!!! - More like ??!#£%?

I went with Shiraz and his friend Louisa to the Maximo Park NME show at the Astoria last night. The first band we saw were Hot Club de Paris. They sang some funny a capella at points (like 'sometimes it's better not to stick bits of each other in each other for each other' or something to that effect) but otherwise they were extremely average.

Then came !!!. I didn't know anything about them except that their music is dancy and not at all like the headliners. Holy ummm what the hell is this?! was my reaction. It looked like eight Napolean Dynamites performing on stage to electronic music. They were so dorky, I couldn't tell if they'd just come from chess club or the local gun show. I thought they were great though and the singer was really charismatic; his dorkiness made him even more fun to watch. I would recommend seeing them, and you can put 3!'s at the end of that statement.

Finally were Maximo Park who played lots of old stuff and lots of new stuff. I'd never seen them headline a gig and the crowd went bonkers for them. They played a good show and you could tell they were really happy with their performance and with the crowd. Paul Smith looks tre cute with his new long hair and hat instead of his former combover from 2005; also the keyboard player controlled himself from doing the karate chop move for most of the set, I was so thankful!!

Shiraz took us to the Sanderson Hotel bar afterwards for a goodbye drink (it's one of the places we went the day we met.) It's so nice there.

On Tuesday night Dave and I saw Spamalot courtesy of his brother and sister-in-law (their Xmas gift to us.) I was hesitant about the show as I don't know much Monty Python and thought I wouldn't get the jokes. I did miss a few but overall it was really funny and original in terms of a show (of course not that original as they ripped it off from themselves but you know what I mean.) If comparing against Avenue Q, the other comedy-musical I'd recently seen, I'd say it was was better. Only bad thing about the theater (even though it was beautiful) was that the seats were steeper than at Shea Stadium, which can be pretty scary.

They are playing 'Sometimes' by Ash on XFM right now, it's my favorite Ash song, yeah!!!

Ana got extra hot chicken at Nando's the other day. That's the highest level of hot after Lemon & Herb, Medium, & Hot. Lemon & Herb is spicy for me (although I'm an exception with spice sensitivity.) She had to have the waiter wash the sauce off for her. Too ambitious!

I just met Ben in Chinatown. Speaking of, did you see the huge lit-up lanterns in Oxford Circus for the New Year? So pretty and surprisingly tasteful for the circ.

I just bought 3 books ('Love in the Present Tense', 'A Piece of Cake', and 'Never Let Me Go') with a gift voucher I had which I no doubt will have a problem transporting home.

I also bought fun scrapbooky things at Muji for when I return home.

Current Music: Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You