locals and Les

Les Claypool. An ingenius crazy-man. I've seen Primus live. I've seen Oysterhead live. Last night I stood 6 rows back staring into the sunglassed eyeballs of Les Claypool. Plastic cup of Guiness in hand, eyes glazed, and feet a tap-tap-tappin to every bass lines spastically smooth birth from the hands of Claypool. Not only that, but I had a posse of locals. For the first time since moving, I had a group. Jake invited these 3 guys over to the apartment before the show. We slugged down about 3 beers each, bullshat, and made our way to the final destination... Toad's Place. Toad's Place is New Haven's music mecca (good music mecca anyway). It's the kind of place with no seating, several bars, and a large coziness about it. It's the kind of place you here once-in-a-lifetime stories about...secret shows, special guests. It's had a history of legendary live performance. And we live within walking distance. So we walked. The full moon lighting our way. My 3 beer jacket kept me warm and cozy, and if that hadn't done it, the excitement would have made up the difference. To be walking down the street under a full moon, with a group of people, on the way to see Les Claypool live at Toad's Place. Yup, that's about as good as it gets on a Monday night. I had a few minutes where i wanted to kick myself for not bringing a camera. We had the kind of magical view where any snapshot would have been amazing. No enhancing, no digital resizing. I could have captured a moment and hung it in my living room. Damn, it would have been Picasso on film. Then Jake said the best thing in response to my mutterings about wishing I had a camera. He said something along the lines of "well, that makes this moment just for us". I don't think he even realized just how sweet and sentimental it sounded. What a great reason not to have a camera. Though i wished I had pictures to show, we had a moment. A moment we can share in words, and smile to ourselves as it plays out in our heads. It's a warm cuddly thought. And it happened at a Les Claypool show. ah, life is sweet.