the minus five, tim seely and a very shy woman i met in france.

tonight i was reintroduced to the seattle music scene. my very dear friend anne, who is visiting seattle from her new home in portland, and i went to see a local fave, tim seely, play at the crocodile cafe. she also knew another of the bands that was playing, and the third band, the she bee gees, would be new to both of us.

we got there on the early side, so we had a couple of drinks at the bar. while we were sipping and chatting, i noticed a woman who was unmistakably from our study abroad program in france. the interesting thing about having studied abroad through the university of minnesota in montpellier, france seven years ago is that there was a program through the university of washington also in montpellier. that means that on occasion i will see folks around seattle who i don't necessarily know, but i do recognize from my year in the south of france. tonight was one such occasion. ellen was in all of my grammar classes that year. she always seemed very mysterious and cool to me. but she also seemed very shy and quite demure, so i never got to know her at all. so to see her out on the town whooping it up - in a miniskirt no less - was a bit of a surprise. i pointed her out to anne (we studied abroad on the same program) and we moved on with our conversation.

when we went into the room where the bands played, another surprise was in store. who was in the she bee gees - an all female bee gees cover band - but shy, demure ellen herself? i have to say that, despite my surprise at seeing her up on stage playing bass and singing back-up, her on stage persona was not unlike the one she displayed in grammar class all those years ago. a little self-conscious, a little unsure, and certainly a bit out of place rocking out to bee gees covers.

the next installment of the evening was the minus five. i didn't know much about them before tonight besides the fact that one of the rotating members is peter buck, of my very very favorite band from my middle and high school years, R.E.M. we're talking a situation where i would buy any 30 dollar import i could get my hands on, even if all of the songs on it were ones i already had, just because it was recorded at a different venue. it was a sick and very costly obsession. the object of my R.E.M. affection has always been michael stipe who i stand by as the sexiest man alive, but as of tonight i have seen peter buck in a new light. i can't disassociate him from his airplane rage history, but it was pretty fun to see a bunch of middle aged plus dudes rocking out for a crowd that was just as middle aged.

when tim seely came on, a new definition of middle age emerged. anne and i bopped a long to a few songs, then went to find a seat because our legs were tired and it was approaching 1am. as we sat and looked around us, we were baffled by the frat boy and sorority girls who had taken the place over. as our aching legs throbbed we glanced down at our sneakers glowing under the black light and decided it was time to go.

so it was a night of old acquaintances and a lesson that age really is in the eye of the beholder. i am going to take my old bones to bed... i've got a 9am move with a 17 foot uhaul ahead of me tomorrow.