Monday, December 25, 2006
Thursday, December 14, 2006
and so ends the first half
and we finished somewhere in the middle of the pack. we closed out this half of the bowling season with a 4 - 1 loss to the Strike Force! king of the jungle tim ware and his gaggle of chatty cathy's simply dominated the hardwood and we had an uphill climb with an absent doctor and a monkeyfistin' mike. $hakey used the monkeyfist (as per my advice) for the first 2 games to no avail, while walter and i tried to keep our heads above water. i actually had a career night, smashing a 585 triple, with a 235, 162, and 188. so close to that 600... i'll get it soon.
next week we start a fresh 2nd half. we win it we go the final. we lose it we go to church.
go stones.
next week we start a fresh 2nd half. we win it we go the final. we lose it we go to church.
go stones.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
the slip southern ontario run
the slip boys treated us to a few great nights of music last week/end, starting in guelph, ending in toronto, and hitting hamilton in between. wrapping up their tour, which started back on Nov. 7th, in support of new release Eisenhower. the shows ranged from seriously epic, to loose and fun, to straight up full throttle rockin'.
it was great to get 3 big sets, there was lots of room for your favourite eisenhower cuts, plus a few new tunes.. and maybe even a surprise or 2. i thought it was great that they came out and dropped completely new stuff on the audiences this tour, as well, after playing mostly the same repertoire for so long - i dug the irony of mixing it up that way on a cd release tour. let there be horses is a gem, as is the (as of yet untitled?) "black telephone"... and the new song that has the bobby deniro lyrics and a title we're not supposed to quote (it's on the tapes) is awesome, if not a little familiar sounding. i can see this morphing into a monster of a song. marc's strat playing in toronto was incredible to watch. some excellent cover choices as well over the 3 nights... tomorrow never knows in guelph was such a surprise and a great treat - they pulled it off well with a great lead into a rockin' december's children to close the night... hamilton had a super slick it's a long way to the top (if you wanna rock n roll) by ac/dc spliced into a poorboy... it seemed to slide right in outta nowhere, brought the devil horns out immediately, and a slick transition back into the poorboy - well done! toronto had a HUUUUUUUuuuuuuuge baba o'reilly... i dont know what i can say about it, it was packed with energy and launched the crowd into frenzy mode, great choice and probably my favourite version of that tune from them.
they seemed to set the tone right away with the airplane/primitive opener in guelph. they just stepped up and launched into it, and it was like "here was are, now listen!". they had a real command of their sound, and i gotta say, there was no shortage of "jamming" or "improv" or whatever you wanna call it - it may be disguised a little more, but isnt that the mastery of it? their sound is so huge now, there's so much to play with and so much room to play in, and with creative minds like these its inevitable they're going to have some fun with that. the wizardry and proficiency was on display all over the 3 days, and i was glad to see how well they were holding up after such a long tour. they seemed to be totally together, in sync, and right in the pocket. brad's voice was especially impressive over the course of the 3 nights - i'll be honest, i thought for sure it'd be shot by the time they rolled over the border.
here's how they looked on paper..
12.07.06 - Vinyl, Guelph
Airplane Primitive
Even Rats
White Wine and Soda
The Shouters
If One of Us Should Fall
Moderate Threat >
Cowboy Up
First Panda In Space >
Soft Machine
Suffocation Keep
I Hate Love
The Original Blue Air >
Paper Birds
Encore:
Let There Be Horses
Tomorrow Never Knows >
Children of December
12.08.06 - Pepperjack's, Hamilton
First Panda In Space >
Soft Machine
Even Rats
Chasing Rabbits
Airplane Primitive
Sleepy Head
Cupid
Get Me With Fuji
I Hate Love
Untitled New
Cut From The Cloth
Suffocation Keep
Poor Boy >
It's A Long Way to The Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N" Roll) >
Poor Boy
Encore:
Let There Be Horses
Children of December
12.09.06 - El Mocambo, Toronto
All I Saw Was You
Original Blue Air >
Paper Birds >
Even Rats
Chasing Rabbits
Airplane / Primitive
I Hate Love
Moderate Threat >
Cowboy Up
Untitled New
First Panda In Space >
Soft Machine
Suffocation Keep
Children Of December
If One Of Us Should Fall
Baba O'Riley
encore:
"Black Telephone"
here's how they looked to me: Slip SoOn Run Photo Gallery.
stats:
50 songs heard / 27 different
probably 6-ish hours of music
probably 6-ish hours of sleep
3 cities / 2 couches / 1 futon
428 kilometers / 2 cars / 1 bus
immeasurable amounts of good times and good friends.
out.
Monday, November 27, 2006
joel plaskett - london - 11.24.06
checked out joel plaskett at call the office on friday night... and it was the first time i just didnt enjoy a joel show. after all these years of seeing him with the hermit, the emergency, and on his own, i guess that's not bad, but really, this was just a disappointing show. this time it was the emergency, and they dropped a lot of new stuff on us - bad new stuff. these songs sounded like he was really trying to write a "plaskett" song, but c'mon, we dont need another 'come on teacher'.. "drunk teenagers" was possibly the worst song i've heard in 2006. the direction he was headed with la de da was such a step forward, but this show took the songs 2 steps back... none of the songs had much power behind them with this new emergency arrangement, there wasnt much depth to the sound, and overall they just felt sluggish to my ears.
i guess if you go see someone for long enough you're bound to see something you dont like - i've seen disappointing shows from all my favourites - and i guess this time it was joel's number that was up.
i'll say im very much looking forward to the next show, though.
i guess if you go see someone for long enough you're bound to see something you dont like - i've seen disappointing shows from all my favourites - and i guess this time it was joel's number that was up.
i'll say im very much looking forward to the next show, though.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
rollin' stones
we've been on a bit of a tear recently.. 5 points to start the month, 4 points 2 weeks ago, and 3 points this past week... still hangin' on. we limped into the alley down one doctor, up one nurse, walter with a bum back and me low on blood, and luckily $hakey's brain was no where near the exam he was to have the next day - hope it went well, buddy.
a game pitting the Twin Towers of Brunswick Huron against each other, we steamrolled game 1, and dropped the next 2 against the mooseknucklers, thanks to a couple huge 200+ games from one of their guys.. but we stayed close enough those games to get the overall score and the extra point to take the series 3-2.
the week prior we dominated the bombers, who lived up to their name and did nothing but get bombed all night. good show. we bombed the last few frames of the last game and it cost us the game and the 5th point, but still a solid 4 points and a total team effort on the lanes.
only a few weeks left in the first half and then we'll have to kick in high gear for our second half rise to the top...
a game pitting the Twin Towers of Brunswick Huron against each other, we steamrolled game 1, and dropped the next 2 against the mooseknucklers, thanks to a couple huge 200+ games from one of their guys.. but we stayed close enough those games to get the overall score and the extra point to take the series 3-2.
the week prior we dominated the bombers, who lived up to their name and did nothing but get bombed all night. good show. we bombed the last few frames of the last game and it cost us the game and the 5th point, but still a solid 4 points and a total team effort on the lanes.
only a few weeks left in the first half and then we'll have to kick in high gear for our second half rise to the top...
Sunday, November 12, 2006
burt neilson band 10 year anniversary photo story
vil and schwampy
burt neilson band - opera house
mike and vince spilchuk
serena southam (w/ jeff in background)
mike filipowitsch
mike and peter elkas
josh williams and jer
todd gilles and jeff
jeff heisholt (w/ gavin mcguire in background)
mike filipowitsch (gavin in background)
danny simmons (banjo) and b jay nathans (mandolin)
the bass laser
mark crissinger
mke and mark
scott farmer
jer little
mark crissinger hitting it!
from L - R: danny simmons, jeremy little, josh williams, mike filipowitsch, matt barber, shelby kerr, steve "elmo" murphy, mark crissinger, jeff heisholt
SET ONE
By the Door
These Days >
The Bench >
Yellow Pants (1)
Finer Than Fine Print (2)
Holes
Stop Draggin My Heart Around (3)
Full Tilt (4)
Hungry Heart (5)
Rotan (6)
Waves (7)
St Andrews
In the Belly
SET TWO
Distraction
Fresco Lopez >
Revolution Blues > (8)
Fresco Lopez
Stuck Inside (9)
Down with the Sound (10)
Glad Tidings (11)
Whipping Post (12)
Martian
Stop 28
E1
Acadian Driftwood (13)
Funkin Shoes (14)
E2
Don't Do It
(1) w/ Vince Spilchuk on trumpet
(2) Bodega song, w/ Andrew Rodriguez on guitar/lead vocals
(3) Steie Nicks & Tom Petty cover, with Serena Southam on lead vocals
(4) w/ Serena Southam on backing vocals and Vince Spilchuk on trumpet
(5) Bruce Springsteen cover, with Peter Elkas on lead vocals/guitar, Serena Southam on backing vocals, Robbie Grunwald on organ
(6) Fat Cats cover, with Todd Gillies on guitar/lead vocals, and Josh Williams on vocals/harmonica
(7) with Todd Gillies on guitar
(8) Neil Young cover
(9) with Danny Simmons on banjo and B Jay Nathans on mandolin
(10) with Shelby Kerr on backing vocals and Mark Crissinger on guitar
(11) Van Morrisson cover, with Scott Farmer on lead vocals and Peter Elkas on acoustic guitar
(12) Allman Brothers cover, with Mark Crissinger on lead vocals/screaming guitar
(13) The Band cover, with Matthew Barber, Shelby Kerr, Steve Murphy, Scott Farmer, Mark Crissinger, Todd Gillies on lead vocals, plus lots of people on stage... all the other performers and friends, and Danny Simmons on fiddle
(14) with Shelby Kerr on vocals, Robbie Grunwald on clavinet, Vince Spilchuk on trumpet
what an incredible show!! cheers to the burt neilson band and congrats on 10 years - cant wait for the 20th anniversary!
once the boys settled down and stopped worrying about playing a great show, and just started playing, i thought they put on an amazing show. some great guest appearances - it was nice to see these guys going off and challenging the bnb boys... gilles, andrew rodriguez, crissinger, particularly... they werent novelty guests, they obviously came to play. the 2nd set was an absolute monster highlighted for me by the fresco > revolution blues > fresco - they destroyed that neil cover! what a heavy hitting beast that was. stuck inside followed, and that was a real treat for me - it's been a favourite of mine since i first heard By The Door, and i dont believe i'd ever seen it live.. but when picked up the acoustic and the harmonica, i mean, i didnt know it was comin'.. but i knew, y'know? sweet tune. the crowd picking up the down with the sound vocals was tingle worthy and whats to say about crissinger on whipping post??!! martian makes me move exactly the way i love to move, and the encores were fantastic.
quite a rager afterwards, and the whole night was just a big celebration. so great to see some old faces and meet some new ones. thanks to everyone involved, it certainly was quite a night.
these guys are canada's premier "jamband", but they're truly the definition of "indie"... having crisscrossed this vast country a good 15 times, on their own, released 4 albums independantly, and developed a legion of fans across canada by word of mouth, the sharing of music, and keeping it entirely grassroots, these guys are the real deal and we're lucky they keep doin' it for us.
long live the bnb!!
