I’ve got my dancing shoes on…

And I feel alright.

It is extremely hard to focus at work right now with the oncoming dance party that will be the weekend. I will be seeing not one, but TWO of my top-five favorite bands in the span of 24 hours. Tonight, Bronwyn and I, and a couple of friends are going to Of Montreal at the Avalon. I’ve been a fan of theirs since The Gay Parade, but their last three albums - Satanic Panic in the Attic, The Sunlandic Twins, and Hissing Fauna, You Are the Destroyer - have continued to pump up the pop-dance power at exponential steps while still holding true to their unique psychedelic sound.

Here’s a photo I took of the band when they played at the Echoplex (more photos from that show here. And I have to admit, Kevin, the lead singer, is one of the few guys out there that I would man-crush on. I mean, totally secure in my heterosexuality here, but can you blame me?

Anyways, so that’s Friday. Saturday evening, Bronwyn and I will be seeing Saturday Looks Good to Me at The Echo. They haven’t done any videos, but here’s a recording of a live performance. Forgive the bad sound.

That video was done in February. I saw them in March at Spaceland where Fred Thomas, the lead singer and mastermind behind SLGTM, said there was no longer a female singer in the band. I wonder if that’s still the case as that really changed the sound of the group for the worse. Thomas is a fantastic songwriter, but the female vocalist in the band was necessary to add the extra bit of pop that Thomas’ singing alone lacked. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the March show, but it just wasn’t the same.

After the SLGTM show, Bronwyn and I will be switching shoes and possibly outfits for a different kind of dance party as we head out to our alma mater, Pomona College, to bust out the lindy hop moves at the Swing Jam. The 5-C Lindy Hop Club was something my friend Stephanie and I resurrected at the Claremont Colleges, organizing and teaching lindy hop lessons and putting on dances. Three years after graduating, I am so happy to see that the club is still going strong. This year they’re raising money for charity while offering raffle prizes from local donors. That is so awesome. I feell like a gushing parent. It’s definitely grown beyond what I was able to accomplish during my time at the colleges and I’m happy to head over there and support them this Saturday, even if it means sore feet on Sunday.

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