This is the first time I had been to the church in over a month. This show was not even supposed to occur here, but UPENN administrators had different ideas. I jetted to the show from Jack and Grant’s place in West Philly, and got there a bit after 7.30. When I got there, I met up with Bryn Mawr Michelle, and hit Wawa. When I got back, other Michelle was there and we waited together until the doors opened (but she ended up splitting). Turing Machine, the new Jade Tree band, got on about 8.30 and played an abbreviated set. They were so exciting and new, playing forceful, driving instrumental rock and roll. They were a fierce appetizer for what was to come. Their album comes out in January, which isn’t all that far away. I don’t think this was planned, but it came off so wonderfully—for some reason, a crazy woman ended up downstairs while Turing Machine was on. She walked around, yelling at the top of her lungs with wild hand movements. The music was a perfect soundtrack to her. The funny thing was how all of the kids totally ignored her. If she got up in our faces, we just ignored her like she wasn’t there, and watched the band.

Between sets, I went outside and started to talk to two of Michelle’s friends (Matt and Kevin) that I met earlier, and of course crazy woman conversation came up. To top it all off, about three feet behind us, some guy threw up and walked off, and then everyone started walking through it, like they couldn’t figure out why there was a big circle that no one was standing in. Slaves were next, and they started out their set of dark, dissonant rock in a completely dark room. They were pretty good, nothing special. The Champs were next and were just pure killer. They were a mix of metal and mathy type rock. A bunch of bikers came in for the set, and got really rowdy, like it was a Metallica concert, but they were all cool.

Don Caballero finally made their way onstage about 11.30. Damon Che looked sick, and later revealed that he was sick. He had the biggest drumkit I had ever seen before, the two songs I did see were full of rhythm and drum-based. Thanks to the damn train leaving just after midnight, I missed most of their set. Good show.