Darren Jessee, formerly famous for practicing the art of drumming in Ben Folds Five, journeyed to the Grey Eagle last Thursday with his new band, Hotel Lights, for a "bargain" concert at only $7 a ticket. After the band opened with "Small Town Shit", I was joined by my Venice Queens, Anna and Roxanne, only to be disappointed after the set ended a mere six songs later - much like iTunes, Jessee apparently finds it necessary to charge $.99 per song when playing live. However, while the band performed "A.M. Slow Golden Hit", the night began to pick up when I learned that Roxanne is on a first-name basis with "Darren". In need of music for her directorial debut "Life as a Canvas", Roxanne has been in contact with Darren over e-mail for months now and has successfully received the rights for two Hotel Lights songs for the film. Thus, with connection in tow, our group of three got to meet Darren and the rest of his band after the show wrapped. After the obligatory "Great set, guys!" and such, the conversation somehow awkwardly diverged into the topic of "Iron Chef", in which it was revealed that Darren has a slight obsession with starches. ("Tonight . . . The Potato!") 20 minutes passed by before Darren finally invited us over to the bar for a beer, but we harshly had to break the news to him that we were all underage, and our attempt to buy alcohol earlier in the night had only resulted in the purchase of a lukewarm Nantucket Nectar (as seen above). Darren appeased us with some photo taking, and we said our goodbyes to the band, only to insult the opening act when buying Hotel Lights merch.
Roxanne: "Who's CD is this? Jennifer O'Connor? I've never heard of her. Is she any good?"
Jennifer: "That would be me."
Roxanne: "Oh."
Jennifer: "That would be me."
Roxanne: "Oh."
We found it best to leave soon afterwards.
