The Music Video That Trumps All Music Videos

I think I found my next year's Halloween outfit... Talk about inspiring...

The David Bazan House Show Was Awesome

I'm glad I have friends that have social-event awareness or I would've never heard that David Bazan was playing a really cool show tonight in Fresno--a show that I'm sure I'll remember for a long time.  It was one of those events that you wish you could replay the experience on demand time and time again.

GF and I arrived pretty much before anyone (that never happens) and found that the guys hosting the show were a few cool guys from The Aircrash (formerly Help Computer)--a band that The Nancies used to share a practice space with.  Their livingroom was certainly no bigger than the livingroom in my apartment, so fitting the limited 40 people in meant for some coziness, which actually turned out to be just fine.  Bazan showed up maybe 15 mins before the show was supposed to start and hung out with the rest of us not-so-famous peeps, which was pretty darn cool.  That totally exemplified the lack of pretentiousness that he displayed in the many dialogues with the rest of us throughout the night.

Bazan explained at one point during the show that he and his manager came up with the idea of doing these sort of "underground" shows some time ago when he realized that he just wanted to keep touring in the Fall and Spring like he'd always done; not to mention which would also help pay some bills, etc., for him and his family.  Essentially, these house shows are intended to be sans media in order to keep his label happy, but of course puts a smile on the rest of our faces.  All in all he probably played maybe 12 songs--a mixture of old Pedro the Lion stuff, old solo stuff, and stuff on his new album (due out August 25th)--but the greatest part about the whole deal was his interest in chatting with the rest of us.  He stopped every couple of songs and would ask if we had any questions or comments, which led to some really cool stories and insight in to his life.  This, coming from a guy who's songwriting is something I hold at the tip top of my list, was really pretty awesome.



At one point he said that this was one of the best times he's had in a long time playing shows--I wasn't sure if he meant this particular show or just playing these really small house venues, but either way I felt way privileged.  He said he'd definitely be coming back to Fresno after the album came out, so we'll see if that pans out, but man--what a cool guy with some really powerful things to say in his music.  I'm really hoping he does make it back here, as his music is hugely inspiring to me.  Please come back to Fresno, David Bazan!!!

I got a couple bits of songs on my iPhone--they're crap for quality, but worth listening nonetheless.  Check em (probably need to crank the volume a bit--like I said, sucky quality):

The opening 2 songs (off the new album) and "Options", off of Pedro the Lion's Control: