Sunday, April 17, 2005

Getting My Friday Night Irish On In Hoboken, Wizard Kicking On Saturday

I had the choice Friday night to see Beck at his "secret" show at Hiro at The Maritime Hotel, or to see The Undertones at Maxwell's. It was not even a contest, I could not pass up a chance to see the legendary band from Derry (not to mention the fact that I was taking my brother Ron to see them for his first time, as a birthday gift).

As they were at their show I saw last year at the Knitting Factory, they were loud, fast, and tight. They played about 26 songs in little over an hour, thankfully foregoing the "encore" charade (walking off the stage, through the crowd to the back, and then back through the crowd to the stage again) and just tacked a few more songs onto the set.

The sold-out crowd was packed with older folks who'd seen them come through in the early 80's, lots of kids brushing up on punk-pop history, and a surprising number of chubby goth girls, who seemingly thought they were at a Siouxie show, but they appeared to enjoy themselves nonetheless. Between this show and last weekend's Bloc Party show at Bowery Ballroom, I've seen more dancing and have personally pogoed more than my last 10 years of club shows combined.

Here's what it looked like from the middle of Maxwell's floor:




Last night I hit the MetroStars second home match (and the first home match this year without monsoon conditions) to see them draw against the always boring Kansas City Wizards, 2-2. It was friggin' freezing, and was the first sporting event of the new millineum where I actually stood in line to buy hot chocolate to stay warm.

The highlight of the evening, besides the excellent jalapeno "cheez" that came with my pal Sergio's "Nachos del East Rutherford":



was the fact that the other Sergio in attendance there, Sergio Galvan Rey, had both goals for Metro, in one night equalling his entire last year's goal total. Draws suck, but they are way better than losses, especially when your team comes back from being down by two. Here's what the cavernous and 5/6 empty Giants Stadium looked like from my chilly vantage point in the rear of the supporters section:



And today's sunny & 73F Sunday afternoon weather? How's a brother supposed to get himself back to work on Monday morning after all this?

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