Monday, November 06, 2006
and in other news...
... bob dylan played the JLC on friday nite... and it was terrible. i missed the thunder of the double drums and the dual guitar attack from the previous show i saw, and this didnt even carry any of the energy i witnessed at darien... this band sounded to me more like watered down blues for a soft rock radio station. i actually like what dylan does with his arrangements, i like his attitud and approach in that regard.. i just didnt like the way the band played them. they werent engaging in the least, and quite honestly, i found myself nodding off at least half a dozen times. the 3rd wasnt the charm this time...
5-0 stones
few days late and a few dollars short, but the stones came up big last thursday with a 5-0 vic against greg's ladies... which was a bit of an anomaly, considering neither greg was there, nor were enough of his ladies to make them plural. 9-pin Lynn was there for her team, but that 10th pin just never seemed to be and it cost 'em... BIGtime. $hakey rolled off as well, so with just the 4 of us on the lanes, we cruised through a relaxing few games in record time and got a much needed boost to the point total just in time for our big climb. walter's got a new ball and it's working like a dream, and i've found myself a new line that's keeping my ball from crossing over brooklyn, and i've been smashing the pocket. i had a perfect no-tap game in my 2nd. walter also did the monthly mystery score roll off and, like $hakey a month before, struck on his first ball to go to a final... where he landed an 8, matched by his opponent to go to one more sudden death final... where he lost 9-6... that's 2 months in a row, who's it gonna be next month?
about 6 weeks to go in the 1st half... we're climbing... the huskies are running slower... things are gonna change... i can feel it...
about 6 weeks to go in the 1st half... we're climbing... the huskies are running slower... things are gonna change... i can feel it...
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
slippin' into the maritimes
welcome to the merrytimes! shit, that's cheesy! but hell if it aint true, everytime i go down to the maritimes it's just the best time, and this past weekend no different. saw 2 slip shows and one golden dogs show. hung out with some great friends i dont get to see too often, watched some serious baseball (holy kenny rogers!) and made sure i got my fill of weird tv news.
moncton > saint john > halifax > moncton was the way it went. after a night of watching some kickass ryan, wilco, bruce, etc.. dvd's and some intense nlcs baseball... which i missed the ninth inning of (damn!)... and a day of lounging around reading, running some minor errands with sean, and generally just hanging out, we made our way to saint john for the first slip show of this little run, at neptunes.
2006-10-20
Neptunes
Saint John, NB
- 12:47 -
intro jam > Children of December
Even Rats
If One Of Us Should Fall
Airplane/Primitive
Get Me With Fuji
Suffocation Keep (w/ female vocals sample)
Poor Boy
The Original Blue Air >
Paper Birds
E: Baba O'Riley
- 2:16 -
thanks to dave for keepin' the setlist. the show was a rocker from the very beginning... i thought the opening intro to december's was up there with some of the best i've heard (see 08.07.05 later set, for example) - it was certainly beefy, as were a lot of the beginnings of tunes, i felt. they really had a deep sound to them when they came charging out of the gate. airplane/primitive was a monster. it felt very together. it was easy to tell that these guys have honed in on each other and this set of tunes, and airplane is a perfect example of that. it was neat to hear the vocal samples on suffocation keep... though, it's just making my mouth water more for the album. it was the first time i had heard the song with the featured vocals of Ua, their japanese pop-star friend. paper birds closed out the show and it was the other big winner on the night. i really love how the song is structured live, with the different ending and vocals, it's bouncy as hell. they did the who cover a lot better than i had heard on previous recordings, as well.. i thought it was pretty good, and no doubt they rocked it out.
partied the night away at god only knows where and ended up back at the hotel staring at the ceiling somewhere around quarter to 7, i think... damn hilton folk wouldnt give me a corkscrew to keep 'er goin'! not much sleep had that day, but we made a pitstop in moncton on the way to halifax for some relaxing and power naps. once we hit the road we made it in plenty of time to roll into westoby's and get ourselves some pizza and some pops before heading out to stage 9 for the golden dogs and raising the fawn.
i had missed the golden dogs 3 times in a span of about 6 weeks over a year ago now and hadnt since found myself an opportunity to see them again until this weeked - they were also playing as part of the halifax pop explosion on saturday night, and although it was a long time comin', it was certainly worth the wait. they play with so much energy, so much fervour, so much vigour, so much soul, so much sweat... a powerful live rock band to be sure. after they blew through their 45 minute set, which started with birdsong, and ended with Yeah!, and featured a lot of the new stuff in between, most notably for me "saints at the gates", we had to pick ourselves up off the floor, give ourselves a shake, splash some water and try to put ourselves back together again. we were baptised once more at the church of rock n roll, left disoriented, confused, and elated.
when sean told the guitar player in the band (not azzolini) that plaskett was there checking them out, he nearly shit himeself. apparently there was a suit from nonesuch as well, that sean talked to. he was doing his best promo to get people over to the attic to check out the slip at 1:45... seemingly the latest show in town. we did have enough time to check out a bit of raising the fawn, and i was a little so-so on them. they started out really strong, i loved the first or second tune... heavy bass driven, with a chunk, and some nice overlapping vocals.. it was a really cool song.. but after that i started to fade away... i wanted to get over to the attic for the slip, and after a half hour or so, we did.
2006-10-21
Halifax, NS
The Attic
- 1:55 -
Soft Machine
Even Rates
Airplane/Primitive
I Hate Love
Get Me With Fuji (w/ Brad playing a strat)
Paper Birds
Children of December (w/Brad climbing on amps, etc and crowd surfing)
E1: If One of Us Should Fall
E2: (What's So Funny 'bout) Peace Love and Understanding
- 3:16 -
thanks again to dave for the setlist and notes. man, i love late night slip shows. who remembers set 2 in hamilton 10.15.04, starting at last call and going till 3? this was a set reminiscient of that, balls out and rockin' with some super sweetness, and bringin 'em all together for the encore. we called the opener. we called the encore. we called the i hate love substitution. going down there for 2 shows i was pretty aware that i'd likely be getting basically 80% of the tunes x2, but i was also pretty excited to see that - to see what differences popped up, how tight they were... and they seemed very well prepared and very well rehearsed - they didnt seem like they had to find each other much, but rather that they were already locked in. very focussed on this night. i particularly loved the soft machine, airplane, and paper birds again. maybe one of my favourite moments of seeing rock n roll so far all these years was seeing the look on friedman's face to the crowds reaction to even rats, singing along to the "ooh ooh oooooh's", goin' like mad for the song - nice to see all the smiles and the gestures between him and the brothers, like "you guy's seein' this? holy shit!" kinda happiness... completely and totally deserved, kudos to the boys. the crowd really was eating it up all night... i'd venture it was about 500 strong packed into the bar, and i was way up close... some seriously rockin' kids that night.. dude's grabbin' each others faces to show how much they loved something.... i dunno... kids... but, hey, you know, cause and effect, right? the slip brought it hard, so thats what happens. get me with fuji was played with brad on strat, which i'd never seen before... it seemed to take on a bit of a different flavour, and gave way to a different sort of weirdness breakdown... i really dug it... and again, paper birds, the ending was fantastic.. crowd was eating it up and dancing like crazy, the band was so on point, i thought they were gonna wind it back up again. sean got ahold of the setlist after the show and the if one of us.. looks like it got moved down out of the set into the encore position... maybe they were feelin' the energy and didnt wanna bring it down any? either way, good call saving it for the encore, it worked really well. the crowd wasn't lettin' 'em leave, though, so they came back out and raged a costello cover on us... a common cover for them, but again, one that just hadnt been played at shows i've seen.
confusion with inebriated friends and a terrible cab situation in halifax kept us from getting to an afterparty for quite a while, but after arriving we realized that that was probably a-ok. we didnt stay long than tried to endure the cab situation one more time to get back to westo's. it was a long night, but we did manage to beat the sun, which on a night like that, was fine with me.
back to moncton in the afternoon on sunday, said goodbye to dave and spent the rest of the night watching guy terrifico and kenny rogers tear the cardinals to shreds. enough with the pine tar talk, alright? kenny fucked 'em up and if he gets a chance, he'll do it again. what an intense performance to watch - man, i love baseball!
as i finish this up, it's occurring to me now how much conviction and focus, emotion and intensity mean to me in the things i love. im a baseball guy, and i saw it again in game 7 of the nlcs and game 2 of the world series, and for a dude without cable who never gets to see the game played, i'll admit i was in my glory watching this shit go down. chavez in the 6th with that catch one pitch after randolph left perez in the game! holy bejesus!! rogers amped up like a kid in the biggest game of his life cruising through the 8th with a 2 hitter... why leyland opted for jones in the 9th i'll never understand. it makes no sense to take the best pitcher out of the game when he's pitching the best game! but it renewed some lost love in me, restored some type of faith in conviction. when i saw the slip playing with the stark focus and determination of their sound and what they were trying to create around them i thought that though this didnt sound like the band i first fell in love with, no doubt this was still the same band i love. i dont know if you could call it a renewal of faith because i never lost any, but it brought back something thats for sure.... i simply love the slip.
new album Eisenhower comes out on november 7th - do yourself a favour and grab a copy for yourself and someone you love. giftmas is coming.
moncton > saint john > halifax > moncton was the way it went. after a night of watching some kickass ryan, wilco, bruce, etc.. dvd's and some intense nlcs baseball... which i missed the ninth inning of (damn!)... and a day of lounging around reading, running some minor errands with sean, and generally just hanging out, we made our way to saint john for the first slip show of this little run, at neptunes.
