best show experiences I’d ever had. Adults drinking responsibly engaged with what’s going on up on the stage.

Anyways, end rant.

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Saturday morning I got up and made the wife and I some avocado toast and coffee, after which I did some more deep cleaning in the bathrooms. Wiped down the walls, cleaned the showers, and installed some caulk tape at the bottom of the tubs. We’re planning to paint them soon as well.

Around 12:30 pm I headed to Silver Lake to pick up one of my best friends for a little road trip. We headed down to Kokomo, IN to visit Kokomo Toys and Collectibles and to check out Comics Cubed for some comic book perusing.

Kokomo Toys and Collectibles is one of those stops any toy lover should go to once. I’d been there twice previously, once with one of my other best friends and then again with my son about a year later. The amount of vintage toys here is mind-boggling. From the GI Joe SS Flagg Aircraft Carrier to AT-ATs to vintage Mego figures to everything in-between, they’ve got them. And if you’ve got the cash, you can fill those vintage toy holes in your life. It’s such a cool place, really. My friend was impressed that they had some Micronauts( I didn’t remember them) among the many collectibles. They had a Dune toy set from David Lynch’s 80s flick, as well as some super cool Silver Age comic book collectible drinking glasses(I almost bought a Riddler pint glass.)

My friend ended up dropping some serious cash on a Hellboy collectible figure, and almost bought an Abe Sapien one as well. I didn’t grab anything. Didn’t have the funds for some serious purchasing, but maybe next time. I did, however, grab four new comics from Comics Cubed just a few storefronts down. All of them were the first book in their series, so if I like em I can collect the next few. All horror/sci fi-related. Just went on whether the cover grabbed me or not. Excited to dig in.

I dropped my friend off at his place and headed home. He came over later and we had tacos and watched Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City. I ended up falling asleep. Still catching up from Thursday night.

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Overall it was a pretty decent and busy last few days.

Not sure what we’re doing today. It’s now mercifully cool outside, as the dog and I found out on our morning walk. I’ll probably do some more writing and then maybe do some painting. And read some comics of course.