The above clip is not a performance of the Old 97’s at The Cat’s Cradle- it’s just a video clip I found of them performing that I thought I’d stick up on here.
Amanda got off work early so we could leave to go see the Old 97’s at The Cat’s Cradle tonight. I saw them not too long ago when they put on a free show in Raleigh, but this time Amanda got to come along. I’ve been listening to them for several years now and as a byproduct of that Amanda is pretty familiar with some of their songs and even enjoys them, so it was cool to be able to have her along.
Rhett Miller, lead singer of the Old 97’s, was wearing the same short he was the last time he was here, I noticed.
We made pretty good time getting to Chapel Hill (Carrboro, actually) with the exception of some traffic on the Durham side of the RTP. We spent a lot of time discussing names for when we have a baby. We’re sort of between three girl names: Lillian Isabelle, Lillian Rose and Maggie Jane. The third is a late addition but we both think it’s ridiculously cute. For a boy we’d been thinking Andrew Chapin for a long time. All of the names are taken from grandparents, but we’re thinking of changing up Andrew. No offense to Pap, but he’s got lots of namesakes now, and Andrew is a relatively common name. I threw out name like Taurus and Kickass, but Amanda vetoed them. You’ve got to admit- Taurus Chapin Dotsey does sound pretty cool.
We were going to go to Amanda’s cousin Stanton Pickens’ house then go out to eat, but we just ended up parking the car at The Cat’s Cradle and meeting him and his girlfriend, Sarah, there. We were going to go eat at The Lantern, which is their favorite spot and the place we had a few drinks last time Amanda and I met up with Stanton, but the wait would have been pretty long so we went across the street to another place. I can’t remember the name of it, but it was pretty swank and I think it began with an “E”. Stanton was kind enough to treat me and Amanda and bought me a martini and a white Russian.
We headed on over the The Cat’s Cradle where my friends Jason Revill and Joel Freeman had already arrived. Joel was there with his sister, Jessica Freeman, and Dave, who I think may have been her boyfriend. A little while later D Webb arrived with his wife and sister-in-law.
Stanton bought me a large can of Fosters and one or two Coronas. Amanda had a cranberry juice. The dude treated the whole night, which was just really awesome of him.
There was an old country singing guy on before the Old 97’s. By “old country guy” I mean he was old, he was country and he sang old country style. He was pretty entertaining and talked to the crowd a good bit. By this time we had all sort of congregated about halfway back. The Old 97’s came out (opening up with The Fool, the opening track on their newset CD, Blame it on Gravity). Amanda wanted to move so we got up on a side riser where we, the short people, not only had a better view but it let her sit a bit too. Stanton and Sarah joined us after a while and Stanton asked if I wanted to go up front. Especially in little places like that I really like getting right up on the stage, and that was all the impetus I needed, so we ditched the girls and I snaked our way up front. I’m pretty talented at that, and I ended up with just one person between me and the stage.
The Old 97’s put on a high energy show, as they are wont to do. Just like in Raleigh, the only sing I wanted them to play that they didn’t was Murder (Or a Heart Attack). Oh well. It was still a great show.
When it was over we all met back up then Amanda drove us to Stanton’s place. I was a little, shall we say, not in a condition to drive at that point.
As we were pulling out of the parking lot we heard a screech and the sound of cars hitting. We didn’t see it, but we heard people out walking on Franklin Street cheer it and make noise.
As we were following Stanton I got a call from Joel that made me wish we’d stuck around a few minutes. He and Jessica, and I guess Jason too, were hanging out and ended up talking to Rhett Miller and Murry Hammond, the backup vocalist who leads in a few songs. Dangit!
Zach Dotsey