Idolator At CMJ, Day Three: Looking For Kicks On A Thursday Night

jharv | October 19, 2007 10:00 am
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With two days left to go at the CMJ Music Marathon and many of the biggest bands scheduled for the weekend, Thursday was, by some estimation, the night where you had to “make your own fun.” But there were definitely hot shows going down if you had the energy to seek them out. (And if you didn’t mind paying an extra cover charge on top of your badge.) Plus: bare boobies!

DEPARTURE: 1:45 p.m. RETURN HOME: 2:30 a.m. WEATHER REPORT: Another pleasantly warm fall day just perfect for strolling around Manhattan, thanks to the planet’s ongoing environmental collapse. NUMBER OF SHOWS MISSED BECAUSE WE’RE IDIOTS/WE LEFT WITHOUT THE ALL-IMPORTANT CMJ BADGE: One: Yeasayer and Simian Mobile Disco. MOMENT WE REALIZED WE DIDN’T NEED THE BADGE FOR THIS PARTICULAR SHOW: When we were approximately halfway across the bridge back to Queens. BANDS SEEN DESPITE IDIOCY: Seven: We Are Wolves, Cut Off Your Hands, Imperial Teen, Yo Majesty, Trail Of Dead, Jay Reatard, Dirtbombs. CMJ total: 22. NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO BITCHED TO US ABOUT THURSDAY BEING THE WEAKEST DAY: Seven. NUMBER OF GOOD-TO-GREAT SETS WE SAW ANYWAY: Four. BEST SWAG: Gawker videographer Alex Goldberg scored a bright yellow sweatshirt and a sweet fitted hipster baseball hat, which practically amounts to camouflage at some of these parties. AMOUNT PAID FOR SHOW(S) ON TOP OF BADGE: $12, Jay Reatard/Dirtbombs @ the Mercury Lounge. SHORTEST SET: Garage snot/fake Brit-punk Jay Reatard, at a hyper-compressed 15 minutes (give or take). Had you shown up just for Jay, you would have been paying almost $1 per minute. And it still would have been worth it. ENERGY DRINKS DRUNK: Two. CMJ total: 12. COLORFUL HOMELESS PEOPLE SIGHTED: One. A woman in an oversized blue sweatshirt and ripped yellow stretch pants on corner of 52nd St. and 9th Ave. WHO IT ACTUALLY WAS UPON INQUIRING: Popular songstress M.I.A. BIGGEST AUDIENCE AGE/BAND AGE DISPARITY: Imperial Teen. Which, as a fellow blogger noted, may have gone some way to explaining why said audience didn’t seem to care very much that, you know, a band was on stage. Which pissed us off. Because they were good. BAND THAT MADE YOU WONDER WHAT THE OFFSPRING OF NELL CARTER AND FATMAN SCOOP MIGHT HAVE BEEN LIKE: Florida rap duo Yo Majesty. EXPOSED MAMMARIES SIGHTED: Two, belonging to one half of Yo Majesty. APPROXIMATE AMOUNT OF TIME BEFORE YO MAJESTY’S EXPOSED MAMMARIES THING FINALLY STARTS GETTING CALLED OUT AS SHTICK: Approximately six weeks after CMJ. CLASSY YO MAJESTY QUOTE FROM BROOKLYN VEGAN COMMENTS SECTION: “Why is it always the fugly people that get naked?” SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CMJ STAFF: Not a thing. Y’all were even very helpful in finding an extra CMJ guidebook after my first was stolen by my boss. SUGGESTIONS FOR THE GODDAMNED VENUES INVOLVED IN THIS THING: Honestly, you need to stop holding “CMJ related” shows where you’re only letting in four people with badges. No one should bitch about helping out their favorite bands financially, but as usual the badge is basically Charlie Bucket’s golden ticket for those that manage to show up early and an ugly necklace for the rest of us. BIGGEST ASSHOLE MOMENT: When we snapped at some poor cabbie because he was the 12th or 20th that day to tell us that he was “not going in that direction.” Is CMJ finally starting to get to us?

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