Notes from the Emo School of Rock

What do a guy eating a lighted cigarette, a guy playing a piano with his butt, and a guy climbing to the second story of a theater before swinging across the rafters and then dropping two stories from that point have in common? They were all sights witnessed by yours truly at a concert Monday night. Foxy Shazam

The first two guys were both of Foxy Shazam fame. The former is the lead singer, who, besides singing, also danced, did push-ups, jumped on the guitarist's shoulders, did handstands (see above photo), did The Worm and a number of other odd dance moves, and more. The latter was the keyboardist, who appeared to have a beard similar to Chasidic Jews, only with the hair on his chin trimmed much shorter than his chops. I could barely make sense of any of the band's music, but they were quite the sight to see. Figures I'd love them, and highly recommend that if you ever have the chance to see them, GO. They're one of a kind.

My primary reason to go to the show was to see Scary Kids Scaring Kids, one of my current favorite bands. As of last night, I've now seen them live three times, and they get better every time. The keyboardist is the third character mentioned above. Towards the end of their set, he climbed to the rafters, swung around a bit, then dropped two stores into the waiting crowd below. Yes, he's insane. Yes, the band is crazy. And holy crap, do I love them.

The only downside to the show, as usual, is that it's kind of a drag to love punk rock when you're 24. That in itself isn't bad; what sucks is that there's 13-16 year olds EVERYWHERE. They like to stand around outside and smoke cigarettes and wear black and hate the world. And sometimes, you encounter kids who double-date and make out with their dates RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, for the entire duration of the last band's hour-long set. Which is why I Twittered the following at 10:08pm, in the middle of the show:

"Very tempted to throw the people sucking face next to me into the mosh pit."

Fortunately, shortly afterward, the mosh pit came our way and took care of that little problem for me. Who would have thought relief would come in the form of an angry circle of morons pushing each other around?