Great Show

We are old.  We got to the Paradise a few minutes before the opening band, Speedy Ortiz, started their set.  My back and my legs were already bothering me but I hadn’t gone in search of a pole to lean on yet.  Larry laughed and said something like, I don’t want to stand here for hours.  He was right.  None of us did.  When we were 25 we did, but at a year and change shy of 50?  We’re old!  That’s when I went to find a pole to lean against and I didn’t leave it until Cleo’s encore ~2.5 hours later.

Speedy Ortiz went on at 8:00ish.  I think they were good.  The sound was pretty bad.  Tons of drums (he was really, really good) and a little voice on top, and a ton of mud in the middle.  It got better as they went on and I liked them enough that I’ll go looking for more.

Letters to Cleo came on at 9:25 or so and it was bliss.  I could have done without the Christmas music but otherwise it was every bit as good as we had hoped it would be.  The mix was tons better than the first band and it was very loud.  I forgot my ear plugs so maybe it was louder than I’m used to, but it was loud.  Really loud.  Really very loud.  It was awesome.  Well, I’m sitting here the next morning with ears that have recovered so it was awesome. If my hearing was still squishy and fuzzy I might not be as happy about it.  That’s all my fault though.

When they came back for their encore there was a guest.  Allow me to go back in time and set this up from my perspective.  Back in the 90’s (I can’t say that phrase without singing the Bojack Horseman theme song) Cleo did a bunch of songs for movie soundtracks.  One of them was a cover of “Dangerous Type” by The Cars.  Greg Hawkes, the keyboard player from The Cars, played on that recording.  Later, he also played on a song (just one?) on Cleo’s last record.  There was one show that we went to, pretty sure it was at Avalon on Lansdowne Street, where he sat in with them for a couple of Cars covers.  Larry remembered that one, but Mike didn’t.  Was he there?  I thought he was.  Last night he sat in with them again for three songs.  Both of the songs he recorded with them, and “Bye Bye Love.”  It was glorious.  All of the band members were beaming with glee to have him there.  They sounded great, he sounded great, it was great.

I took a few pics.  They all suck.  I don’t care, it was fun.

There were a couple of stage lights that seemed to be targeting me.  It makes the bad pictures worse, but I think it’s funny so deal with it.

Interestingly (no it isn’t), the iPhone XS Max seems to have been the better choice over the Nikon Coolpix.

And there you have it.  Until next year’s Letters to Cleo Homecoming Tour.