2006-10-20
Neptunes
Saint John, NB
- 12:47 -
intro jam > Children of December
Even Rats
If One Of Us Should Fall
Airplane/Primitive
Get Me With Fuji
Suffocation Keep (w/ female vocals sample)
Poor Boy
The Original Blue Air >
Paper Birds
E: Baba O'Riley
- 2:16 -
thanks to dave for keepin' the setlist. the show was a rocker from the very beginning... i thought the opening intro to december's was up there with some of the best i've heard (see 08.07.05 later set, for example) - it was certainly beefy, as were a lot of the beginnings of tunes, i felt. they really had a deep sound to them when they came charging out of the gate. airplane/primitive was a monster. it felt very together. it was easy to tell that these guys have honed in on each other and this set of tunes, and airplane is a perfect example of that. it was neat to hear the vocal samples on suffocation keep... though, it's just making my mouth water more for the album. it was the first time i had heard the song with the featured vocals of Ua, their japanese pop-star friend. paper birds closed out the show and it was the other big winner on the night. i really love how the song is structured live, with the different ending and vocals, it's bouncy as hell. they did the who cover a lot better than i had heard on previous recordings, as well.. i thought it was pretty good, and no doubt they rocked it out.
partied the night away at god only knows where and ended up back at the hotel staring at the ceiling somewhere around quarter to 7, i think... damn hilton folk wouldnt give me a corkscrew to keep 'er goin'! not much sleep had that day, but we made a pitstop in moncton on the way to halifax for some relaxing and power naps. once we hit the road we made it in plenty of time to roll into westoby's and get ourselves some pizza and some pops before heading out to stage 9 for the golden dogs and raising the fawn.
i had missed the golden dogs 3 times in a span of about 6 weeks over a year ago now and hadnt since found myself an opportunity to see them again until this weeked - they were also playing as part of the halifax pop explosion on saturday night, and although it was a long time comin', it was certainly worth the wait. they play with so much energy, so much fervour, so much vigour, so much soul, so much sweat... a powerful live rock band to be sure. after they blew through their 45 minute set, which started with birdsong, and ended with Yeah!, and featured a lot of the new stuff in between, most notably for me "saints at the gates", we had to pick ourselves up off the floor, give ourselves a shake, splash some water and try to put ourselves back together again. we were baptised once more at the church of rock n roll, left disoriented, confused, and elated.
when sean told the guitar player in the band (not azzolini) that plaskett was there checking them out, he nearly shit himeself. apparently there was a suit from nonesuch as well, that sean talked to. he was doing his best promo to get people over to the attic to check out the slip at 1:45... seemingly the latest show in town. we did have enough time to check out a bit of raising the fawn, and i was a little so-so on them. they started out really strong, i loved the first or second tune... heavy bass driven, with a chunk, and some nice overlapping vocals.. it was a really cool song.. but after that i started to fade away... i wanted to get over to the attic for the slip, and after a half hour or so, we did.
2006-10-21
Halifax, NS
The Attic
- 1:55 -
Soft Machine
Even Rates
Airplane/Primitive
I Hate Love
Get Me With Fuji (w/ Brad playing a strat)
Paper Birds
Children of December (w/Brad climbing on amps, etc and crowd surfing)
E1: If One of Us Should Fall
E2: (What's So Funny 'bout) Peace Love and Understanding
- 3:16 -
thanks again to dave for the setlist and notes. man, i love late night slip shows. who remembers set 2 in hamilton 10.15.04, starting at last call and going till 3? this was a set reminiscient of that, balls out and rockin' with some super sweetness, and bringin 'em all together for the encore. we called the opener. we called the encore. we called the i hate love substitution. going down there for 2 shows i was pretty aware that i'd likely be getting basically 80% of the tunes x2, but i was also pretty excited to see that - to see what differences popped up, how tight they were... and they seemed very well prepared and very well rehearsed - they didnt seem like they had to find each other much, but rather that they were already locked in. very focussed on this night. i particularly loved the soft machine, airplane, and paper birds again. maybe one of my favourite moments of seeing rock n roll so far all these years was seeing the look on friedman's face to the crowds reaction to even rats, singing along to the "ooh ooh oooooh's", goin' like mad for the song - nice to see all the smiles and the gestures between him and the brothers, like "you guy's seein' this? holy shit!" kinda happiness... completely and totally deserved, kudos to the boys. the crowd really was eating it up all night... i'd venture it was about 500 strong packed into the bar, and i was way up close... some seriously rockin' kids that night.. dude's grabbin' each others faces to show how much they loved something.... i dunno... kids... but, hey, you know, cause and effect, right? the slip brought it hard, so thats what happens. get me with fuji was played with brad on strat, which i'd never seen before... it seemed to take on a bit of a different flavour, and gave way to a different sort of weirdness breakdown... i really dug it... and again, paper birds, the ending was fantastic.. crowd was eating it up and dancing like crazy, the band was so on point, i thought they were gonna wind it back up again. sean got ahold of the setlist after the show and the if one of us.. looks like it got moved down out of the set into the encore position... maybe they were feelin' the energy and didnt wanna bring it down any? either way, good call saving it for the encore, it worked really well. the crowd wasn't lettin' 'em leave, though, so they came back out and raged a costello cover on us... a common cover for them, but again, one that just hadnt been played at shows i've seen.
confusion with inebriated friends and a terrible cab situation in halifax kept us from getting to an afterparty for quite a while, but after arriving we realized that that was probably a-ok. we didnt stay long than tried to endure the cab situation one more time to get back to westo's. it was a long night, but we did manage to beat the sun, which on a night like that, was fine with me.
back to moncton in the afternoon on sunday, said goodbye to dave and spent the rest of the night watching guy terrifico and kenny rogers tear the cardinals to shreds. enough with the pine tar talk, alright? kenny fucked 'em up and if he gets a chance, he'll do it again. what an intense performance to watch - man, i love baseball!
as i finish this up, it's occurring to me now how much conviction and focus, emotion and intensity mean to me in the things i love. im a baseball guy, and i saw it again in game 7 of the nlcs and game 2 of the world series, and for a dude without cable who never gets to see the game played, i'll admit i was in my glory watching this shit go down. chavez in the 6th with that catch one pitch after randolph left perez in the game! holy bejesus!! rogers amped up like a kid in the biggest game of his life cruising through the 8th with a 2 hitter... why leyland opted for jones in the 9th i'll never understand. it makes no sense to take the best pitcher out of the game when he's pitching the best game! but it renewed some lost love in me, restored some type of faith in conviction. when i saw the slip playing with the stark focus and determination of their sound and what they were trying to create around them i thought that though this didnt sound like the band i first fell in love with, no doubt this was still the same band i love. i dont know if you could call it a renewal of faith because i never lost any, but it brought back something thats for sure.... i simply love the slip.
new album Eisenhower comes out on november 7th - do yourself a favour and grab a copy for yourself and someone you love. giftmas is coming.
Monday, October 16, 2006
last week in bowling
we lost to a team of handicapped people.
i think that's all that needs to be said about that.
789
456
123
FOX!
i think that's all that needs to be said about that.
789
456
123
FOX!
Friday, October 06, 2006
darwin's team
here we are, we're darwin's team
we came to you as if a dream
cut across your lawn on our unicorn
as mean and drunk as women scorned
the time is nigh for evolution!
the tide is high for retribution...
On $hakey! On Walter! On Dr. and guigsy!
when the Stones roll in it's time to get busy.
week 5: stones 4, other guys 1. though not very deserved.
darin was the boy that carried that weight... a long time. a great series, but i cant remember his numbers. i bowled a 196 my first game then the mushrooms kicked in right around the time we found the monkeyfist and it all went to hell. 3rd game first frame mandatory monkeyfist was the turning point for the stones to squeek out the extra 2 points, though, im sure. $hakey was up in the month end mystery score bowl off tourney and hit a strike his first ball to go to a sudden death final.... where he guttered. it was one of those kinda nights for us - ups and downs - strikes and gutters. but there was also an air of syncronicity. it felt good tonight, regardless of how we bowled, and it was good to get the points for it - sometimes you need a night like that.
monkeyfist monkeyfist we love you
you've got 4 holes and we all plugged you
third game first frame mandatory
we summoned your power and you gave unto thee
we came to you as if a dream
cut across your lawn on our unicorn
as mean and drunk as women scorned
the time is nigh for evolution!
the tide is high for retribution...
On $hakey! On Walter! On Dr. and guigsy!
when the Stones roll in it's time to get busy.
week 5: stones 4, other guys 1. though not very deserved.
darin was the boy that carried that weight... a long time. a great series, but i cant remember his numbers. i bowled a 196 my first game then the mushrooms kicked in right around the time we found the monkeyfist and it all went to hell. 3rd game first frame mandatory monkeyfist was the turning point for the stones to squeek out the extra 2 points, though, im sure. $hakey was up in the month end mystery score bowl off tourney and hit a strike his first ball to go to a sudden death final.... where he guttered. it was one of those kinda nights for us - ups and downs - strikes and gutters. but there was also an air of syncronicity. it felt good tonight, regardless of how we bowled, and it was good to get the points for it - sometimes you need a night like that.
monkeyfist monkeyfist we love you
you've got 4 holes and we all plugged you
third game first frame mandatory
we summoned your power and you gave unto thee
Sunday, October 01, 2006
built to spill - 09/30/06 - town ballroom, buffalo
the mission:
the missionaries: me plus these guys..
the set:
Goin' Against Your Mind
Made Up Dreams
Else
Distopian Dream Girl
Kicked It In The Sun
Mess With Time
Re-Arrange (The Gladiators)
Sidewalk
[New Song - starts: "daylight feels like midnight"]
Conventional Wisdom (dedicated to Hugo Chavez)
Bomb Shelter
Big Dipper
Carry the Zero
E: Randy Described Eternity (25+ minutes.. an absolute monster!)
