yesterday was a bit of adventure. twiddle thumbs and i went up to san francisco and rode muni for the first time. on the way, a piece of loose gravel hit my windshield and caused a tiny crack. this sort of thing happens all the time, especially with big fat juicy bugs, but i've never had my window crack before. my mother's car has several cracks so i didn't freak out but i wasn't very happy either! at least the crack is in the lower portion so it doesn't impair my view.

in san francisco, we met up with our friend dani near the venue where buckethead would play, then took the busses to the dali exhibit. before going on the bus, we picked up some snacks at a health food store we just happened to see. on the way to the exhibit, we passed by the intro scene for the tv show "full house". i never watched that show but i can't help it. if i see that park hill with those san francisco houses in the background, i immediately think: "full house"!

i was very disappointed with the dali exhibit. it was just a big yard sale. i had really hoped to see at least one great painting but it was mostly sketches and prints. i felt like the other items focused on dali the showman and though i know he was quite a character, i would have preferred a focus on the art instead of the $. i felt like we paid to go to a sale for corporations to buy something for their lobby and collector snobs to buy something just because it's dali.

then we rode a bus whose money collection device was out of order to have dinner, but we had to ride another bus after that so we didn't really save money. the dinner was slow so we might have had to pay another fare so i suppose in theory, we did save $1.25 each. we had dinner at a vegetarian restaurant, ananda fuara, a total hippy place if i ever saw one. the food was good but i was expecting something a bit higher in class. i suppose religious/spiritual people are modest not fancy but there was something a bit creepy. well, actually it was more that one waitress in particular was creepy. i couldn't tell if she was just a little bitch or if there was something really sinister about her. whatever it was, i made sure not to look at her much lest we make eye contact and i die a horrible death.

we had samosas for appetizers. i have never tried samosas before and they were pretty goood. the dipping sauce was excellent. i really need to stop eating fried food completely though. for the main meal i had a veggie burger, vegan style. it was quite tasty but the patty was extremely soft. with each bite pieces of the patty would fall down onto the plate. i kept trying to put it back inbetween the buns but wasn't very successful. there were ample portions and the food was very filing.

after dinner, it was off to buckethead! we had to wait a very long time for our bus. i don't know if muni is always late or if it was just our bad luck but my crew was seriously doubting my leadership! i planned my trip according to muni's web site. there was a bus route map at the bus stop and i showed them the times of the bus we were to take. still they did not believe me. they thought our bus would never come. as we waited, scalpers were trying to sell tickets to see the stage version of "the lion king". at one point, dani was seriously considered going to see it. this guy had tickets because his girlfriend cancelled on him. he didn't want to go alone and dani didn't want the tickets to go to waste. i told dani that he should go on his first homosexual date. *snicker* dani was indecisive as to what to do and since he's such a fucking pussy, he tossed a coin and the coin said: "GO TO BUCKETHEAD ASSHOLE!!!" aaaahahahaaaa

while we were at the venue, (the independent--i had never been before. it's very small. i recommend!), waiting for the opening band to begin, we noticed that hardly anyone was there. buckethead had played the night before. maybe everyone went last night and all that were here tonight were the diehard locals? we could only speculate and this was the best we could come up with. around this time, dani still couldn't believe that we are going to move by mid-september. he was willing to bet his 17" powerbook on it for my toyota camry. i would seriously do that bet. the only way i would lose is due to a natural disaster. dani was serious as well, however he had some alcohol in his system and had to add the boy gross factor to the bet. he wanted to bet that he would eat a mayonnaise sandwich. i said i would get no satisfaction out of it but he insisted he wanted to do it ON TOP of the laptop. at this point, i said just write out all the details of the bet and later we can sign a contract. knowing that i would win his only possession of real value, his baby, i just couldn't make the bet because i would feel so bad, but fuck, i'd get a 17" powerbook!

the opening band was deadweight. they were a three piece: violin/vocals, drums/backing vocals, bowed bass thing. while i appreciate their effort to be different, it just didn't work. the vocals were horrible. the violin parts sucked. it brought down the whole thing. i did enjoy the drums but it couldn't save the music. i tried really hard not to be anxious but i just couldn't help it--i wanted them off the stage!

buckethead & giant robot performed for about 1 hour 30-45 minutes total. while we were able to be right at the stage, just left of buckethead, there was no magic in the air. i think the whole band seemed tired. maybe they had partied too hard after the previous show. i've never been to a lackluster buckethead performance so it was disappointing. maybe there were just too many slow songs. maybe buckethead should stop doing classic rock covers. again we tried to get a toy and failed. buckethead always gives the toys to boys. i know that this time he saw us. the helpless short girls with glasses trick doesn't work with him. i don't think he's afraid of girls, i think he doesn't like them if you know what i mean.

after the show, i saw brain talking to some people but he didn't really hang around. i didn't have a pen anyway and i didn't have my ticket anymore--i had forgotten that i had put the ticket into my wallet. i just bought cobra strike's "the 13th scroll" at the show but i wanted to hear it before i asked anyone to sign it. i thought i owned it but actually i own the other cobra strike cd so i'm glad i have both of them now.

we were able to get buckethead's setlist:
[the japanese connection > ] slaw
metamatic
depeche [the sultan's massacre]
jordan
jaco
ghost riders in the dub
jowls
close to you
(brain and butthouse leave the stage for a moment)
solo-big sur moon [music for the elephant man]
mcfadden [crash test dummy]
turbine
praxis [animal behavior outro]
[teen town]
night of the slunk
zeppelin con carne

encore:
enter the dragon
ac/dc
giant robot
scraps

[songs in brackets taken from the setlist provided by bucketheadslivewedges.com]