The XX

Wow, what a great show last night! The XX played at the Varsity, a venue that neither Monte nor I had been. Steph came over to babysit and off we went - ticketless and hopeful! Craigslist didn't work out for us and neither did calling in to the Current to win tickets (found out later that their phone system actually went down because so many people were calling to get tickets to this sold out show).

We ate dinner the Loring Pasta Bar which is a couple doors down from the Varsity (and owned by them). Monte was in salesman mode the entire time, talking to all the patrons to see if they had extra tickets, and even had our bartender telling the bouncer to text him when he started to see scalpers outside the doors selling tickets.

After dinner, we both ventured down the block to hunt for tickets - we split up to cover more ground with Monte at one end, and me at the other. There were a lot of people selling only 1 ticket, or trying to sell tickets way over face value, which was $15. Doors opened at 8 and everyone was going in. No extra tickets for us or the rest of the crowd that started gathering that needed to buy tickets as well. Hopes were dwindling.

Finally at about 9pm, a woman (who Monte and I had spoken to earlier to see if she had extra tickets) came out of the venue, walked directly over to me and said, "Do you still need tickets?" Hope came back. I told her yes, we needed two. She said she had two and would sell them to us for $30. I said, "$30 each?" (which I was more than willing to pay at this point) and she said, "No, $30 total." I love this woman.

So for face value, Monte and I were able to see the XX. They started the show with a large white curtain over the stage and when they started playing, their bodies were backlit and their silhouettes were bouncing off the white curtain. It was such a great show - and short, since they only have 1 album out!