Wicked Garden

***Will you look me in the eye? Will you run from what you see? Will you see me in the light? Hope you do, I hope you stay!
--Tapes n Tapes, "Freak Out"

So, when you buy tickets to an event, you have a vision of what that event will be like, perhaps based on past experiences. For me, with Rock the Garden my vision is always a beautiful sunny Minnesota summer day, pretty women in pretty dresses, and some of the whitest bare-chested guys you've ever seen. And beer. And bikes.

This year, only the beer and a few bikes showed up. I ride my bike to RTG each year, which is about ten miles or so. As I mentioned yesterday, it was raining when I left. And it kept raining. So I rode in the rain. Aside from my shoes and socks, I was relatively dry when I got there. Thankfully, it was warm but not hot, so all in all it wasn't too bad. The rain continued for a while at the show, and unless you consider plastic rain pouches pretty, there wasn't a whole lot of pretty going on. I did, however, discover a new kind of pretty: Women with mud splats on their calves from riding their bikes in the rain make me swoon.

Just another hot, hot summer in my life. And it's just another hot, hot summer in my life. And it's just another hot, hot summer in my life. Chicks on, chicks on, chicks on bikes, yes! --City on the Make, "Chicks on Bikes".

Anyway, the rain more or less stopped an hour or two into the show, and the music was splendid. Minneapolis' own Tapes n Tapes is always a good show, Booker T Jones grooved the place like madmen, Neko Case's voice predictably gave me chills, and My Morning Jacket made certain that no one within a 20-mile radius even entertained the thought of going to bed.

There were a couple notable things at the show. One, Steve Seal didn't drop an f-bomb (or was it an s-bomb?) on stage--not even sure he was there. Two, for the first time ever I used the little urinal thingie in a Johnny on the Spot. Three, we met some cool people and hung out a little while after the show, and we shall hang out again, sans rain gear hopefully. This year though, there really was no epic moment such as Shara Worden splendidly killing it a couple years ago with her voice or Sharon Jones just being, well, Sharon Jones. Neko did entertain me with my favorite song of hers, though.

And I sang it all the way on my mostly no-hands bike ride home. Talk about epic. It was about 75 degrees, the rain had been gone for a while, and there was a bit of a surreal haze or fog lingering. I love biking at midnight anytime--my ride home from RTG is always one of my fav things of summer--but this year it was extra smashing. Beautiful, quiet, pleasantly creepy. Going over the fancy-schmancy ped bridge over Hiawatha, on the Greenway, was just fabulous. It has these soft blue lights shooting into the sky, and they reflected mightily off the haze, creating cone-like . . . yeah whatever, it was cool.

And now it's Father's Day, and boating beckons for Mr. Me. Happy Father's Day! I leave you all with the "Freak Out" vid from Tapes n Tapes. Full lyrics can be found here. Peace.