On Saturday, I decided to try something new for me, and at the same time, very Seattlish. I attended Reverbfest, a musical festival used to showcase only local talent. The venues for this festival were all over Ballard, a cute "Hobokeny" area that I had only flown through on my bike or driven by on my way to take pictures of the sunset. I thought that this would be a great chance to explore a new area as well as try on "alternative" music for size. Who knows, I just might see the next Nirvana or Jimi Hendrix. Sure, there was a part of me that thought there was no way a Jersery girl and Bonjovi fan like me would ever be able to blend in with the tattooed, body pierced, multicolored haired, alternative crowd, but then I remembered that my brother is coming for a visit in November and he will probably want to go to a cool place that has live music. The mental image of the look of total disappointment he would give me if I told him that his very unhip sister had yet to brave the Seattle music scene was enough to get me to go. So armed with a fleece and Ipod playing U2 (the closest I had to alternative tunes), I headed off into the world of fishnet stockings and dark lipstick (on guys, girls, same difference).

The first venue was at a tea room. Picture Phoebe in "Friends" with her guitar singing about whatever came to her mind. I had no idea what he was singing about nor did I have any idea when the songs were actually over, but I thoroughly enjoyed my grilled apple and basil on pumpernickel pannini.

Not deterred, I consulted the festival schedule and settled on going to "Tractor," considered to be one of the best venues for live music in Seattle. Perfect. The name of the band playing, "Animals in the Night" also sounded very promising. I thought that name screamed with the possibility of at least one hot band member... or maybe one with a mowhawk or chains or something.

I flashed my wristband at the bouncer (who was wearing a black utilikilt - I dunno about you, but when a guy in charge of security is dressed in a skirt, he just seems a whole lot less intimidating, no matter how much he has pierced) and ordered myself a cider (in a huge can - which is a first ever for me - never seen cider in a can) and head to an open table. From what I could see, the band had 5 members, which included 2 MAC laptops. I kid you not, these two laptops were at times being played like a keyboard. I had never seen or heard anything like it. I mean, of course I would rather have a hot bassist or lead singer to drool over, but this was cool too. Not enough for me me to become a groupie of course, but I enjoyed the experience.

Looking around the bar, there were lots of fans standing - I had three chairs (the only three remaining chairs in the place) at my table and nobody made any attempt to sit in them or even ask me if they could use them. I guess my "top 40ishness" was still oozing and making me a pariah. You can take the girl out of Jersey, but you can't take the Jersey out of the girl. No fooling this group. Maybe next time I'll breakout the leather pants.