Only Moment Alone

Last night Michelle and I drove to Detroit to see Mike Kinsella, aka “Owen” play the Magic Stick. We didn’t realize that two NCAA regional basketball games were scheduled at Ford Field and also there was a Red Wings home game happening at the same time. We ate dinner downtown; Detroit was unusually alive and electric and there were people everywhere.

Mike was wearing a Canada hat that he had just bought at his last show in Toronto and for some reason I thought that was somewhat humorous. It was a very sparse and sub-par audience and I think that may have translated into a bit of a lack of motivation on Mike’s part. However, even he indirectly admitted to not having it all together as he sound-checked through the first few songs and forgot a few lyrics. “That one loud drunk guy” was especially annoying. There’s always one, I guess.

I was pretty disappointed when Mike broke a string towards the end of his set right as he was preparing to play Note To Self, forcing him to finish up by playing Fugazi and Jawbreaker covers with a broken string and asking for karaoke help.

Set List:
Bags of Bones
Ugly on the Inside
Good Deeds
The Sad Waltzes of Pietro Crespi
Bad News
New/Mystery Song (lyrics below)
Playing Possum for a Peek
Breaking Away (played in double-time)
A Bird In Hand
Top Shelf
I Woke Up Today

Here are some incomplete and totally unofficial lyrics to the new mystery song:

well here it is
a final curtain call
a gesture of gratitude and ego
and i’d be remiss
if i didn’t piss myself
one last public act of disrepute and regret

people used to pay
to watch me sing and play
but it seems more and more
they come spit in my face
i’ve tired at speaking up, speaking clearly
so the idiots in the back can hear me