I'd Do Anything

When Plan A falls through, it's lucky that Plan B so easily takes its place.

My road trip plans with me playing fifth wheel to a favorite couple were replaced with an anniversary celebration at my neighborhood record store, Steady Sounds

To celebrate two years in the 'hood, they had scheduled bands and DJs playing until 8:00.

Somehow, by the time I made it over there to meet up with a girlfriend, it was almost 5.

Where does a beautiful sunny afternoon go?

Our intent had been to check out Steady Sounds' current art show by P.J. Sykes, friend and band photographer extraordinaire.

And it was impressive; there were photographs of the Love Language, Superchunk, Cloud Nothings and Daniel Johnston, among others.

There was even one of Win Butler at the Arcade Fire show in Charlottesville last summer where I'd run into P.J. and his cute wife on possibly the hottest night ever to see an outdoor show.

It made me happy to see that several had already been sold.

As someone who's bought two of P.J.'s photographs myself, I wasn't really surprised.

While we checked out P.J.'s show, we listened to a DJ playing covers of classics like "Starry Eyes" and "We Got the Beat" while an unknown band set up.

"I love that we don't know what we're about to hear," my friend enthused.

It turned out to be Buffalo's Lemuria, a band I hadn't seen since late 2009 at Gallery 5.

Their website is lemuriapop.com, if that tells you anything. And it should.

With a punk power pop sound augmented with dual vocalists of both sexes and unbridled enthusiasm, they played an energetic set that captured everyone in the room.

The band cites the Lemonheads and Superchunk as influences, so fans of '90s indie pop (okay, me and all the kids in the room born that decade) were bound to get off on them.

Both obvious fans (singing every word) and newbies (becoming fans as they heard them for the first time) had the store packed for their brief set.

We left afterwards for 821 Cafe and my favorite black bean nachos with a thrash soundtrack to accompany them.

Some things just don't need to be improved upon.

Everyone I knew was busy tonight, so instead of music, I opted for a last-minute movie.

And not just any movie, but a post-mumblecore film that went a long way toward redefining the cliched romantic comedy genre.

"Your Sister's Sister" had all the mumblecore characteristics - improvised dialogue, believable characters and limited budget - but so convincingly conveyed a sense of real life that it was easy to forget these were actors, not real people.

The story of a 30-something guy who didn't really have his life together but was willing to address his shortcomings for the sake of the right woman was at times funny but also poignant.

He didn't come to that realization until after he's had a one-night stand with her lesbian sister, so that complicated things a bit.

Naturally that transgression was brought on by, what else, too much tequila and I'm here to say that I think tequila gets a bum rap as the go-to bad spirit.

 Just for the record, some of us are quite capable of drinking it without making foolish errors in judgement.

But I digress.

I laughed far too loudly at a scene reminiscent of one from my own life (Leo, you know what I'm talking about) and felt the veracity of a relationship where people who've known each other for years haven't recognized their romantic potential.

But mostly it just felt like life, where witty dialogue and unfortunate things come out of the same mouths.

And best of all, it had a totally inconclusive ending that didn't explain a single thing.

Just like real life...or Plan B.