Necessary Woodhands.

Yesterday was difficult. If not outwardly, then I was certainly feeling very stressed out internally. I was tense and on edge and just generally disappointed with certain people. It didn’t help that I had slept the daylight hours away, waking up at 6pm. This was just in time to get ready and go to dinner with good friends JDS and TC, who now make their home in New Haven, CT. It was great to see them—they look the same! Except for JDS’s large, pregnant belly!—but the assembled group took its toll on me. I am sensitive to people being unpleasant; I can’t just dismiss it without their attitudes affecting me emotionally. Add to this my sense of aggravation at e-mails from a professor that I have to deal with: aargghhh! Said professor (thankfully not someone on my committee) is a problem.

All this is to say that by the time I got to Sneaky Dee’s last night, I was extremely glad to be there. The first person I saw was lovely PB: a harbinger of good things to come, no doubt! I let off some steam to poor SH and MB, but felt better after getting things off my chest. But it wasn’t until I talked to more people there and saw the first two acts that I started to finally feel relaxed. And just thinking about all this—and how annoyed I was by Ten Kens on Friday night—is stressing me out now! But I digress. Getting back to last night . . .

Garbarge! Violence! Enthusiasm! Yes! This is a totally appropriate name for this threesome. They are crazy. There’s just no better word that I can think of to describe them. SH was totally into what they were doing—throwing computer keyboards at each other, etc. I’d seen them before at PB’s trekfest, where they were done up in ST uniforms and fought each other with cardboard/duct tape bat’leths. It was something.

Next up was Kingston’s Magic Jordan, playing their first show in Toronto. (The bass player I’d seen before performing with Nich Worby at Tiger Bar.) Good stuff, though I wasn’t really that into it. I flitted in and out of caring—and on and off the dance floor—but that’s more a comment on my own state of mind than on what was being offered up on stage. EH arrived during their set and thought they were great. I think they’d be worth seeing again.

Finally, Woodhands. And I do mean “finally.” It had been two months since I’d seen them, and this time PB promised a “full-length set.” Just back from (another) eastern tour, they were excellent. Some of the regular groupies were out in force, and them combined with G!V!E! meant there was good-natured “dancing” (read: pushing and shoving) near the stage. I didn’t manage to stay out of it, but after a couple of songs found myself right in front of the stage and avoided the moshing (for the most part). But really, it was all okay since everyone was having a blast and dancing like mad. And it was just what I needed after several days of stress. Thank you, Woodhands. More, please.

After their set I and everyone else needed some time to come down from our respective Woodhands’ highs. Water was definitely in order, as was chatting with friends new, old, and indie. Good times. Necessary times.