Dressy Bessy did, unfortunately, not happen. No one I talked to went, and I talked to a lot of people. I hope the band managed to draw a crowd anyway.

Not much else happened for a few days until this evening's show in Grinnell: indie-rock wellsprings Yo La Tengo, playing for free at the... center... building... at Grinnell College. Those people have a one billion dollar endowment. They can afford to do this shit all the time, and regularly proceed to do so. Motto? "Grinnell College: We ran out of stuff to buy."

Anyway, the show was great. I think the show was great. I had to double-check, but I know the opening act was called "The Aislers Set." Their fashion sense was simple, so to speak; from my hipster perch atop the mixer console, it took me a few minutes to verify that we weren't watching some Partridge Family gig, and that everyone in the band was in fact older than I am. I blame it on electromagnetic radiation emanating from a faulty patch cable hooked up to their $10,000+ mixer console (but I digress.)

Yo La Tengo was nothing short of awesome--the ur-indie-rock act, so powerfully enchanting that already I remember none of their two-hour set. (Well, it was longer, but we left as the second encore started.) My hip-hop loving roommate informed me after the show that he recognized at least five distinct musical styles. I'm presuming he's correct. All I can remember is that at one point, Georgia Hubley and James McNew jumped up on something and started doing swimming-fish hand guestures while singing "sha-la-la-la-la-la..."

The only other distinct image I have is J...ehosephat using the Aislers Set's 45 minutes to down six bottles of Amberbach in parking lot with "the Organ Donor guy." Now, Papa Toasty may have left us in body, but he is ever with us in spirit, urging us to do unwise things for the amusement of our comrades. God bless him!

So passed Friday night. Next Iowa show is perhaps the Cougars gig Tuesday at the M-Shop here in town.