Beer Cans Piled High
Anyone who was not at 17th and Boulder last night missed out on the beginning of something huge for Tulsa. If you suffered the tragedy of not hearing about it, (though, frankly, it's your own fault if you didn't, because it was plastered all over mid and downtown) this was a FREE show with Stevedore, Oklahoma, The Engine Hearts and Tulsa's favorite Seattle transplant, Aqueduct. The venue? The soon to be legendary, Mooch and Burn.
There must have been hundreds, hun-DREDS, of people there. The place is the size of Cains, at least, and it was fully packed. It's not open yet, but the guys (named Matt and something else) who own it seem to be fully committed to making a truly kick-ass venue for real music in Tulsa. They've got Chinese chandeliers and the ceiling is blue, there's a huge mural/poster of some 80's movie cast (don't hate me b/c I don't know, at least I recognized Patrick Swayze) behind the stage. No sound system, to speak of, they used Stevedore's 8 track, two mid-sized mains and monitors. No sound guy, of course, and John, of course, stepped in where he was needed. It was B.Y.O.B. which resulted in more alcohol being drunk than if it was served on site. (A lesson that goes yet unlearned by The Pink Eye) But don't let these last few items make it sound like a loosely run ship; they're not officially open. They just made this happen for "the Aqueduct" (as in "who wanna rock with the Aqueduct?") and that's how we had the good luck of a free show, they weren't up to code.
People, this show was really great. Stevedore was Stevedore, jumpsuited and new waving, Noah's dancing was extra haut as he implored the crowd to "put on your groove boots". Oklahoma, a band you may or may not have heard of before, I will leave for later comment. Engine Hearts, eh. They're alright. They're a popular local band, therefore lacking in great innovation. But they had the seeds of good stuff. The kind of good stuff one might like if one liked Hot Hot Heat and "punk-a-billy", but I didn't listen too closely to them. They had a couple toe tappers, but I don't remember them. AQUEDUCT. SO GOOD. Actually, in all honesty, this was not their best show ever. They performed better when they played at IKON this fall. But I think that had more to do with their drunken elation at seeing so many people at such a cool place in Tulsa. It was still pretty fucking awesome though. Covers included "Ignition" by R Kelly and "Dirt Off Your Shoulders" by Jay-Z and that one "damn it feels good to be a gangsta" song.
It was just incredible, overall incredible, to see something like this in Tulsa. The faces of the people involved in making it happen were so happy, so proud, so eager to see this kind of thing every weekend. The attendees were over-the-top into it all, immersed in the moment of a truly good show, all of us who know what we've been missing and missing it terribly. People, this is so cool.
On the personal side of the evening, John and I finally got to know some of our neighbors! The aforementioned "Oklahoma" contains one of the "hipsters" as we call the guy and girl who live across the street and we've seen at shows and who dress/act hip. His name is Chris and he's intensely nice, and a very good guitarist and all around rockandroller. His girlfriend's name is Valerie/Val and she is also intensely nice. She was also very sweet, beautiful and funny. And they introduced us to their friends who live in their building, who are also the band The Darlings. And the girl of that couple was wearing a "ReadyMade" shirt! Yay, neighbors! And we met the guy who lives in the duplex below us, his name is Clay and it's his friends that own Mooch and Burn. He was also really nice and cool. All our neighbors were almost as excited to meet us as we were to meet them. It was like a little Gunboat Park blockparty.
Damn! So much fun! Melinda brought me a Nicaraguan beer, we had some Guiness of our own, Chris got us the last Newcastle. (Which Jeff of Ester Drang took away from John upon hearing his age. Jeff of Ester Drang also had some mad grooves going during the 'Duct.) That was the other fun thing, the standard big concert thing, seeing all your friends and aquaintances and people you haven't seen in months/years, finding out that people you know know eachother and you didn't know it.
Show didn't end until after one, and I had to get up at five. Worth it.
