An April March Convergence 4, Toronto Ontario: August 23 1998 Clinton's, Toronto Ontario: May 29 1999 The first time I saw An April March play was on the Sunday night at Convergence 4. I was pretty wired from lack of sleep by that point and determined that I was going to be able to drink, so I don't remember a whole lot about them other than that they were good in a kind of an inoffensive swirly-goth way. The second time was when they played at a Goth Pajama Party that a couple of my cohorts from C4 put together. Everybody wore pajamas at the show. It was a fun gig, I got to hang out with tons of my friends, and I froze my ass off on my walk home. The Replicants were also supposed to be there, but I think they had to cancel at the last minute. Angels And Agony Saturnalia III, Chicago IL: December 15 2001 Saturnalia III was the first one I went to with Axel. A bunch of our other friends came along as well. I'd heard a demo by Arch Visceral Parlor, and although I thought they were ok, I wanted to catch them live. I ended up actually seeing just the last couple of songs of their set. I was also really looking forward to seeing Element, mostly because I had missed them on the Blackout AD tour they had done with Faith & the Muse. The poor bastards were exhausted - their flight from California had been delayed some rediculous amount of time and they had basically walked off the flight with no sleep and directly onto the stage. Around this point, Axel started doing that wobbly-legged thing he does when he's about to tip over. I ran around getting him a chair and some water and then Mel let me take him up to the green room to lie down. In this case, the green room turned out to be the balcony. So I ended up listening to the headliner, Angels And Agony, while sitting in the dark on a ratty couch in the dark, sitting beside Axel while he slept. It was really peaceful. Then the car broke down on the way home and stranded us in Benton Harbor, Michigan overnight. As a direct result of the trip, Axel decided I was kind of cool and we've been dating ever since. Ani Difranco Massey Hall, Toronto Ontario, November 27 2002 When I'm trying to tease my girlfriend, I refer to this show as "My penance for dating a lesbian." As far as I can tell, Difranco's appeal is that she writes really clever lyrics. Her music doesn't really do anything for me. But what she does, she does really well. Several thousand women packed into the squishy little seats at Massey Hall can't be wrong. Apocalypse Hoboken Sneaky Dees, Toronto Ontario: July 1995 When I did the websearch on this band I was really astonished and pleased to find out they still exist. Then I realized that the last time the page was updated was 2003. Fuck. Anyway, Apocalypse Hoboken are a really fun punk band from Chicago. I had on the vaguest idea who they were when I went to the show, but it was during a period when I was catching as many live shows as I could. I saw a lot of crap, but I also saw these guys - energetic, completely insane and lots of fun. Years later I picked up a CD at a discount store. The singer has the weirdest most nasal voice I've ever heard. Last Updated October 27 2005.
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