I had an eventful day yesterday. I signed on an apartment, so I’m officially not going to have to live on the streets or couches. I move in a week and a half or so. Hopefully, I don’t hate it, but the landlord says he’d let me out of my lease if I did. That’s encouraging. I’ll post photos when I move in. The ones now have some girl’s crap in them.

Last night was the REM show. I left a bit early so I could retrieve Holiday and get her a long overdue car wash. The drive out left her covered in dead bugs & dust. I splurged on the super deluxe awesome wash. It was a trial in trust. The moment the conveyor belt took me in, my windshield was immediately blocked out by soap. But they did a fantastic job, so I will definitely be a return customer as the need arises.

It was so nice to be behind the wheel again. Two weeks without Holiday has felt like an eternity, especially so soon after our long distance bonding adventure. I opened the sunroof and happily motored about over to Nopa to pick up Justin for the show.

We arrived in Berkeley in good time and Justin found himself longing to stop at every restaurant. There was even a Sari shop. Not something you often see. So the Greek Theatre was pretty nice, save for the 60% slope of the lawn. We spent a good portion of the show trying to stay where we were sitting. The kids behind us made less of an effort. I got a couple knees to the ribs and Justin got hit in the kidneys. It was pretty annoying. Halfway through REM, all the people around us cleared out, and we scored some much better spots, despite wondering if we somehow scared them all away.

But yeah, I think the show would have been better if a) we weren’t fighting a hill, b) we had a blanket, and c) they had turned up the sound a bit. All venue issues, though. I’d probably go back, though, for the right band, now that I know how to roll.

The performances were great. I really want to catch The National at a smaller venue. The opener never gets good sound work. They played Fake Empire, of course, and that was really all I needed to be happy.

Modest Mouse…I’ve never been a huge fan. I like a few songs here & there, none of which they played. Definitely great performers and good sound but I didn’t get that in to it.

So REM. It was kind of magical to see such a legendary band, especially one so politically-minded in a location like Berkeley. Definitely a different energy in the crowd. The stage set was awesome. Reminded me of NIN with the LED panels, but they used them an entirely different way. It was live footage being tiled and colorized. Very pop art. It looked fantastic and it was nice to finally see the faces of a band. I need to score small binoculars. I so wanted to be taking pictures. Michael Stipe is just fun to watch on stage. He seemed to be in his own little universe at times, but I think a good frontman/lyricist always kind of is. They played all their big hits along with some new material. It was kind of crazy to hear a massive sold out crowd singing along to Losing My Religion. As Justin mentioned at the show, it is crazy how music brings so many people together.

It was good times. They closed the encore with Man on the Moon. It was by no means a perfect experience, but I feel fortunate I was able to see a band who has managed to capture the hearts of so many generations. And of course, I had excellent company and on any outing, you can’t ask for much more than that.

And I think I just ate an entire bag of goldfish while writing this post. Hmm that can’t be too healthy.

But yes, fun adventures in SF. I hope to keep up the exploring in weekends to come.