Carbon/Silicon,High School Memories and The Toll Brothers Converge. True Story.

I am still tight with my girl posse from high school days and we got together friday night to see Carbon/Silicon at Irving Plaza. Carbon/Silicon is Mick Jones from the Clash's latest band. D,M & I pretty much ALWAYS get together when anything Clash related is happening and we are beginning to become like those middle aged women that follow Tom Jones around! I actually met D & M because I was wearing a Clash button back when everybody else was either into disco or bands like Styx, Journey or REO Speedwagon. (barf!) This girl (D) walked up to me in the MASSIVELY crowded high school hallway and said "you like the Clash?!" and I was like, "yeah" and then she told me they had an extra ticket to see them at Bonds International Casino in Times Square and we've been friends ever since. The Clash were playing a two-week residency there with matinees on Saturday for the underagers like us. I think the tickets were only 5 bucks! That show actually got cancelled due to overselling of tickets and "riots", which were highly exaggerated in the press and from the way I saw it and were made worse by the cops on horseback charging into the kids, go figure! It was a bit crazy. Anyway we went back again the next weekend and finally saw them, it was so amazing to me to be surrounded by kids my age from all over the city who were into the same stuff I was. I didn't feel like a misfit for once. I found my people!!! AND the Clash was EVERYTHING we imagined them to be. That show was the first of many that we went to together, not only did we see the Clash many times but we also discovered the NYC underground and the lower east side punk hardcore punk scene. Also much later in life I actually got to meet Joe Strummer and again he was exactly how I always imagined. He wanted to know where everyone lived, what we did for a living, normal stuff like that, here was a rock star actually INTERESTED in people! I was just about to leave NYC to move to San Francisco and he said, "WHY? New York is where it's at, you'll see." It's true! He said that to me! and then he kissed me. yup!

So anyway, Carbon/Silicon were surprisingly great. I really didn't expect much except to enjoy seeing my old friends. One surprise was that Tony James from Gen X was also in the band. If you don't know Mick Jones, he was the one that wrote and sang "Lost in the Supermarket" and one of my favorite soppy sentimental rock ballads "Stay Free". If you know that voice and guitar style you have a good idea what the show last night sounded like. It sounded like that but with of more of an easy "hey let's have a good time tonight" kind of vibe. The band just seemed so damned happy to be there as was the crowd. I looked around me and wondered, are all these middle age men the dreamy punk rock boys that were at the Bond's matinee show? I was experiencing some serious flashbacks!

The video above is them doing a song which probably is called "The Truth" and was the most Clash sounding song that evening. I loved all their other material but this is the only video that I was able to capture on my cheap camera. Jones also had another great band that I loved called Big Audio Dynamite and there were shades of them in this band as well. I believe that this band holds many of the same beliefs of the Clash as many of their songs have a sort of socialist "for the people" type of view. Y'know they're for the little guy, the underdog, the moms & pops, the average Joe, which made the night ultra surreal when I saw the Toll Brother's VP for Development David Von Spreckelsen at the front of the stage! Yup, it was him. This girl has been to one too many community meetings regarding the Toll Brothers and never forgets a face. I had to do about 5 double takes. I guess he wasn't always a corporate tool, and if he wasn't, it's too bad that he sold out just soooo badly! He needs to apply "the truth" to the reality of building condos on a toxic swamp.

In another note on how everything in my life is interconnected these days, today I had to take an exam as I may be going to grad school to get my art teaching certification. The topic of the essay? "The pros and cons of regulations and limitations on construction and development, examine each side and state your opinion" I kid you not. Needless to say it was a no brainer and I think I aced it!