Nathan and Jenny drove up and we met to go out to eat at Basic Bird. Afterwards, Shannon headed home, and we headed out to Waukee. Most of the same complaints about the venue remain, however the corrected the volume of smell of the men’s bathroom has been corrected from overpowering, to something one would expect as normal.

Cat Power

Enjoyable, though I think she was struggling with her voice a bit, and perhaps leaned on auto-tune on songs where she uses both. I would expect her at a show at a more sit down type of venue, where one doesn’t expect to have to have the assist of sound dampening. I went in blind, and am curious enough to add some of her music to my “to listen”. She had a nice light display and used some of the lights like a mirror ball. towards the audience. Enjoyable, felt like I had a bit of space around me and my body was doing ok.

Modest Mouse

Clearly everyone about our age knows Modest Mouse to one extent or another. I am not super familiar with thier music outside of the most notable items. In support of the band, I suppose, was an extra percussion guy (entertaining to watch, I will admit) and person playing keyboards and various other instruments. For the percussion guy, you can see him get prepared, and then do his percussion part (sometimes a double shake of something, or hitting something else). The light show probably put the lights through the biggest paces. There was a point where they seem to have a sort of color changing very bright light just roll across the stage, and start again with a new color, just cycling through the colors. The crowd had started to close in a bit, my feet and right knee started to complain. Some of the music was enjoyable, some of it was, not my cup of tea? The lead singer was quite expressive, and clearly they are talented at what do. I spent a lot of time watching the lights and the light play on the ceiling.

Pixies

This is who I was there to see. Pixies, for me, were a bit of a high school fascination (a sister’s friend introduced me I think) and a college one, where I spent a lot of time expanding my musical horizons. And went down CD rabbit hole after CD rabbit hole. I still have most of these CDs, somewhere, packed away. I certainly connected more to the lyrics and feelings. After people had left for refills and bathroom breaks, the crowd pressed in again. My feet started to question what I was doing and my right knee was also questioning my choices. There was a nice balance what I knew and loved, knew, and also a handful of items I didn’t know as I’ve slowed down quite a bit on keeping up with bands. I’ve added some newer stuff from the Pixies since last night. For the lights, it was bigger play of the light and the dark, where one was able to step in and out of the light on the stage. My favorite light effect of the whole show was the combination of the smoke from the machine and and the faster and faster twirling of lights which seemed to spin the smoke. I truly enjoyed the show and enjoyed this better then seeing them opening for Weezer.

Afterwards, we collected things and Nathan and Jenny dropped me off and headed back home. I was up for a bit longer as my adrenaline was up a bit and eventually made it to bed just after midnight.

A small part of Where is my Mind performed by the Pixies at Vibrant Music Hall in Waukee Iowa on 6/24/2024