I almost forgot to post about this.

While in Denver, one evening I got caught up in a fit of antisocial moodiness. So instead of doing the pub crawl down the 16th Street pedestrian mall with the whole entourage for the fourth straight night, I left the hotel, hopped in a cab by myself and lit out for the Bluebird Theater to catch the Deerhoof show that I knew was happening…somewhere. The cabbie knew the way.

The concert was great. I’m not a fan really, but good live music is good live music. They’ve got a very hard-to-describe sound. Power trio, deconstructed song structures, arhythmic, atonal, freak out, jerky, cloying, spazzy, experimental. Not something I’d normally put on, but they rocked out, undeniably.

The club was really nice too. Charming old theater-style venue with an uncrowded bar (serving Anchor Steam on tap!) and a thin haze of sweet-smelling smoke up near the stage. Different levels made it easy to see from anywhere and the audience was enthusiastic and fun.

Afterwards, when the crowd spilled out onto the sidewalk, I started talking with a few dudes who were hanging out, smoking. We chatted about the show, and the Mountain Goats concert I had seen last month. One of them lived in Philadelphia for a while and had visited Pittsburgh once. This was enough for him to keep high-fiving me every ten minutes and loudly proclaiming me to be his “Pitt bro!!!” (he was pretty smashed). Overwhelmed by our newly-formed bond of brotherhood, he and his pals insisted on taking me across the street for “carbombs”. When we got there, I learned these were shots of Bailey’s Irish Creme dropped into a Guinness stout. Chugged, naturally. After a few of these, and some conversation with the bartender about who was the biggest jerk in our little group, we parted ways and I had to locate a cab, not really sure where I was. Good times.

Oh yeah…My Pitt Bro told me he was an elementary school teacher / amateur porn star. I couldn’t tell if he was serious, half-serious or just drunk, but I had to make him promise not to send samples of his work to my cell phone (which is a work phone).