Fighting for women’s honor and STILL rocking out I was!

growltiger:

Let’s talk about Spacehog!

It was so incredible to see them last night, hanging over the edge of the stage in a tiny club. Sure, Royston looks a little puffier than the last time I saw them, and his brother Ant is nowhere to be seen and the only other original member is their super studly drummer, Jonny something or other. But, oh, how it took me back!

The first time I saw Spacehog was when they opened for R.E.M. at Jones Beach on the Up tour in 1999. And then I saw them again at the Tweeter Center when Matty and I drove up to Boston to see R.E.M. on the last night of that tour. (Fact: I saw the Up tour foru times — in London, Dublin, NYC, and Boston, because I am ridiculous). We drove into the city to go to the after-party but we got lost along the way and stopped in what appeared to be a meadow to take a pee-break. It was only as I was pulling up my tights that Matty pointed out that we were not actually in a meadow but rather peeing in the front yard of a very large mansion. Whoopsies!

And then when I first moved here, Spacehog played pretty frequently at a club called Brownie’s, which has since turned into a bar called Hi-fi. My two best friends and I went to see them in full glam-gear, and Liv Tyler was always standing at the front with us because she was married to Royston. One of my friends had a huge crush on Ant, and since there were so many gay-friendly lyrics (boys’ breath is humid to the nipple) (And when you kiss your other lover /Well I will try to understand /And just because you’re fucking him /It doesn’t mean you don’t love me) I think we decided he had a chance with Ant and one night after their show we went across the street to the Milk Bar (i think) and waited patiently while Ant fucked a girl in the bathroom, and then finally ended up going back to Ant’s apartment (with the girl, too) and we poked smot and Ant played “Oh Yoko” on the guitar, but then we left and my friend didn’t get to make out with him.

Oh, Spacehog! How young and 21-years-old I was then, wearing skintight latex shirts and making googly eyes at the band! And how bizarre to be thirty-something and pressed up against the stage, singing the same whoa-oh-ohs to the same songs! And we had quite the adventure last night, starting with dumplings and then going to the Heeb party for free vodka drinks and then being confused by a weirdo bouncer at Rockwood, and then retreating to Lucky Jack’s where a drunken dude tried to mock-hump my butt and Corey protected my dignity and almost got into a fight, and then finally returning to Rockwood and somehow getting spots right in front.

And there we were, rocking out, and I had this momentary flash of being 21 at a spacehog show and looking at women who I thought were SO OLD rocking out and thinking that they were VERY OLD to be at a rock show and they certainly didn’t GET IT the way I did. But let me tell you, 21-year-old me, I am very thirty-something and I still GET IT even though I’m more of a deep-vneck lady than a latex lady these days.

Viva la Spacehog. Viva la glam.