Last night, I went and saw the Knife play at Webster Hall. I was running on empty last night, having gotten about six hours of sleep over the previous two nights combined, and was very giddy and nervous when they first started to play. They had a mesh screen covering the stage, a screen behind the stage, and there was lots of video and blacklight stuff going on. It was really nice and made me happy, but not in the same way that I would feel later in the night. And that could be because later I had had some beer, but I am going to credit the difference to other factors - the joy I get from loud guitars, from instruments being played and how magical it can be that four or five of these being played by different people, the aggregate of which is able to somehow make something totally awesome, that there is more at stake, more exposed here rather than someone just singing along to their laptop. And don't get confused, I did love the Knife show, but this later show at Galapagos I liked more.

I saw Apes and Androids, The Harlem Shakes, Lo Fi Fnk, and Thunderbirds are Now!.

I encourage all of you to listen to the Harlem Shakes. I had not heard them before last night, but man, they are so good and were so good to watch and to dance to. Even more danceable was Lo Fi Fnk, who were probably my second favorite band to see of the night. I love live music so much, not that I don't love recorded music, because as you all know I certainly do and will dance to that without hesitation, but the joy of seeing people up on stage, playing things, singing, is such a joy. I want to see eight hundred more bands before CMJ is over. I need to find some more free shows to go to.