devotchka? devotchka?

Last night had only one aim. One of my favorite bands I've stumbled across this year, Devotchka, was set to play a free show last night. They replaced the vacant hole left by cutting the Decemberists out of my life - better music, better vocals, less endless pretense. And you still get accordians and brass and violins. Sososo beautiful.

Alas, the show was a product of internet rumoring, but it was fun to get out in the world again. All my experiences at free SXSW shows have almost seemed to work directly against my boiling rage at the expense of the festival and my inability to cough up wristband fees. Friday and Saturday were both swamped with free beer, and last night threw open the door to drunkenly chatting with strangers, one of my old faves.

It started with me trying to verify the Devotchka gig - I was SURE, having seen a van with Colorado plates, that they would be playing. Little did I know the event last night was a celebration of Denver music. I rudely flung myself into conversations where I heard the word 'Devotchka' uttered, and soon it was just general drunken elbow-rubbing.

Josh and Kristina licked their stamps and attempted to grind them into my wrist, leaving at beast a vaguely discolored bruise-like mark, but it worked enough to get me into La Zona Rosa, where I popped in, was told The Stills would be playing, thought about it for a moment and split. I'm not really crazy for them by any means, and I would have been even more disappointed by seeing them in place of Devotchka.

So, Devotchka was ultimately a no-go. But at least my icy heart melted a little bit in appreciation of SXSW - I feel like I never would have been so comfortable chatting with unknowns in Seattle - it certainly wouldn't have been so easy. It makes me glad I'm living here. I have a wonderful group of friends and I've only started to scratch the surface of what this place has to offer me. I find myself hesitant when thinking of moving now - surely I'll want to be here for a while longer. We'll see if my heart is still fo full of love when things start heating up.

Other news: I had my interview for the coffee shop position. It went very well, now I'm just cooling my heels and waiting to hear back. I usually feel pulled all over the place when interviewed by two people, but it was very pleasant, fun even. I'm eager to see where this goes. And, of course, all a'gush that I have a friend like Renae who thought instantly of me when an opportunity like this prevented itself.

Also - I saw the cover for the new Tom Spanbauer novel Now is the Hour and stumbled across a mini-synopsis. Just seeing it made me feel like I was going to start crying a little - which I realize sounds very unstable, especially considering my general inability to cry (it's true). I don't think it was out of sadness, strictly - though I suspect that waiting until May to read it is going to be a BEACH. It was more like...needing that novel right now. I need to be moved, rocked, and rendered unable to leave my home by a book right now. I can't wait for it to come out.