A lot has happened.

I saw Modest Mouse on Saturday, after a frantic but fruitful effort to get a ride (why do buses stop so early?). Sitting in the seedy van, unfurnished and rusty, I thought how surreal the whole experience to come would be. I was right. Seattle still boggles me -- I'm a small-town boy, boy -- and, though the show was actually fairly small the happenings were loud. The Helio Sequence opened -- they dissapointed, with only two fellows on stage, and the rest programmed, not to mention some so-so songs. Regardless the crowd seemed to love it. Finally they came on, and I was suspended. They opened with a new song, which I hardly heard, too overwhelmed with the man only meters away. He looked vastly different than in the photos, but he behaved exactly as I imagined -- his guitar jerking wildly like a wild horse, he held a possessed stare across the room at nothing, stomping like mad soldier. The experience was both incredible at their best moments and intensely uncomfortable at the crowd's worst. They incessantly spit demands, and unconditionally jumped at any chance to just "rock out", paying no mind to the music or band on stage. There was a subtle drama between Isaac and the crowd, brief glimmers revealing his anger and resentment towards the mob -- I could've sworn I heard him sing of the audience in one of their extended jams. At the end they chanted for the band to return, the band submitting and playing a few more songs. I saw Isaac wipe his eyes at the end.

We ate Denny's. Horrible.