Tonight I braved the elements to visit the 42nd Street Oyster Bar in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. I was hoping to bump into folks I knew there. Hell, they might have been there. If they were I wouldn’t have known since I was running late, the bar was a lot larger than I would have expected, and I’ve realized for a few weeks that I really need to get new glasses. While I would have enjoyed company in this pursuit, everything was all good, as this type of activity was still consistent with my newfound quest to get out of the house more often.

I decided to find a place at the bar and make conversation with nearby persons while waiting for the band to get started. The bartender and the young lady next to me recommended one of the draft pilsners, so I had two of them. It had the oddest taste, kind of like peas. No, not pee (or piss); it tasted like peas. The odd veggie taste was a strange comfort since most beers taste like how I would imagine piss to taste.

I expected the band to start at 10:00pm, but they seemed to start somewhat earlier than that. They looked kind of like Weezer, but must have been some sort of southern rock band. Weird. Their first song was called Southern Cross, by Crosby, Stills & Nash. Part of the song goes like this:

When you see the Southern Cross for the first time
You understand now why you came this way.
‘Cause the truth you might be runnin’ from is so small.
But it’s as big as the promise – The promise of a comin’ day.

That is where I started to notice things getting strange. Maybe things had been strange earlier in the day (like when presidential candidate Ron Paul came in second in the Nevada Republican primary), only this was my first realization of how strange they were. Last night Brien Barbour mentioned he would be performing Southern Cross at an upcoming audition (see my previous post from January 18th, “Brien Barbour at the Lotus Leaf Cafe“). Anyway, I decided to leave during the second song, the Marshall Tucker Band’s Can’t You See. I was almost inspired — about what, I can’t remember. But the spirits seemed to guide me nonetheless.

So I was out-and-about in downtown Raleigh, going to the store to pick up some snacks, the gas station to get lottery tickets (with one minute to spare), and finishing up by hitting the dollar menu at McDonald’s. Finally, I got home and pulled up the lyrics and began to reflect on Southern Cross, a song which with I really wasn’t too familiar. As I finished reading the lyrics, I got an email from Brien. Weird, huh? I hope this is a good omen for Brien’s upcoming performance.

I’m sure I’m missing something about the importance of this day. Even so, I just decided to fill my soul with thanks and open myself up to the experience. Maybe it’s all been teeny-tiny coincidences — or maybe it’s been mystical shit that’s screaming “Wake up!” at me. I’ll just pinch myself in case there’s something going on besides pea-beer intoxication.

Tonight I had the very special opportunity to see my friend, acoustic guitarist, singer-songwriter Brien Barbour perform at the Lotus Leaf Cafe in Cary, North Carolina. Typically Brien’s set list includes oldies, folk, country, bluegrass, and a lot of wit and personality. I would highly recommend checking out Brien Barbour’s MySpace profile to hear him doing some of his own stuff. Then, if you are in the Triangle region of North Carolina, I would strongly recommend you get off your ass and go see him perform for yourself. You will be glad you did. Just be sure to bring some cash because you’ll definitely want to buy a CD at the show.

Hopefully soon, geography won’t be a barrier to seeing Brien. Just before his show last week, he found out that he’ll be auditioning for a TV show called America’s Got Talent on February 2nd in Charlotte. That’s even more reason to see Brien now, since after he hits it big, you’ll have to either deal with Ticketmaster just to see him or pay a hefty cover.

As far as the dining experience itself was concerned, it was pretty good. The Lotus Leaf is French-Vietnamese dining. Not being a fine food connoisseur, I really can’t tell you any details beyond what I ordered. I started off with a Tsingtao (which somehow multiplied into three), a shrimp-crab-ragoon-like appetizer called “bags of gold”, and vegetarian pepper steak. I would have liked draft beer, but that wasn’t an option as it is mostly a wine type of place. Bags of gold were totally awesome. I went with vegetarian pepper steak as I had not felt well lately, but I could have just as well gone with the real thing instead of a tofu substitute. It’s a bit on the pricey side, but what do you expect from fine French-Vietnamese dining?

My favorite moment of the night came toward the end of Brien’s set when he played Jimmy Buffet’s “Margaritaville.” At one point he sang, “And I know/it’s Johnny Crawford’s fault.” Hell yeah! Brien knows who’s really running things. Keep on rocking!

Last night I attended my second free concert this year in downtown Raleigh. This time the main act was another group from the 90s called the Spin Doctors. I really wasn’t too into this concert, but Hope wanted to go in order to hear some of the music she grooved to in the good ole days of high school and college. I’m glad I went mainly so that I don’t hear that I never take her anywhere.I was also glad I got to catch the act before the Spin Doctors. It was a group called Blue October. Other than lyrics that vaguely made me think of somebody’s inner child having been pistol-whipped repeatedly, I actually liked this group. They had violins and keyboards and pretty lights, which is what I’m into musically now-a-days when I’m not into dressing in black, breaking stuff and dropping the F-bomb.

As different as our musical tastes are, we were actually in agreement on this show. We didn’t feel that it was all that exciting for a concert. Hope said the Spin Doctors didn’t bring their A-game. It could have been that they realized they were playing the same songs they were playing ten to fifteen years ago. It also could have been that the lead singer was high. Now I have no knowledge of this group’s smoking preferences, but everyone that I knew who were really into this group in college were really, really into smoking weed. Speaking of which, some in attendance pulled out their joints for this event (when not getting obnoxiously drunk and spilling beer on Hope).

While the band and the smoking was bad, by far the worst part was the crowd. It was even more crowded than the last show. Maybe that was due to the different demographics of the typical attendee. This was a different crowd than the previous show I attended downtown, everyone being lilly-white. It was roughly rock, no hip-hop artists on the bill to divide the crowd. Of particular instance was when this drunk bitch pushed her way through the crowd saying she’s trying to get next to her friends. Magically, she just stops looking for her friends and parks her ass right in front of us, thus revealing that there weren’t any friends in the first place (or that she was too shit-faced to have a clue). The three other people going through the crowd with her were right on top of us. Feeling a little too cramped, I put my arm around Hope in order to gently slide her a bit closer. To my surprise, I felt somebody’s skin (other than Hope’s) in the area of her butt!!! Some people shouldn’t drink because that could have been the last mistake that son-of-a-bitch ever made.

I was hoping to attend the free Candlebox/Urge Overkill show in a couple of weeks. That’s highly doubtful, though, since I’m not into the crowds and the smoking, even for a pretty decent concert.