well i had bought the tickets (as an impulse buy) bc i had both cds (also impulse buys earlier in the year). so the day of the show arrived. it was on september 20th and seeing as my birthday is on the 19th i had actually forgotten i had them and forgot to find a ride (my g/f couldnt drive me and im not going into my non-driving situation here) so i went into my mothers kitchen (she lived next door at the time)and asked her if she new anyone who might want to go. she ended up getting Ray to go. ray is a cool guy and i had not seen him in about 3 years. so at about 6 i was headed to the cotton club in atl ga.

now the cotton club is on 152 luckie st. (so is the tabernacle where i saw them again) now my directions said to get on a certain street that happens to be unmarked at the intersection i approached (so we passed it). ray and i were lost big time. we ended up over by the fox theatre (and almost considered giving up and watching ani difranco instead) but we got directions from a crackhead and after making a hugely illegal trip down the wrong way of an "emergency vehicles only" lane, we found the cotton club .... which is in a basement area of the tabernacle ...it was my first time there and i had no idea where it was ... i had to ask the hobo that told he'd "keep an eye on your car" i gave him $3 bc he actually pointed me in the right way AND he did point us into one of the rare spots that we wouldnt get towed from.

so i went down the stairs into the cotton club. some band called likehell was well into their set and performed about three songs which i watched from the back of the club (which is very small).i noticed a ton of promo posters all over the place ...i decided to wait to grab one.during the break i went to buy a shirt but noticed a lot of cds they had both albums the 3 desert sessions cds the beaver split and mondo generator ....so i ended up with the first 2 desert cds i wouldve gotten the third and found myself cursing the hobo bc i was only $2 short of getting the third .... oh well... so then i cosied up to the left side of the stage ... i have no idea why bc i hate "moshing" which has degenerated from a beautful thing into "hey lets hit that guy and then this other guy while spinning in a circle" but then again thats all mtv and the medias fault for misinterpreting what moshing was .... so back to the show... Vast came out which they were ok .... the main thing i liked about them was jon crosby's hair was dyed the same way as i had done mine earlier that summer (but had since shaved off and grown back) also since there are no barracades at the cotton club there were a few instances where the guy next to me had to pick the guitar players mic up ... the guy next to me did not like vast at all and was doing it out of kindness but did not respond to the guitar players repeeated thanks with nothing more than holding up his hand as if to say "sure thing but dont talk to psuedo-celebrity" also another highlight of their performance was at one point jon crosby came over and straddled the corner of the left side of the stage and pretty much played his guitar into my face ... now that i think about it maybe he was coming on to me ... no im kidding about the coming on to me part but i did notice i was the only person who didnt back away from him when he came over though idid make room for him to put his foot on the corner that i was leaning on... very cool moment bc i realised there were NO BARRACADES AT ALL ...

so QotSA sets up ...i was shocked when they brought this tiny keyboard out but even more so when they brought the infamous PEDAL STEEL i couldve touched the rustic looking thing but decided it would not be wise... and after awhile the lights go out ... and they come out the place smelled of incense bc QotSA (im guessing this is at all shows) burned incense before coming out ... so the come out and im even more surprised bc "the singer" is not in the middle i did not know his name at the time so i was just watching all four of the nameless musicians smiling and having a good time .... i smiled through the whole show and occasionally i looked at nick and he was looking dead at me ... a very nice feeling when you grab the attention of anybody you respect ... especially when you grow up worshipping those arena rock groups and not giving a shit about anything less .... during one of the first few songs nick did the classic flame breathing act i believe he did that during how to handle though im not sure bc i didnt know the songs well .....josh repeated throughout the show "we're from out of town" and introduced autopilot by saying it was about finding an eightball on the ground ... and im pretty sure he said that lost art was about fucking though i cant remember ... funny thing brendon mcnichol played every song flawless EXCEPT lost art which was the single at the time i smiled and thought "great youre going to fuck up on 'the hit song'" and about that time i saw him grimace and say something like shitfuckindammit ... i am never amazed by live bands (partly bc i know the setlists are always the same and rarely change and for some groups like metallica they have done them to death) but QotSA absolutely AMAZED me. they are always changing and if you think pedal steel is a country music instrument then you have not seen QotSA ... a lot of parts that i thought were guitars were done by keys or pedal steel and sounded just as good as the record ... i told myself i would see them again as soon as i could and well it was only about a month and a half later that i did ....