No Rock And Roll Fun

DOUBLE WOOMBLE: Becky Bamboo is our witness to Roddy Woomble's knickers:

so despite being totally exhaused and wearing uncomfortable shoes [we should point out becky has something like sixteen thousand pairs of shoes - XRRF] I went up to san francisco yesterday to see idlewild not once, but twice. how could I pass that up?

first up was an acoustic performance at the mother of all indie music stores: Amoeba Records. the parkinggods were smiling favorable on me as I managed to score a spot right around the corner. woohoo! I had just enough time for a quick visit to Booksmith and to grab a slice of pizza for dinner before I took up my place in the rockabilly section in front of the Hasil Adkins classic album of ruminations on... chicken. I nearly bought it just so I could hear the song "Chicken Twist".

anyway. Idlewild came out (well, 3 of them anyway) and started right up with a song off the new album. I must say Roddy is just adorable. the gap in the teeth, the dimple in the left cheek when he smiled, the tousled hair... you know. he was wearing a skinny brown jacket buttoned all the way up with a white t-shirt underneath and low slung jeans that revealed a good 2 inches of blue boxer shorts. yes, I took a picture. no, it's not developed yet. he was accompanied by Rod Jones and Allen Stewart, both on acoustic guitar. they did 6 songs, keeping things mostly low-key. no requests or anything - it seemed like a pre-determined set.

I'd brought along my two albums in hopes there would be a signing afterwards and that was indeed the case. they handed out album posters to the first people in line so I got that signed in addition to my cds. I didn't talk to them at all. I've found that when I do actually attempt anything other than a smile and a "thank you" when I meet someone even remotely famous that I venture scarily close to Chris Farley "And then that one time? When you did that thing with the mic stand? That was awesome!" territory. so not cool. they are wee little men though. I just wanted to pop them all in my pocket.

I went straight from Amoeba to Slims, and was there before the doors opened. I staked out my traditional front row, slightly off center spot and immediately began wishing I had a chair. or different shoes. anyway. first band up was the Natural History who sounded like Spoon, but without Spoon's beautiful spareness and, you know, great songs. they were decent, but nothing special. I actually didn't mind them because the drummer was freakishly good looking. he had the total Clark Kent thing going, with the black rimmed glasses and dorky haircut. but you could totally tell that he had this fantastic bone structure - cheekbones, strong jaw, broad shoulders. very nice.

not so nice was the second band, the French Kicks. they were upbeat and had lots of energy but I was not convinced they had the tunes to back up the attitude. it could be because the vocals were buried so far back in the mix that it just sounded like 40 minutes of the backing band, but what I did manage to pick out didn't impress me. also, their drummer? not as good looking. he looked like a cross between Henry Winkler and Ryan Merriman. so, lousy tunes and no eye candy... where did I put my book again?

luckily Idlewild came out to redeem the show. Roddy had changed into black pants (pulled up this time), a white tshirt that said "MASTER" across the chest (I was totally hoping for a Buffy shout out with a "BATOR" across the back, but no dice), and a black coat that came off after the first couple of songs. they ripped into the songs hard and fast, mixing early stuff with the new, heavier and rawer than the album tracks. Roddy became sexy rather than cute and I didn't even mind when he totally almost stepped on my hand. he alternated dancing with and strangling the mic stand, while Rod performed some energetic vertical frog jumps on the other half of the stage. I can't tell you exactly what they played because despite having my hands on a set list the desperate ho next to me ripped it out of my hands. bitch. I nearly yelled at her, but decided to console myself with my signed cds and poster instead. ah, the high ground. it's so much more fun when you can also cruelly taunt those below.