kansas city: state & madison and lifeinjersey

my final far away show for the summer; bittersweet feelings are what i have.

for once in my life i got to sleep in and get ready at my leisure before an out of town show. so many crack-of-dawn drives; i absolutely hate them. but this one was nice. kansas city is only four hours away and it's the easiest drive in the world. get on highway 70. drive. arrive at destination. bam. end story. okay, so not exactly but it's a really easy drive and it was nice to change things up a little because 55 has been getting a little old. and now that i think about it, that was the first time i've ever driven past columbia. at least by myself that is. i usually go northeast if anything. but anyway. i left home at around one and after a little trouble finding an open exit [thank god for garmin, that's all i have to say], i arrived at the RecordBar at just a little after five. tony was kind enough to put me on their guest list so i ended up not paying, which was great. and just when i thought it was going to be another show alone, i saw molly and her friend rachel, both from st. louis. so i sat with them for the night. things were starting out wonderfully.

we are voices played first and they sounded great. state and madison was up next so molly, rachel and i made our way up to the stage area and sang and danced our little hearts out. there was a decent sized crowd and they seemed really receptive which is always good. next was damiera, but i took a dinner break and listened from the table. and finally lifeinjersey, the band everyone else had been waiting for. i'll be honest, i've always thought there sound was just average, but this show certainly changed my mind. the only other time i'd seen them was at a real shitty show in columbia. but this cd release was fantastic. alex ward from the noise fm was filling in for them on guitar. i had talked to him earlier in the night, but had no idea he was actually playing. so that was a nice surprise. man did they melt some faces.

there was a later 21+ show so we got shuffled out pretty quickly. i made my rounds to say goodbye to everyone but tony told me to stick around because carson [of lifeinjersey] was having a party at his house afterwards. well it was still early so i decided to stick around for a bit. all the bands were packed up and ready to go by ten, so i gave myself a midnight curfew. hung out for a while, watched tony sing along and strip to naughty girl, dave get his beard shaved, and had real conversation with jonah. i have yet to figure him out, he just baffles me and i find it hilarious. everyone was concerned because i was so quiet, but i prefer to be a people watcher with that much going on. it was certainly entertaining. i left at midnight and made it home by four am. all in all, excellent day. can't wait to see state & madison and the noise fm again next weekend.