Birthday weekend, Part 2

At the America show, I found myself thinking how much I missed going to see live music and live theater and thinking that I should make more of an effort to see both.  When we ran into the very kind Hank Linderman in front of the venue, he gave us each a slip of paper with the name "The Barefoot Movement " and a time and place- McCabes- on it. I had never actually BEEN to McCabes, although I had heard of it.  My great-great grandmother's maiden name was McCabe, which is an incidental thing, but that gives me a family connection right ?

 We looked them up on YouTube.  What did we do before YouTube, oh yeah  RADIO actually played new music and new acts.  We liked what we saw and heard and tried to get tickets.  The website said they had ONE ticket left.  I was disappointed and went upstairs to take a shower.  Sometimes, I get my best ideas in the shower and I came down and asked Chris to call the venue, as I found it odd that they only had ONE ticket.  Sure enough they had more and we gleefully bough a pair.  Turns out that the website had crashed AND they always have more at the box office ( good to know! )

We go to the Westside early and found parking in front of the venue.  We walked down the street to a local Mexican place, Lares.  The service was friendly, but the food was only serviceable.  I got a couple of cheese enchiladas and a margarita. They forgot the margarita mix, it was triple sec and tequila and undrinkable.  I will probably elaborate on"Stuff you can Stomach"  my food review page.

We really enjoyed the show except for the two  annoying women behind us who kept up a running discourse on what was going on.  You would think they were  baseball announcers, calling the game.    At one point, Chris turned and SHUSHED them, LOUDLY.  It worked for about two songs, but ah, the temporary silence was bliss.

The band, The Barefoot Movement, plays... barefoot.  They do rock hits and original music as well as classic Americana music, all in the style of bluegrass.  They did some interesting mashups; who KNEW "I get Around" by the Beach Boys could seamlessly blend into "Crazy Train" and back again?  Or that Jimi could be played bluegrass style?  It sounded GREAT and I did not want the night to end.  I am sorry they are not playing here for a while, but I hope to catch them when they do. I bought the EP and will be looking to buy the rest of their catalog soon. Yeah, they were THAT good.  They made me want to brave the Topanga Bluegrass Festival next year.

I am enjoying the live music and getting back out.  Strange how a serious illness makes you want to embrace things.  Chris made my birthday weekend amazing, even if we had serious building drama the next day.