Tuesday was my dad’s birthday. He turned 59. He was 35 when I was born, so if you take 59 and subtract 35 from it, the result will yield how many years old I am. Well, I’m not quite 24 yet, but in May I will be.
In typical beat boxer fashion, I taught one of my eighth grade students how to imitate the sound of vinyl record scratching. It was funny to listen to her initial attempts because the scratching imitation is quite hard to pull off just right on the first few tries.
Saw Interpol play at Austin Music Hall Thursday night, and it was amazing! My friends, Andrew and Gu, my brother, Stephen, and I all went. The doors opened at 7, and we were there waiting for it. When got in, we got ourselves some beers (I had a Dos Equix) and made our way up to the area practically right in front of the stage. We were pretty close to the stage, I think—not quite in the very front, though. I told Andrew that I predicted Interpol to open the show up with “Success,” the first song on their most recent album. We then proceeded to go back and forth about what songs we hoped they would play. Eventually, the opening act, School of Seven Bells, went on, and we quieted down. They were pretty good; the lead singer had an exaggerated wedge haircut where the sides of her hair were very long but the back was wedged. The guitarist had a flock-of-seagulls hairstyle. The music they played would find its place in the Shoegazing genre. When they finished, we were happy because we had not come to see them: we came to see Interpol!
We had to wait for 30 minutes before Interpol came on stage, but when they did, all the energy of the crowd intensified and unleashed itself. You could tell that without any doubt. When Daniel Kessler, the guitarist, walked across stage over to his guitars, he lifted up his cocktail to the crowd and gave us a nod. I got a real kick out of that. My prediction about them playing “Success” came true, and it was a wise decision on Interpol’s part since it really set the tone for the rest of the concert. I counted all of the songs they played: 5 from Turn on the Bright Lights (Obstacle 1, NYC, Say Hello to the Angels, Hands Away, and The New), 5 from Antics (Evil, Narc, Slow Hands, Not Even Jail, and Length of Love) 2 from Our Love To Admire (The Heinrich Maneuver, Rest My Chemistry) 5 from Interpol (Success, Memory Serves, Summer Well, Lights, and Barricade), and 1 new song I had never heard. That’s 18 songs! What a show! It was simply the best live show I’ve ever been to; it was even better than the Sunny Day Real Estate show I went to in October 2009, which I would consider to be my favorite live show up this point. My brother and I will be watching Arcade Fire with my friends, Nathan and Amy, in just a little less than 2 weeks. I kind of hope it beats out the Interpol concert because that means it wool be a great show.
I took off today in remembrance of Good Friday. I mostly rested and took it easy, which is appropriate, I think, considering that through his perfect life and sacrifice, Christ has given his beloved complete rest from the wrath of God’s righteous attention to justice. It dawned on me that if I was to suffer the condemnation for my own rebellion against God, which I was born into, his wrath against me would be never-ending, and yet Christ suffered for a much shorter amount of time but at a greater degree of torment and anxiety (and anything else I miss), even though he was not culpable of my sin. It’s relieving to know that when he said, “It is finished,” it was indeed finished, and now, those whom he loves can have rest. There is a reason we call this particular Friday “Good Friday.”
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