Get Me Started and It Just Spills Out

For the second time this week, a guy told me that he liked my passion. In this case, the comment came from a Dallas transplant (originally a New Englander) whom I'd met at Tarrant's when I went there to eat dinner and visit with a favorite bartender friend.

He was the only other bar sitter when I arrived and was busy doing something with his phone, so I didn't pay him any mind. Seeing me, he put it down and said, "I shouldn't be on my phone out on a Friday night." Given my phone feelings, that was an opening too wide for me not to jump in, so I did, eventually convincing him to bury the dreaded device under a menu and start enjoying Saturday eve.

Apparently I wasn't too overbearing because he soon began his incremental move around the bar to eventually sit next to me and pick my brain about what to do in Richmond. He's only been here since January, so his feelings about RVA are still mixed. As the bartender knowingly informed him, "You're talking to the right girl."

It's a bit challenging to just launch into what a newcomer should check out here without first getting some sense of his interests and dislikes. With a little probing, I discovered that he appreciates art, including local work and has already found a piece at Davis and Main that he plans to purchase. He'd also planned to visit the VMFA tomorrow, so I gave him my four-visit take on it.

As I made recommendations for what to see and do, I tucked into my fish tacos (grilled Mahi-Mahi, pepper jack cheese, corn relish, and guacamole with black beans), having ordered them because of a rave I'd recently heard. After having had my photographer friend over for a chatty happy hour earlier (Inama Soave Classico), I was in need of some grub to fill in the cracks and they seemed ideal for that purpose. Luckily, my transplant friend didn't seem to mind listening to a girl with guacamole dripping down her chin.

Because I was on a limited time budget (I wanted to make a show at Gallery 5 and, specifically, see the opener), I cut right to the chase and told him about my blog, suggesting he peruse it and let me know which activities I mentioned might be of interest to him and from there I would make further recommendations about what to see and do. He then graciously insisted on paying for my dinner and assured me that he'd be in touch about things to do. J-Ward girl strikes again!

The bill at Gallery 5 consisted of Long Division, Seas and Autocue, and I'd already seen the latter two, which is why I'd been determined to make it in time to see the first. Simply put, Long Division made my night. For the second time in one week, I got an excellent set of post-rock, full of swelling guitars, intricate interplay and the added pleasure of a trumpet in parts.

As much as I love a good lyric and I absolutely do, I am a complete sucker for post-rock. The band said that their influences were Sonic Youth and Radiohead, but, I'm telling you, I heard Explosions in the Sky and Yndi Halda. I can't wait for this Norfolk band to come back through town: I will insist on some of my music geek friends joining me to hear them.

Seas played next and I'd heard their 70s-influenced sound at Live at Ipanema back in March. They said tonight's show was only their 8th or 9th, so they were still working things out. They sounded terrific, though, and I think a big part of the crowd was there for them. I wanted to tsk-tsk the drummer, I'm afraid, when he admitted that he'd lived in RVA for three years and this was his first time in Gallery 5. Sorry, kids, I just can't get to everyone and tell them what to do, although clearly my efforts are sorely needed.

Last up was Autocue, they of the massive and expensive stage-filling equipment (last time I saw them at G5, their abundance of high-end gear blew out all the power in the place, not once, but twice). I'd already heard that they'd done an extremely long sound check, but the vocal was still too low in the mix, at least in my musically-challenged opinion. I ran into a guy who remembered talking to me at the last Autocue show (I'm ashamed to say that I didn't recognize him at all) and we enthusiastically compared notes on the first two bands before Autocue got started .

You might even say we had a passionate discussion. As has been duly noted of late, my passion does tend to show itself when I get to talking.