Giant Drag, May 16 at the Troubadour

I had gotten the ticket for the Weenie Roast and gave it some thought: that would be during the day and the Giant Drag show would be at night -- couldn't I do both? I'd just have to leave early (I could miss Weezer or the Kings of Leon) and high-tail it back and hope for no traffic. So I got a ticket for both and crossed my fingers that I could make it work. I thought it would be close so I left the Weenie Roast with a few hours to spare and still had time to stop in for drinks at a friend's party in Burbank. I got to the Troubadour during the opener, in time enough to go to the upstairs bar and have a drink. (I very rarely drink alone but I wanted to celebrate pulling off my plan.) This show was actually an event, being the third or so time that Micah had rejoined the band, and they weren't doing any other shows. They're local (Silver Lake) but they hadn't played in a while and you never know how many more shows they may do or if they will even do any more (despite there only being two people in the band (usually)). Really, if it had to come down to it, I would have picked this show over the Weenie Roast. And Annie didn't disappoint. It'd been four years since Hearts & Unicorns so there was some new stuff but she's a gifted performer and she knew how to balance the set. In-between banter about stopping smoking and label troubles and whatever else she wanted to talk about in that squeaky, little-girl voice, along with the music, and I, for one, was mesmerized. If the White Stripes can play arenas, I don't understand why Giant Drag can't at least get more material to be distributed.