Friday, August 18, 2006

Last Romp of the Summer

School started this week. On the night before the first day, a night that usually finds me making last-minute plans. I usually get het up with anticipation. As I grow older, this anticipation lessens, but it's still there.

Camper Van Beethoven had a gig at the Belly Up in Del Mar on this particular Back-to-School Eve. We know the bass player so we thought we'd check them out. I knew I'd be up late, but what the hey?

While driving down, the traffic slowed a couple of times. At one point, when it slowed to around 40 MPH, this guy in the lane next to me started swerving. I passed this guy and glared at him as I did so and saw that he was rapidly, repeatedly slapping his own face while trying to steer. I glanced at him in my rearview mirror a couple of times. He continued to slap his own face, swerving from one edge of his lane to the other.

This will remain a mystery to me forever.

The concert started late. When they came out, Greg Lowrey, the lead singer, seemed subdued. He is kind of cocky and arrogant, so this was a departure from his usual stage manner. Camper is a tight band and Lowrey's songs are great, but they were less engaging than they had been at the other performance I had seen a long time ago. Not much audience interaction. But the same tight musicianship for the most part and the audience seemed to love them.

I got home late and arrived at school to meet my new students. By about 4th period, I was really dragging. I could have fallen asleep at my lectern. I managed to stay awake and even stay after school a little while to finish some work.

I hope I can get my circadian rhythm back this weekend.

5 comments:

Billy Canary said...

Greg is the other guitar player. Dave is the main man. The brooding, smoldering guy.

Brother Atom Bomb of Reflection said...

i always get this guy's name wrong.

Billy Canary said...

It's OK. He's not always very friendly.

Donita Curioso said...

Hmmm, was the guy slapping himself driving a burnt orange SUV? Paige and I had a close encounter on the freeway with an SUV doing a bucking bronco imitation. Pretty freakin' scary.

It sounds like the guy you saw was trying to keep himself awake. Shoulda called 911.

So, you're back at school. When do you want to walk?

Brother Atom Bomb of Reflection said...

Nah. He was in a pickup. Looked like he had a housepainting biz.