hello ridiculousness! what an incredible show!! i walked out of there, mind completely blown, and i probably couldnt put it any more straight forward than that. right from the getgo with the goin against your mind opener - 2 songs later i finally got my else... i hadnt even seen the slip cover it.. the closest i ever got was a tease in toronto, and although this was the real deal, it was still an abbreviated real deal - but hey, when its built to spill and its else, i'll take what i can get. distopian dream girl was a real surprise for me - just not a song i would have thought i'd hear going into it, but such a treat. nothing wrong with love was probably the first album of theirs i fell in love with and it stirs up some good memories for me - needless to say i was belting it out at the top of my lungs. no matter, i couldnt even hear myself from how loud it was in there - probably didnt help that we set up shop 8 ft. from the speakers. the re-arrange cover was great, and the band really kicked it into high gear to close out the set, starting with an insane conventional wisdom - damn that is such a great song, that sweet breakdown can make anyone feel good... great dedication to mr. chavez as well, hahah. bomb shelter was a great jam with some interesting pre-recorded speech about eco-terrorism and right wing nut jobs - i like to see bands speaking out in their own way and built to spill certainly did that throughout the night. big dipper was another great cut from nothing wrong with love and the set finished with a big big BIG carry the zero... i thought my head was gonna explode, and again, i think i tore some vocal chords, but hell if i could hear myself. i really liked their use of the video screen throughout the show, as well.
the encore, i had thought was 2 songs, but upon finding a setlist, i guess it was only one. but i do remember how monstrous that one was. Randy Described Eternity went on for nearly an eternity, a solid 25 plus minutes of the crunchiest, heaviest, thickest, waves of music. they took the outro and jammed the living hell out of it, building up this incredible wall of sound that just kept climbing higher and getting bigger and coming harder - it was a class 1 lake superior storm if i ever heard one. a beautiful wash of sound to be drowning in and i lapped up ever second of it, jaw to the floor, tongue out. i noticed doug gave way a fair share of solos to the other guys throughout the show, but man was he a force on Randy - he was huge. i love doug martsch's guitar playing, i mean, what fan of built to spill doesnt, so i was just in my glory being able to take it all in from so close - i consider the man a legend in this world of rock n roll.
overall, the show was incredible. the venue was amazing, and the sound was great. even though we were close in to the speakers, and it was so loud, you could still pick apart all the instrumentation and even hear the vocals pretty clearly. props to the sound guy for controlling that gorgeous room. i wish i could see all my favourite bands in that venue, it was that sweet. great sight lines everywhere, 3 levels that are comfortable and easy to get around on, holds maybe a thousand people, but i'd say maybe 750 - 800 were there. perfect.
opening bands werent really worth mentioning... well, the 2nd opening band was, but only for how terrible they were, so i wont go there. lines of the night, courtesy of the heckler:
"jammin' for jesus... for christ sake!"
"you got a can of cream of corn soup in you beard!"
"you look 9 months pregnant, and beautiful"
the missionaries: me plus these guys..
the set:
Goin' Against Your Mind
Made Up Dreams
Else
Distopian Dream Girl
Kicked It In The Sun
Mess With Time
Re-Arrange (The Gladiators)
Sidewalk
[New Song - starts: "daylight feels like midnight"]
Conventional Wisdom (dedicated to Hugo Chavez)
Bomb Shelter
Big Dipper
Carry the Zero
E: Randy Described Eternity (25+ minutes.. an absolute monster!)
hello ridiculousness! what an incredible show!! i walked out of there, mind completely blown, and i probably couldnt put it any more straight forward than that. right from the getgo with the goin against your mind opener - 2 songs later i finally got my else... i hadnt even seen the slip cover it.. the closest i ever got was a tease in toronto, and although this was the real deal, it was still an abbreviated real deal - but hey, when its built to spill and its else, i'll take what i can get. distopian dream girl was a real surprise for me - just not a song i would have thought i'd hear going into it, but such a treat. nothing wrong with love was probably the first album of theirs i fell in love with and it stirs up some good memories for me - needless to say i was belting it out at the top of my lungs. no matter, i couldnt even hear myself from how loud it was in there - probably didnt help that we set up shop 8 ft. from the speakers. the re-arrange cover was great, and the band really kicked it into high gear to close out the set, starting with an insane conventional wisdom - damn that is such a great song, that sweet breakdown can make anyone feel good... great dedication to mr. chavez as well, hahah. bomb shelter was a great jam with some interesting pre-recorded speech about eco-terrorism and right wing nut jobs - i like to see bands speaking out in their own way and built to spill certainly did that throughout the night. big dipper was another great cut from nothing wrong with love and the set finished with a big big BIG carry the zero... i thought my head was gonna explode, and again, i think i tore some vocal chords, but hell if i could hear myself. i really liked their use of the video screen throughout the show, as well.
the encore, i had thought was 2 songs, but upon finding a setlist, i guess it was only one. but i do remember how monstrous that one was. Randy Described Eternity went on for nearly an eternity, a solid 25 plus minutes of the crunchiest, heaviest, thickest, waves of music. they took the outro and jammed the living hell out of it, building up this incredible wall of sound that just kept climbing higher and getting bigger and coming harder - it was a class 1 lake superior storm if i ever heard one. a beautiful wash of sound to be drowning in and i lapped up ever second of it, jaw to the floor, tongue out. i noticed doug gave way a fair share of solos to the other guys throughout the show, but man was he a force on Randy - he was huge. i love doug martsch's guitar playing, i mean, what fan of built to spill doesnt, so i was just in my glory being able to take it all in from so close - i consider the man a legend in this world of rock n roll.
overall, the show was incredible. the venue was amazing, and the sound was great. even though we were close in to the speakers, and it was so loud, you could still pick apart all the instrumentation and even hear the vocals pretty clearly. props to the sound guy for controlling that gorgeous room. i wish i could see all my favourite bands in that venue, it was that sweet. great sight lines everywhere, 3 levels that are comfortable and easy to get around on, holds maybe a thousand people, but i'd say maybe 750 - 800 were there. perfect.
opening bands werent really worth mentioning... well, the 2nd opening band was, but only for how terrible they were, so i wont go there. lines of the night, courtesy of the heckler:
"jammin' for jesus... for christ sake!"
"you got a can of cream of corn soup in you beard!"
"you look 9 months pregnant, and beautiful"
Friday, September 29, 2006
bowling stones: 2 week update
well, i never did get around to updating week 3, so i'll roll it into this update...
first off, in the previous stones' update i alluded to the fact that we'd likely soon be making enemies... mostly in a facetious sort of way, you know, not really meaning it... but, you know, When in Rome...
so it only took us 3 weeks to get into our first confrontation - last time i think it took at least half a year. and this time around, the stakes are a little higher - no one's yet to threaten use of a gun, but if i was a bettin' man, my money would be on Old Man Flip-Up. your typical angry old man with camo gear, yellow tinted flip up sunglasses, and a batman t-shirt. the east london riff-raff version of dick cheney. he got his knickers in a knot when they called for practice to halt and a couple people near our lanes were still standing up on them - no ball in hand, but still. so he gets a little vocal about it, and $hakey got a little more vocal about it, basically tellin' him to relax. which he did not. after the game started he comes stormin' down the alley to get in our faces... or, i should say, MY face... demanding to know what i said... to which i just kept laughing with my arms folded telling him i didnt say a fuckin' word. i was gettin' a kick out of watchin' this guy get steamed over my stonewalling, until $hakey piped up and told him what it was like. once this lunatic realized he couldnt intimidate the Bowling Stones he put his tail between his legs and shuffled off down the alley. a tense start to the night, and we never really did get back on track. we were on lanes with a group we never really got comfortable with and wound up dropping a few games... no worries, though, coming into week 4 we were still holding strong onto 3rd place, with one of the highest total team scores in the league. things are looking good for the stones this season!
week 4 went last night and we were up against a team from the newly joined SouthSiders league... on paper things looked pretty evenly matched, and that also translated out onto the hardwood. both teams were throwing rocks last night, and i'd say we probably put together our best 3 games yet this season, walter had a life-time high of 207, the doc put up a 186 in his last game, $hakey was solid throughout.. but it just wasnt enough against a team consisting of the new Johnny 175 and a girl named Linda Lou. the 2nd game (which featured walt's 207) also featured a 205 from Johnny, and a 213 from Linda who boasts a 131 average!! 3 Hole Punch started the game with 10 straight marks and never looked back. Linda was the slow silent killer all game, reminiscient of a young Anne McNeil, who we all hope is recovering well from her surgery this past week. get better soon, anne - the stones miss your fiery passion and inspiration on the lanes! we squeeked out the last game to get a point for the week, but there's really not much more we could have done - props to the Puncher's for comin' to play and handing us our asses. we'll remember this for next time...
... and we'll remember you, too, Flip-Up. bring it.
first off, in the previous stones' update i alluded to the fact that we'd likely soon be making enemies... mostly in a facetious sort of way, you know, not really meaning it... but, you know, When in Rome...
so it only took us 3 weeks to get into our first confrontation - last time i think it took at least half a year. and this time around, the stakes are a little higher - no one's yet to threaten use of a gun, but if i was a bettin' man, my money would be on Old Man Flip-Up. your typical angry old man with camo gear, yellow tinted flip up sunglasses, and a batman t-shirt. the east london riff-raff version of dick cheney. he got his knickers in a knot when they called for practice to halt and a couple people near our lanes were still standing up on them - no ball in hand, but still. so he gets a little vocal about it, and $hakey got a little more vocal about it, basically tellin' him to relax. which he did not. after the game started he comes stormin' down the alley to get in our faces... or, i should say, MY face... demanding to know what i said... to which i just kept laughing with my arms folded telling him i didnt say a fuckin' word. i was gettin' a kick out of watchin' this guy get steamed over my stonewalling, until $hakey piped up and told him what it was like. once this lunatic realized he couldnt intimidate the Bowling Stones he put his tail between his legs and shuffled off down the alley. a tense start to the night, and we never really did get back on track. we were on lanes with a group we never really got comfortable with and wound up dropping a few games... no worries, though, coming into week 4 we were still holding strong onto 3rd place, with one of the highest total team scores in the league. things are looking good for the stones this season!
week 4 went last night and we were up against a team from the newly joined SouthSiders league... on paper things looked pretty evenly matched, and that also translated out onto the hardwood. both teams were throwing rocks last night, and i'd say we probably put together our best 3 games yet this season, walter had a life-time high of 207, the doc put up a 186 in his last game, $hakey was solid throughout.. but it just wasnt enough against a team consisting of the new Johnny 175 and a girl named Linda Lou. the 2nd game (which featured walt's 207) also featured a 205 from Johnny, and a 213 from Linda who boasts a 131 average!! 3 Hole Punch started the game with 10 straight marks and never looked back. Linda was the slow silent killer all game, reminiscient of a young Anne McNeil, who we all hope is recovering well from her surgery this past week. get better soon, anne - the stones miss your fiery passion and inspiration on the lanes! we squeeked out the last game to get a point for the week, but there's really not much more we could have done - props to the Puncher's for comin' to play and handing us our asses. we'll remember this for next time...
