Sheffield on the Hudson

Man, last night was one of those rare occasions when rolling in the rock world and my continuing attempts to join the ranks of the socceratti comes together in brilliant fashion. Remember a few weeks ago when I was going on about the pride of Sheffield, Arctic Monkeys? They were playing in NYC last night and as they are hotter than good curry right now, it was somewhat of a scene.

Yours truly was seated in one of private boxes at stage left with various record label lovelies (and I don't just say that because they gave me the tickets), a couple of random douchey guys who were feeding drinks to two smoking hot but very underage trust-fund twins and some of 'the beautiful people'. And when I say 'beautiful people' I am referring to three members of The Strokes, their various model-esque wives (including Amanda De Cadenet, former wife of the big lipped fella out of Duran Duran). If it weren't for my real job I would have no reason to be within mugging distance of so much money.

But the final and best celeb spotting incident of the night was of Sheffield's favourite adopted son John Harkes at the bar on my way out. I'd never met the man before so I had to holler at him. He was there with a few of his buddies and apparently is friends with someone in the bands' touring party. We chatted for a few minutes, discussed the fitness of Ms. De Cadenet (as you do), Toronto FC, and just a bit of blather about stadia. I refrained from asking him about the Tab Ramos underwear comment; that's a bit much for a 1st date.

If you haven't seen the Arctic's live before, check out the clip above for a taste. Last night they seemed a little loose, mostly likely alcohol induced, but still on their game. What was surprising to me was that a few songs that I thought would be crowd-slayers like "Fluorescent Adolescent" went over a little quiet. That and the large amount of jock-rockers. I guess the secret is way out...thank New York Times.