Hello SDRE fans My name is alex and i used to be on the list last year for a year or so. I went on a trip and unsubed and never got back on because of the amount of mail (new album and all) and my own bitterness of everyone getting to see Sunny play again and me being stuck in Hawaii. Anyway, i decided to take a trip to Cali recently and lo and behold, SDRE Maritime Hall July 3rd. I was a happy camper. So i decided to jump back on to the list and see whats the dirt going on with SDRE playing California of all places! I noticed right off that its alot more mellow now. Maybe ill stick around and come back into the rock fold after a year on the trail of hip-hop. Anyway.... Im back to hawaii and have to say the SDRE show was the highlight. If you care, what follows is an edited version that i sent to INFLUX, Dj Shadow's mailing list. First off I want to give big thanks and aloha to Lisa Haugen. For having Josh Davis(Dj Shadow) meet William Goldsmith. Check the thank yous on Dj Shadow's Pre-emptive Strike near the end. So i went into the city to see Sunny day Real Estate. For a period in my life, SDRE was "my band" if you know what i mean. Anyway, im feeling real good that this band that ive been waiting 6-7 something years to see, i finaly get to see. They do a good show (pretty much, not a disapointment per se, just after how long....! I nearly cried at some points, i was spell-bound at others, i got bored at a few points [not a huge fan of the new album, but its a seeper i think] then it was over). the crowds pretty mellow (too mellow, or too "cool" for that san fran crowd) but Dan looks like hes enjoying himself. So they do their break thing and come back up for the encore. And Dan hellos to his bro it think (i yell "hi dans brother!"), and the bassist says hello to his mom and daughter (i yell "hi joe's mom and daughter") or something and Will the drummer says happy birthday to Josh Davis. And yell out "Shadow!" and Will is like finger to lips. So im thinking "shit, Shadows in the building with me and Sunny Day" (Dj Shadow is a genius in my opinion, dont be afraid of the hip-hop tag, he will take samples from the most obscure places and make something so organic and beautiful youll forget its a song. If your life is music and experiences, get Endroducing) So SDRE goes through a song that i think is great "In Circles". The last song they do is Days Were Golden. And Will does that beautifull thing with his drums and works with it by himself on stage. I cant explain it. Will is god. Anyway, my friend's sister gets Will's stick and im like "oh please let me have the stick" And i also tell my friend and her sister to look out for a white guy with a beanie (Shadow always wears a beanie or some sort of head garment). I look around and then look into the no access zone and i see a guy with a floppy hat. Its Shadow. Im like, shit! I ask the door guy "i have no chance of getting in there do i?" not without the right wrist band. So i ask him if i could just talk to the guy with the hat. And the guy asks what his name is and he could ask him to come out side and i say "Josh Davis" So....Shadow comes out. I stammer and sound like an idiot. I shake his hand and say that im Alex from Hawaii and that im on his mailing list, INFLUX and hes like "yeah" positive. But i ask when the Quannum crew is going to hit Hawaii. (Shadow is part of a collective called Quannum, formally Solesides, not to be confused with the DC band) He says maybe after going through Mexico and up and down that theyll land Hawaii to end it and take a vacation. and he says that hes never been to Oahu but to Maui to visit relatives and the Big Island. I ask him what he thought of the Big Island because i was running out of non-gushing things to say. And hes noncommital and (this is the big-stupid-crazy-dumb-over-my-head-etc thing i said) i said "oh, the Big Island is big, yeah?" I couldnt believe i said something as idiodic as that. But anyway, so i say happy birthday and shook his hand again and asked if today (July 3rd) was really his birthday and he said that actually that it was this past tuesday (June 29) and that Will's birthday is tommorow. I also asked him if he and Will would work together and he said that maybe...(I wish had a memory for conversations, shit!) But that he digs Will as a drummer. But Shadows real cool and took time to talk to a raving loonie. I told him that therell be support for the quannum crew in Hawaii. And he said that he hopes that they can make it down in August and that hell see me then. Coolcoolcool. Anyway, i was "glowing" as my friend said to me afterwards. Im then hopefull that Will comes out on the pretext to sign the drumstick. So a few minutes later, Will comes out. Back to stammering like an idiot and saying dumb things. I introduce myself and my friend, and express hope that he could sign his stick with a lip liner pencil (nobody had a pen!) And i off on how im on both the Shadow and SDRE list and how Lisa had noticed i mentioned Will on the Shadow list and explained that she had had them meet. And Will said that yeah, and that Josh actually sent him a letter and then they met up and been friends since. And that Josh and Lisa are great people. I asked him if they would ever work together and Will said that they tried to a couple of years ago but with obligations and "this and that" i said and he said "yeah" I told him that it was because of him that i got into beats and hes "what?" Beats. That before i was totally into guitars. And then i got their first album and heard his drumming and then got into way listening to the drums and then i heard shadow and it was all over. And Wills like "yeah, Josh is totally into beats. He thinks like a drummer." I think its awsome that two guys i look up to, musicaly, am a total fan of, are total fans of each other. Then i started gushing and then apologized for gushing. He said its ok and thanked us for comming out to the show. And i said that I came from Hawaii and was just stoked to see them. And Wills "Hawaii!?" I ask him if theyll ever come down. He said hed like to. I said i saw him when he came down with Foo Fighters. And he said "Wow, that was a while ago" and i gushed some more. But pretty much a nice guy, i think that after i told him that im a fan of Shadow he warmed a bit. I wished that they could have said more but i think all the feelings that these guys invoked in me in their music over all these years came out. This is what i wrote that night to remember it cuz my memory sucks Thanks for listening later ~alex ====================== blahblahblah
