artist: camera obscura
who: cousins lam & nina (plus jen, anthony, lou & ro)
when: 16 february 2007 (friday)
doors open at 8p
i hadn't been to bimbo's since... i can't remember! i just remember the night i met david gedge from cinerama at bimbo's. he was really cool. loooove his voice. wow, that was about 3-4 years ago. it'd been too long.
however, it was not that long ago the last time i saw camera obscura. it was the gamh show back in july of last year. it was nice to see them again. the sound at bimbo's is awesome. the night started off straight after work. i'd picked up my car from the train station downtown, got gas and headed up to mt. view to meet my cousins. we had planned to get dinner in north beach since bimbo's is right on columbus. on the way to the city in the car, i get this call from lou asking what i was doing. i say, uh, heading up to the city? despite emailing him earlier that day about the show, he asked if it was in fact that night. that's affirmative unless they had a second show the following night. apparently, both ro & jenn thought it was saturday! i'd been there before (confusion on show nights) and even missed a show once. so he called them to get everyone's arse in gear for the show.
we had dinner at this burrito place. they claim the best burritos in the city so i had to have a burrito, right? it was good, not sure if you can really go wrong with a burrito though. yet they had very interesting combinations. i had a "british" burrito which included steak, potatoes, and mushrooms. and the blended pina colada was quite delightful. after dinner, i looked to see if i had the tickets with me but couldn't find them!! i was in complete and utter disbelief. what the hell was wrong with me? i had them in the car. where could they have gone?? my cousins were so nice and calm about it. we retraced our steps back to the car and there they were right outside my side of the car. so lam was now the assigned ticket holder.
there was this huge line for will call which we were able to skip since we had our tix in hand. it's interesting, either it's because i haven't been to bimbo's in ages or it's because they recently changed their sign. it's a little more modern now and it no longer says "since 1931" outside of it like it does on their web site. that takes a bit of its charm away. unfortunately. however, after sitting foot inside, it really takes you to the 30's or 40's. at least that's what i imagined it to be. it's very lounge-y. i expected to see fedoras all around me. but alas, i didn't see any. it was too dark and i hadn't really paid much attention.
the opening band listed as "portastic" called themselves "portistastic" would've been confusing if i cared. but i didn't. i just thought, what? portisheadastic? random. they were very folky and bohemian. not particularly appealing if you ask me. i want to see rock stars out there. kinda. it's not to say that camera obscura are the epitomy of rock stars. at least tracyanne campbell has a look of her own that she's going for. which many of the female audience members were trying to unsuccessfully copy. i don't know, maybe i'm in a fowl mood today. hating on everyone. oh well.
if you haven't heard camera obscura, the lead vocalist, tracyanne has this sweet voice that makes me think of du-wop music. the kind that makes you sway without knowing it. the slow songs are lovely but a bit hard to stay awake for. the faster songs are upbeat and makes you wish you too had a floral dress on so you could swing the pleats of it with the music. whenever i hear if looks could kill, i can't help but tap my feet with some sass.
we left after the last song before their encore. it was such a long day. and as my cousin said, we are getting old. ugh. after getting home, i got a call from lou. he said they hung out at the bar after the show and tracyanne showed up. he got a picture with her! i'm totally jealous but seeing as i was half asleep, i couldn't imagine having stayed and driving myself home from mt. view.
rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
