After I got home from Winston's at about eight and had something to eat I went over to my brother's for a little bit and hung out with him and some friends while I evaluated whether I felt like calling it a night or going downtown. Here's the thing: as you may have noticed, I've been meaning for a while to check out a local band called Faded Blue. It's partly because I'm always on the lookout for new music, and partly because, well...

Okay, there was the whole thing about the lead singer making the stupid and tactless remark on the Facebook group. Without going over it again, I was kind of mad at him at the time just because it struck me as an ungracious thing for him to say after a whole lot of people made a point of supporting his band last spring at the Battle of the Bands. Because I'm like that, though, rather than ignoring them forever afterward I looked them up, and found out the lead singer seems to be a great deal younger than I thought he was at first, and started to think maybe I wasn't going to hold a grudge over the remark, I was just going to see what I thought of the music. In other words, I was actually trying to be fair, which for a small and petty person such as myself was a big step. (Yeah, they played four songs at the Battle of the Bands. That doesn't count, because the sound was so awful. I mean, I didn't form much of an opinion of the winners, Mike Trask & Mudhill, that night but when I caught them at the Seahorse a few weeks ago I just loved them.)

I've actually planned to go to more than one show over the past couple of months and always ended up not going at the last minute for one reason or another. So last night I decided, dammit, this is it.

Yes, I always make a big fat deal about things like this. Sue me.

According to The Coast, Faded Blue and Nick Nameless were supposed to play at The Attic starting at ten. This, in my experience, generally means eleven. It was more like a quarter to twelve when I got downtown so I figured I had already missed the openers, but whatever.

I've never been to The Attic before but it was easy to find. There was a big guy at the door (which reminded me of my last trip to Gus's, where this security guy actually blocked the door for a second, so I thought I had misunderstood The Coast and it was a private function) and he ignored me until I had my hand on the door handle, which was when he asked to see ID. It was like when store security catches a shoplifter and has to wait until they leave the store to arrest them. And he wasn't perfunctory about it, either, which is a new one. I mean, okay, I've been told I don't look my age, but what that means is I look about thirty-five rather than forty. There's no way anyone needs to check my birth date. He not only checked, he scanned my driver's license to make sure it was real. What, is there a problem with middle-aged librarians sneaking into The Attic under assumed names??

When I got upstairs the guy at the door checked my purse for, I don't know, weapons I guess, but at least he had enough of a sense of humour to look like he felt a little silly about it. Sheesh.

I heard no bands playing when I came in, and when I stopped at the bar for a Pepsi (which I was not charged for, so that was an instance of a staff member seeming human) I asked when the band started. The reply was twelve-fifteen or so, which was when I suddenly remembered a thread on a local message board in which someone mentioned that The Attic was open a lot later than many other bars. Shit--now I was looking at being out ridiculously late and having to walk back to my car, on Sackville Street, when only the drunkest people in Halifax were still awake. And I'd already paid the cover.

Still, I was determined to do this so I parked myself at a table and noted that despite the fact it was getting on for midnight there was practically nobody there except the bands (I recognized a couple of the guys from Faded Blue from the BOTB) wearing green wrist bands that I guess identified them. (Mine was white.) And more security guys than I have ever seen at a club in Halifax that wasn't the Marquee for a special event. It looked like the Prime Minister was expected to drop by and sit in.

Anyway. Nick Nameless apparently couldn't make it, so the opening act was Paul Maybee & the Critics. Which is a pretty random name, and I have good luck with bands whose names are random, but I couldn't help wishing their name was Paul Maybee & the Possibilities. They were a three-piece, played seven or eight songs, and were one of those cases of steadily increasing returns, because I liked them more as their set went on. I especially liked it when the singer switched from electric to acoustic guitar because he had a nice warm voice and the acoustic guitar emphasized it nicely. If I heard they were playing somewhere on a weekend I think I would plan to go.

So that was good. Then Faded Blue started, and within a couple of songs there were maybe two dozen people on the dance floor so there were finally more patrons than security. The band plays every Tuesday at The Seahorse which is, in my opinion, a much more welcoming venue (I had a hell of a time even finding the bathrooms between sets, the place was so large and weirdly shaped) and I imagined their friends saying to them, "Sorry guys, I'll gladly come see you Tuesday but I'm not going to The Attic for any reason!" But the folks on the dance floor seemed interested, there were a few right up at the rail in front of the stage and this one girl with blond hair who was sort of pogoing like her feet were made of rubber, and she was really cute.

As far as the band went, all I knew about them beforehand, aside from the BOTB experience which as I say doesn't count, was what Evan from Gloryhound told me a week or so before the BOTB, which was that they played sort of heavy pop and were very tight. And they were: tight and well-rehearsed and very professional. And, I quickly decided, not my thing. I liked the lead guitarist, who seemed to have a bit of the devil in him and who acknowledged a group of obvious big fans standing in front of him very nicely. I wasn't as taken with their sound, which really was heavy pop, and the lead singer, while pretty good, didn't grab me.

I'm not even holding a grudge at this point. The second song they played was a pretty much note-by-note cover of "Cocaine Cowgirl," and that kind of made me think about the first time I saw El Torpedo and despite the fact Matt Mays isn't an out-there, "hey look at me" front man, you can't take your eyes off him. The thing about charisma is it's innate, right, and even though in Matt's case what he projects is simply "perfectly nice guy," he projects it in a way that's hard to ignore. It's like when he's in front of the band he's himself only bigger, and that's something you either have or you don't. Which is what I was thinking about watching this band--they were exactly as big as the sum of their parts.

They also did not, in the first set, acknowledge the opening act, and you know how I am about that.

I did like the guitar part in their new song, which made me think of "Black Magic Woman," and when someone yelled "Carlos!" at the guitar player he laughed and acknowledged it.

I left when they broke after the first set so I was out by two. If the guitar player ever quits and forms a new band, I think I may check them out. But for now, I can see why someone would like Faded Blue, but now I don't need to wonder whether one of them might be me.

Also, I would have to want to see a band some bad to ever go back to The Attic. As I left a guy who was visibly thirty was being refused entry on the grounds that he had the wrong kind of ID. I mean, God!

And, since the library is about to close, that's it for now.