The Right Side of the Brain

'Tis true, 'Merica (the beautiful) has its very own Britpop sensation just waiting to happen. And they're as American as a fag in the Castro Scissors for Lefty from San Fran. The lead singer of this band, Bryan, is one of those guys who seems to transcend this plane of existence. This reality. He embraces your arm when he talks to you, floats smiles like blades of grass, but you're not always sure he's right there with you while he's spouting such joy. Just … somewhere.

On stage, even moreso. His stage antics, his delivery, his whole aura, it's just like some smiley dream. Feels like playing hooky to climb trees and smoke spliffs. Feels good and natural, in some cloud, smiling dopily at these scruffy fellas sweating a bit into their dancy beats and industrial riffs, those sarcastic little layers of pop music, and Bryan. Oh, sweet Bryan.

"You know what I noticed. It's been three days of thunderstorms, we got here on Tuesday, and it's just been plain raining sheets, and this is the first day it's been nice, really, really nice out. It's beatiful. I don't think I have ever seen a day this beautiful in San Francisco the whole time I've lived there."

It was gorgeous on Thursday, wasn't it? (I got a rat tail tan.)

"And on such a lovely day as this, I just feel, well, you really can't be wearing dreary footwear, now can you? And, that's what I am wearing, brown, gray. And so in honor of the weather and how beautiful Austin is, I am going to wear these instead."

And, with much flamboyance and that peaceful stage presence guys like Lennon had (I know this is a hefty comparison, you just gotta see this kid) he pulled out a pair of glimmering, golden slip-on Vans-knock offs with weird little designs, paisleys it looked like. They shimmered in the sun, they really did. He jumped down from the stage into the gravel below and delivered what seemed to turn into an ode to these shoes, tiptoeing, posing them, flitting around the courtyard with mike cord wrapped around his hand ... just so ... He was floating.

And float we all did.