Friday was the most recent installment of what’s become an annual tradition – emmet swimming’s January show at the 9:30. A couple things were different this year – first, the 9:30 was now non smoking, along with every other club and restaurant in DC. Second, this was the first show with Tamer on drums since he left in 1999. Third, this show was driven by an online survey of which songs to play. All good things, and I showed up even though I’d been flat on my back earlier in the week due to the flu. We missed opener Trustfall do to us swinging by Barnes and Noble for a book for work for me and going to the Lost Dog Cafe to eat some of their fabulous pizza, but we made it in plenty of time to catch emmet’s set.
Tamer didn’t seem like he’d lost a step – either he’s been playing all along, or worked out some practice time when not showing houses. The set didn’t seem too different than normal – I guess they play a lot of what people want (and no, I didn’t vote 20 times for their cover of “Lisa Says”, just once for “Bohemian Rhapsody”, mostly ’cause I wasn’t thinking of “Lisa Says” at the time). It was nice to hear some songs off “Dark When The Snow Falls” they haven’t played in a while, like “Angst II” and “This Is My Life” (ok, that last one was the only one I voted for that got played). The song that garnered the most votes was “Broken Oar”, as certified by the firm of Brotemarkle and Brotemarkle. Tamer played a nice solo during “Hey Jesse”, and Derrick joined him for it. I think my favorite moment was “Listen To The River”, as Tamer played a set of bongos to accompany the band. It was also an early show, so nice to get home before midnight.
Saturday we didn’t do too much. I made eggs benedict shortly after we woke up, then took Illa for a long walk and read the paper on the deck enjoying the insanely warm weather. Eventually the sun started going down and it cooled off enough to drive me inside and read comics. A neighbor and coworker Denise was having a party, so we went over around 8 and didn’t leave until 2:30 – we had a mighty fine time consuming mass quantities, chatting, and watching a little football (poor, poor Cowboys).
Today we also didn’t do much. Jill went out for a bagel while I made an omelette. She went out to a friend’s and I watched football and read the paper. Now I’m busy converting the emmet swimming to upload it to archive.org and surfing. I still need to read for work, and maybe start on the “Rome” marathon (HBO is airing the entire first season in HD this week, and I decided I wanted to catch it) as I prepare some leftovers for dinner.