Empire State Games started the night off. It's hard to describe their style without sounding cheesy or cliche. They've been compared to Texas is the Reason, but rumor has it that they'll fight anybody who says so. They've got the whole melodic thing going on, perhaps with a Lifetime tinge, but they don't really sound like any other band. ESG is the kind of band that goes well with everything from the Promise Ring to Hot Water Music: the little black dress of rock, if you will.

The boys make a surprisingly tight band, which is especially impressive when you consider their young age (the youngest, Drumming Davey is still in high school). They're so good that I have made .wav files of their songs so I can listen to them when not by a turntable. I am an ESG dork. As usual, they played the songs that made the kids dance like Fred and Ginger.

Most people look nice when they dance, or at least somewhat cute. On the other hand, I am a horrible dancer. The requisite head-nod is no obstacle, of course, but when it comes to DANCING-dancing, it's trouble in River City. I can't dance without creating a laughable amalgamation of R. Kelly, Elvis, and a toddler throwing a temper tantrum. Fortunately, only a few people were looking at me like I was having seizures.

After ESG finished their set, we decided to plop down on the carpet and watch some skateboarding action. I caught Dave for a moment while he was scurrying around in an endearingly squirrel-like way. A boy with slightly rockabilly hair walked by, and Dave called for him to come over. The boy obliged, and Dave introduced him as the singer for the Get Up Kids. I smiled and did the nicetameetcha thing. "Annie's the one who does the 'Oh Amy, baby' stuff," explained Dave. Mr. Get Up Kid looked at me with disdain, muttered something about amps, and stomped off. Oops.

See, the "Oh Amy, baby" joke resulted from a Get Up Kids song called "Don't Hate Me." It's a delightfully poppy tune that we sing quite a bit, only with different lyrics. The original version's lyrics are as follows: "Oh, Amy, don't hate me for running away from you. Oh Amy, don't hate me, 'cause I'm still in love with yo-oou..." and Ariana and I had commented that if you inserted "Annie" for "Amy," you could pretty much paraphrase my ex-boyfriend's words. So we thought the song's words would be equally at home in an r&b song: "Oh, Amy, baby, don't hate me. Girl, I'm still in love with you. Damn."

Apparently, though, Dave had told Mr. Get Up Kid about our fun interpretation, and he was not happy one bit. We weren't questioning his sincerity; it's just that, hey, we calls 'em like we sees 'em, and the joke had become a long-standing tradition. I left Dave, opting to discreetly die of embarrassment near Ethan. While I half-giggled, half-sighed, we noticed that the Get Up Kids were getting their instruments ready. Ariana and I wiggled to the front of the smallish crowd and got ready to rock.