Jamming out in NYC

Part of my weekend involved listening to live bands. Thursday night The New Surreal was playing at Uncle Mike's. I sadly just missed them. They are awesome. I have seen them play in Providence, my friend dates the guitarist... But really check out their myspace! I can't really review them right now as it's been awhile, but I'm sure if my bus had been 2o minutes faster and the stupid metro machine didn't give me a hard time it would have been awesome.

After they packed up I saw this kid named Clayton Senne play. He is now located in Florida but originally from Kansas. I enjoyed him a lot. At the time I was convinced he sounded like Ben, but now that I am not drinking I realize he does not at all. But I am pretty sure his speaking voice sounded similar. He plays keyboard and it is just him up on the stage. It was a great set to listen to while we all unwound from a day at the office. The waitresses at Uncle Mike's have to dress in costumes! They were really great girls and we totally chatted about different dress-up ideas. One was a slutty ghostbuster recently and was reprimanded for it, which seems ridiculous based on the idea that what they were wearing that night was acceptable. I am not one for "slutty [insert occupation]" costumes, but I would have liked to see/steal that one.

Saturday night we went to the National Underground to see a friend of friend play in Comic Tales of Tragic Heartbreak. The girl who was on before them was a folkish hippish singer. Her voice was pretty sweet and she was later pulled in to do an impromptu duet with the lead singer of Comic Tales. She skat for a while in the duet, I have never seen someone do that before, and I am pretty sure what I heard was skill. She totally was able to feel the beat and rhythm of the music. The singer of Comic Tales was a total ham and would go around dancing with girls in the bar and play his trumpet where ever. At one point he came over to us and had me push the keys while he played. While you can go ahead and listen to the music that they put up on their sites, I have to say that they are way better live. The lyrics are hysterical but the main reason we all liked it was because he was really about getting us involved and dancing.