(28 august 2006)

placebo is one of my greatest guilty pleasures. they’re huge in europe and teeny tiny in america- aside from a substantial following of velvet goldmine obsessives and people who have dated me and thus been exposed.

they’re a pleasure because no one can rock the role of whiney voiced male lead quite like the beglittered, beautiful mr. molko. guilty because they’ve put out five albums with about one album’s worth of really awesome songs. so the ratio of awesome to dud is upsettingly high.

since the fall of 1999, i’ve been desperate to see them live. since then, i’ve missed seeing them live no less than ten times. in the spring of 2001, they were in new orleans two days after i left mississippi. in the fall of 2003, they were in chicago the week before i moved to town.

most infuriatingly, during the summer of 2003, they swept through europe, hitting london, paris, rome, florence, innsbruck, venice, koln, and amsterdam exactly 24 hours ahead of me, leaving in their wake a trail of promo posters. in venice, in frustration, i thieved one off the wall of a church, the irony in that somewhat lessening my annoyance.

but then, finally, at very long last, things fall into place: me. placebo. chicago. the riv. and oh the eyeliner!