Caspian Listening Party and Post-Concert Weirdness

Caspian had a listening party back at the end of August. They advertised it as a hang out/party where they'd be playing the new album over the house speakers. I figured they would probably actually play a show, and it was proven true when they posted a week before the event that they'd be bringing their instruments "in case there was a problem with the CD player."

I was planning on going anyway, since I've become friends with them and some of their friends, and because I'd never been to a listening party, even though I've heard of bands doing it for years. I wondered just how awkward it would be to hang out in a room and listen to a CD. 

This wasn't exactly like some of the listening parties I'd heard about though. I always imagined these parties being in coffee houses with seating, and very private. This was basically a show, minus the show. It was weird. 

They brought their own foosball table though, which was pretty hilarious. They set it up in the tiny back room of TTs, with pretty much zero room.

The listening party thing was weird. After people had wandered around and talked for awhile (with a mix of music playing), Phil took the stage and mumbled something about the new album. We wondered how many people had been standing there all along thinking the DJ music was the new album. Then he played it, and it was literally just an album being played over the house speakers with lights on the stage and a group of people standing there, drinking beers and nodding their heads, listening. It was odd how people still naturally faced the stage, even though no band was playing anything, still nodding quietly to the music. I felt incredibly weird doing this, and even though I had already heard some of the album on the 4th of July, I felt like I was somehow cheating myself of the experience of listening to something for the first time in the right setting. I found myself talking to my friends almost to distract myself from listening, and then I finally just said "alright, that's enough" pretty much when the album shifted to songs I hadn't heard yet. We went to Hifi to get the best worst pizza ever, then headed back. By this time, they were playing for real, and it ruled.

So I can now safely report that a "listening party" is literally exactly that- people hanging out and drinking, then standing awkwardly, looking at speakers as they play recorded music.

The set was great though, and I took a few shots that I have deemed worthy of posting. 

Mid full body headbang:

From the floor looking up for slow jams:

Phil fiddling with his guitar:

It was a shorter set than I was expecting, but fair I guess, since this wasn't even technically a show, but instead a surprise performance. 

After the show, Forrest and I played foosball against Erin (who has a foosball tattoo) and some random dude. Erin took longer to beat us than I expected, but he showed quite clearly why he has a foosball tattoo. He has insane control over the ball and would wait until the perfect time and then score out of nowhere. I've never been even close to good at foosball, so I'll take our 4 scores as a win for us. Here's him playing with his mom. AWWWW

Now to the good stuff- the reason I wanted to post this blog.

I have hung out after shows a little bit in my day, but only for 20 minutes or so. I decided I would hang out until all of Caspian had driven away, and boy did I get a show. What a weird, weird world. 

So first of all, apparently smoking weed isn't something that people are afraid to do in public. There were a solid amount of people indulging in it right there on the street, right on the sidewalk in front of TTs. This surprised me quite a bit. To be fair, it would only be a 100 dollar fine, but still. 

After getting used to this, a homeless lady walked up to us asking for change. A guy I had met that night who was drunk and hilarious (drunkenly hilarious) started talking to her, even though I barely heard any discernible words coming out of her. 

They had quite the one sided conversation going, then got closer, with him calling her baby girl or something ridiculous like that. 

And then they hugged. 

true love

He gave her like 5 bucks and she wandered off, giving the exact same speech asking for money from someone 5 feet away who had been there the whole time. She didn't even thank him- I'm not sure she even realized that he had given her money.

Then some dude just drove up, parked his car behind Caspian's van, hopped out, and stood on the sidewalk with me, random members of the band and random friends. Some people were smoking weed, some cigarettes, and some nothing at all and just hanging out. But this dude just pulls out this little one hitter and just keeps filling it. He smoked SOOO much, just talking to us about nothing. He asked about the band, so I told him I was the lead singer. I went on for awhile, lying up a storm, and he was eating it up. He was so interested, and he just kept smoking. Eventually, I asked him who he knew there, and he said nobody. He said he had just been kicked out of a bar, and he was fighting with his wife, so he was driving around looking for nice people to hang out with. At one point in my lies, I told him that Erin was the guitarist and main songwriter, and it was weird that I was the lead singer at center stage, since Erin was so much better looking than me. At this point, the guy said VERY seriously, "No man, you're very good looking. You're VERY attractive." Oh boy.

Around this time, a homeless looking dude who I could barely understand asked all of us for rolling papers. I don't want to sound prejudice or judgemental, but this didn't look like a guy who would be smoking weed- I guessed crack. Sure enough, someone had papers, and he went to town rolling up a joint of something. He then started smoking it, and passing it around to whoever wanted it. So, to recap, this is now me with a bunch of people I didn't know (most of whom were smoking), some random dude nobody knew who was smoking SO much, and now some random homeless looking guy.

Eventually people started dispersing, and it was mostly just Caspian and me. I was still in awe, asking people if it was always like this on the streets after shows. Then I heard some groaning. Oh, what's that? Oh, it's 2 people having sex behind us. 

Ok, without getting too graphic (since this is basically a PG-13 blog), there were 2 people making out behind us, with the dude up against the girl in the corner of the back doorway to TTs. I think the girl was one of the bartenders from that night. They could have just been making out. It could have been an aggressive PG. But I don't think it was. I heard some noises and saw some movements that would definitely say otherwise. Plus, I managed to take a picture, which, although dark, clearly shows her leg up in the air with him in between. If you saw this and heard what we were hearing, there would be little doubt in your mind of what was going on. 

Everyone then took off, and I left thinking 2 things. 1. Holy shit, things can get incredibly weird and incredibly sketchy outside of shows at 1 in the morning on city streets, and 2. Holy shit, I need to go on tour to experience more of this.

currently listening to: The Plot In You- "First Born"