Au Revoir, Pretty Girls Make Graves -- You Will Be Missed

A strange sort of nervous tension sat on the shoulders of the crowd as Nick Dewitt, Andrea Zollo, Jay Clark, Leona Marrs and Derek Fudesco took the stage together for the last time. It sat there, weighing us down -- a burdensome feeling of finality. And it stayed there, unrelenting, tugging at our throat from the inside, even during the first couple of songs. We were having a great time, sure, but we were too aware of the fact that this would be the last great time we'd have with this band. We needed to shake it off, chill the fuck out. Enjoy this. By the time the third song began -- a pulsating number from 2003's The New Romance (our favorite PGMG album) -- we were dancing and sweating along with our neighbors, along with the band.

We've seen PGMG a couple of times before and they've always given a high-energy performance, but there was something else going on up there Saturday night. After reading Clint's post about the early show and how it seemed a little "anti-climactic", we can only say that all you early-show-goers should have ponied up a long time ago for the midnight ride because it was a wholly different animal.

The speakers did in fact push the air. At one point they even pushed Derek (now of The Cave Singers) right off the Neumos stage. He ran into the crowd, eyes closed, with a microphone in hand -- the cord of which we all helped along high above our heads so as not to ruin the song. At some point it must have come unplugged because we couldn't hear him anymore, but Derek didn't seem to give a fuck. He just kept on through the crowd, singing as loud as he could. As he ran past us, we gave him a hearty atta-boy pat on the back, wiped our sweat-soaked hand off on a pant leg and continued bouncing around with everyone else. Someone brought balloons and streamers. The balloons floated up and then down as people batted them around. The streamers became a fashionable accessory around the neck and shoulders of Andrea Zollo. The whole fucking place lit up with a feeling of bittersweet celebration.

For the extra long encore, ex-Pretty Girl (circa Good Health) Nathan Thelen (now of Moonrats) joined the band to help out on some of the early songs. He and the rest of the Moonrats stayed up there until the end, dancing, singing backup, clearly appreciative to be a part of this.

When Pretty Girls Make Graves first took the stage, Andrea Zollo's first words were, "We're really going to miss you guys."

Right back atcha sister. Keep that authoritative index finger of yours pointed to the sky.

Photo by the_get_up_kid via Flickr.