lagging tales: Spiral Beach and a band called Cute

Wow, I am the world's greatest updater! This edition includes a quick recap of two shows: Spiral Beach at the Whippersnapper Gallery on June 20th and Cute Is What We Aim For at the Mod Club on June 24.

Part One: I went to go see Spiral Beach again a week after their NxNE performance, and that was an even better show with lights! pylons! sixteen year olds! okay, that last part sounded creepy, but the audience provided as much of an interestingly entertaining show as the band did. That sounded creepy too... but what I really mean is.. check out those dance moves!

But really. They put on a fantastic show. Most of my time was spent laughing about the kids with a friend and gushing over the bass player, but I still cannot get over their talent (as I'm wearing the traffic cone t-shirt I bought at that show). Check this out.

Part Two: Then came Tuesday, when I had to not only go review the Cute Is What We Aim For concert with Powerspace and Ace Enders, but I had to do an interview with vocalist Shaant Hacikyan and bassist Dave Melillo. I thought it would be awkward because I know the guys (minus Dave) from old Buffalo days when they were Cherrybing and Forget Last Year as well as the early days of Cute (omgz I was their first MySpace comment, and people actually find this out and message me because of it. Eesh.) The CBing and FLY days were such a huge part of my life and when Cute grew, it was strange, to say the least. I also don't take time out to listen to them..ever. I hadn't talked to the guys in years, so I was a little anxious about the interview. I took a little satisfastion in passing through the line of MORE sixteen year olds (seriously, it was my week!) to go into the Mod Club, feeling all cool, but I had to wait an hour for the band to be ready for their interview after their soundcheck. I get on the bus, Shaant is about to shake my hand, looks at me, takes a few seconds and goes "woah". Tom turns around, does the same. "Oh my god!" they both say. Later, the same happened with Jeff. Shaant was all "Jeff, are you kidding?" and Jeff was all "Oh my god! Hi!" And I was all "how did you guys not recognize me? I look the same." and Shaant, curled up in a ball on his seat, looked out the window of his bus to the fans lined up on the street and said "It's been a few years, dear." "Yeah," I replied. "It's not like you see hundreds of faces every day." Jeff groaned.

Anyways, the show was interesting. I didn't enjoy Powerspace as they were just too confused (but did enjoy watching Tom from Cute walk around the back of the venue putting green tape on many fans backs saying "Tom Wass Here") and Ace Enders put on a show I enjoyed more than I expected (I was nostalgic for The Early November, and he played "Ever So Sweet", which made me melt a little), and Cute's show wasn't exactly dissapointing but it was not good. It didn't seem together, rehearsed, or very enthusiastic. For more, just read this.

Also, after I became Facebook friends with Shaant, I've been getting weird messages on my old MySpace all "omgz are you dating Shaant" from creepy teenagers. What the hell.