... and we'll remember you, too, Flip-Up. bring it.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
bowling stones reunion tour
the bowling stones are back!
it's been 3 years since we've laid leather to hardwood and slid our balls 60 ft. across a greasy floor, but last week we made our triumphant return to the Huron Husky bowling league and picked up right where left off - taking 4 of 5 points and both 50/50 draws! greeted to a heroes welcome upon arriving at the alley, they had our photo up at the front and were more than stoked to have the Bad Boys of Bowling back at Brunswick. the league has grown considerably since we last rolled with them, going from 7 teams up to 16 and being run by a more ambitious and competent executive, which should make this year a lot more fun. didnt get a great look at the competition, but no doubt it'll be as stiff as ever. Smooth Talkin' Ray Daamen is still terrorizing the league - BBN and One Step are still there.. chatty natty... waresy doodle dandy... big shane... the turkish de-lite... and a whole host of new people who im sure will grow to not like us very much in the near future.
week 2 goes tonite and the boys got a good headstart with my roll-off yesterday... watch out huskies... the '03-'04 league champs are here and ready to take back what's theirs!
it's been 3 years since we've laid leather to hardwood and slid our balls 60 ft. across a greasy floor, but last week we made our triumphant return to the Huron Husky bowling league and picked up right where left off - taking 4 of 5 points and both 50/50 draws! greeted to a heroes welcome upon arriving at the alley, they had our photo up at the front and were more than stoked to have the Bad Boys of Bowling back at Brunswick. the league has grown considerably since we last rolled with them, going from 7 teams up to 16 and being run by a more ambitious and competent executive, which should make this year a lot more fun. didnt get a great look at the competition, but no doubt it'll be as stiff as ever. Smooth Talkin' Ray Daamen is still terrorizing the league - BBN and One Step are still there.. chatty natty... waresy doodle dandy... big shane... the turkish de-lite... and a whole host of new people who im sure will grow to not like us very much in the near future.
week 2 goes tonite and the boys got a good headstart with my roll-off yesterday... watch out huskies... the '03-'04 league champs are here and ready to take back what's theirs!
Thursday, August 17, 2006
lollapawaitsa photos
oh yeah, i got some photos up on flickr, of lollapalooza, the house on the rock and the tom waits show.
check 'em out here.
check 'em out here.
lollapawaitsa
ok, this is potentially going to be my biggest post yet, or ever. it's taken me a while just to formulate what i want to say and how, and i still dont even know, really, but it's a doozy. lollapalooza > house on the rock > tom waits. chicago > wisconsin > chicago. august 3rd - 10th. lets get to it...
lollapalooza - day 1
i figure i might as well do this in days, rather than a mash up of bands or one big meandering whatever. at least try to keep some sort of order. anyways, the festival itself, lollapalooza 2006, 130 bands, grant park in chicago, a dozen friends - the writing was on the wall for some serious magic, y'know. festie voodoo shit with chicago as your playground. too bad i lost 6 key ingredients before we left. no matter, i was going to be seeing bands i've been waiting upwards of 8 years to see - and some that i should have always wanted to see - and some that were just so new to me that i hadnt even yet had the chance... so it was to be a weekend of a great many great musical firsts. sounds great! alright, enough..... we stayed at the congress which was perfectly situated right in front of grant park, and miraculously right beside the auditorium theatre where we were to see tom waits on the following wednesday. gettin' lucky in chicago. so lolla overtakes massive downtown grant park for 8 stages worth of musical mayhem with enough sounds to satisfy anyone's tastebuds, really. i saw so much music and quite a bit of it sounded different. there was tons i missed that probably sounded even more different. diversity, kids. oh, and yeah, stuff for kids, too. first up was the eels, and although they didnt really do it for me this time, im gonna chalk it up to a time and place thing - the sound wasnt quite right to begin with, and i just wasnt feelin' all that distorted everything. i certainly didnt hate them, and im sure im in the minority, but it just wasnt where i was at. my mind was on ryan adams and the cardinals. over the last year ryan's dominated my stereo and his music's been fairly important to me, so no doubt he was one of my must-see sets for the weekend. he came out wearing a "love a nurse today" shirt and i think that's all it took for rachelle to jump on board. but i thought his set was incredible, and im really glad he didnt blow it, or get all pissy - he gave lollapalooza a fucking great set, and a little bit of ryan at the end extending it beyond the stage managers preference.. that was a funny scene to witness... ryan hammering out the outro repeatedly, looking right at the guy while he's giving the cut signal and on the walkie-talkie gettin' red faced and angry... looked like the drummer got a kick out of it, as well. he busted out 3 dead tunes (he's gone, wharf rat, and franklin's) and a gram parson's tune, hickory wind, as well. on one hand i wish he played some more of his stuff, but in a way i wonder if it was a bit of a homage to jerry who died that week 11 years ago, and played his last show not far away at soldier field. ryan does the dead well, and it was all it took to find the other 6 hippies in the crowd. the dude beside me who had brought his son along just about lost his mind when they hit the opening notes to franklin's - he turns to me and yells "IT'S OUR LUCKY DAY!!" - a glorious moment. but of his own stuff, dear chicago, peaceful valley, cold roses, shakedown on 9th st., i see monster's.... yeah, i could deal with that. he was awesome. as convicted as i hoped for and more controlled than i expected. after that i pretty much wandered around, got some food, cuz the pulled pork taco i had earlier just wasnt doin it for me - and by the way, thumbs down to pulled pork tacos at lollapalooza. sick. i opted for a big plate of rice, and mmmmm, was it good! sat under a tree and ate mostly, wandered on back to the stage area to listen to iron and wine close out his set while getting a decent spot for my morning jacket. one thing about having 8 stages is that when you have quieter acts, it kinda becomes a bit of a battle of the bands, as patti smith put it, so, iron and wine was more background music muddled with some other shit in it's background - and i didnt bother getting close enough to pay attention. so, rachelle and i got a decent spot for my morning jacket and waited for jim james to come tear our faces off. at dawn > off the record to start and it was on. and i mean, SO on. he was a madman, all over the stage, owning it, throwing out so much energy - the whole band was really. the crowd was giving it right back, it was such an energetic show to be a part of - i'll admit when he slowed it down a bit, we wussed out and took a spot in the grass. but it was fucking sweet to lay there and listen to the man pour his soul out in golden. magheetah was a great closer and satisfied the 3 big ones i wanted to hear. i wasnt really surprised at how much i dug that show, but in a way, i kinda am - i mean, i really thought they played a great set as well. lollapalooza was totally spoiling us already. the trek over to the main stage where Ween was closing the night could easily take 20 mins - to a half hour, with traffic, maybe a pit stop, you know - maybe longer. ween was up in an hour and no fucking way did i wanna miss ween in chicago. so we made the trek did our business, stuck together and actually got to check out maybe 15 minutes of the violent femmes from one of the softball pitches in grant park. beauty. once they were done and ween were a-go we surged up, lost some members of the team, and after not being able to find them in the crowd, took our spot and took in a fantastic ween set to close the night. death cab for cutie were on the other main stage, and apparently had a massive crowd, which probably helped ween feel so comfortable, regardless of the fact there were probably still 60/70 thousand people there. we found our spot up near the front left side under the monitors to be great sounding and spacious enough to move around - it was perfect. i really thought the band took off in the 2nd half of their set.. there seemed to be a point, maybe around mr. would you please help my pony, that they just kinda hit turbo and went off. it was like it took 'em to that point to go 0 - 60, then from 60 - 120 in about 3 seconds. and they didnt let up after that - voodoo lady, baby bitch, buckingham green, captain, hiv song, piss up a rope, the mollusk, i'll be your jonny on the spot, waving my dick in the wind, ocean man, dr rock, you fucked up, someday - good lord, it got rockin'! ocean man had the crowd in a frenzy, voodoo lady was big, you fucked up was just as abrasive as it needs to be, dr. rock rocked, and piss up a rope had me goin like crazy. what a way to end day 1 at lollapalooza in chicago. after realizing i was locked out of my hotel room i went to wander downstairs, and when the elevator opens 2 more friends from guelph are staring right back at me. that was one of those great reunion type moments, haha. they were on their way to secret machines with some friends, and im not really sure what i was doing. i did end up seeing bill perry in buddy guy's legends blues club, after running into the rest of our crew from london on the street, en route back to their hotel from gettin' some food. it's weird how you find your friends.
