You Know You've Made It When...

Remember when I tipped you back off to The National WAY back in 2005 (if not go here)? Well they have officially made it big. You know how I know? No, its not the Barrack Obama ad posted using Fake Empire (watch it here if you're into that sort of thing). Frankly I think its a total misuse of the song and not something you should be associated with a Presidential campaign. It reminds me a bit of Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. and Reagan' s misuse of the song in the 80's. Anyway, that is not why I think The National have made it big.

This is why. Check out this photo I took at the duty free music store at the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv yesterday:

Given the stores limited selection it was impressive. And no Mrs. Hops they didn't have a single Nine Inch Nails albumin the store... I checked. Though my co-worker did remember them coming to Tel Aviv on tour as it was a big deal. They only get about 5 decent concerts a year in Israel. I actually passed on the Deep Purple show at Hanger 11 while I was there. Apparently Israeli's will stay pay near $100 to see a group that had two hits 20 years ago.

That said I did see my second ever concert in Israel: Aerosmith in Tel Aviv way back in 1994. I even bought a concert t-shirt featuring the pierced cow udder. It was probably one of the worst concert purchases of my life. I'm pretty sure that shirt still exists some where in my parents' house - oddly enough Big Mama Hops wears it around the house when no one is around. I can pretty much guarantee she doesn't know one Aerosmith song so I dont know what the appeal could possibly be.