I'm fightin' just to breathe as I get back on my knees

Last night I saw Black Rebel Motorcycle Club play a show. After all, what better way to solve my transportation issues than to spend an evening not thinking about them? Actually, that's not entirely true. While I didn't do much about solving my car problems while I was at the show, I convinced my friend to take me to a car dealership beforehand so I could test drive a couple of vehicles and see if they'd be suitable for me. In the two hours that we were there I was reminded of how much it sucks to shop for cars. It's never been a pleasurable experience, but I think it's compounded by several orders of magnitude by trying to do it in Las Vegas. The sales guy seemed nice enough, but he is a car salesman after all, so I assume he was trying to screw me over just like all the rest are. Not only that, but the manager was one of the sleaziest looking individuals I've ever seen in my life (and that's saying a lot since this is Vegas). I don't think I'll be going back.

We got to the concert early due to a mistake on my part. I thought the show started at 6, but that's when they opened the doors. There were two opening acts, and the first took the stage around 7, so my friend only had to be annoyed with me for a short while, but I was glad we were there for it. The band's name was Magic Mirror, and they were pretty good. I talked to the drummer after their set. He said they were from L. A. and that they didn't have any albums out because it was all pretty new, but that hopefully they'd get something together soon. I'll definitely be on the lookout for it. (I don't remember the name of the second opening act, but it didn't do a lot for me. It was more acoustic than the first one, and the lady had a good voice, but I can't see myself really getting into her stuff. I think my friend said he caught himself yawning during it. That's not really a good sign.)

Then Black Rebel Motorcycle Club took the stage.

They. Rocked. Hard. There were a few glitches, like the time they couldn't find the harmonica when they played Ain't no easy way, or when the bass player broke a string in the middle of a song, but the latter just goes to show how hard they rock. There were a couple of times when I just closed my eyes and felt the music reverberate through my body. I got chills during Berlin and Weapon of Choice, always the sign of a good show. They played most of my favorite songs off their last two albums, but not anything off their earlier ones, which was a little disappointing. I suspect that part of that had to do with the venue because at the end of the show he said, "They're saying we only have time for one more song, so thank you for coming out." It was cool that they drug that "one more song" out for about 10 minutes by doing a lot of funky stuff with the bass and generating a lot of feedback at the end (but in a way that sounded awesome). They're a band that doesn't shy away from doing a lot of encores, so I'm certain they would have played longer if they didn't have pressure to wrap things up. They still played for about an hour and a half, so I can't complain. If you get a chance, they're definitely worth checking out.