When I was about 18 or so (can’t remember… I wasn’t 21 I know that for sure) I went to go see one of my favourite groups at the time- Stereolab, at the Pearl Street Nightclub in Northampton Mass. I forget who opened for them, but during the openers set, my friend Cassie and I went outside for a smoke because Massachusetts had just banned smoking inside bars the week before or something.
Here is Cassie and I somewhere around this time… (2002, 2003??)… just babies we were…
So, being new to this system of having to leave the bar for a smoke and not thinking that I would have to leave my drink behind on a table sitting next to the bouncers, I placed my drink down ( half Jim Beam brought from home, half coke… Too young to drink in a bar, so I usually improvised ….) and walked out. Upon coming back into the bar, the big beefy bouncer asks me “This your drink?” and I reply with a cheeky “No” and start to walk back in the club. The bouncer, knowing full well that it was my drink, calls after me “I’m sorry but you’ve got to get the fuck out of here.” I argued with him for a while until finally his brute force won and I was thrown from Pearl Street… But not before I could throw Cassie my tape recorder, and through watery pathetic eyes yell “Tape the show for me! Bwa hahahah Waaaaah!” (I collected recordings from shows on the regular from that time…Only for personal use! No one would want these recordings anyways… they are half filled with me singing loudly, dancing and shuffling sounds or just I had the thing in my pocket to hide the red light and its just all muffled… I learned to tape the red light later on…)
I wanted to immediately throw up. Not even really because I was embarrassed or anything but because I had been waiting for this show for years and I couldn’t believe I was going to miss out. Also I couldn’t stand constantly sneaking into the shows I wanted to go to, or just not being able to buy a drink like a goddamn adult. It gave me so much anxiety and I resented everyone older than me (I know, that makes no sense…) and the bartender for not seeing that I could obviously handle my booze and I was obviously well beyond my years… : )
So, I sat outside the back door of Pearl Street, smoked a pack of cigarettes, cried like a loser and hoped Lætitia Sadier (Stereolab lead singer) would come out and take me in to help her sing my favourite song, while she mocked the arsehole bouncer…but that didn’t happen.
I did eventually end up seeing Stereolab, but sadly it was after the tragic death of Mary Hansen. And you know, I am having a hard time remembering the show…. Was it in Boston? Oh geez… If any of my Mass friends read this, can you help refresh my memory? Maybe had I not been DRINKING I would have remembered a little better…………..
This song, Doubt, was maybe my favourite Stereolab song at one time, but I would say that I really can’t pick a fave right now. I remember wanting the song to go on forever, and I still do. The song was on one of their first albums in 1991 and then appeared on “Switched On” which was a compilation of their first 3 releases. There is a really lovely version of the song on a BBC radio sessions album they did… It’s much more produced and clean sounding…But I prefer this version myself 🙂
Someone buy me a Moog…..
(If your wondering what this has to do with bookbinding… well it has nothing to do with bookbinding… THERE ARE NO RULES)
mule mother's musings 