If man is five...(or apples, how d'ya like them?)

Thank you Jon Santer. Jon is my co-Header alumnus who now tends bar at various local bay area establishments. Jon is also a poor planner and a brief synopsis of this can be found at www.touchground.blogspot.com.
So I see that Jon is in the position to unload two tickets to the Pixies at UC Berkeley for Saturday. And yes I was scheduled to work. And yes I am unremittedly broke. But it's the Pixies. When in my life will I have the opportunity to see a band that not only helped form my high school experience but that I still listen to today? (Another good question is how amazing is it that a band who has not put out a new album in 15 years can still sell out shows three nights in a row?) I was talking, not two days ago, with a certain bartender I'm lucky to know, so Thursday night I head on over after work to Cortez where Jon is working to do the ticket/money exchange. At the Mondrian walled bar I enjoy two excellent cucumber gimlets and a dessert (later I may rant on the inability of bartenders in this town to do their job properly; to serve a palatable mixed drink when one does not feel like a beer or wine.) Jon's friends Jacques and Fernet soon make an appearance. The evening degenerates - wonderfully, hedonistically, "unexpectedly" - and I do pay for it the next day and beyond. Oola's, at 860 Folsom, is highly recommended for blowing through some cash. I hobble through Friday looking towards Saturday and the concert. My wonderful new bosses had consented to letting me off early and Fay, the recipient of the other ticket, and D. Wing (who ferociously Craigslisted a ticket of his own once Fay broke the news that she and I were going) picked me up and we BARTed over to the Berkeley campus and the Greek Theater. The Greek is, as implied, an outdoor amphitheater and a great venue for this kind of show. We decide to forgo our actual seats and make our way down to a tiered concrete area over looking the open front section. The opening band had nothing to recommend it and I spent that time instead being very amused by the number of people I recognized from the Mission and specifically one guy who I know I sold a hat to last week. Some smoke and funky wrought-iron trees holding the stage lights comprised the whole of the stage decoration and without too much waiting the band takes the stage. Happy, waving out to the crowd, they waste no time and move straight into "Debaser". Frank Black was jolly and sort of bouncing, Ms. Deal seemed rather self-contained and would slightly rise up on her toes towards the mike at the beginning of all her vocals. On several occasions she sidled up to the mike and just said "Thanks!" really ingeniously. At one point the guitarist did this weird reverb thing and broke into the theme from "Jeopardy" which kind of freaked me out because I had just started reading DFW's "Girl with the Curious Hair" that morning. Unfortunately my crossed fingers did nothing to bring about "Tony's Theme" but absolutely no complaints here from the songs or the performance. It all ended with "Gigantic" which, after much applause, really ended with the amalgamated "In Heaven," "Wave of Mutilation" (played interestingly enough for the second time that night), and another song, now gone from my mind. And except for some momentary wet-blanketness on my part, due to my then impending illness, it was a fucking fantastic evening.
I am now going back to bed and Toshire Mifune movies and Ben and Jerry's.