Manic Encounters with Musicians

With two of my favorite bands, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and Mates of State concurrently touring this summer/fall in support of their most recent releases (Let it Sway and Crushes, respectively) its been challenging to refrain from re-living harrowing flashbacks of my fleeting encounters with both bands in the fall of 2006, while experiencing my first ever manic episode.

At the age of nineteen I moved out of the confines of my parents’ 1970s themed home/asylum and to Montreal to experience the closest Canada has to an Ivy League institution as well as to seek out the undiscovered talent of Montreal’s burgeoning indie music scene, beyond the scope of such overrated acts like The Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade. These ‘glory days’ would only last two months before I crashed and burned in my tiny dorm room in a fit of rapid-cycling moods that prompted me to return home to my native Toronto, where a proper diagnosis of bipolar disorder was awaiting me with olive branch extended.

Unable to take in any homegrown talent other than Lesbians on Ecstasy (who would not fall into the ‘talent’ camp) during my limited stay in Montreal, the two most memorable live music experiences were delivered by two of the best acts to ever grace the Polyvinyl roster, Mates of State and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin.

While touring in support of their 2006 disc, Bring it Back, with their newborn baby girl, Magnolia, in tow, I pegged Jason Hammel and Kori Gardner as exactly the type of stable people I needed to latch onto in order to survive my chemically imbalanced tailspin into the depths of hipster hell. What resulted was the delusion that this cutesy husband/wife duo would be properly equipped and jumping at the chance to take this two time high school dropout under their wing, into their hearts and aboard their probably cramped tour bus.

With a beer in my left hand and an uncapped pen violently shaking in my right, I feverishly scrawled out in my most legible, all-caps handwriting ‘WILL YOU ADOPT ME?!’, (actually punctuated with an interrobang to underline my utter desperation) wound up my good arm like an MLB pitcher taking the mound and threw the note as hard as I could. Despite being firmly planted in the second row, the wad of paper just barely landed on stage. The band kept on playing without pause and much to my dismay, neither member even bothered to unfold my crumpled request/cry for help.

The following week I wrangled the only gals from my all-girls residence (affectionately coined ‘the Leservation’ by all those fortunate enough to not be residing there) who could still stomach me to the World’s Smallest Venue, Zoobizarre, wherein Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin played to an audience of twelve – bar staff included.

During the first momentary lapse between songs, I frantically yelled out to the band that I personally knew someone from their hometown, Springfield, Missouri via LiveJournal, that he had once upon a time mailed me the demo version of their first LP, Broom and that I loved them, in true fangirl fashion.

Mistaking their bewilderment over my outcry for camaraderie, I seized the opportunity to follow the band members out to their van after the show to properly introduce myself/make them regret ever crossing the border that day. Either the fellows in SSLYBY have experience with handling the mentally ill or they were just floored to know that their fan base extended outside of their circle of friends, but they were nothing but gentlemen to me – handing me a CD-R of their unofficial Summer Tour EP and inviting me to accompany them to see Phoenix later that evening. This was, of course, three years before Phoenix would release their Grammy Award-winning magnum opus, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, they merely described them as ‘this French band we’ve been listening to all summer’. Having never cared too much for perennial Daddy’s Girl, Sofia Coppola, or any of the men she has cavorted with, I politely declined their invitation, playing the ‘it’s a school night’ card and exiting without tact.

I plan to attend Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’s upcoming performance at Toronto’s legendary El Mocambo on September 4th, but this time, will wisely nurse my beer in silence in a back corner of the room and avoid making a spectacle of myself.

TOUR DATES:

SOMEONE STILL LOVES YOU BORIS YELTSIN:

08/31 – St. Louis, MO @ Firebird *

09/01 – Urbana, IL @ Canopy Club *

09/02 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall *

09/03 – Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick *

09/04 – Toronto, ON @ El Mocambo *

09/06 – Montreal, QC @ Casa Del Popolo *

09/07 – Cambridge, MA @  TT The Bears *

09/08 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom *

09/10 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat *

09/11 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Barbary *

09/12 – Cleveland, OH @ The Grog Shop *

09/13 – Columbus, OH @ The Basement *

* = w/ Telekinesis

MATES OF STATE:

09/17 – Salt Lake City, UT @ University of Utah – Union Lawn

09/26 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club

09/27 – Pawtucket, RI @ The Met