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The Wrens! Go See 'Em!

Friday night was busy busy like a bee. I did a poor job of networking at Legal Career Options Day, then I went to the RI ACLU Annual Dinner and met a few interesting people and had good food and coffee in the lovely setting of the 17th floor of the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Providence. I was unable to stay for Rev. Barry Lynd's speech, as the dinner was getting quite late, but I did get a nice sense of camaraderie. So I ran away and came home to pick up Summer and head to Brown for a concert featuring The Wrens, for whom I developed quite a taste in January, as KRLX listeners might recall. The openers seemed like they were quite good, especially the drummer, but it was hard to tell because the sound was poorly mixed and the acoustics of the room were strange. The Wrens, however, blew me away. Though they look more like middle aged roadies than they do a band, they played with the energy of eighteen year olds and the technical proficiency of seasoned vets, which they are. They basically went through The Meadowlands, which is my preferred Wrens album, with some additions here and there, but they supplemented the basics of each song with guitar loops and keyboards--something I didn't expect. And one thing they even had over the Decemberists was the regular presence of aptly performed vocal harmonies, creating a great blend of the best parts of punk and campfire folk. On one song they used audience participation for percussion, having the crowd in general clap a quick, syncopated beat while ten or so front-row dwellers were pulled onto stage to play with sticks and maracas. Anyway, it was a great show, and I am very, very glad Summer discovered its existence in time for us to get tickets and plan to attend.

Then yesterday I tore up an end table Summer and I picked up at the Salvation Army and turned it into a turtle habitat. You'd have to see it to believe it. Maybe I'll show you a picture sometime.

Now I guess I'll go turn on football and hopefully have homework on hand as a distraction should the game go too badly. Then again, McMahon to Brown may not have much of a ring now, but maybe it will by 4...