{"id":2271,"date":"2009-10-12T12:32:46","date_gmt":"2009-10-12T16:32:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/?p=2271"},"modified":"2009-10-12T12:44:11","modified_gmt":"2009-10-12T16:44:11","slug":"girlyman-at-birchmere-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/12\/girlyman-at-birchmere-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Girlyman at Birchmere"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last night was our 13th time seeing <a title=\"Girlyman\" href=\"http:\/\/www.girlyman.com\" target=\"_blank\">Girlyman<\/a> live. The last time we saw them was the only time we took no guests. Last night, we set a new record (previously 19 at <a title=\"Highline Ballroom\" href=\"http:\/\/highlineballroom.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Highline Ballroom<\/a>). Including us, we purchased 26 tickets for last night\u2019s show. Two of our expected guests missed their flight in Chicago, so <em>only<\/em> 24 of us showed up. That worked out, since we sat at two tables for 12, right up against the stage.<\/p>\n<p>Since I\u2019ve written about Girlyman endlessly, I\u2019ll make this one very short (ha, you say!). Last night was the last show on their East Coast CD Release Tour. I think they played 11 out of 12 consecutive nights. Given that, the change of weather, the various colder northern states they played in (we saw them on the opening night of this tour, in Norfolk, CT, and it was 40 degrees that night), it wasn\u2019t a surprise that both Ty and Nate had pretty bad colds. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Doris Muramatsu\" href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/DorisMuramatsu.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"DorisMuramatsu\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/DorisMuramatsu_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"DorisMuramatsu\" width=\"221\" height=\"244\" \/><\/a> <a title=\"Ty Greenstein\" href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/TyGreenstein.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"TyGreenstein\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/TyGreenstein_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"TyGreenstein\" width=\"244\" height=\"235\" \/><\/a> <a title=\"Nate Borofsky\" href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/NateBorofsky.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"NateBorofsky\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/NateBorofsky_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"NateBorofsky\" width=\"210\" height=\"244\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The show was still generally excellent, as excusing a slightly sub-par performance was easy to do. The crowd gave them rousing ovations for every song. The banter was top notch, so their brains weren\u2019t foggy, it was just their throats that were <em>froggy<\/em>. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<p>They played a long and well-balanced set (songs from the new album, but also songs from the early ones). They were on stage for roughly 100 minutes, including the encore.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t begrudge Girlyman their political views, but Nate couldn\u2019t resist taking a shot at the <em>Bush Years<\/em> when introducing the song True Enough (a somewhat tongue-in-cheek homage to Obama). I\u2019m just curious as to when Obama supporters will start <strong>owning<\/strong> this nation\u2019s problems. It\u2019s so easy to only blame the past, and I\u2019m sure it\u2019s fun. Until you own the problem, you can\u2019t and won\u2019t fix it. Time to follow your most favorite advocacy group, and <strong>Move On<\/strong>!<\/p>\n<p>Opening for Girlyman on this tour (with the exception of <a title=\"Joe's Pub\" href=\"http:\/\/www.joespub.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Joe\u2019s Pub<\/a>) was <a title=\"Po' Girl\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pogirl.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">Po\u2019 Girl<\/a>. They were very good at <a title=\"Infinity Hall\" href=\"http:\/\/www.infinityhall.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Infinity Hall<\/a> when we saw them on September 30th. That night, they played a 30 minute set. Last night, they were better, in fact, significantly better. They played a 45 minute set, and while they repeated a few songs (two or three I think), there were a number of new (to us) ones in the mix, and they were all really good.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Po' Girl\" href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/PoGirl.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"PoGirl\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/PoGirl_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"PoGirl\" width=\"186\" height=\"244\" \/><\/a> <a title=\"Ben Sidelinger\" href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/BenSidelinger1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"BenSidelinger\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/BenSidelinger_thumb1.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"BenSidelinger\" width=\"181\" height=\"244\" \/><\/a> <a title=\"JJ Jones\" href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/JJJones1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"JJJones\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/JJJones_thumb1.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"JJJones\" width=\"193\" height=\"244\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>While we knew what to expect, none of our guests did. I was overwhelmed (in the most positive sense) by the spontaneous reaction of all of those around me to how awesome they thought Po\u2019 Girl was. The two couples sitting immediately near me both went out and bought a Po\u2019 Girl CD (one during intermission, they couldn\u2019t wait to get their hands on it) and the other one after the show. I think others in our group also bought CDs (both Po\u2019 Girl and Girlyman) after the show.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone thanked us after the show and told us how much they enjoyed it. I\u2019m sure that the entire experience delivered that feeling. The food was excellent (as it always is at the Birchmere), and a number of people commented to me how surprised they were at that (clearly first timers there).<\/p>\n<p>More than half of our party saw Girlyman before (at least once), so they could factor the colds out and still know how awesome Girlyman is (and can be), but I felt a little bad for the first timers, who didn\u2019t quite get to experience the real <strong>magic<\/strong> of Girlyman, even though it was still a really good show!<\/p>\n<p>A bunch of shots of a portion of our our gang:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere11.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"Birchmere11\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere11_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Birchmere11\" width=\"244\" height=\"129\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"Birchmere1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere1_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Birchmere1\" width=\"244\" height=\"197\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"Birchmere2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere2_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Birchmere2\" width=\"244\" height=\"170\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere3.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"Birchmere3\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere3_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Birchmere3\" width=\"244\" height=\"155\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere5.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"Birchmere5\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere5_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Birchmere5\" width=\"244\" height=\"178\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere6.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"Birchmere6\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere6_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Birchmere6\" width=\"244\" height=\"212\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere7.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"Birchmere7\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere7_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Birchmere7\" width=\"244\" height=\"172\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere8.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"Birchmere8\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere8_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Birchmere8\" width=\"244\" height=\"184\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere9.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"Birchmere9\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Birchmere9_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Birchmere9\" width=\"244\" height=\"153\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last night was our 13th time seeing Girlyman live. The last time we saw them was the only time we took no guests. Last night, we set a new record (previously 19 at Highline Ballroom). Including us, we purchased 26 tickets for last night\u2019s show. Two of our expected guests missed their flight in Chicago, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,15,3,17,2,89],"tags":[211,1366,1365,81,31,1367,529,1372],"class_list":["post-2271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dining","category-food","category-3","category-music","category-2","category-politics","tag-birchmere","tag-dining","tag-food","tag-friends","tag-girlyman","tag-music","tag-po-girl","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2271"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2274,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2271\/revisions\/2274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}