lollapalooza - day 2
if day 1 was the day of seeing newer bands that are important to me (ryan, mmj), then day 2 was the day i finally got to see the bands that have been important to me for quite some time - built to spill, flaming lips - and one that i should have had on my radar, but mysteriously havent - sonic youth. actually, it started with the upbeat british outfit, the go! team - and it was a great way to shake out friday and get loose for saturday.. at the time i thought they would be a great band to play later in the night to get people partying, but in retrospect, a little exercise in the early afternoon could probably do us all some good. on the way to the go! team, we actually stopped and checked out a bit of the cold war kids, and i thought they were pretty fun, too. reminded me of apollo sunshine, and i'd love ot check 'em out again sometime. so anyways, after about of the go! team's set, we bolted over the other stage to listen to the last bit of feist while setting up for built to spill. i had the same problems for feist as i did for iron and wine. but i was ready for built to spill. i've been ready for a long time. this is one of those bands that is pretty huge on my list of musical favourites and inspirations. and they never come to ontario. so, after about 8 years of being a fan, since i was introduced to them by a friend, here i am, giddy with anticipation. and they came out and delivered with a great goin' against your mind opener. i was really disappointed that the crowd wasnt into most of their set, or at least they didnt show much of a response to it at all. doug had to play off, or ignore some comments other band members make about the corporations not needing them, and perry not needing them, etc... i think overhearing people in the crowd say they "didnt get it" was the true disheartening thing about that. i mean, have an opinion one way or the other, fine, but to not get it? c'mon, pay attention. i think the set could have been better, but they didnt seem to really care to be there, anyhow - conventional wisdom was a highlight, the rearrange cover was brilliant, and carry the zero was as great as i'd expect it to be. after that it was just a little bit of wandering and a little bit of listening to calexico from the grass... it was a set worthy of taking in from the grass. the day was basically just getting started here, sonic youth was up next and i'd never really cared about sonic youth, and i dont why, considering so many of my favourite bands and bands that i've gone to see have been influenced by these guys. i mean, as far as "that sound" goes, they're it, man. and you know, i found myself thinking at the show that i've seen so many bands do it wrong, and here i was, finally, seeing these guys do it so right, and rightly so. its theirs. sonic youth was definitely a surprise highlight of the weekend for me. took another wander around to get some food, recharge the batteries because up next was going to be a party: the flaming lips. another band i've been needing to see for a helluva long time, and now im finally getting my opportunity on a stage like that. wayne coyne came out and got into a space bubble to surf over the crowd, there were tons of giant balloons being tossed out into the crowd, confetti bazookas, streamers, giant characters on stage consisting of a santa claus, aliens, astronauts - like brahm said, it was like a birthday party. incredible. i met a dude who flew up from atlanta that day basically just to see the lips, and he said it was so worth it - i'd have to agree. they were doin their part to speak out against the war in lebanon, as well - trying to stop it with loud sing-a-longs, as they said... we tried hard on free radicals.. fanatical - FUCK!... we tried hard on the yeah yeah yeah song, and when they closed with do you realize. i, unfortunately, had to pee when they werent using jelly. it was a completely fun set, full of insane energy and so much youthful bliss from guys with grey wings. and why not, when you're signing asses and throwing parties like that, it must be a damn good time. after the lips we caught a little bit of the theivery corporation, again made a drink re-fill stop, and caught a little bit of the new pornographers towards the end of their set, which sounded pretty good, and then we were headed back the other way to the main stage where manu chao was playing, opting out of the craziness and crowdedness that was to be for kanye west on the opposite main stage. i know kanye's important to a lot of people right now, and im sure for good reason, but i didnt need to be there, and manu chao is an international artist with a fiesta flavour, and after the flaming lips party, thats kinda the mood i was in - so rachelle and i headed over there and had a great time dancing it up in a totally uncrowded area, to some great world beats - and i got to see a great world artist that i might not have otherwise, i love introductions like that. and so ended day 2, we jumped out of manu a little early to grab some egg rolls and get a game plan for the rest of the night - unfortunately we had heard that the brain damaged eggmen was sold out, so our afterparty plans needed a re-adjustment. team hotel essex decided to pack it in for the night in hopes of having a solid finish on sunday, and a good plan indeed. team congress decided to venture out for a walk and find something to eat. we ended up mostly just walking and not getting anything of substance - came back to the hotel, watched some latino tv and passed out.
lollapalooza - day 3
i dont know why, but i didnt have much interest when rachelle wanted to go so early to check out perry farrell on the kids stage. instead, ren, crystal and myself went for breakfast at our favourite diner before making our way into the park. turns out, however, that perry went on a little late, so we got to see some of the end of his set, as well - maybe the last 2 or 3 songs, he was singing while peter distefani was playing acoustic guitar. tahitian moon is really all i remember, but it was cool to see him sing a few songs like that. when he was done he surprised everyone by calling patti smith out onto the stage. patti smith on the kids stage with an acoustic guitar! she comes out and proceeds to tell the kids that "any asshole can play guitar", and then does a 3 song acoustic set consisting of a newly written protest song about the war in lebanon with some very graphic lyrics about the dismemberment of little limbs, and the disfigurement of bodies - referring to the children that died in a recent bombing - all on the kids stage. rock on patti! met up with rachelle there and after that we checked out a bit of the frames, and to me they sounded like most of a lot of other bands around these days, typical indie sound, but they had a couple tunes that really stood out at the end, and you know, if they played my town i'd probably go check 'em out and they'd probably blow the roof off the bar. again we ran into pete and tash en route to nickel creek, so we went with them and got a good spot for my surprise act of the weekend, hands down. nickel creek blew me away. they were so good on each of their instruments, all string band, fiddle, upright bass, mandolin, and acoustic guitar. so slick. and their voices, good lord! they could all sing, too! i didnt know any of their originals, it was a first time hearing kinda thing for me, but i thought they were great, and the cover choices were fantastic: a radiohead song off the bends whose name escapes me right now, toxic by britney, and the weight by the band. toxic really got the crowd's attention, but my favourite moment, and a candidate for favourite musical moment of the week, was when they brought their guitar tech on stage to sing rick danko's verse in the weight, and he did bang on with all the emotion you'd expect from danko! man, it was so awesome! the rest of the afternoon consisted of gettin' some grub, wandering around, getting re-fills of lemonade, and checking out the last half of andrew bird who's sweet voice kept pulling us in closer. we stayed till the end of his set and were glad we did - another great new artist find on the weekend. after andrew we trekked over to the far mainstage again to catch the beginning of matisyahu, and although i wasnt diggin' it too much, he definitely had a good crowd and had people moving. i just really didnt think he was that good, is all. i left with enough time to go catch the last bit of the shins and stake out a spot for us all for wilco. the shins were pretty cool from what i heard - maybe 4 or 5 songs. they played the only tunes i know, which was great for me, haha. but to be honest, they really didnt sound much different than i expected them to be, and didnt grab me enough to make me love 'em. when they were done it was an hour till showtime for wilco, and there really wasnt anything else on schedule that i wanted to see, so, i moved to a nice spot on a manhole cover by the fence under the monitors, stage left, and held down ground for the team. it was the one show we had all agreed we wanted to be together for to see so we had a makeshift plan that started as a bit of a running joke - lemons up. you're lost in the crowd, you got this giant cup of lemonade with a lemon on top, raise it up. your friends will find you. so thats what i did. i stood on this manhole cover with my lemon in the air for an hour, and sure as shit, they all rolled in. first it was ren and crystal that spotted. then rachelle. then scottie and team essex from way back! i could hear people on cell phones within listening radius telling their friends just to look for the guy with the lemon. it obviously worked. we all got together and took in a most kickass wilco show. they were pleasantly surprised at the vast crowd and massive response for their return to chicago, and treated us to 4 new tunes, and went back only as far as summerteeth in the catalogue, but hammered us with tunes like shot in the arm, via chicago, i am trying to break your heart, handshake drugs, jesus etc... and a dedication from jeff to his wife of 11 years, i am the man who loves you and hummingbird to close the show. this band owns chicago. they have really come into their own, and it was a great affirmation that the show we got here in london was the real deal - that these guys are the real deal. such power and conviction in their playing, they throw themselves at you on stage. wilco is in a great place right now and they're writing some great great songs to back it up. the new one, what light, was probably the highlight for me again. we stayed right till the end while some other forged ahead of the crowd across grant park to broken social scene - maybe the better plan. when we got there, there wasnt a whole lot left, maybe half the set or less, because it was a short one right before the chili peppers - probably the shortest set for a bigger name band, they only got like 45 minutes - but they were given the biggest respect and one hell of a long encore call out, that name came to fruition. they did come out for a couple curtain calls and jump down to crowd level to meet some fans, though, which i thought was really cool. they surprised everyone by bringing out emily haines for anthems, and closed with a most rockin' ibi dreams of pavement. another candidate for song of the weekend. it had so much raw energy and power, the band brought it so hard. it was a dedication to their touring soundman who was doing his last show with them. what a great way to go out. we should have taken those words with us. instead, we checked out a little bit of the chili peppers and i was least impressed. shoulda gone out on the BSS high note, but oh well. i just found the chili's to be mostly lame and almost having become a parody of themselves. i dunno, i wasnt into it much, so it didnt take much convincing when rachelle wanted to take off to the merch booth at the end of the night. not much was left, so we regrouped back at the hotel for a journey on up to the abbey pub for our sunday latenight fix, bustle in your hedgegrow.
bustle in your hedgegrow - abbey pub
this might be the story of the weekend. we go up to the abbey pub to check out bustle in your hedgegrow, and team A arrives 4 strong, waits in line, gets our wristbands, goes to pay and finds out unless you got tickets or are on the list, you aint gettin' in. shit. we go to the pub next door to regroup and figure out what to do. in the meantime, team B arrives 6 strong, and 2 of them buy extras outside to go find us inside, assuming we had gotten in. after a drink, i notice scottie out on the street through the pub window - we were just about on our way out anyhow, so i go meet him and he gives me the scoop. the key to this exchange is that when we came in first and got carded and whatnot we struck up conversation with the id guy who was wearing a very touristy canada t-shirt. turns out this guy loves canada. i mean, LOVES CANADA, to the tune of having a bootleg bell express vue sattelite dish - bootleg canadian tv!! he loves canadian idol, peter mansbridge and corner gas. he carries lucky loonies and twoonies. he's an avid blue jays fan. the man lives in the home of the world series champions and he cheers for a canadian baseball team!! so, as team A and 2/3 of team B are devising plans to grab cabs and head back downtown, figuring brahm and angie will eventually realize we didnt get in and just enjoy the show, our honourary canadian, Leroy, comes over and with his stamp held high ever so subtly begins to go around our circle and stamp each of our hands. he then tells us to go in through the pub, wait a few moments and then start to come in, and smaller groups. when its our turn to go through we get up to the front and start to go in and he changes into a beast and starts yelling "i told you guys to stay in here! no more ins and outs! you here me?! you're in here the rest of the night!" - totally played it off for us to the doorman and away we were. 10 strong for bustle in your hedgegrow. amazing to get hooked up for what was destined to be an amazing show. a band which consists of benevento/russo on keys and drums, dave dreiwitz on bass (from ween!), and brendan bayliss on guitar, from umphrey's, filling in for scott metzger who couldnt be there. they do all instrumental led zeppelin, unless of course the crowd picks up the vocals, which certainly happened a few times. brendan also sang on fool in the rain - a highlight of the night which also included marco jumping off stage to play the crazy piano breakdown on the actual house piano behind these black curtains that just happened to be RIGHT BESIDE where we were taking in the show - ren got a great photo, mine is shit. slow reaction time, and the crowd really surged. that show was a totally balls to the walls rock extravaganza. it was so hot, so sweaty, people were rockin' extremely hard, and i think we all lost a good 10 lbs.... which is probably a good thing, bowling season is coming and i need to get in shape. they played some awesome zeppelin, and totally had us beaten into submission by the end of it. the band looked like they were having more fun than the crowd, too, which no doubt kept everything moving like a freight train. we left puddles of ourselves, said our goodbyes, and waited for the cabs to drag our asses back home. it seemed like forever.
