let me tell you about my first - and last - night at club 156

I think I jinxed myself tonight in one or more of the following fashions:

• By wishing that I could take Saturday night's Menomena crowd with me to every show I attend;
• By talking Man Man up to Leah enough that she bought a ticket for tonight's show;
• Or perhaps I was just too spoiled with my last Man Man experience...

I was so pumped after seeing Man Man at Larimer Lounge a couple of weeks ago, that I bought tonight's ticket as soon as I got home from the show. I'd never even heard of Club 156, but a after a quick web search I knew that it was in Boulder and held 150 people. Sounded damn, damn good to me for another Man Man show. The fact that Club 156 is actually inside the CU student center should have been a red flag to begin with, but sadly I didn't find out that bit of info until I was mapquesting directions this afternoon. But still I was really excited for the show.

Local band Mannequin Makeout opened the show. They were pretty good, very punky - kind of reminded me of an older and more mature Be Your Own PET. I was interested to see that the keyboardist was using the same gadget that I saw Mothership use when they opened for Dirty On Purpose a few weeks ago. I seriously have got to find out what this thing is. The best way I can describe it is it's a black box with an antenna. When someone passes their hand near the antenna, it emits some funky noise, that changes as the hand moves. It's a nifty little gadget, at any rate.

Mannequin Makeout played about a 40-minute set, and I thought Man Man might actually start almost on time. Ha. I'm guessing that they didn't have a soundcheck and/or the Club 156 sound guy sucks some serious ass, as it took them 45 minutes to get set up. That's compared to about 20 minutes at Larimer Lounge. It was difficult not to get impatient, but I knew once they started playing everything would be great. Ha.

Tonight was the closest I've ever come to getting into a fight. Well, maybe except for that one time in junior high where this bully girl accused me of stealing her quarter. But I don't think she was really serious. What was serious was how annoying the couple (and very tall friend) standing behind me tonight actually were. Long story short, they seemed to feel that, despite the fact that everyone in the first several rows were shoulder to shoulder, they should be able to use as much space as they wanted in which to dance. I have absolutely no problem with people having a good time at a show, but when I start getting pushed and stepped on, I tend to get a bit pissed off. After pushing the woman away several times, the very tall friend got right in front of me. In a tremendous group effort, Leah and I managed to push them back toward the center. :) The back and forth went on for a bit, and I was getting increasingly irritated because I wasn't enjoying the show at all; in fact the band was becoming secondary to trying not to get pushed over. After one apparently major dirty look, the girl says to me "why won't you let me move?". Right. Ummm, sweetheart, when there are people packed in like sardines we don't have much choice in "moving". Move up and down like everyone else in the first few rows. JFC one of my major pet hates are the entitled people of the world. Like I should let her move, regardless of the fact that I'm getting kicked and pushed and subjected to the rank odor of her and her boyfriend that I can still smell on my arm. Ugh. The thing that really got my blood boiling though was at one point she was behind me and actually pulled my hair. I'm not even kidding. My two-year-old niece pulls people's hair when she's angry at them. Good fucking lord.

Partway through the set they seemed to migrate away from me, so I was able to pay attention to the stage for a while. When Man Man played a semi-slow song, I actually thought the couple was going to chill out for a minute, but this is when they practically went down on each other right there next to me. Awesome. I thought they should do us all a favor and go have sex in the beemer or hummer or whatever car that one of their parents probably got them for their 21st birthday. Finally, at about 45 minutes into the set, we decided to head out. It was so disappointing... first to have to wait for-fucking-ever for the show to start, then to have assholes in much too close proximity. On top of everything else, and despite the fact it took the sound guy 45 minutes to get things right, the sound wasn't nearly as good as it was at Larimer Lounge. I think I wish to erase tonight from my mind and crawl back to the sweet memory of Man Man at Larimer Lounge - where I was in the front row having fun with people who were not hell bent on making things miserable for everyone around them.

Man Man were still awesome for sure, but I couldn't even pay attention tonight, which makes me very sad. I hope I get to see them again in a better place before they become too huge... Unfortunately (as of yet) there's no Colorado date on their tour with Modest Mouse. Sigh. But tomorrow - Stars Of Track & Field, The Broken West & The Long Winters at the Bluebird!! Ahhhh, the Bluebird - so familiar, so comfortable, so NOT Club 156.