Last night I headed through torrential nastiness, over hill and dale and pioneer square, squeezed my car into a non-existent parking spot, all to see Ghostland Observatory at the Showbox SoDo.
I bought my ticket after hearing two Ghostland songs on the radio (tracks 2 and 3 here). This can be a risky proposition because there are tons of bands who put out one or two good songs and everything else is crap, but risk makes life interesting and I needed an excuse to flat-iron my hair and don my skinny jeans.
I loved this show! I know I keep saying “oh this was the best show ever!” after each show I go to, so I will stop trying to apply superlatives and rankings, and just tell you to GO. It didn’t matter that I didn’t know most of the songs, or that there was barely room to dance, and I couldn’t see the band… One nice feature for short people like me, who despite being only 10 feet from the stage still can’t see the band at all because everyone else is tall, the whole set was accompanied by a choreographed light show. Welcome to the Laser Dome! (This photo was NOT at my eye level, but at my tip-toes arm stretched up level). Way better for feeling like a part of the show than your standard band stands there, band plays, band dances. Also, I definitely noticed the difference between this, a 21+ show, and the all-ages crowd I have gotten used to. It seemed that everyone who cared about what other people think just wasn’t there. Also, there was way less obnoxious dancing and rabble-rousing than I’ve experienced previously, and on top of that, I didn’t really feel old.
And by the way, Showbox SoDo is a way cooler space than its sister venue, Showbox at the Market. It’s this big brick-walled warehouse-type space with wood beams all across the ceiling, this combined with the lasers and the electro-everything made me long for some late-90’s raves. Or at least it made me put Go! on my Netflix.
FURTHER bonus: Ghostland are from Austin! I am totally going to drag a bunch of campers out to see them during the Endurance Ranch!
