#them string pluckers

ONE! MORE! WEEK! Until I see them live again.

-I know that I’m officially excited for the next Punch Brothers show (two weeks from today!!) because I’ve started having dreams about them again. Two nights ago, I dreamed that I was seeing them at the festival and they took us to space. (I would love for them to take us to space, but I’m still holding out hope that we’ll get the third show that I don’t know much about at the OVMF, because the space show was done at Telluride and I have the recording of that. Still, I’d be happy even if they took us back to Hydropolis… it’s my favorite band, y’all!)

-Along those lines… my dream last night took place on the beach, where several people and I were sitting around and listening to “A Case of You” by Joni Mitchell, and I was crying because I would never be loved like that (tangent: if I was romanticizing THAT song, my dream-self must have been VERY lonely indeed), and out of all the people who were there on the beach listening to the song with me, I remember two of them: my friend/sound engineer, and CHRIS FUCKING THILE. Like. Why. (Actually I think it’s really funny when random musicians or celebrities appear in my dreams as side characters… but even when I’m sleeping, I can’t get away from this guy!)

-Was listening to the second movement of “The Blind Leaving the Blind” after I saw Chris’ post about finding the original lyric sheet at his apartment, and like I said, it’s the one I listen to the least. I had completely forgotten that it says “guess four years was four years too long,” which INSTANTLY reminded me of Madison Cunningham’s song “Mummy” where she sings about her divorce and says “could have been six, but we made it to five.” When Madison’s record Ace came out, it reminded me so much of “The Blind Leaving the Blind” in how she addressed her divorce and a seemingly-concurrent crisis of faith, and for specific imagery that was similar, like her song “Goodwill” vs. “Blind’s” mention of “Goodwill’s coming by to collect a box I filled with things I hate about myself…” I’m glad to have discovered another similarity, which I think points to a broader similarity between Madi & Thile’s songwriting sensibilities and the way they processed similar life experiences. There’s probably a compare/contrast essay in there somewhere, but since the subject matter of the songs is so personal, I sure ain’t gonna touch that one.

-(Non-Punch-related tangent: listening to Ace over and over again feels a lot like learning to read the Alethiometer, the device from the series His Dark Materials. The layers of symbolism and metaphor that her writing uses only become clearer and clearer to me, until I reach the point where I can hear her sing one thing and I know exactly what she’s really saying. I’m not sure if that makes sense… anyway, LISTEN TO ACE, IT IS SO GOOD.)

-Because Punch is such a good album, I let the album play after “Blind” movement 2, but I forgot that I had the version with the bonus track, “I Know You Know.” (It was actually the first track from the album that I bought…) When I heard that song, I started wondering if I would ever get to hear it live. “Probably only by request,” I thought, “if they even remember how to play it.” Then I remembered that Brittany hadn’t been in the band when they recorded that song, so she might not have even learned how to play it. Then I remembered that Paul hadn’t been in the band when they recorded that song, so he might not even have learned how to play it! (I kid, I kid, there’s a recording of them playing it with Paul on YouTube. Still, as much as I love that song and would love to hear it live, I highly doubt they’ll ever play it again.

All I need to do is print out the ticket & the schedule, and make the kandi bracelets that I've already laid out the beads for, and I'll be ready to fly to Maine to see Punch Brothers at the Ossipee Valley Music Festival on the day their album releases. Just two more weeks!!

Chris: “One of those midges that are flying around crawled up my nose during that last song. I wanted to *mimes blowing his nose* but I’m getting over a cold, so there would have been snot all over my mandolin.”