Photos by Dakota, Amy, and me. Group hug!
Sat morning rolls around, I catch wind of a free Spoon show at George Washington University. Apparently you have to be a student to get in, but rumor has it students can bring in one guest each. I get on my elliptical machine wearing nothing by my Nike Dunks and underpants.
ring ring
"Libby, do we know any GW students <pant> who can get us in to the free <pant> Spoon show?"
"I have an ID you can just put your finger over the picture... what are you doing?"
"nothing. um... maybe I'll just go there and latch on to someone walking in"
I take a shower, dress up like a college student, realize I do that every day, and my girlfriend and I head out to meet up with BYT photog Dakota.
We pull up outside the back gate of the Mt Vernon campus and there are some cops and security types milling about. Maybe this will be harder than it looks...
Dakota is running late. Amy and I see two kids wearing sandals.
"Hey, are you guys students? Can you escort us in to see Spoon?
"Well, I think you have to go here to get in..."
"I read on the intertubes that students can bring in guests though"
"Oh... maybe, sure, c'mon"
"Thanks!"
We walk past the security checkpoint. I start to sweat and fidget with my man purse. We're totally gonna get busted I can feel it. "Students can bring a guest in" yeah, sure they can internet.
"Hey what did you get on your paper last week?"
I nervously ask Amy.
And then we just turn the corner and we're at the show. Nobody cares. No ID's are checked. And apparently I still look like I'm 19.
We meet up with some other undercover types and talk about how much cooler we are than all these little kids while secretly wishing we were in college again.
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But seriously, GW did it right. Free show with White Rabbits and Spoon, free hot dogs, free cotton candy, and the quad has a nice incline to it so everyone gets a good view. I mean, when I went to college we got Indigo Girls and James Taylor's brother. Now if only they had a margaritaville machine... |
An acquaintance of ours spots some hippie looking students and decides to ask them if they have any drugs.
"You came to the wrong campus"
Spoon takes the stage after some university official doesn't totally embarrass himself MCing.
About 50 or so kids get up from their lawn towels and congregate at the front of the stage.
Spoon played a solid set. All your favs + some new soon to be favs.
They amaze me how they're not doing anything that hasn't been done before, yet everything they do sounds so fresh.
Amy and I grab Dakotas camera and take some more crowd shots while passing out BYT stickers. It's beautiful weather. Everyone is young and happy. The beginning thump of I Turn My Camera On washes over everyone. It was a great day.
Check out Svet's great Spoon review from a while back:
http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/live-dc/spooning-with-the-ponys/
and the post did a run down of the setlist:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postrock/2009/04/spoon_untouchable_for_life.html
God loves a cheerful giver.
Fuck. I was trained for years to disregard all non-class related e-mail. Of course I get something useful with a month left to graduation.
At the Savannah College of Art and design we got India.Irie (because she was a jewelry major there once) and assorted horrifying jam bands like Perpetual Groove. Welcome to the south college experience.
That spoon show @ 930 is still one of my favorite live shows ever.
Haha I was totally there at the free concert! I remember thinking, "Some of the people here are not GW students." This confirms it.