Red Collar

Had a wonderful evening last Friday night. It started off with a bloody massive thunderstorm. The electricity even went off. The tales of the thunderstorm were pretty funny, we had a near miss (due to Ryan being outside while the storm was going down), a shaking car and a broken shooing bag which nearly resulted in a tofu squashing incident. To top it off all the way to Chapel Hill it was fine and as soon as we pulled on to Franklin St (the main st of Chapel Hill), the thunderstorm decided to have another go at us, apparently not satisfied with almost getting the tofu squished it wanted to stop us going to Carrburritos. But alas four hungry people within spitting distance of the best burritos in the triangle were not going to be stopped by a little torrential rain.

After out fill of burritos it was to the local 506 for the musical entertainment of the evening. Ryan spotted the singer from Red Collar the band we were planning to see. We were invited to a house party they were also playing later that evening. The first band were fronted by a maths professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. They were pretty good actually. The place was rammed, usually at the 506 there aren't too many people, but it was a free CD launch party, people always love free shows, even with the possibility of getting pissed on by thunderstorms won't stop em. So as you can see from the photo I stole, of the gig it was pretty sweaty.

Red Collar are five piece from Durham, NC. I'm not going to try and pigeonhole them, they just play good modern rock 'n' roll. Listen to them. They put on such a good show. With so much energy (see photo below), even in the bloody hot pit that is the 506. They put a smile on our faces. I don't think you ask for much more than that. I paid money to see a lot worse bands and I will pay good money to see Red Collar again. After the set we had to get out as it was far too hot. So we went to the posh wine bar down the street. I found out they serve PBR in a can for a dollar 50. Sweet, the night was turning out to be pretty good and we hadn't even got near Time Out Chicken.

We mosied on down to the party. It was pretty cool party with lots of people. We managed to find time to find some gin that was washed down with Buzz cola (an advertising scheme from those good people who brought us the Simpson's movie). I have had worse drinks.... just. The band were indeed setting up to play in somebody's living room. That was pretty strange to see (see pic of band below, complete with curtains in the background). What was even stranger was the mosh pit that ensued. You couldn't really escape it. It was so cool being in somebody's house with a damn good band playing. Certainly one of my coolest experiences in the US so far, especially Andy 'losing his shit' in the mosh pit, I'm not going to try an explain that one but I will go as far to say he didn't soil himself. The moral of the story, Durham rocked Chapel Hill.

After the band had finished a Time Out was called, and answered. I had my usual of chicken and a biscuit, but a fellow party goer had a 2 and a half dollar ice cream sandwich. This thing was huge (not 'el gigante' huge but still pretty damn big). It consisted of two cookies that were approximately face sized and about a tub of ice cream in it. People couldn't get their teeth round it. Yes, you will be pleased to know I shall be eating one in the near future, complete with pictures of a fiver being swamped by it.