The Highs:
– At a time when Republicans want us to believe that illegal immigrants have the power to do more damage to the country than the captains of industry can, it was reassuring to see a sold-out Gogol Bordello show at the Republic Friday night. Unfortunately, it was the Republic, not Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, and I fear that the hundreds in the room won’t be enough to fight the propaganda. Anchor babies aren’t happening, and David Vitter‘s anti-immigrant, anti-Charlie Melancon ad would merely be offensive if Melancon’s voting record on immigration wasn’t sadly similar to Vitter’s.
– Seeing the Prince of Wales SAPC come out of the Rock Bottom Lounge on Tchoupitoulas. DJ Jubilee was there, and the school teacher in him prompted him to take the mic and instruct the crowd on how to cross the street without getting hit. At the second line, Ben Jaffe introduced me to Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, who recently moved to town with his.
– Reading chapters in bassist Jah Wobble’s autobiography Memoir of a Geezer in the punk rock period in London and his days in Public Image Ltd. with John Lydon. Nothing profound beyond conveying how truly fragmented London was as a city, and how small and under attack the punk community was, despite media hype to the contrary. But PiL’s Metal Box/Second Edition is one of the great post-punk albums – hypnotic, challenging, mysterious and profoundly engaging.
– Listening to Chromeo’s Business Casual in the car. The best songs on the new album from the Montreal electronica duo would sound perfect in a mix between Shannon’s “Let the Music Play” and Madonna’s “Into the Groove.” The worst of it sounds like “Closing Theme from Gymkata.”
– Seeing Houston’s Allen Oldies Band at the Ogden’s “O What a Night” gala. They always seem closer to punk and performance art than a straight-ahead dance band, but you certainly can dance to their garage rock and bubble gum hits of the ’60s. At the end of the night, the crowd thinned out for them, but those who were up seemed ecstatic, particularly the woman who shook her skirt during “California Sun.”
– LSU won. How did that happen?

The Lows:
– The Saints lost. How did that happen?
– Watching people bid a $50 bottle of vodka up to $850 at “O What a Night.” Good for the Ogden, but all hope of winning a photo of Johnny Cash by Marty Stuart went out the window immediately. (It ended up going for $15,000.)