Let's Take a Trip Back into the Past

I saw Built To Spill at the Neighborhood Theater here in Charlotte earlier this month. I almost didn’t go because I felt a little low energy, but I couldn’t be happier that I did. It was an excellent introduction to live music here in Charlotte. They closed their set with Carry The Zero, a song that I named one of my favorite mix CD’s after– ten years ago! Unreal.

Also interesting was the discovery that rock and roll is still alive– and it looks like my dad! I can’t find any pictures of what Doug Martsch is looking like these days, but he’s not going to be on TRL anytime soon. I bought a cigarette off a beggar for 75 cents. I’m not sure whether to feel depressed or whether I was actually showing him the way up and out of poverty.

Last night, Megan and I went to see Greg Brown at the [McGlohon Theater](https://charlottecultureguide.com/organization.php?id=78. An old friend got me into Greg Brown more than ten years ago. I saw him in Knoxville’s Laurel Theater ages ago. This show was a lot more bluesy, but he was still personable and so relaxed. He broke a string, and retuned the guitar and finished the song with more aplomb than some other musicians do a whole solo.

I was amazed at how intimate the venue was. Incredible. Megan got very distracted at some of our fellow concertgoers– you must learn to tune them out, grasshopper! We took the light rail into uptown to try that out. It will be worth it for ballgames, but overall I thought the most impressive part of the light rail was getting a fuller view of Charlotte itself. There is definitely a lot to like about this city. I’m feeling very at home.