Philly

Had an overall enjoyable time in Philly. And was greeted with snow on Saturday. One day on the East Coast, one day with snow, which was nice.

The old gang, plus spouses (except for me, mine stayed back home since she's about the embark on a month-long tour of duty in Illinois- the plus for her is that she gets to stay with her family the entire time) got together for dinner at Marrakesh, in an alley just off of South Street. The food was really good. . .It's a 7 course meal and you use your hands to eat. We were running a bit late, so we started getting two courses at a time, which was a treat for me- lamb and cumin-spiced chicken? Yes please!

After dinner, we then headed for the Trocadero to see Dean and Britta and Mercury Rev. We got there just as Dean and Britta were setting up and had our pick of the floor, since the place was pretty empty. They played 7 songs, including Galaxie 500's "Snowstorm" and a cover of New Order's "Ceremony." Alas, it was only 7 songs. I've listened to their cd's, and they sound very little like Luna, but live, it sounded alot like Luna. They got really going after a song or two. I asked Dean afterwards when they would be coming back to San Francisco, and he said sometime in February. We missed them when they came through earlier this year, and I don't intend to miss them this next time for a full set.

Mercury Rev came on next. I've seen them twice before, but I don't recall the shows being so loud. And I mean loud. My left ear is still suffering the effects of it. Jonathan, the lead singer, came out with a dazed look on his face, from which I can only assume is the product of some under-the-counter medication, as we called it in high school. What struck me was that the live version of the songs really were nothing like the cd version, for at least the new stuff. The new cd's are very trancy and electronic, but live they were all loud and bombastic. The songs off of Deserters' Songs, however, retained the original feel- less bombast, more drone and very pretty. Unfortunately, they did not play anything off the first album; I was secretly hoping for "Car Wash Hair" with Dean playing guitar (Dean's credited with guitar on the album liner).

I won't say it was a bad show. . .it just wasn't what I had been expecting. And if I had seen that show 6 years ago, I would have loved it. To me, however, it seemed like Mercury Rev realized that they somehow missed the Flaming Lips/Radiohead love fest. They are that band in between the two- building noise soundscapes, but just missing something that would have put them alongside the other two. I love Deserter's Songs, and think it can sit comfortably next to "The Soft Bulletin," yet somehow, The Soft Bulletin got everyone's attention. Deserter's Songs ranked 76 in Pitchfork's Top 100 albums of the 1990s, where OK Computer was 1, The Soft Bulletin was 3, and Spiritualized's "Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating in Space" was 55.

Anyway. . .the next day went to cheesesteak central, and decided to go with Geno's. It was good. . .got it "wit Whiz", which means with onions and cheese whiz. Yeah, cheese whiz. That's definitely the way to go. My wife will no doubtedly note that avoided the whiz option a number of occasions, but once I went whiz, I couldn't go back. Geno's is across the street from Pat's, and they have a friendly rivalry. Geno's is also famous for having signs asking people to order in english. And their don't see french fries, they still came them Freedom Fries. Anyway, the steak was delicious- the whiz gives it just enough salty goodness to match the onions and fattiness from the steak. As I told my friend, "This is a perfect hang-over meal."

We next headed to the Reading Terminal Market which is an indoor farmer's market/public market that's been around since 1892. Being a Sunday, not every counter and stall was open (I particularly missed not being able to check out the Pennsylvania Dutch section), but we got a good enough sampling of the products to know that if I lived in Philly, I would be there alot. There are several cheese counters, meat counters, fish counters, a beer garden, cook book stalls and dessert counters. After that, my friend dropped me off at the airport, and I waited for my flight back home.

All in all, even though we only got 40 minutes of Dean and Britta, it was definitely worth the effort to fly out and see old friends. Moving to San Francisco now requires an effort for us to see old friends who are still back on the East Coast, and know that we have real friends when that effort is reciprocated. Maybe I was a bit too nostaligic with my earlier post, but it really did have that feel, coupled with an acceptance that we have all moved on with our lives. It wasn't sad by any means, just a knowing that we all have a bond, and even though we are progressing with our lives, we still have the bond and those memories.

I started and finished Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers" on the flight, and I plan to have a posting about it soon.