Meow House Theatre

I hate this layout more than I can express with mere words.  I have GOT to find someone to fix it for me.

I’ve got 21 pictures processed so far. Here are a few of my favorites:

You can see they’re pretty dark and noisy, which is what happens when you’re using a smaller camera. Although I do like the noise effect in concert pictures. I think the gritty look can be effective in them. Have to learn to live with it anyway, because there’s really nothing that can be done to eliminate it.

The whole set is here. It works out well to set it on slideshow.

You can click through to the next one yourself or you can set it to advance automatically. I still have 15 or more to put up. Next time I have got to arrange it beforehand to be get clearance to bring in my Nikon. They would have been SO much better if I had used that.

Shane McGowan Pogues concert March 19, 2008 Boston Orpheum Theatre theater meowhouse meow house theatre http://www.

Shane MacGowan has still got it.

I scored a front-row-center seat to the Pogues concert last night at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston. I was able to get a bunch of pictures that didn’t come out too horribly, considering I was using a P&S and no flash. They’re fairly grainy but I kinda like that in a concert shot. Unfortunately they did not allow professional-grade camera equipment inside; only small digitals with non-removable lenses. I had been looking forward to bringing my Nikon but I was worried they’d want to “hold on to it” for me and I don’t trust people to hold on very seriously to other people’s expensive things. So, these were shot with my little Casio EX-Z1050. And although I really love that camera and it’s super-small size, I really wish it had a viewfinder in addition to the window on the back. It’s hard to get a good shot in low light without having something (your nose and face) to steady the camera. When I went inside to the hall, the usher asked where my seat was and I told him “DD 105″ and he said, “You’ve got the best seat in the house,” and I was all “I know!!!” Thank you to Jessie for not using the ticket. I’m sorry you couldn’t go but I’m so glad I could.

This picture is just the first; there will be more up within a few days. I’m going to see if I can edit them a bit in Photoshop and make them look better.

I had a smashing time and can’t wait to see them again. The entire audience was focusing on them the whole time. Pogues fans are pretty damned happy during a show. I don’t know if it’s the music or the ambiance of being in the room with those guys. Most likely both. There were all ages there: I saw people old enough to be my parents and couples with small children wearing Irish green. Shane seemed to be doing okay. I hope he stays okay. I haven’t read any reviews yet but he didn’t seem drunk to me. Or not overwhelmingly so, anyway. He was drinking something but it could have been a dark-ish beer or it could have been a Coke. Before the show started, I had my IPA (yep, they let you take actual liquor into the theatre at the Orpheum) on the edge of the stage and one of the crew came up to me and asked me to not leave it there, since it might spill “and Shane might be tempted.” That made me totally crack up–I said, “Well we definitely don’t want that to happen!”–but it was sad too. He has so, so much talent and it’s been nearly completely fucked up by booze.

They did two? three? encores at the end and every time they left I kept yelling as loud as I could, “Shane, come back! Come back, Shane!” I hope he heard me somehow. I hope he doesn’t end up like the other Shane. We’ve got things for him to do …

I have a bunch more pictures to put up. Check back here or on Flickr.

Update: both The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald have posted their reviews. The Herald’s was in some ways a little more complimentary and I think more accurate. The Globe said “MacGowan was, inevitably, a mess, but his legendary insobriety hardly merits mentioning anymore.” I don’t think that’s entirely fair. He was not a mess. He was nowhere near a “mess” on the Shane MacGowan Scale of Messiness.

Boston Globe review (published on Boston.com).

Boston Herald review.

Shane apparently went to J.J. Foley’s after the show and closed out the bar. God damn it! I was so tired I went straight home afterward. I should have just pinched myself and headed over there. Next year.

19 March set list–courtesy of Vagabond at pogues.com:

(more…)

I bet you thought I was gone forever, didn’t you? Well I wasn’t. I was down on the docks one day a few weeks ago trying to hook up with this guy named Vito with whom I have some unnamed business and I saw this shipping container sitting there right out in the open. The door wasn’t quite shut and there was a glowing light faintly visible inside. Very mysterious. Very Pulp-Fiction-what’s-in-that-damn-box??? Well I had my camera with me so I thought I’d just go inside and check it out. I’m always looking for something interesting to shoot. And wouldn’t you know, the second I stepped inside some maniac chloroformed me and the next thing I knew, I was trying to escape from an opium den in Bangkok! Man there were some skanks in there! I even had to defend my honor a few times. The big knife I just happened to have helped me out a little. Anyway, one day I was able to make a break for it and I ran like hell to the nearest rickshaw and told the guy to step on it (heh heh) fast to the airport. Thank god I had my American Express card with me. It took a while but I found my way back home.

So I promise to post something EVERY SINGLE DAY for a month. I swear to god. It’s like the Flickr 365 photo project except I know I’d never be able to keep that up.

That glowing light in the shipping container? Wouldn’t you know, that guy with the chloroform was watching a little B&W TV. He was simply addicted to The Apprentice. I hate that goddamned show and now I was going to be forced to watch it during an overseas trip to Thailand. Donald Trump ain’t foolin’ nobody with that comb-over. Pul-lease, get yourself a stylist, bub. That hair has got to go.