So my campaign to rattle the walls upstairs from me is not winning out. I didn’t exactly get the giant sub woofer I dreamed of (damned conscience). In truth I got pretty much the smallest speakers at the snooty stereo shop; you have to be enormously confident with yourself if you walk out of those places without spending at least a house down payment. I got a pair of B&W “baby” speakers (thanks for the boost of confidence =P ) that have no trouble filling out my TV room. These speakers have an artillery gun bore cut into the back to pump out very sufficient thump thump for upstairs. I could get a separate sub woofer but that’s going to be where I cross the line into petty spitefulness. I’m obviously not there already, right?

The Smiths and Bauhaus. I got really interested in these bands, but only after they had wisely imploded and moved on to other interesting things (U2 take note, still time to split and do something new). The Smiths gave us gangly, pasty white Morrissey and jangly Johnny Marr. They moved on to, well, Morrissey being a sardonic prick, and Marr upstaging Electronic, The The, and Modest Mouse. Speaking of M&M (no, not the chocolate or caked on eyeliner or the white gangsta), they actually passed through Orem, Utah on their tour last Fall. I’m sure when they stepped off the bus they were dope slapping themselves, “D’oh, I so thought we were playing in SLC.” Modest Mouse are freaks of nature, but I could not pass seeing Mr. Maher play. The whole band were whooping it up like back country hayseeds, but Johnny stood in professional form in sport jacket and skinny tie. I’m sure the rest of the band wished he would wear a straw hat and overalls like them.

Within the next month Morrissey played a show here too. He booked the barn at Thanksgiving Point and I’m sure he had exactly the same “D’oh” moment when he stepped off the bus. But it’s a nice venue once you get used to the smell of livestock. He did his thing, gave his regards to Julia, stripped off his shirt to bare his glistening, hulking chest, etc. Beyond that surreal spectacle I was amazed at the astronomical odds of seeing them both in the same month in the same county. Back to Bauhaus. I never saw them all together, not even as Love and Rockets, but I’ve seen (almost all of) them separately: Peter Murphy in SLC and Sand Diego (remember that bar for random beach bums I mentioned before?), Daniel Ash in SD and David J in SD. Kevin Haskins is so elusive he doesn’t count. They’re all very talented and they put on memorable shows, but they keep stepping back in time for reunion tours and records. They have all moved far beyond the brash punk from over 25 years ago. Just like when you watch Rustler’s Rhapsody from when you were a teenager and it was so funny back then, but now it’s just stupid, Bauhaus have dialed down their sophistication and maturity in “Go Away White” to indulge in what they once were. If it were a record from 25 years ago it would fit snugly with their work, but now it’s like trying on those skinny jeans from when I was 16.