The Dirty Blondes At Metronome Saturday October 31, 2009

Words by Tim Lewis.

This was set to be such a fun show. The band played their first show ever on a Saturday night Halloween ten years ago to the night. They had a video of it and were going to show it then come on and play a set. Cool! I love the Dirty Blondes and have had many good times with them rocking the stage.

The first indication of a problem was when I noticed that they were set to play from 7pm to 10pm with Retronome on after. That seemed like a relatively irretractable deadline. The next problem arose when I saw that I was scheduled to work until 9:30.

Undaunted by the potential I flew into work that day, put my name on the go home early list hoping it would be slow enough to get out a bit early and see the band. Luck broke against me and I was needed until the very last moment.

I flew out of work, dropped stuff in a moment at home and careened downtown. I had a full head of steam and floated from footstep to footstep. On the periphery I noticed the costumed revelry that stretched from North st to Main st. I appreciated the party on some level but was utterly focused on getting to Metronome.

As I would my way around Church st and onto Main another fear was realized. There was a line to get in. Ok there were two bouncers and one had a line and one did not. I went to the one that did not but that was just for Nectars so I went back to the line and waited. I could hear the Blondes playing a bit. I think it was Oh Dirty Blondes when I arrived but it was hard to hear clearly. The line progressed until a couple of people had a discussion with the bouncer about which club they wanted to go to. They finally decided and I was finally able to walk up the stairs to the strains of Paranoid. As it was after 10 I had to pay the $5 for Retronome instead of the $3 for the Blondes, but I was finally in and got to hear them rock.

They kicked the hell out of the Sabbath classic then removed the instruments and said good night. I lucked out when the audience wanted them to play another. They pulled out Wild Thing and rocked it nice and hard. I felt some of the tension start to fall away but in all too short of a time it was done.

I thought of hanging out a bit then realized soon a dj would come on and play a lot of boring music that has been overplayed for decades and headed for the door. It had been a long workday and I was tired. Saturday is my Tuesday, so with it being the beginning of the week I just headed for home.

It was so worth the effort to hear the song and a half. Hearing the whole show would have been so much better.

This post was originally published by Tim Lewis at his personal blog, https://timstriangletribune.wordpress.com.