Weekend shows!

Tonight, 3/27, the Mekons open for Gary Louris (formerly of the Jayhawks) at the Barrymore Theater in Madison. Ignoring the injustice of having the band who has professed to be the only band to have stayed together throughout the entire history of punk to open for a guy who used to be in the Jayhawks, a moderately successful band who plays in a genre the Mekons pioneered (alt-country, for the uninformed), this show has great potential to be a lot of fun. I'm not feeling too great though (I'm getting a cold, and having just gotten back from vacation has set off a series of angry internal outbursts related to my current [and seemingly unchanging] employment situation which has gone so far as to affect my motivation for finding something else to do and somewhere else to go), and I have pre-existing plans that do not involve spending $20 to see a band full of old guys perform a short opening set before what I think will be some boring alt-country singer-songwriter stuff. Whether this ends up being the show of the century or not I somehow don't imagine I'll ever really regret not going. Despite my current mood, Fear and Whiskey is an amazing record, and you should listen to it.

Tomorrow, 3/28, Stars and some other guy are also playing at the Barrymore Theater in Madison. I haven't listened to them much in the past two years, which was pretty much since soon after we had them at the Gargoyle (at Wash U in St. Louis) and managed to get the band to come to a pretty intimate house party after the show (this was the week Danny came to St. Louis for a visit, too!) where Torq got high and iPod DJ'd a bunch of Smiths songs and "Teenage Kicks" while we drank PBR and hung out with the rest of the band. That was a good night, and remembering it makes me excited someone at work had an extra ticket and sold it to me for $15, which is about $7 or 8 less than I would have had to pay if I went through conventional means. Tomorrow is also Friday night, which means as soon as I leave work it'll be the part of the week where there is the longest period of time before I have to go to work again, and that makes me happy as well. I hope they play "Set Yourself on Fire", because I love that song.

Sunday, 3/30, Jens Lekman's coming! He played Pitchfork Fest in 2006 and had a horns section comprised of very cute Swedish women. His loungey indiepop can seem slow at times, but it's full of heart and wit and catchy melodies that can win over anyone without an ADD attention span. If you don't believe me listen to "Pocket Full of Money" and then furiously check to make sure you haven't missed his show in or near your town.