house on the rock
on monday we ventured up into wisconsin so we could hit this crazy "museum" called the house on the rock. we stayed at a wicked inn and hit the pool/hot tub late night for some kickass relaxin' after the 3 day fest. we saw the museum tuesday morning before heading back to chicago. this was quite literally a house built on/in the rock in rural wisconsin. and modified, expanded into a pyschadelic walk through kitchy creepiness. room after room of weirdness. a carousel with 300 "things" and not one horse head. crazy flying mannequins with one breast showing. dolls. lots of dolls. miniatures. history of aviation stuff, old town walks, old cars, a giant whale tangled up in a squid. lots and lots of musical stuff - set up puppet orchestras. and everything was so very very grande. it was truly a spectacle, took us 3 hours to walk through and get our creep on, before we came out and had no idea what we should even be reflecting on. hit the road back to chicago, checked into a hostel, grabbed a bite and went back to grant park for their tuesday night free movie in the park - this night it was american graffiti, and we didnt stay till the end. back to the hostel where rachelle tried to sneak me into her dorm room and "hide" me under a single sheet in a single bed when we got busted. you cant even imagine the ridiculousness. like it was a cartoon or something, i could just tiptoe out when their backs were turned... uh huh.... anyways, eventually the morning came and it was wednesday. merry waitsmas.
tom waits
august 9th, 2006. rachelle and i spent the afternoon doing some touristy stuff... started the day at the sears tower, going up to the observation deck to get a wicked glimpse of the city. i personally think i enjoyed the veiw from the hancock last time, but only because you could see more shoreline from it's location. the sears gives you a better overall view of the city. i had a bit of a moment when i caught soldier field and remembered that today was the day jerry garcia had died 11 years ago and that was the place of his final show. i stared a little longer and said a little something for jerry... my eyes might have watered a little, too. after some lunch at portillo's we got on a gangster tour and it was really awesome. saw so much more of the city than i figured we would, got entertained and learned some of the mobster history from chicago while seeing the great historical sights. that took us to our hotel check in time where we met up again with ren and crystal, then i went on a crazy t-shirt mission, and eventually we got some dinner, not all of our dinners, but some of them, didnt pay for any of them, and then got in line and waited for waits. and when it was time, when the man hit the stage and the band struck up, when the anticipation was over and it had become a reality, this is what happened...
Tom Waits
Auditorium Theatre, Roosevelt University
Chicago, Il.
08.09.06.
Make it Rain(1)
Hoist That Rag
Shore Leave
God's Away on Business
All the World is Green
Falling Down
Tango Till They're Sore(2)
Tom Traubert's Blues(2)
Eyeball Kid(3)
Down in the Hole
Don't Go Into that Barn
Shake It
Trampled Rose
What's He Building in There?(4)
'Till the Money Runs Out(5)
Murder in the Red Barn
Lie to Me
Get Behind the Mule(6)
encore 1:
The Day After Tomorrow(7)
Singapore(8)
encore 2:
Whistling Past the Graveyard
Time Time Time(9)
(1) - it finally happens. tom hits the stage and chicago nearly blows up.
(2) - exit band, enter piano. just tom and larry taylor on the upright bass playing super soft. great banter about local streets and how they change, with a little tip of the hat to "9th and hennepin", a mention of being shot, and a bit about the Weiner Circle and its, umm, hospitality. crownd loses their fuÇking minds for tom traubert's blues.
(3) - casey waits beatboxing, larry taylor using his mouth as an instrument, too... strange arrangement.
(4) - my heart nearly stops.
(5) - another great arrangement, took me a while to figure out what it was.
(6) - i love you, tom.
(7) - tom on the acoustic, and if you werent listening closely, that's all you'd hear.. the band was playing ever so softly behind him, it was incredible.. such controlled touch... just... barely... enough. 2nd time that day i had a tear in my eye.
(8) - raging.
(9) - one last time on the acoustic. thank you. goodnight.
incredible incredible incredible - my mind was blown from start to finish. the band sounds like the way marrionette's dance, and tom totally plays to that role, as well - its such a beautiful way for music to exist in a space like that. he's such a commander of the stage and the crowd, but shows no sign of ego on stage. the bands knows their spots and tom gives way accordingly. and i really cant emphasize enough how controlled the show was, on each and every one of their parts. it was just really well constructed and put together, the sound was amazing, the set choice was fine by me, and tom waits is just tom waits and thats all there is to that.
(i had already written that elsewhere, but i see no reason to say it any different - it says it all. the show was amazing.)
so, in the end, another great trip to chicago. we got lucky when we needed it, saw more of the city than i could have imagined, took in an amazing music festival, a crazy museum, we also made time for touristy stuff, like the art institute where i totally got re-inspired by a guy named harry callahan, a bus tour, and just walking around and taking in the city. i'd say we really packed it in. and we finished it all with a legend in a glorious music theatre. a trip i'll never forget.
same time same place next year, right?
lollapalooza - day 1
i figure i might as well do this in days, rather than a mash up of bands or one big meandering whatever. at least try to keep some sort of order. anyways, the festival itself, lollapalooza 2006, 130 bands, grant park in chicago, a dozen friends - the writing was on the wall for some serious magic, y'know. festie voodoo shit with chicago as your playground. too bad i lost 6 key ingredients before we left. no matter, i was going to be seeing bands i've been waiting upwards of 8 years to see - and some that i should have always wanted to see - and some that were just so new to me that i hadnt even yet had the chance... so it was to be a weekend of a great many great musical firsts. sounds great! alright, enough..... we stayed at the congress which was perfectly situated right in front of grant park, and miraculously right beside the auditorium theatre where we were to see tom waits on the following wednesday. gettin' lucky in chicago. so lolla overtakes massive downtown grant park for 8 stages worth of musical mayhem with enough sounds to satisfy anyone's tastebuds, really. i saw so much music and quite a bit of it sounded different. there was tons i missed that probably sounded even more different. diversity, kids. oh, and yeah, stuff for kids, too. first up was the eels, and although they didnt really do it for me this time, im gonna chalk it up to a time and place thing - the sound wasnt quite right to begin with, and i just wasnt feelin' all that distorted everything. i certainly didnt hate them, and im sure im in the minority, but it just wasnt where i was at. my mind was on ryan adams and the cardinals. over the last year ryan's dominated my stereo and his music's been fairly important to me, so no doubt he was one of my must-see sets for the weekend. he came out wearing a "love a nurse today" shirt and i think that's all it took for rachelle to jump on board. but i thought his set was incredible, and im really glad he didnt blow it, or get all pissy - he gave lollapalooza a fucking great set, and a little bit of ryan at the end extending it beyond the stage managers preference.. that was a funny scene to witness... ryan hammering out the outro repeatedly, looking right at the guy while he's giving the cut signal and on the walkie-talkie gettin' red faced and angry... looked like the drummer got a kick out of it, as well. he busted out 3 dead tunes (he's gone, wharf rat, and franklin's) and a gram parson's tune, hickory wind, as well. on one hand i wish he played some more of his stuff, but in a way i wonder if it was a bit of a homage to jerry who died that week 11 years ago, and played his last show not far away at soldier field. ryan does the dead well, and it was all it took to find the other 6 hippies in the crowd. the dude beside me who had brought his son along just about lost his mind when they hit the opening notes to franklin's - he turns to me and yells "IT'S OUR LUCKY DAY!!" - a glorious moment. but of his own stuff, dear chicago, peaceful valley, cold roses, shakedown on 9th st., i see monster's.... yeah, i could deal with that. he was awesome. as convicted as i hoped for and more controlled than i expected. after that i pretty much wandered around, got some food, cuz the pulled pork taco i had earlier just wasnt doin it for me - and by the way, thumbs down to pulled pork tacos at lollapalooza. sick. i opted for a big plate of rice, and mmmmm, was it good! sat under a tree and ate mostly, wandered on back to the stage area to listen to iron and wine close out his set while getting a decent spot for my morning jacket. one thing about having 8 stages is that when you have quieter acts, it kinda becomes a bit of a battle of the bands, as patti smith put it, so, iron and wine was more background music muddled with some other shit in it's background - and i didnt bother getting close enough to pay attention. so, rachelle and i got a decent spot for my morning jacket and waited for jim james to come tear our faces off. at dawn > off the record to start and it was on. and i mean, SO on. he was a madman, all over the stage, owning it, throwing out so much energy - the whole band was really. the crowd was giving it right back, it was such an energetic show to be a part of - i'll admit when he slowed it down a bit, we wussed out and took a spot in the grass. but it was fucking sweet to lay there and listen to the man pour his soul out in golden. magheetah was a great closer and satisfied the 3 big ones i wanted to hear. i wasnt really surprised at how much i dug that show, but in a way, i kinda am - i mean, i really thought they played a great set as well. lollapalooza was totally spoiling us already. the trek over to the main stage where Ween was closing the night could easily take 20 mins - to a half hour, with traffic, maybe a pit stop, you know - maybe longer. ween was up in an hour and no fucking way did i wanna miss ween in chicago. so we made the trek did our business, stuck together and actually got to check out maybe 15 minutes of the violent femmes from one of the softball pitches in grant park. beauty. once they were done and ween were a-go we surged up, lost some members of the team, and after not being able to find them in the crowd, took our spot and took in a fantastic ween set to close the night. death cab for cutie were on the other main stage, and apparently had a massive crowd, which probably helped ween feel so comfortable, regardless of the fact there were probably still 60/70 thousand people there. we found our spot up near the front left side under the monitors to be great sounding and spacious enough to move around - it was perfect. i really thought the band took off in the 2nd half of their set.. there seemed to be a point, maybe around mr. would you please help my pony, that they just kinda hit turbo and went off. it was like it took 'em to that point to go 0 - 60, then from 60 - 120 in about 3 seconds. and they didnt let up after that - voodoo lady, baby bitch, buckingham green, captain, hiv song, piss up a rope, the mollusk, i'll be your jonny on the spot, waving my dick in the wind, ocean man, dr rock, you fucked up, someday - good lord, it got rockin'! ocean man had the crowd in a frenzy, voodoo lady was big, you fucked up was just as abrasive as it needs to be, dr. rock rocked, and piss up a rope had me goin like crazy. what a way to end day 1 at lollapalooza in chicago. after realizing i was locked out of my hotel room i went to wander downstairs, and when the elevator opens 2 more friends from guelph are staring right back at me. that was one of those great reunion type moments, haha. they were on their way to secret machines with some friends, and im not really sure what i was doing. i did end up seeing bill perry in buddy guy's legends blues club, after running into the rest of our crew from london on the street, en route back to their hotel from gettin' some food. it's weird how you find your friends.
