Friday Mike and I finally hit up Una Pizza Napoletana, which was as good as everyone says it is. We showed up toward the end of the night, were seated almost right away, and wound up with two gorgeous tender (tender! did you know pizza can be tender?) pies in front of us. Mike gets a dreamy look on his face when he talks about them – ask him sometime.
We stopped by a friend’s metal show, where I was one of 3 ladies in attendance. One of the bands had a pole dancer performing during their set, and she was completely amazing. My feminism had some weird spasms. Based on the sweatshirt she put on after her show, she’s part of the National Poledancing Team. And now you know that exists.
Despite our lazy intentions, we wound up getting in an 8 mile loop.
We hit Iron Springs Brewery afterward, a place that I have always ignored at Bay Area beer fests because I don’t like their logo. I know that sounds unfair, but when you’ve got only 3 hours and have 50 breweries to hit, you have to be ruthless. There’s a type of microbrewery that is really just a glorified semi-corporate pub with blah beer (cough, Marin Brewing Company, cough), but Iron Springs is legit. And I would know, because I ordered two separate samplers so I could taste em all.
Sans drums, sans theramin, with only his guitar and voice and occasional guests on horn, dude totally did justice to Neutral Milk Hotel. You’d expect that from Mr. Neutral Milk Hotel, but I didn’t realize until I was at the show how completely affecting it would be to hear live an album that has been a part of some of my most important moments for the last 7 years. The first time I heard In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was in Katie’s farm van, on the road between Arcata and Eureka, when I was just out of college and new to California. We were heading from one market to another, Hilary put the CD on, and I thought it was complete shit. What was wrong with the singer’s voice? Now both Katie and Hilary have babies, I haven’t been up to Humboldt in years, and Jeff Mangum has the voice I most like to hear. Sigh.