a non-ode to st. paul

So, my city - by which I mean St. Paul - kinda sucks ass sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I love it in a lot of ways - it's much cheaper to live on this side of the river, and I like the more historic and settled feeling I get over here - but man, does it have some logistical problems. For example, on a night when there's a major concert at the gigantic arena downtown (Red Hot Chili Peppers, in this case), I should be able to find a restaurant open somewhere within five blocks of the arena. But, no, 4:30 on a Sunday afternoon, I walk up and down Kellogg and 4th Street, and nothing. Nada. Just a ghetto-looking convenience store and a bunch of locked doors. Okay, I'm sure if I'd gone a bit closer to the arena, I'd have found a bar or two, but Station 4 is on the opposite end of downtown, and I wasn't wearing a coat. They're building condos out the ass over there, is a simple coffee shop too much to ask?

Then, there's the lack of highway signage on that side of the city. I live here, people, and know enough people who live south of St. Paul (::waves at leighblack::) that I do the 52-to-35E exchange on a semi-regular basis. Could I find the entrance to 35E coming out of Station 4? Hell no. I drove in circles until I finally saw Phalen Boulevard and said "oh, shit, I don't think I'm supposed to be here." Thank god for cell phones and for urbanbluesky, because that was an area of town I wasn't keen on walking around at 9:30 at night. And, yes, I did in fact call someone in Kansas City to use Mapquest for me, because most of the local folks I know well enough to call live on the wrong side of the river, and would have been like "sorry, dude, you lost me at St. Paul."

Anyway. I survived the ghost town on a Sunday afternoon/evening, and the Lostprophets show was definitely worth it. I would have possibly liked to trade one of the three opening acts for a longer headlining set, but oh well. None of the opening acts were bad - first, local boys Throw The Fight; I stood in line with the lead singer's parents, apparently. Nice people. Decent band, too, I'd see them again. Then, The Transit War, who were also good. Bonus points for the bassist/lead singer, who looked alarmingly like Butch Walker. The third opener, Take The Crown, kinda lost me, but I can't quite put my finger on why. I just don't remember anything about them, except that I wandered over to the bar and looked at the football scores while they were on.

Aside: dude, Station 4 is a tiny hole in the wall. Not a bad venue for a rock show, but I am SO HAPPY that the +44 show was moved to First Avenue, because Station 4 is less than half the size of the Ave. If there would have been any kind of crowd for +44 - and with Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker, I can't imagine there won't be - we might have died, crammed into Station 4. All in all, the change of dates probably did us a favor. Also, at an all-ages show over there, the under 21 crowd gets really hosed, because they don't let anyone underage near the one bar in the place. So, anyone under 21 gets nothing to drink, at all, ever. Sheesh.

Lostprophets were excellent - again, I'd have liked more of a set, because they played just under an hour, but what they did play was awesome. The energy of the band and the crowd during "Last Train Home" was pretty spectacular. I'm pretty bad with their song titles otherwise - I recognized pretty much everything, but a lot of times, their titles don't actually reference anything in the song, so I don't remember which is which. But, the lead singer has presence to spare, and they had fantastic energy all around. They mentioned that this was a last-minute sort of tour, put together when they realized the HIM tour was cancelled, leaving them in the US without anything better to do. So, a small show and a small crowd, but a good time was had by all.

... and now, time to go hunt down Torchwood :)