As you saw from my moblog photo last night, I was at the Turf Club in St Paul. Mary, Alie, Lesley, and I went to drink a few beers and catch a few bands. Faux Jean (well, a couple members of Faux Jean), The Slats, and Rank Strangers were opening for Missing Numbers at their CD release show. I've seen Faux Jean a couple of times, and Rank Strangers seemed familiar, but I definitely hadn't seen the other two bands before.

Alie is the only one of the group who smokes, and I'm still kicking myself for not getting her the perfect gift from the men's room. There was a perfectly good disposable lighter that had been dropped by some poor bastard in the trough-style urinal. How ever will he light his ciggies and start campfires now? The guy on the other end of the trough also spied this enviable prize, but politely gave me dibs. I replied, "Ok, you just clench for a sec while I fetch it. I don't want pee on the back of my hand." A manly urinal laugh was shared. The lighter remained it its piss-soaked graveyard.

As Missing Numbers was setting up late in the evening, there was a bit of a commotion up front, then a loud TAP!! that sounded almost like someone had dropped something onto the hard floor right in front of the stage. The band and everyone else up front stood motionless, and the whole place went dead quiet. After a few confusing and tense moments, the eerie quiet broke as maybe 5 or 6 St Paul police officers escorted an older guy with a ponytail and a loud Hawaiian shirt out the door with his hands cuffed behind his back. Obviously some bad shit went down, but what? It was about this time that Lesley came back from the bathroom. Hopefully she can provide a more detailed and colorful account on her blog, but she informed us that the guy apparently had a gun and a knife on him and had to be tasered. Fucking awesome!

UPDATE: Alie took photos. Unfortunately there are none of the dude getting his balls electroshocked by the fuzz.