Woke up at 7 a.m., left for work at 8 stayed there until about 2 p.m., at which point I ran home and got lunch then got back into the car and headed to Hollywood.

Finally made it into a parking space at 4:25 pm., five minutes before my interview with World Party. Ran across the street, found the tour manager, found Karl Wallinger and went up to the dressing room.

The interview lasted about an hour. This is pretty damn cool considering that journalists are usually given 20 minutes for an interview, which can be easily stretched to somewhere between 30 or 40 minutes. I was actually pretty nervous about this interview because I grew up listening to World Party, so it was imperative that I not make an ass out of myself. If you want to know what transpired, you'll have to wait until October, but just know that good stories were told.

Interview ends at 5:30. I have three or four hours to kill before the show and Carlos won't be able to get down to the Strip until after 8. I head over to Tower where I see the new issue of The Rockit. I grabbed a few more copies, which is what I do whenever I see a stack, so that I can just hand it out to people. This issue looks pretty cool. I like the Ozzfest/Warped Tour split cover and the photo spread looks awesome (Nice work, Megan!).

I started getting hungry. Over the phone, Carlos suggested that I get dinner at the Rainbow Room. That said, I headed west on Sunset, not realizing that the walk is up hill and I really, really have to pee. Half-a-block up the street, I give up, duck into a place called Panini's, where I've eaten before while stuck on the Strip, and grabbed a salad.

I should have brought my laptop and just transcribed the interview while I waited around. I should have gotten in the car to go somewhere, but I have an aversion to paying $7 for parking twice in one day. So I walked to Tower Video, remembered that I never watch movies and then went to Book Soup. I was looking for a Fullmetal Alchemist manga, but, this being a posh bookstore and all, it wasn't there. I picked up Peace Kills by PJ O'Rourke, because if there is one thing that can kill the monotony of two years reading Marx, Foucault, Chomsky and the rest, it's PJ O'Rourke. I headed back to the car and read the first two chapters of the book before Carlos arrived.

Inside the club, we realize that I was mislead. World Party wasn't going on at 9:15, that's when the show was starting. We sit through a very Ani Difranco set by a girl named Gina Villalobos and a more interesting performance by Elvis Perkins. Actually, we're standing because you can't sit at the Roxy unless you're somebody. My feet kill, but my back and my head are worse. My only solace is watching one of Perkins' players work this thing that looks like a reclining accordion.

World Party was superb. The band started with "Put the Message in the Box" then did "Is It Like Today?" (file under the rarefied genre of songs inspired by Bertrand Russell) and the second song on Dumbing Up, the name of which I can't recall at the moment. At this point, I would have danced around but, really, I was far too sore, even when the band closed with a seemingly 12-minute, double-reprised version of "Way Down Now" and finished the encore with "Ship of Fools." Oh and I should mention, especially for my friend Mary, that he played "She's the One," the song made famous when Robbie Williams covered it. (And there's a long story behind that too, although I think you can actually read it on the band's website.)

So, I got home at 1 a.m., did some more work and managed to catch the last ten minutes of Fullmetal Alchemist before falling asleep and then waking up at 7 to start the day all over again.