Walk on by me

It’s Thursday, and it was only this morning that I greeted my alarm with something other than a groan. This past weekend (Saturday-Monday) was great fun, but rather exhausting.
Saturday: thrifting (yay!); a wonderfully long concert, the highlight of which was Scythian, my new favorite live band; driving home from Baltimore. The latter was complicated by my sister conspiring with various pieces of technology to get us lost on our way to drop her back at college, and by my detour through DC to deposit Lexie at her apartment. I got to sleep at 3 AM.
Sunday: family Mother’s Day festivities. Home around 7, my father and I went for a swim before the pool closed.
Monday: after work, Ethiopian food followed by a surprising and extremely entertaining concert at the 9:30 Club. I went (and dragged Lexie) to see Margot & the Nuclear So-and-So’s, my favorite opening band. They were less orchestral and more rock this time, which was a disappointment, but the songs they played from their first album more than made up for it. Doubtless residual sleep-deprivation was a factor, but several times during their set I closed my eyes and the crowd around me was suddenly gone. I soaked up the music like a lizard soaks up the sun, storing its heat for a rainy day. The real surprise of the evening, though, was the Twilight Singers, who were the headliner and who apparently have rather a lot of fans in the area. Demographically they’re not typical 9:30 club fare, being composed largely of middle-aged men. The lead singer, though, was charismatic and funny enough that after a few songs I could definitely see why someone in the audience was yelling “We love you, Greg!” every few minutes. Their set was remarkable mostly for his unexpected cursing (“You’re already late for work, motherf——ers, because we’re going to play all night!”) and the ease with which he handled the crowd. I don’t think I’ll make a point of listening to their music, but I’d see them again if another band I liked were on the bill. Lexie and I left before the encore, our legs aching from two concerts in three days. I walked home from the Metro station in the still silence of midnight and fell into bed, my sleep-debt not to be repaid for days.