Valentine's last night...

Last night I went to Valentine's for the first time in YEARS. My girlfriend's friend, Mark, was filling in on guitar for a band for a band called "Margan and the Red Lions". I was definitely impressed with his talent on guitar. He didn't really get too much of a chance to show off his skill in that setting (being a fill-in for an existing band doing a very short 4 song set) but it was apparent that he could play his instrument very well. The first song of their set started off a little rough. (It sounded like three different songs at once. Drums playing one, bass playing another and keyboard, vocals and guitar on the third.) The songs improved quickly up to the fourth and final song which was the best of the set.

I'm not going to rip the other acts (My Friend Peter and Sgt. Dunbar and the Hobo Banned) up too much. I appreciate that they can get up on stage and play music that they're proud of but it wasn't my cup of tea, if you will. (I like screaming vocals, loud guitars and double bass drums.) As soon as I saw someone with an accordion come up on stage I had to escape. I don't do (most) accordion music. The sound irritates me.

I went downstairs to catch part of the punk/hardcore show they had going on there. I'm not even sure what band I saw. It might have been Reptar (can't get to myspace at work to see pictures) or Social Cirkle (can't find website) but they were pretty good. They were loud, fast and tight and they projected their energy into the small crowd who went borderline wild for their whole set. I got kicked in the hand once and pushed back into the row of chairs behind me a different time... it reminded me of going to Valentine's back in the day to see shows...

Oh... I almost forgot how much I like Magic Hat #9, too. ;)