Matty's Night Out

Warning: This may take a turn into a mucky ditch, but I will wrench it out.

One of my own personal 'reboots' is to get a life. A real life. This should be a no-brainer, and I think sometimes easy for someone in my demographic. I have a job I love, and it's mostly, for the time being, managed, I have friends and family, and this includes my Azerothian Rolodex of contacts and friends. But I must admit, it has become increasingly difficult to balance my Azerothian life with my real one. When immersing oneself in a second life world, though, there must be a natural progression to ennui.

Oh, wait --dammit! I didn't mean to start scraping out my brain cells about game play, etc. My post is about what I did Friday night!

I actually got out of the house!

There were tickets pre-purchased, there was a drive in the car late at night, to a show at a little dive in Ballard, Washington (a neighborhood in Seattle) called the Tractor Tavern, to see one of my favorite bands, Los Straightjackets. 

Here they are playing in a backyard:

Cross-Dressing Rogue had told me several months ago about one of the band members, Danny Amis, and his fight with cancer. Fights with cancer suck. They are very one-sided and cancer don't care. CDR purchased some items to help his fight. NPR did a story, too. Sad to report, Danny Amis was sorely missed at the show on Friday. He is recovering, but lessened his show schedule appearances. CDR has seen them before, and explained Danny brings something else to the mix, that although the other band members had in terms of technical musicianship, he brings charisma and mojo.

Now, what does this little surf band, getting out of the house, and Azeroth have to do with one another? Not much I suppose. I was commenting to CDR that in contrast to all the over-produced, pre-packaged pop music out there, Los Straightjackets is the real deal: a truly hard-working band, which plays a grueling concert schedule, and their abilities are outstanding. That fast-paced chicken-picking guitar work in traditional SoCal surf music is physically demanding and requires a level of expertise few guitarist can master. This is no autotune bullshit. And of course, being who we are, and being who CDR is, and what he goes through, went on a small rant about the lack of health insurance in our nation, the lack of care, and that those hard-working musicians who truly do it out of love, and bring so much to table, really have no safety net. Speaking as one who does it 'for love of the work,' love only goes so far.

Now, what kind of stunk was I couldn't drink, being the DD (designated driver). This was a small inconvenience - there is a long, dark drive back to the Matty-shack. This lack of a cocktail or two suppressed my free-spirited urge to dance, along with my honking huge purse. I was thinking that back in the day I would have put three things in my jean's pocket: lipgloss, small amount of case, a debit card, and license. Purse?! Hell no. But there I was like a dork with a huge bag, checking my cell phone on the whereabouts of my own little cubs, and wishing I could have a Pabst or two. The crowd itself didn't dance much either. But that's okay - it's not like I don't have a living room and some speakers, and plenty of cocktails when I need to cut loose and dance around to tunes like Casbah or Space Mosquito.

And I was also inspired by the opening act: Miss Mamie Lavona the Exotic Mulatta and her White Boy Band. They were amazing! She wore a cute little white dress that looked like a Chinese take-out box, and let's just say her bosom was as impressive as her rich voice. The band is bawdy and all kinds of fun. That Dixieland jazz stuff isn't my cup of cafe au lait necessarily, but it is highly entertaining in the right setting. And a fat man in a fez playing a ukulele always works.

So--how am I going to pull this out of the muck? Well......

Step One: Tell Azerothian friends about awesome music.
Step Two: Share love of both Azeroth life and Real life
Step Three: Turn it up to 11.

Love you guys - now go dance.