Ray and Guster

For Lindsay's birthday, I bought her a ticket to a Ray Lamontagne/Guster concert at Festival Pier. It was last Thursday. We laughed a lot. Lindsay dipped her pretzel in the left-over cheese from Pete's cheesesteak and they joked. My friend Stacie talked about some casual sex in front of her and I let her sip my beer when it got dark. I was proud that she was my sister, so I told her.

RAY

When Ray came on, my heart burst into a million pieces and then those pieces burst again like they were all little hearts themselves and it kept happening until he walked off stage. Until he walked off stage. He walked off stage. He walked. Off stage. I kept repeating it to people after he did so, because he really did just walk off stage. This is how it happened- he said he would play a couple more songs. Someone up front shouted sounds and he said, "Sure I could play that one, too" and I wished I knew what Someone said so I could expect it with him. Then Ray played "All the Wild Horses" with his eyes closed. When he finished, he tossed his guitar down. He walked off stage. I don't know why he was upset, but I'm going to write him a letter to ask him. I'll send along the postcard of a picture of a boy reading a book to an elephant, which I love, which I first saw on a billboard on my way home from work in NYC while Ray was on my IPod, which I listened to while on my way to Pier 54 to see Gregory Colbert's "Ashes and Snow" exhibit, which I saw again at Santa Monica Pier while visiting family and telling them about Ray. I feel like the elephant talks to the boy, telling him which parts of the story he likes or when the story is boring, and when he does, it sounds like a Ray Lamontagne song, and sometimes, the boy is the elephant's guitar for him. Here it is:

I'll let you know if I hear anything back.

GUSTER

As for Guster, they strummed joy out of their guitars and rose a huge, orange moon with their voices. Lindsay and I faced each other to sing the songs we knew into grinning faces. I will write them a letter, too, because I shouldn't just write letters to see if people are okay or to complain. Guster is different from Ray because when they said they'd play a few more songs and people booed a bit, they smiled into the crowd and commented on a man sitting atop his friend's shoulders while waving his shirt in the air. They said that if they could see at least 5 more sets of man-boobs, then they would play at least 5 more songs. So the crowd filled with man-boobs, shirts spiraling from hands and laughter. Guster laughed and the crowd laughed and we clapped so they would know we didn't want them to leave, but that was the end of their set so they had to say thank you and leave. We kept clapping and they came out again, shirtless, showing their own man-boobs and making life-long fans while we all screamed the classics to each other-band and audience-surrounded by man-boobs.

I need some cool stationery.