Sleeping Lessons

Sadly, this isn't a post about sleeping lessons (which I probably need, since I can't seem to accomplish it by myself). Rather, I thought I'd say a few words about the awesome concerts of this week, Ben Kweller on Tuesday and The Shins last night. (If you are still confused, "Sleeping Lessons" is the name of a Shins song - the opening song at the concert last night.)
They were great.
Ben Kweller was a complete spur of the moment - Sydney came over on Monday, distressed because she hadn't known about the Shins concert until it was too late - and mentioned that Ben Kweller was coming. When she found out I had a car we both dropped everything to go. The first opening band was promising . . . until the lead singer opened his mouth. I'm not sure why they elected him singer, but as dumb as their lyrics were I'm not sure if it would have mattered. Thankfully, the second band, a local group called The Brobecks, was basically fantastic. They had some rhythms that sounded almost like the 50s (sort of like Greenday sounds a little 60s at times) and they were all kinds of fun. The semi-morbid murder-mysteryesque song "Goodnight Socialite" was my favorite.
Ben Kweller looks about 15, and the girl shirt he was wearing under his plaid flannel one didn't help much, but he sounded great, and singing "HEY! I need you Baaaaaaaaack" was all kinds of fun. He played FOREVER (it probably seemed longer because I was hungry and my feet hurt after standing through The Brobecks and Automatic Body, but it was still a long show) and our ears were ringing a little after, but it was great. The highlight was when Ben couldn't find his harmonica headgear and had a guy from the audience play the harmonica part. The guy was good and we all loved it. I'm sure it was the guy's dream come true, especially since he got to keep the harmonica. Also, he played Roger Miller's "Chug-a-lug" which made my heart happy, because I'm pretty sure I was one of the few people who knew it was Roger Miller and not a milk chug commercial. My dad would have been proud.
The opening band for the Shins got stuck somewhere due to "weather," (whatever that means) so we just jumped right into the real show.
They were AMAZING.
My ears didn't hurt when they were done (yay for The Shins being just as chill in concert as they are on their CDs), but all of the lyrics I'd never quite understood before suddenly seemed very profound, and "A Comet Appears" gave me goosebumps. They played most of my favorite songs, including "Saint Simon," "Kissing the Lipless," "Turn on Me," and "So Says I" for an encore. "Kissing the Lipless" was the first Shins song I ever heard because my brother put in on a CD of "college music" that he made when I graduated from high school. I was actually almost surprised when they started playing it because I had somehow disconnected it from them in my head and it no longer seems like a Shins song to me.
Next up will probably be Snow Patrol in March, because I'm basically a concert junkie at this point. I keep talking to people who don't understand why I like going so much, but there's some kind of adrenaline rush that can't really be explained to someone who isn't a music freak, and I'm still just a little bit star struck when I hear the same sounds I've loved for so long coming out of real people.
Speaking of music freaks, I discovered this week that there is this funny connection between people who like this crazy indie music (I don't even know how to categorize what I listen to, but the kids who also listen to it know what I mean just based on the bands I talked about in this post). The other day I turned around in my English class and saw a Shins sticker on the binder of the girl who sits behind me. I don't even know her name, but when I asked if she was going to the concert we became immediate friends and started talking about all of our bands. It's a really funny phenomenon. I like it.