Yes, a 4.5 Earthquake/Aftershock Just Happened in Illinois, Was Felt in St. Louis, Missouri. Again.

• So I went to the Roots concert Saturday night, which happened to be in a *gymnasium* on Webster University campus. This was slightly surreal experience, complete with herd (gaggle? swarm? flock?) of police officers ominously glaring from the entrance and prom-like setup inside (basketball hoops: check). To compliment the fraternal order of police, fraternity boys were presiding over the demographic inside, complete with beer smell, noisiness, and general annoying-ness. It's been a while since I've been around this crowd, longer than I like to admit, but it introduced me to the horrifying reality of myself at their age. Roots were good, which was obvious even in this horrible acoustic setting. (Remember what the gymnasium did to the brass in your high school pep rallys?)I was really struck by their individual instrumental talent; you get your money's worth on saxaphone, tuba, and two different sets of drums. *I* got my money's worth drooling over Kamal, who, I decided, is the most attractive human being I have ever actually seen in person. Oh, and I followed Questlove to Nectar, where he DJd until 3, which is admittedly not where I am usually to be found hangin'. Got giggles over biz-ARRE mixes he initially played, which included, I kid you not: "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" and "Sweet Home Alabama." Let it go on the record that these tracks were played, for the first and last time at Nectar, ever. I speculate, gaging Questlove's certifiable genius, that he was just fucking with us. (Fuck away, Questlove. Do it because you can!) And the evening got hotter, namely with Sunshine Anderson's lyrical rendition of a conversation I've had one more time than I'd like to recount. Yes, I've "Heard It All Before." This was mixed with harder stuff around the same time (what my friend calls junk hop), like Fifty's "I Run New York." A great night. Not exactly epic, but definitely unique.

• Totally missed that one. I was dj-ing & must have just chalked it up to the bass I be bumpin', seen? Saturday night the Grunt played down at Rue 13 for a Camel-sponsored event. It went so so much better than I expected. Tons of Karen's awesome dirtbag bar regulars showed up & random weird Washington Ave people were 80s dancing during our set & nobody roofied us & it was all in all a lovely good time. Huzzah! This week, Enon at SLU Wednesday & Fishboy at the Wayout Thursday. Awesome!!

• I'm glad I slept through that aftershock. My nerves couldn't handle it. On a similar note, Bill McClellan's column scared the shit out of me, perhaps the first and last time I'll ever say that: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/billmcclellan/story/0219294EFD97F06786257432001148AF?OpenDocument

• You missed a good one at Lemmons on Saturday: Monads, 75s, and the Hobo Wives (from Chicago). The Monads were fantastic - as usual - and we (the 75s) played a really good set. The big surprise was The Hobo Wives. Despite the somewhat suspect sound (alliteration!) during their set, the Wives hung in there and delivered something that fell in between 1960s C&W and modern alt country w/ alternating male and female lead vocals and a killer rhythm section.

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