Why is it that the only song New Orleans-style brass bands play is "When the Saints Come Marching In?" It's like that jerkoff on your freshman floor who would break out a guitar anytime someone was around and play "Stairway to Heaven". And do they have to wear beads? Do people from New Orleans look at people wearing beads like DC residents look at people wearing FBI sweatshirts?

I tried to see the rapper from Laos at National Geographic, but 20 minutes after he was supposed to go on, some Latin band started playing. And I'm not big on "talking" to people, so I never found out what happened with him. Godspeed, my Notorious L.A.O.S.

I did see Ted Leo on Friday. He was backed by only a drummer and bassist, which was interesting, and he played a lot of new songs. It was hard to tell what they sounded like, being that the sound was crap. But that's to be expected, being that the show was set up in the suburban canyon of a strip mall. But "Shakin' the Sheets" (the title song off of the upcoming album) did rock my socks, as much as my socks could be rocked while standing in front of Romano's Macaroni Grill.

Fort Reno started on Saturday and I caught two of the three bands. The Fatales... first they sounded like the Strokes, then Interpol, then they had a song that sounded like it was left off of Radiohead; so they couldn't even be consistently derivative. The Carlsonics... it was the first time I heard them, and I liked. They were pretty raw, and they didn't have too much bullshit. Kind of a "shake your ass" band for white indie kids. I mean, I'm not rushing out to buy the album, but it was good enough.