Just got back from taking The Boyf to see R.E.M. at Walnut Creek. Modest Mouse opened for them (and the Nationals opened for them but I’m afraid we missed them). It was for The Boyf’s birthday; I daren’t say which, as it’s not my place, but it’s one some people take to be a big deal. We had originally gotten lawn tickets but then, at the very last minute, I searched again and found tickets in the center section, very front, ten rows back from the stage. R.E.M. is for The Boyf what he himself calls one’s “spirit band,” that band whose songs and development have factored and fit neatly into one’s own personal history. For me it’s kind of a toss-up between The Cure and Erasure; for him it’s R.E.M. every time.

Modest Mouse were extremely enthusiastic but largely unintelligible. I was slightly surprised, though I don’t really know why, to learn that when they perform live they basically sound nothing like their recordings. They didn’t sound bad by any stretch - quite the opposite - but they sounded different, looser, less polished, more desperate, hungrier. They did The Good Times Are Killing Me and Satin in a Coffin, however, the two songs I most wanted to hear, and they were pretty fucking fabulous.

R.E.M., well, there aren’t words. It was worth buying whole new tickets to have that experience. I am deaf as a post but it was worth it. There were guest performances, acoustic numbers, two guys suspended from the lights in weird chairs so they could operate the spotlights. It was pretty wild. It was also extremely hot but after the sun went down a cold front moved in, the heat broke and when we got back to the car - way, way back to the car - the line to get out was so bad that the lovely night and no real need to burn gas for the sake of burnin’ gas led us to roll down the windows, kick back and just relax in the breeze while everybody else honked and hollered to get a spot in line.

It was, I have to say, a lovely night.