seeing Chemlab, watching Doctor Who, and hanging out with fandom friends

[rusty_halo]

10zlaine came to visit this weekend. We went to see Chemlab in Philadelphia on Friday night. The trip was delayed by both JetBlue and Amtrak being lame, so we got to the venue around 10pm... and it turned out we were EARLY. Ah, industrial shows in tiny little venues. Chemlab went on around 12:45am. And can I just say, THANK GOD I brought earplugs. Because the opening bands weren't bad, but they were LOUD, and I don't want to be deaf when I'm thirty.

Actually, Skeleton Key, the second opener, was really good. Not something I'd heard before, pretty unique and interesting. They also had a bigger crowd than Chemlab, I guess because they're local (well, from NYC).

Chemlab was awesome. The stage was tiny and the people who were up front were clearly the type of fans who REALLY love the band. There was some jumping around, but not the kind of scary moshing that sends everyone else hiding in the back. I stayed up front and jumped around with the crowd. The sound was good, the setlist was super tight (even a little short, left you wanting more), and the performances were just amazing. It's fun to watch the band win over the crowd--how can you resist Jared Louche's charisma?

(And I have to say, from a purely fangirlish perspective, watching all the intentional hoyay between him and their adorably cute bass player is just so entertaining. Jared keeps grabbing and groping and trying to lick the pretty boy, and the pretty boy mostly ignores it and tries to play bass, and at the end they all end up rolling around on the stage together grabbing each other, and ... yeah. Every slash fan should be coming to these shows and enjoying themselves.)

We stayed in a hotel in Philly, since Amtrak doesn't go back to NYC after midnight. Then in the morning, psubrat came to visit, with her adorable son in tow. We chatted for a while and gossiped about conventions and Doctor Who, then went to eat at Singapore Vegetarian Restaurant, an Asian place that my mom used to take me to once or twice a year when I first went vegan as a kid. I hadn't been there since... 1999? and was surprised it was still there. The menu was huge, the service was super friendly, and the food was excellent.

psubrat was kind enough to drive us to the train station, so we said goodbye and then got on a train back to NYC (we'd missed the 1:30 train that we'd originally bought tickets for). We tried to watch some Doctor Who on the train, but we didn't have two sets of headphones and the train conductor frowned on our attempt to watch it with the volume on. Oh well.

Once home we watched Doctor Who properly (I showed 10zlaine "Smith & Jones," "The Shakespeare Code," and "Gridlock" to start, because I'm all about David Tennant and I like angsty third season Doctor better than schmoopy second season Doctor). We also ordered sushi from this new place I found that makes really good vegan sushi, but it took two hours to arrive! So we ate it as quickly as possible so that we could get to Chemlab on time.

They played at the Knitting Factory, and we timed it just right this time; we arrived at 11:15pm right before they went on. The crowd was a bit bigger this time, although slightly less rowdy, and the lights were a lot better. I left my camera behind so that I could focus on the show. I also didn't drink at all, since I was still slightly hungover from the night before, and wanted to focus more on the music. This was the last show of the tour, so everything was pretty wild. Jared came into the crowd and sang from there for a while, and at the chaotic end, during "Summer of Hate," the Skeleton Key guys came onstage banging their weird drum things, and all the boys ended up tackling each other and rolling around in a big wild orgy of pretty boys hugging and groping each other to loud insane music as the crowd went wild. It was awesome.

We got home pretty early--around 1am?--and had time for more Doctor Who. Between that night and the next morning, we watched "Human Nature," "Family of Blood," "Utopia," "Sound of Drums," and "Last of the Time Lords." That makes a pretty coherent third season arc, and leaves some good episodes that she can go back and watch if she's into it. (I'm not sure how much she enjoyed it vs how much she was just putting up with my obsession.)

Then jaydk came over, and we... watched more Doctor Who! Of course. While eating Thai food that we'd ordered in. I wanted 10zlaine to see what all the fuss is over Rose, so we just watched "The Christmas Invasion" and the first four episodes of season two in order. Rose is just so much more warm and fun and entertaining to watch than Martha's endless "but why doesn't he like meeeee" whining. (I'm not a shipper--I mean, I read Ten/Rose as a romance, and I'm fine with it, but I'm not inspired to seek it out in fanfic or anything like that. The only ship I ship is Ten/Master... and maybe Ten/Jack if it's written well. But, yeah, I just like Rose as a character.) And it is nice to see the Doctor all goofy and happy, even though, like I said, the angst is what really gets me.

Eventually jaydk left, and 10zlaine hung out a little longer and watched about an hour of David Tennant's season two video diaries with me (she is such a patient friend) before leaving to catch her 3:15am Amtrak train (she'd given up on JetBlue after the disaster of flying here).

On Monday I woke up feeling like absolute crap--I guess traveling and staying up late and going out in the cold aren't so good for the immune system. I ended up staying home from work and huddling in bed all day, waking up occasionally to drink hot tea and take vitamin C supplements. I hate being sick.

And today I'm back at work, trying to figure out how I'm going to finish all these piles of work before I have to fly to Indiana on Friday. *sigh*

[Cross-posted to InsaneJournal]

Comments

[jaydk.livejournal.com]

Poor 10zlaine! We *are* a cult, aren't we? I hope she enjoyed some of it -- otherwise, I'm surprised she didn't brain us with our Doctor Who DVD box sets. ;-)

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

We *are* a cult, aren't we?

Hee! That's why fandom is so fun! Unfortunately, rusty_halo and I can't stand over you while you read all four Martin books in one night - that's the huge advantage of tv over print media when it comes to brainwashing introducing your friends to your latest obsession :P