monday night, the billiardsburg crew (matt, mike, and myself) decided to hit up the breeders listening party at soundfix. advertised: free pbr, a raffle, free schwag, and a chance to hear the new album Mountain Battles (of course, we had all gotten the advance). we had nothing to do, so we strapped on our cons and got out there. and miraculously, we were ALL feeling good-- no one was being bitchy, depressed, and/or judgmental. i guess that's what happens when kim deal is involved.

when we got to soundfix, we realized that the "party" was just the record store with the album playing over the sound system, and we were basically the only ones there. the free pbr was in a lonely little bucket. under normal circumstances, one of us would've started pointing fingers about who's idea was it and how did they get dragged into coming to such a thing, but since we were all loving life that night, we decided to get into it. we set up camp in the listening station area and proceeded to drink the entire bucket of pbr, while debating plastic bag issues, fresh direct, and kim deal vs neko case (impossible to compare). by the end of it all, we had averaged 5 beers each, listened to the breeders album 2.5 times, and heckled a guy wearing bang & olufsen headphones who had innocently wandered in to buy some records and was on his way to turkey's nest.

to top it all off, mike won the raffle (with only a 1:3 chance)! we all cheered, as he was awarded 2 VIP tickets to the breeders show (so of course, i won too). the only thing is, the show is at WEBSTER HALL. now it's one thing to be the most obnoxious venue (of its size) in nyc, but it's quite another to also have the worst pool table in manhattan. lighting: poor. table: abysmal. cue sticks: abysmal. space: abysmal (table blocking a high traffic area). cost: $1.75!!!! last year, i found myself there twice in one week with dustin. we were there to see yo la tengo when we first discovered the pool table. when we tried to get change at the bar, they told us that they didn't have coins and that the change machine was also broken. we ended up getting change from the doorman who felt sorry for us. the game can't even be discussed, as it was just me and dustin getting bumped into repeatedly while trying to make shots with broomsticks. the following week we were there to see ted leo, which i had won tickets for (my greatest achievement). we had forgotten about how awful everything was the previous week, and we got there early with $8 in quarters. take that, broken change machine! when we headed towards the bar area, we noticed it was closed off. we walked over the tape and headed to the table, but were quickly told to leave because they were setting up a "punk rock prom". we explained that we were only there for the pool, and we'd stay out of the way, but there was no negotiating with the punk rock prom committee. the only thing that cheered us up that night was being in the VIP section, where we could nurse $10 whiskeys while enjoying the show SITTING DOWN. there was a time when dustin and i could stand at shows for HOURS. in fact, we actually met at bowery ballroom in 2003 while waiting for a band to go on (same with mike- bowery ballroom: fiery furnaces, 2004). these days, we just want to see the band we came to see and leave. no openers unless we know who they are! encore? take it or leave it. and we complain a whole lot more.