'00's Indie Film vs. '80's & '90's Indie Rock

I'm amazed at how often two events I want desperately to attend happen on the same day, at the same time. 

Case in point: I've been looking forward to the 2008 Independent Film Festival of Boston ever since, well, the 2007 Independent Film Festival of Boston. The festival runs from April 23 to April 29 this year, and if it's like previous years, the bulk of the films will play Friday, April 25, Saturday, April 26 and Sunday, April 27. For months now, I've mentally reserved those days as "festival days" where I plan to do little more than see films, attend panels, and occasionally eat. 

Earlier this week, I found out that Buffalo Tom is playing a show at the Paradise in Boston on Friday, April 25. The last time I saw them I drove two hours each way, by myself, on a work night, to catch them in 1995. I don't know if it was the drive or the half-filled club in Cohoes, NY where they played, but it is still one of my ten favorite shows off all time. But I'll have to pass on them this time. Maybe I'll catch them next year. 

Now I hear that Big Dipper is playing at the Middle East, right here in Cambridge, on...wait for it...Saturday, April 26. In the late 1980s, I fell in love with their "Craps" LP, was similarly smitten with their previous records "Boo Boo" and "Heavens." (And like many of their fans, somewhat disappointed with their sole major label release, "Slam".) They broke up in 1992, and I've never seen them live. To celebrate the release of a three-CD retrospective from those saints at Merge Records, the Dippah' are reuniting for what is now a three-show tour of Hoboken on April 24, Brooklyn on April 25, and Cambridge on April 26. 

So do I go to the Big Dipper show, hoping it will live up to my probably unrealistic expectations, or settle for listening to "Ron Klaus Wrecked His House" on my iPod while standing in line outside the Somerville Theater? I just don't know.

-Eric