An opera at a disco (and all you wanted was a rock show)

So guess what I did Saturday night.

That's right, I saw Mae. Spoiled? Maybe. Or maybe I just MAKE STUFF HAPPEN because I'm awesome like that.

I promised Paul I'd post some of Mae's stuff, which I don't know why I bother because he'll just say it's not br00tal enough, but anyway, here goes.

^ This was the first Mae song I ever heard. I got it off the Warped Tour compilation in '05, and it was love at first listen.

^ This one's a bit older. I always liked it a lot, but even more so since this last show gave me a whole new perspective on it.

^ And this one's a bit newer. Not only is it infectiously catchy, but I LOVE the lyrics. I've found them to be thematic over the past couple months. Hopefully that'll change in the near future, but it'll always hold a special place in my heart because of it.

Also check out "Soundtrack for our Movie," "Telescopes," "The Everglow," and "Tisbury Lane."

So the deal was, the show didn't even start until 9:30 and Mae wasn't scheduled to play til 11:30. Seeing Katie and Jen sing in the choir only required us to miss the first opener, who I'd never heard of anyway. And truly, I felt like I was in the presence of angels listening to the college choir, so I'm really glad I stuck around for it. Kudos to everyone that contributed their lovely voices to that magical experience.

Although my energy levels were at about negative twenty four, when I realized how late the Mae concert started and that I could in fact make it there in time to see them, I got a second wind, practically got on my knees, and begged Sarah Mac to go with me. I find that I can be very convincing when it comes to concerts. I think I must look so dang happy about the prospect of going that people can't help wanting to be a part of that or something. Oh, scenekidism. And then, just as I was convincing Sarah, her friend Jeremiah came over to see what all the fuss was about and I convinced him to come too. When the choir show let out, I had to get my car from Woodland, and I was so amped that I ran the whole way... and laughed the entire time. People probably wonder about me a lot. XD

Turns out the Middle East is right next to T.T. The Bear's, where Sarah and I saw all those Japanese bands last year. Like T.T.'s, it's very small, and like the sound guys responsible for the Japanese show, the sound guys for these bands seemed to think that venue size was an irrelevant matter in determining an appropriate volume for the show. The pain threshold for sound is 120 decibels, and they were pushing it. I see no reason for this, as I'm sure we all could have heard the music just as well, in fact probably with greater clarity, at something like 90 db. And it doesn't help that everything is bouncing off the walls like mad in a little club like that. Note to self: remember to actually bring ear plugs to shows. Don't just buy them and leave them in the desk drawer. They are no use there, even though the girls on your floor enjoy pretending to be elephants at all hours of the day.

But I digress. So the first band was mediocre. I was impressed with the instrumentation. If the vocalist would've spontaneously contracted throat cancer and given up on singing, I think I really would've enjoyed the set. Needless to say, I was more than ready for Mae when they came on. I remembered talking to Jacob Marshall, the drummer, about synaesthesia and about how MAE (which stands for Multisensory Aesthetic Experience) tries to recreate a synaesthetic, or multisensory, experience for non-synaesthetes, so I decided I would pay close attention to the videos they project during the show to see just how multisensory the experience actually was. It's not like I haven't seen the guys in the band like, eight times already. Hehe.

The set was more or less the same as when I saw them at Northeastern in November, but it was a fabulous setlist then and it was just as good the second time around. I noticed that some of the videos were just videos while others really did create a whole new experience and perspective on the music. Some of my favorites were the ones accompanying Skyline Drive, Soundtrack for Our Movie, and Just Let Go, but the best one by far was All Deliberate Speed. They had it arranged so that the same image appeared every time Jacob hit his cymbal in this one specific way. Sorry I can't describe the sound better; I don't know my drum jargon and I'd sound like a fool. But yeah, the synchronization was dead on. I started to believe that that image was actually what the sound looked like! It was incredible. I remember a few images from the rest of the show, but that was really the one that stuck with me, and listening to the song now, I still associate that image with the sound. Trippy.

They ended the set with a b-side, "Tisbury Lane," which I didn't know but really enjoyed, and a stripped down version of "The Everglow," which was lovely. A perfect conclusion to a perfect night.

Paul will be relieved to know that the guy who hit on me last time wasn't even there; they had a stand-in bassist. He was more sober than Mark was last time I saw him (XD), not quite as adorable, and about as energetic as Mark when he wasn't drunk... i.e. you sometimes forgot he was up there; I remember the guys saying in an old interview that a lot of people didn't even realize Mark was in the band. I would've liked to talk to the sub after the show, at least to compliment him on his purple bass and ask his name so I wouldn't have to refer to him as Mark's Sub, but it was already one AM so we didn't stay. I also would've liked to tell Jacob what I thought about the videos. I mean, I assume he's the band member most responsible for them since the multisensory aesthetic theory, i.e. the entire premise of the band, was his idea. But I found his blog yesterday and wrote him a lengthy comment in which I probably came across as a fawning fangirl. No, it was a legitimate comment on the artistry of the band! Not obsessive or fangirlish in the slightest! Or... well, one out of two isn't bad. ^_^ I haven't heard any response yet and don't know if I should expect one, but at least I've said it.

I spent most of yesterday writing my four page sociology paper, only to have the deadline extended because school got canceled due to snow today. But that's okay for two reasons. One, it freed me up to write the additional 500 words I needed for the final draft of my philosophy paper today, and two, having it done lifted a tremendous amount of stress. And now that the philosophy one is also done, I feel like a human being again! For real? If I could have bit the bullet and taken these things out early in the quad, I wouldn't have felt like I was losing my sanity all this time? >_<

So here's what's left this week.

1. Shoot a PSA with a team that clearly does not want to do this project and isn't responding to my frantic e-mails asking when the hell we're going to shoot this thing, since we've only got two days to check out equipment, show up at a practice at a time no one's bothered to find out to record VOs and close-ups, and invite dozens of people to stage fans going nuts in the bleachers, before the girls I'm working with start leaving on Wednesday. Well, I think the bleacher footage is right out, since a) we now have insufficient time to invite and organize all the people we'd need to fill the stands, and b) said stands are now buried in a foot of snow.

2. Reading. Lots of it. But most of it can be put off until break, at which point I can hopefully catch up on a lot of the stuff I've been neglecting because I've had to prioritize the classes that are ending this week.

3. Multiple photography projects that I've been neglecting for the same reason. Gahh. I am so behind in my shooting AND printing in that class, it isn't even funny. And unfortunately, a lot of that work can't be dealt with over break, since I don't have a dark room in my house.

4. Bring Paul's application for the Italy seminar to the Global Ed Office and grovel for their mercy, as the thing is several days late now and we had to be creative about some of the requirements since he's not in school anymore.

Oh. It doesn't look so bad when I write it out like that. I feel better already. ^_^

-_- I can always tell when it's 11 PM because quiet hours start at eleven, and that's the time of night when all hell breaks loose on my floor. When 11:11 rolls around, I'm wishing for silence. Or at least, absence of shrill screaming and constant stampeding. Oh... Jon Schneck's away message says "the Bachelor is out of control." Maybe that has something to do with the even greater than normal degree of chaos on F2 East tonight.