First Night - Report

I should start off by confessing that despite my best intentions, I did wind up walking by La Zona Rosa, the club where Peter Bjorn and John were headlining last night. And I was discouraged to see the size of the turnout -- really, it was astonishing. This blog has a lot of work to do. I went by around 10 p.m., at a time when most of the clubs on Sixth Street were just getting started, and there was a huge line that stretched for maybe fifty yards. La Zona Rosa is really pretty far out of the center of town, too, so most of these people walked a long way. I have to ask: Who are these people? I spent a while lingering around, watching the people line up, trying to figure out just what the matter with them was. Really, it was a standard collection of hipster jackasses, with tight jeans and chunky glasses; people who no doubt had just read about Peter Bjorn and John on some stupid music blog (or on this blog -- and yes, I'm aware of the irony, assholes, but my philosophy is that you need to educate people and let them make their own choices, foolish or not), who figured that they were the next big thing, and so made up their mind to get in on it. God damn it, it made me mad, the calculating cynicism of it.

Anyway, stopping by there was clearly a big mistake, and I obviously should have listened to those of you who emailed me not to do it. I see this now. Part of the problem was just how long of a walk it was: by the time I got back to the center of town, I had missed a couple of the things I wanted to see, and the other ones were already really crowded, with lines out the door. I wound up hanging outside a show by a really cool band who was playing under a tent -- I never did catch the band's name, though, and meanwhile there were so many other loud concerts going on at the same time that there was all this shitty extraneous noise. One other bright spot: I did have a drink after that at a sort of cool bar, where I ran into a friend who said he's planning to come to the event, which is awesome. By the way, definitely still email me if you're planning on coming -- a couple of people from my original crew have bailed, it sounds like, so it would be good to know if I will have some reinforcements.

Rereading this post, I feel like my report is kind of a downer, but I really don't mean it to come off that way. I'm really having an awesome time in Austin, and I really do think that we will succeed in stopping Peter Bjorn and John. Part of the benefit of this blog, I realize, is just to make people aware of the problems with the band, so even if they jump on the bandwagon at first, the doubts that we've lodged in their minds will stay with them in the future. At least I have to hope so. More later.