It's complicated being a Wizard

Myself dressed as Harry Potter, on stage at P.TM

Friday night was a doubly exciting evening. First up was Portugal. The Man playing their Anchorage CD release show at Club Oasis, and then immediately afterwards was the incredible release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Was there a single thought in my mind that this could be a remotely bad night? Nope. It was predestined that this night would be absolutely wonderful. It was, and then some. Real quick, did I mention I was spending this entire night dressed as Harry Potter? How could this night not rock.

Myself, Brian, and Kim before the show

To start, I will identify the key players. My crew: Brian, Kim, Drea, Amy. The band: Portugal. The Man. The Wizard: Harry Potter. The evening began with Brian and I going to pick up Drea over at her place, giving us time to get our ridiculouslessness on while Drea got ready. We watched some Rock of Love and made some bizarre jokes, while Drea was taking her sweet time (although in girl time it was like 45 seconds). After she was FINALLY ready we went to Sicily's to have a pitcher or two before the show. Down point of the night: Sicily's wisened up and raised the price of pitchers from $4 to $8. I poured one out for my homies. After that, we went to meet up with Kim and then head to the concert.

Now we got to the show right as Portugal was supposed to start, and there was an opener just about to start up. 10:30 already and the book release was starting up at midnight. Choices, choices, do we go at Midnight or stay for the whole show? Little did we know, the night had an idea for our posse that was not like our original plan, and that was entirely fine. Brian and I went upstairs as the opener started up to go play some darts and get another drink, slightly dismayed because of the delay to Portugal starting, but ready for some fun.

As we walked up to the bar, I recognize one of the guys from the band and go over to start chatting. Soon there after, Brian, he, and I are having a drink together: Two jager bombs and a Gin and Tonic. Delicious! We talked about the two times I'd seen them before, what they'd been up to since they got back to Alaska, and how the whole band was generally amused by the fact that the guy dressed as Harry Potter had seen them live before. The band was excellent to talk to, and I even had a pow wow with most of them that started in the bathroom. Which sounds really weird when I type it...but it wasn't. I had no problem talking to them either, which is oddI always have a terrible problem with talking to bands!

Kim, Brian (mildly drunk), and Amy

No less, it was great chatting with them, but after a while Brian and I went to go play some darts and hang out with Kim and the recently arrived Amy. Point to make, and this is a key one. Ladies love Harry Potter. In fact, everyone loves Harry Potter. I received everything from guys yelling "Harry Potter!" and then motioning me over to talk about the new book to girls who really, really like Harry Potter. You know. Let's just say I've never had more girls come up to talk to me or ask me to dance in my entire life. It was pretty fantastic if I do say so myself. Ladies Love Cool Harry. If I was a rapper, that'd totally be my name (LL Cool H).

Portugal. The Man rocking on stage with my ripped arm dominating the picture

After being at the concert for an hour, believe it or not, a band that I wanted to see did play. It's hard to believe after all that time, but Portugal. The Man did indeed play and they rocked the house, ripping through a 15 or 16 song set (I don't actually remember how many, but that's what the bassist told me they'd be doing) and having plenty of time to lay it down and be funky as well. Loved the set, they played all of my favorites, and I quite enjoyed their new expanded lineup. There were something like 7 or 8 people playing on stage! Way more than the 5 and 4 I saw them with before.

Of course, it wasn't all fantastic. There was still really...we'll say attractive...girl that came over to talk to me during the beginning and I pretty much thought she was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but this devil woman shoved me out of the way and told me she was standing there. Now if you've ever been to a concert before, you probably realize that there is no such thing as "your" spot. You have your spot for as long as you have it, no more, no less. There's no dibs system. There's no anything. It's a fluid situation and you stake a claim for as long as you can. No less, her shove combined with the show starting and the aforementioned fluid nature of the audience led to super hot girl being swept to the front, which she spent most of the night up there with some other guy, who could have been me. Sad panda! Rejected by that Slytherin girl Pansy Parkinson, whom I will now eternally imagine "spot" girl as.

He really is the man...that Portugal

A highlight of the night had to be when Portugal had 4 songs left and they actually announced "Alright everybody, we have four songs left and we wanted to send out a special thanks to Harry Potter. We know he's had a pretty busy week and we really appreciate him coming out." I feel as if, coming out of the show, as I was really a memorable part of the concert experience for everyone there. That fills me with a pretty large bit of warmth if I do say so myself. After the set, I went up on stage, talked to the drummer, and was hooked up with a most excellent wand. Now it wasn't quite a holly and phoenix feather wand, or even the Elder Wand, but it was a drumstick from P.TM, so it was pretty cool. Thanks Portugal!

Like I said...LL Cool H

So before going to get our books, we all had to go out and dance our little feet off. I had to laydown the special moves I learned at Hogwarts, most of which involved casting spells on girls while I danced with them and tossing my "robe" all around the place. It was sort of like the dice dance from Knocked Up, except probably 450x more amusing. I had an amazing time dancing, although the girl who kept grabbing me to dance with her and telling me her boyfriend was watching us was alternately really cool and fantastically creepy. After probably an hour of making my wonderfully large presence felt, we left to go snag our book and close our night in the best way humanly imaginable. With the final book of the classic Harry Potter series in our hands.

Of course Brian, Kim, and I were all mildly intoxicated at this point, so going into Border's to get our books was going to be...suspicious and as hard to do as breaking into 12 Grimmauld Place is in the 7th book, but you know what? We pulled it off with ease. We had our books, and as you can see...we were pretty stoked. Afterwards, we all went to Taco Bell, and went back to my place to celebrate a wonderful night of fun and to clutch our treasure, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, tightly to our chests and dream wonderful dreams of Wizardry throughout the night. The next day would be reading throughout, and I could hardly wait. Also, throughout the night everyone was taking pictures. They are on my MySpace if you so desire to see them. They're pretty ridiculously fantastic if I do say so myself.