Stereolab!!

Holy Shit!  I saw Stereolab Friday night at La Zona Rosa in beautiful downtown Austin.  Totally fucking awesome.  I can’t recommend it enough.  My whole body felt like a giant smile the entire time.  They totally rocked the house.  The only problem was that I had to stand up the whole time and it was pretty crowded where we were standing, and I’m getting to be an old man (34) who’s not so good standing up for however long the show lasted.  But beyond that, it was definitely the second best show I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen a few good shows.  I’ve seen Beck twice, once in a mosh-pit at Austin Music Hall during the Odelay tour, and a second time for Sea Change at the Bass Concert Hall (which was the absolute best show).  I’ve seen Pink Floyd and Rush put on generically great shows, and saw Lenny Kravitz and The Cult put on great shows, back when Kravitz was opening for The Cult (I was there to see Kravitz, but The Cult was better).   And I’ve even been mugged at a Public Enemy concert, which certainly fulfills my requirement of “street cred”.  But the Stereolab show topped them all, or would have, had it been at the Bass Concert Hall.  And the fact that the beer lines were too long and I’d lose my spot if I left to go get beer and would likely have never seen my wife again.  But besides that, it was totally awesome.  So if you have the opportunity to see them, I can’t recommend it enough.  And if Stereolab isn’t coming to your town, sucks to be you.  You can try to duplicate it by buying an awesomely loud stereo and adding a bit of distortion, but it’s still somehow not the same as being there.  Some things never are.