Adventures? Well, let's see...
Saturday night. Death to the Pixies.
The last Pixies show of the tour happened at the Hammerstein Ballroom, with the lovely wall of sonic noise that is Kristin Hersh's 50 Foot Wave opening. I was up front stage right so that my partner in crime for the night could be within spitting distance of Kim Deal once she hit the stage. The Wave rocked it hard, played tight and quick, and wowed some while annoying others. I called Billy (Kristin's hubby/ manager) just before they went on stage... He answered by saying, "Are you really here?" I responded, "I couldn't turn down Kristin AND the Pixies." He laughed, yelled to Kristin that I was there, and said, "You know, our son Wyatt was just asking about you." (Cozy as I may make this sound, that was actually very random.) "You're kidding! What did he say?" "He said, 'Hey Mom - remember that time I met your friend Mo?'" Very momentous, as you can tell.
And the Pixies? Well, they all looked like the cats that ate the canaries. Smug and smiley, almost phoning it in, but phoning it in better than any other band. This was the 8th Pixies show I've been fortunate to see this year - and I'm assuming last - unless they decide to pull an X and just keep on "reuniting" for years to come, eventually playing such show stopping locales as Koncti Harbor in Kelseyville, California and the like for their wine swilling fans. Anyway, I was indeed crushed up against the barrier in front of Kim Deal, unable to move except for the occasional uncontrollable thrashing for "Isla De Incanta" and "Vamos." (The Spanglish tunes always make me the rowdiest.) Joey did a pretty awesome "Vamos" solo, with the now standard "watch me play my guitar with a drumstick!" (ah, and the days of yore when I watched him play with stilettos) but also unplugging his guitar and feedbacking with his cable and other connectors. Rock me Joe!
My favorite part of the show? Early on, third song or so, they did "La La Love Ya." Each member of the band took a turn saying the "I love yous." It was really fun and super cute and a total treat. I love you too, guys. And thanks for a groovy year.
Okay - Sunday night? The Scissor Sisters sold out homecoming show at the Hammerstein. As Ana Matronic put it, "You know how each homecoming has a queen? Well, this one has four!" Since I was hanging in NYC with my gay posse, where else for a fag hag to be but disco dancing with her boys at a tea dance? With the exception of Ms. Ana's seemingly endless babbling about "being in the city that INSPIRES us, this dirty city filled with PASSION and LOVE" and her token mention of words like "cock" and "motherfucker" and "balls" just to get the shrieky "wooooos!" from the crowd, they were really fun and bouncy and sounded great. They did a fabulous slowed bluesy version of "Take Me out" (it's floating around on the web if you want to try and find it) and the 16 year old boy next to me wearing the Franz Ferdinand shirt in attendance with his two dads went absolutely nuts. They ended in a sweaty tranny glitter orgy; a group of naked friends in glittery thongs and headdresses (boys and girls and probably boy-girls alike) took the stage and danced around before dogpiling and dry humping on stage. It was adorable.
Other things we did? Saturday - Drinks at the Algonquin Hotel, quoting Dorothy Parker while having martinis (I did tell you I was with gay men, right?)... More drinks at Gotham... More drinks in the meat packing district at Hell on it's last night - many sad beautiful gay boys in attendance, having their last Wicked Bitch before the neighborhood hang shut down for good. (I wish there was a place LA called Hell; it was fun calling people and saying, "Yea, just meet us in Hell!" "How do you get to Hell?" "Go to Hell and I'll see you there!" The best.) Drinking Sunday afternoon at the wine bar next to the Rockefeller Christmas tree after a little shopping at H&M, Italian food in the East Village, and the first snow.
The first snow? I walked out of the Scissor Sisters show with my Australian friend Mark, and said, "You know, this is the first time I've ever really seen snow fall." He huddled up into himself a bit more and said, "Great. Let's get the hell out of here."
