Date With the Night

I meant for this to be a short post, but alas, that didn't work out at all. If I could bottle the energy and excitement that I have right now, you'd have to get it from "the guy" and hide in secret hollowed out books.

I'm moving. As in, right now, my walls are bare and boxes are loaded. I worked on it for 4+ hours yesterday and I'm about to take over another car load today. I had to do quite a bit of cleaning (the "ew" face made several appearances), but I got to know all of the little quirks of the place and still feel good about it becoming my home. I also realized just how much smaller the new place is. The "toss list" is getting much, much longer.

Between moving, I'm about to head out to the tattoo festival going on today. It's going to be a test of self control. I've been working on a design for a while, and I'm still trying to figure out the placement. Basically, I want to go in one of the two most painful spots (ribs, spine), so I really need to work myself up for it. My third option is the wrist, which I love, but is also the most visible.

And now, the real reason for the giddy excitement that is still coursing through my veins: the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the amazing Karen O. I've seen a lot of shows, and I'm not going to say that it was the best, but I can't currently think of any that I enjoyed more.

The show:
The Grand Ole Party opened and played a decent opener set. They were good, but the crowd was hyped up and ready for the real show. The weather cooperated until about 15 minutes before the YYYs went on. Five good minutes of rain and everyone was drenched. Personally, I think that made it a little more fun. No one cared when the lights went down, anyway. The crowd was great, singing along and dancing the whole time. It really had the feel of a giant party, and a lot of people were just talking to whoever was next to them. I think that was a huge part of what made this such a great show. There was only one technical issue, during Shame and Fortune, and the song suffered despite their attempts to work through it. Everything else went really smoothly and they sounded great. The encore was possibly the highlight of the night. They started off with Heads Will Roll and everyone went crazy. The pit turned into a giant dance party that went right on through the next two songs (you can't even imagine Art Star live - she held the microphone in her mouth). The set list:

RUNAWAY
CHEATED HEARTS
BLACK TONGUE
GOLD LION
DULL LIFE
SHAME AND FORTUNE
MILES AWAY
SKELETONS
SOFT SHOCK
HONEYBEAR
ZERO
MAPS
Y CONTROL
---------------
HEADS WILL ROLL
ART STAR
DATE WITH THE NIGHT

Karen O.
Let's be honest. Karen O is what makes them amazing. She bends, drops, whips, flirts, screeches, belts, stretches, dances...it's part dance, part breakdown, and it's all respectable. I won't gush, but wow. I don't know if there was a single person there who wasn't smitten with her that night. She started off in a kimono, which was taken off ("I'm takin' takin' takin' takin' takin' it off") to reveal a jumpsuit, tights, and awesome feathered bracelet/band. During Gold Lion she wore a shiny gold necklace/"mane". For Heads Will Roll, she came out in a hood that also covered her face (had a whole mummy vibe to it). The lights went out and the hood lit up. The crowd went crazy accordingly. They put on a show.

There's a great video here, and here are some pictures via Indie Columbus: