The Show

At 8pm last night, I was overcome with the motivation to change out of my PJs and make the 70-mile trip down to Bloomington to see Bon Iver at Bear’s Place. It’s proof that a part of me is tired of being lazy. Just before I was about to leave, I got an IM from John confirming he & some friends would be at the show. That news definitely added to my motivation.

It was cold & dark as I trekked down the curvy roads to Bloomington. It felt as if I may never get there, but Feist kept me company for most the trip. My stellar navigation skills got me to Bear’s without problems. I walked in to the end of a long line. There were whispers of the show selling out, and I was getting nervous since I lacked a ticket. They stopped letting people in 1 person behind me to do a count. I looked back to see John & his friends about 20 people behind me. I was going to feel terribly guilty if they didn’t get in. I made friends with a man, Charlie, in line. He struck up conversation to pass the time. He’s apparently one of those cool dads that is up on good music. By the time we got in, the only place left was to stand immediately in front of the stage. By show time, I was glad that fate had left us there. We had the best spot in the place. John & his friends made it in and filed in behind us. Phew.

The Hollows opened up the night. I forget their names, but the girl had a gorgeous voice. It was just guitar & stand-up bass. The songs were lovely, but they all ended really abruptly, which I found awkward. The last few songs of their set, they were joined on stage by Mary Sloan [previously of the Mary Jane’s with the girl in The Hollows] and Chris (i forget his last name) but I liked his vocal accompaniment.

It was 11:45 before Bon Iver took the stage. The sold out crowd [apparently a rare phenomenon for Bear’s] was getting restless. They cut their setup time short just to get to playing. He walked up on stage, took a seat, and pre-apologized that it would be a short set tonight for a myriad of reasons. He explained the bucket beside him was the “bucket of truth” [shown in 2nd photo] that he would dig in to throughout the show, just so we knew what he was up to. He began with some samples and erupted in to an instrumental opening. Honestly, I was not loving the show at the start. It was good but not great. I’m not sure what the first song was, but I believe it was followed up by Skinny Love, the crowd favorite. I definitely enjoyed that song, but it was by no means the highlight.

About half way through, two others joined him on stage. He was definitely enjoyable alone, but the energy doubled when these guys walked up. You could tell they were having a great time up there together. I don’t have my mp3’s with me to reference, but I think it was Creature Fear where I was overcome by euphoria. They were beating the hell out of the drums and he just dropped to the ground and started going crazy with effects, holding his guitar near his pedals [i really don’t know the technical terms for any of this but it’s photo 2], playing with the feedback. It was amazing, and I could have reached out and touched them. It was that moment that made it worth the late night trip. I think he may have played the whole album, but I’m not completely sure.

Aside from the 2 guys that had to keep being hushed, I’d never been in a room with 150 people who were so damned quiet. It was eerily silent as they played. Everyone was hanging on his every word. It was awesome. I can’t say it was better than an Andrew Bird show, but it was really damn good.

Oh, and yeah, note to self. That new smaller, easier to tote little camera you bought. It records video. Fucking video, mindy, and you left it in your car because you keep forgetting you own it.

After the Show

We got out of the show about 1am. We, of course, had to hit the merch table. I had planned to crash at the Motel 6 down the street, but I was invited to travel along to some parties in the area. But first, (in case you’ve read this far, johnny), John tried to do a trick that I was supposed to tell Johnny about if he were successful. I’m pretty sure he spit his gum up in to the air and tried to kick it when it landed. Sadly, he failed but it was amusing to watch. Anyway, the guys [Ben, Ryan, David, & John] knew of 3 parties. It was an idea hard for me to grasp. We stopped at the Village Pantry around the corner where Ben & John each bought a massive Budweiser. They were ridiculous. They ran in to another friend Mike who joined up with us. We walked a few blocks (in the freezing cold) to the first party. Now, I wish a hidden camera had captured this scene. All of our 100% sober asses (David with a coffee, no less) walk in to this house of party girls & gay guys. We followed Ben straight down the stairs, adoringly labeled the “Love Shack,” and that’s about all the further we made it. We stood at the bottom of the stairs in a little circle, awkwardly nodding at each other and glancing around at the people surrounding us. A guy ran up & embraced Ryan and screamed “I’m gay!!!”. [Ryan & I met up with the same guy on the street later. He had no recollection of grabbing Ryan and just spoke of how he was trying to get some action tonight. He yelled “I’ll f*ck you!” at a group of girls we passed. We tried to persuade him to take the bus home…] I think we were there a total of 5 minutes before we caught Ben’s signal to head out and we filed right back up the stairs. We waited for Ben on the front porch, surrounded by sooo much drama. “Girl, you need to get back in there.” “Why does he do this to me??” etc. Finally, I admitted, “I so can’t do house parties.” The others quickly chimed in in agreement, referencing the need for large amounts of alcohol. A group hug really should have immediately followed. It was our bonding moment.

Well, we went to John’s place to get cars to drive to the next party. So we walk in to the next one and everyone is wearing togas. We stayed at this party for a really long time. We left about 3:30am. My mouth hurt from laughing. I’m gonna have to call this one out in bullet points. Definitely some quotes of the day, for sure.

• Within 5 minutes of being there, Ben tried to show off his ridiculously large beer bottle and it just fell from his hand and started spraying beer about in a circle. He lost like 3/4 of it. It was awesome.
• David & the bottle of vanilla rum. He’d been craving liquor all night and the bottle was just sitting there all by itself.
• Spice Girls - Wanna Be. We all new the words but had too much pride to sing.
• “sword fight”
• “I like my girls dark [motions to punch girl’s face].” It was a re-enactment of what might have happened if Ben had gotten with a girl the night he chugged a pitcher in Nick’s.
• A girl gave Ryan a crown of berries & ferns, let people build him up as a proud greek, only to rip it off his head as we left the party. Maybe she saw the gigantic beer bottle get thrown like a football, not that we know who did that. We played no part.
• [Watching Ben’s dance]. John to me: “Just keep watching. It gets better.” Oh, and it did.
• Calling Johnny at 3am, just passing the phone around to leave him this massive message. I need to find out the background story on Christopher Reeves.

Our attempt to leave that party was described by many as the “longest departure ever.” It was 3:30am and we were headed to our cars but Ben insisted on going to his friend Marie’s party, b/c he promised he would. He & Ryan were leading the group, arm in arm. We couldn’t decide if they were fighting or dancing. We walked up to the house and were all whispering “Ben, Ben! All the lights are off! We shouldn’t go!” Next thing we know, a half asleep girl is opening the door. It was possibly the longest 10 minutes of my life standing in the dark with all these people sleeping and 2 girls hugging the guys…there was definite sexual tension in the room. John just walked over and put his arm around me and said “I’m really sorry.” It was all in good fun though. Once we were finally kicked out, we were roaming down the middle of the street, when the guys saw more random people they knew. There was this massive group hugging for a block. It was hilarious.

It was probably around 4am when we made it back to their place. John had told me earlier in the evening that I was not staying at a motel. A part of me was sad that I was missing out on the experience of showing up somewhere in the middle of the night, demanding a room. Another time, perhaps. Turns out, they were all hungry. It was the most random 4am snacking I have ever witnessed. All I could do was stand-by and laugh at this action. They were making chicken patty & bagel sandwiches. John was having his “favorite food”, smoked oysters. Yes, eww. Let’s dwell on this topic for a moment. 1) Who craves oysters to even try them in the first place, 2) Who can put something in their mouth that smells like that, 3) Who does all this & likes it? Yeah, John (and Ryan) apparently. It was John’s goal to get me to try one, but the thought of it made me want to vomit. Ben stuck up for me, only to later be held & restrained and forced to try one. His reaction and I quote “It tastes like what I’d expect dissected shark to taste like.” I felt so bad for him.

I have no idea what time it was when we all decided we had to sleep. I didn’t feel nearly as tired as I’m sure I was. It was a thoroughly awesome & amusing night. I’ve never had male hosts be so concerned that I had enough blankets & pillows and if I were hungry or needed anything at all. It was like I was an abandoned puppy they’d found in the streets. Good times, indeed. It was a nice introduction to Bloomington. I hope to make it back soon.

Other

I started a writing blog. I’m already slacking off on it. In my own defense, I need 3 days of sleep before my brain will work again. Check it out here: mindymccutchan.blogspot.com.

And Lily’s surgery went just fine. She is struggling with not being able to jump though.

I think that’s about it. It’s my birthday tomorrow. I’m kind of counting last night as my celebration, though. I’m gonna be here with my parents for awhile longer, since Lily needs her stitches out next Friday. If all goes well, we’ll be paying my sis a visit for her bday mid-week.

Well, I’m pleased with the obnoxious length of this post, so I think I’m going to take a nap and rest up after the late evening, as I’m guessing dad will keep us out late tonight after a trip to the Thirty-Six but maybe not…he doesn’t tell us until it’s time to leave.