I was really looking forward to seeing Cults again. Very happy to be in town for their sold out show at the Belly Up last night. (I kept missing them on tour last year until I finally saw them at Lolla.) So set list first…

Cults
Belly Up Tavern
Solana Beach, CA
3/21/12

Abducted
The Curse
Never Heal Myself
Most Wanted
You Know What I Mean
Bumper
Never Saw the Point
Rave On
Everybody Knows (cover)
Walk at Night
Go Outside
Oh My God

I don’t know if it was just me but even though the show was officially sold out, it didn’t really seem like some of the sold out shows where you can barely walk around. Maybe I was just in a more jovial mood because of who I was with or all the beer I drank, who knows?

In any case, I hadn’t seen Cults as a headliner and that meant it was my first time seeing their visualizations that accompany their set. Very east coast art schoolish. But I happen to dig that, so game on. They were plagued by spotty sound during the set - there were times where Madeline’s vocals were lost. But that didn’t take away from the overall good vibe and I, for one, grooved my way through their set. And since their shows in SD are a bit of a homecoming for this SD bred but now NY based band, Madeline and Brian had some fun banter - giving shoutouts to their alma maters and their grandpa hanging out in the back. Good times.

I went back to the Tate Modern today to catch the Yayoi Kusama exhibition. LOVED IT. I won’t bore with the details but I had to post photos of a sculpture installed on the 4th floor balcony. There were kids climbing on it forever (reminded me of the Niki St. Phale sculptures in Balboa Park) but I waited patiently and my reward was a great series of photos.

Tate Britain

I set out quite a bit later than I planned to this morning. It’s a good thing that the Tate Museums are open later today. I decided to go to the Britain first as they have a Picasso exhibit right now. Its focus is on his art as an influencer of British artists. It featured quite a bit of his work, some of which I had never recalled seeing even though I studied him quite a bit in college. I also loved the sections on Henry Moore (the sculptor) and David Hockney. Especially the Hockney photographic collages that recall cubist paintings.

My other favorite section at the Britain was the John Singer Sargent paintings. There was a study for his famous portrait of Madame X, and I could stare at that for quite a bit.

But then it was off to lunch at the acclaimed restaurant, where I had the 3 course set menu with wine pairings. Why the hell not?

Two of the courses were spot on - a venison and chorizo terrine for the first course and the blood orange tart for the third course. The second course was a stuffed chicken breast that was a bit overcooked. I knew I should have ordered the hake! But the sherry that was paired with the third course more than made up for all of it. I’m going to have to find it when I get home.

I travelled between the museums by boat. The ride on the River Thames is a wonder, especially with the view of the Parliament Houses, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.

I was fairly wiped out by the time I got to the Tate Modern. I did a cursory tour of the permanent exhibitions but skipped the rest. I may go back tomorrow as they are open late. We shall see how my day goes. Just one more day of adventures.

Tower of London and Tower Bridge

A quick trip to London. My first day here was a bust; I was too tired and disoriented to do anything but today was much better. So to get a better feel of where everything is in relation to where I am staying, I went on one of those hop on - hop off tourist buses. I am not ashamed of that at all. I saw a lot from my perch on the top of the bus and also spent some time at Harrods. Yes, I went to high tea. It was good but not fabulous. I will probably do tea again before I leave so all good.

Tonight I went to the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. I had to write to the Tower of London office to request a ticket - it’s very exclusive, they only let 50 people get tickets, then there are another 50 or so people from the Tower of London night tour, and i’m guessing another 25 people who were dignitaries of some sort. Very cool to be in the Tower of London with barely anyone around and actually watching this ceremony that has taken place there every night for 759 years. Hello history nerd!

Tomorrow I will be checking out both of the Tate Museums - the Tate Britain has a Picasso exhibit going on (yes, he was Spanish and painted in France but this exhibition is centered around his influence on British artists.) A little something for my art nerd. More from London tomorrow.

Last night’s @GIRLSsf show was really fun. I was struggling to stay awake through the opener (no sleep the night before to get up at 0330 to fly CVG-ORD-SAN will do that to you.) But with some red bull (yuck!), I was able to power through and enjoy this awesome set…

GIRLS
North Park Theatre
San Diego, CA
3/2/12

Alex
Honey Bunny
Laura
Substance
My Ma
Carolina
Love Like A River
Heartbreaker
Vomit
Broken Dreams Club
Saying I Love You
Hellhole Rat Race
Die

Encore:
Jamie Marie
Lust for Life

So for those not familiar, GIRLS definitely has a retro pop sound to it. And yet, their songs sound thoroughly modern as well. Of course, since they are on tour supporting last year’s outstanding album Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, their set was studded with those songs. They threw in enough oldies for the enthusiastic fans - I know I especially loved “Laura” and “Hellhole Rat Race”. And lest you think this was a boring-sleepy-time indie rock band, they just about blew my eardrums out during “Die”. Feedback-tastic, let me tell you.

Anyways, a really good show, just what I needed after a loooooong work week.