lollapalooza - day 2
if day 1 was the day of seeing newer bands that are important to me (ryan, mmj), then day 2 was the day i finally got to see the bands that have been important to me for quite some time - built to spill, flaming lips - and one that i should have had on my radar, but mysteriously havent - sonic youth. actually, it started with the upbeat british outfit, the go! team - and it was a great way to shake out friday and get loose for saturday.. at the time i thought they would be a great band to play later in the night to get people partying, but in retrospect, a little exercise in the early afternoon could probably do us all some good. on the way to the go! team, we actually stopped and checked out a bit of the cold war kids, and i thought they were pretty fun, too. reminded me of apollo sunshine, and i'd love ot check 'em out again sometime. so anyways, after about of the go! team's set, we bolted over the other stage to listen to the last bit of feist while setting up for built to spill. i had the same problems for feist as i did for iron and wine. but i was ready for built to spill. i've been ready for a long time. this is one of those bands that is pretty huge on my list of musical favourites and inspirations. and they never come to ontario. so, after about 8 years of being a fan, since i was introduced to them by a friend, here i am, giddy with anticipation. and they came out and delivered with a great goin' against your mind opener. i was really disappointed that the crowd wasnt into most of their set, or at least they didnt show much of a response to it at all. doug had to play off, or ignore some comments other band members make about the corporations not needing them, and perry not needing them, etc... i think overhearing people in the crowd say they "didnt get it" was the true disheartening thing about that. i mean, have an opinion one way or the other, fine, but to not get it? c'mon, pay attention. i think the set could have been better, but they didnt seem to really care to be there, anyhow - conventional wisdom was a highlight, the rearrange cover was brilliant, and carry the zero was as great as i'd expect it to be. after that it was just a little bit of wandering and a little bit of listening to calexico from the grass... it was a set worthy of taking in from the grass. the day was basically just getting started here, sonic youth was up next and i'd never really cared about sonic youth, and i dont why, considering so many of my favourite bands and bands that i've gone to see have been influenced by these guys. i mean, as far as "that sound" goes, they're it, man. and you know, i found myself thinking at the show that i've seen so many bands do it wrong, and here i was, finally, seeing these guys do it so right, and rightly so. its theirs. sonic youth was definitely a surprise highlight of the weekend for me. took another wander around to get some food, recharge the batteries because up next was going to be a party: the flaming lips. another band i've been needing to see for a helluva long time, and now im finally getting my opportunity on a stage like that. wayne coyne came out and got into a space bubble to surf over the crowd, there were tons of giant balloons being tossed out into the crowd, confetti bazookas, streamers, giant characters on stage consisting of a santa claus, aliens, astronauts - like brahm said, it was like a birthday party. incredible. i met a dude who flew up from atlanta that day basically just to see the lips, and he said it was so worth it - i'd have to agree. they were doin their part to speak out against the war in lebanon, as well - trying to stop it with loud sing-a-longs, as they said... we tried hard on free radicals.. fanatical - FUCK!... we tried hard on the yeah yeah yeah song, and when they closed with do you realize. i, unfortunately, had to pee when they werent using jelly. it was a completely fun set, full of insane energy and so much youthful bliss from guys with grey wings. and why not, when you're signing asses and throwing parties like that, it must be a damn good time. after the lips we caught a little bit of the theivery corporation, again made a drink re-fill stop, and caught a little bit of the new pornographers towards the end of their set, which sounded pretty good, and then we were headed back the other way to the main stage where manu chao was playing, opting out of the craziness and crowdedness that was to be for kanye west on the opposite main stage. i know kanye's important to a lot of people right now, and im sure for good reason, but i didnt need to be there, and manu chao is an international artist with a fiesta flavour, and after the flaming lips party, thats kinda the mood i was in - so rachelle and i headed over there and had a great time dancing it up in a totally uncrowded area, to some great world beats - and i got to see a great world artist that i might not have otherwise, i love introductions like that. and so ended day 2, we jumped out of manu a little early to grab some egg rolls and get a game plan for the rest of the night - unfortunately we had heard that the brain damaged eggmen was sold out, so our afterparty plans needed a re-adjustment. team hotel essex decided to pack it in for the night in hopes of having a solid finish on sunday, and a good plan indeed. team congress decided to venture out for a walk and find something to eat. we ended up mostly just walking and not getting anything of substance - came back to the hotel, watched some latino tv and passed out.
lollapalooza - day 3
i dont know why, but i didnt have much interest when rachelle wanted to go so early to check out perry farrell on the kids stage. instead, ren, crystal and myself went for breakfast at our favourite diner before making our way into the park. turns out, however, that perry went on a little late, so we got to see some of the end of his set, as well - maybe the last 2 or 3 songs, he was singing while peter distefani was playing acoustic guitar. tahitian moon is really all i remember, but it was cool to see him sing a few songs like that. when he was done he surprised everyone by calling patti smith out onto the stage. patti smith on the kids stage with an acoustic guitar! she comes out and proceeds to tell the kids that "any asshole can play guitar", and then does a 3 song acoustic set consisting of a newly written protest song about the war in lebanon with some very graphic lyrics about the dismemberment of little limbs, and the disfigurement of bodies - referring to the children that died in a recent bombing - all on the kids stage. rock on patti! met up with rachelle there and after that we checked out a bit of the frames, and to me they sounded like most of a lot of other bands around these days, typical indie sound, but they had a couple tunes that really stood out at the end, and you know, if they played my town i'd probably go check 'em out and they'd probably blow the roof off the bar. again we ran into pete and tash en route to nickel creek, so we went with them and got a good spot for my surprise act of the weekend, hands down. nickel creek blew me away. they were so good on each of their instruments, all string band, fiddle, upright bass, mandolin, and acoustic guitar. so slick. and their voices, good lord! they could all sing, too! i didnt know any of their originals, it was a first time hearing kinda thing for me, but i thought they were great, and the cover choices were fantastic: a radiohead song off the bends whose name escapes me right now, toxic by britney, and the weight by the band. toxic really got the crowd's attention, but my favourite moment, and a candidate for favourite musical moment of the week, was when they brought their guitar tech on stage to sing rick danko's verse in the weight, and he did bang on with all the emotion you'd expect from danko! man, it was so awesome! the rest of the afternoon consisted of gettin' some grub, wandering around, getting re-fills of lemonade, and checking out the last half of andrew bird who's sweet voice kept pulling us in closer. we stayed till the end of his set and were glad we did - another great new artist find on the weekend. after andrew we trekked over to the far mainstage again to catch the beginning of matisyahu, and although i wasnt diggin' it too much, he definitely had a good crowd and had people moving. i just really didnt think he was that good, is all. i left with enough time to go catch the last bit of the shins and stake out a spot for us all for wilco. the shins were pretty cool from what i heard - maybe 4 or 5 songs. they played the only tunes i know, which was great for me, haha. but to be honest, they really didnt sound much different than i expected them to be, and didnt grab me enough to make me love 'em. when they were done it was an hour till showtime for wilco, and there really wasnt anything else on schedule that i wanted to see, so, i moved to a nice spot on a manhole cover by the fence under the monitors, stage left, and held down ground for the team. it was the one show we had all agreed we wanted to be together for to see so we had a makeshift plan that started as a bit of a running joke - lemons up. you're lost in the crowd, you got this giant cup of lemonade with a lemon on top, raise it up. your friends will find you. so thats what i did. i stood on this manhole cover with my lemon in the air for an hour, and sure as shit, they all rolled in. first it was ren and crystal that spotted. then rachelle. then scottie and team essex from way back! i could hear people on cell phones within listening radius telling their friends just to look for the guy with the lemon. it obviously worked. we all got together and took in a most kickass wilco show. they were pleasantly surprised at the vast crowd and massive response for their return to chicago, and treated us to 4 new tunes, and went back only as far as summerteeth in the catalogue, but hammered us with tunes like shot in the arm, via chicago, i am trying to break your heart, handshake drugs, jesus etc... and a dedication from jeff to his wife of 11 years, i am the man who loves you and hummingbird to close the show. this band owns chicago. they have really come into their own, and it was a great affirmation that the show we got here in london was the real deal - that these guys are the real deal. such power and conviction in their playing, they throw themselves at you on stage. wilco is in a great place right now and they're writing some great great songs to back it up. the new one, what light, was probably the highlight for me again. we stayed right till the end while some other forged ahead of the crowd across grant park to broken social scene - maybe the better plan. when we got there, there wasnt a whole lot left, maybe half the set or less, because it was a short one right before the chili peppers - probably the shortest set for a bigger name band, they only got like 45 minutes - but they were given the biggest respect and one hell of a long encore call out, that name came to fruition. they did come out for a couple curtain calls and jump down to crowd level to meet some fans, though, which i thought was really cool. they surprised everyone by bringing out emily haines for anthems, and closed with a most rockin' ibi dreams of pavement. another candidate for song of the weekend. it had so much raw energy and power, the band brought it so hard. it was a dedication to their touring soundman who was doing his last show with them. what a great way to go out. we should have taken those words with us. instead, we checked out a little bit of the chili peppers and i was least impressed. shoulda gone out on the BSS high note, but oh well. i just found the chili's to be mostly lame and almost having become a parody of themselves. i dunno, i wasnt into it much, so it didnt take much convincing when rachelle wanted to take off to the merch booth at the end of the night. not much was left, so we regrouped back at the hotel for a journey on up to the abbey pub for our sunday latenight fix, bustle in your hedgegrow.
bustle in your hedgegrow - abbey pub
this might be the story of the weekend. we go up to the abbey pub to check out bustle in your hedgegrow, and team A arrives 4 strong, waits in line, gets our wristbands, goes to pay and finds out unless you got tickets or are on the list, you aint gettin' in. shit. we go to the pub next door to regroup and figure out what to do. in the meantime, team B arrives 6 strong, and 2 of them buy extras outside to go find us inside, assuming we had gotten in. after a drink, i notice scottie out on the street through the pub window - we were just about on our way out anyhow, so i go meet him and he gives me the scoop. the key to this exchange is that when we came in first and got carded and whatnot we struck up conversation with the id guy who was wearing a very touristy canada t-shirt. turns out this guy loves canada. i mean, LOVES CANADA, to the tune of having a bootleg bell express vue sattelite dish - bootleg canadian tv!! he loves canadian idol, peter mansbridge and corner gas. he carries lucky loonies and twoonies. he's an avid blue jays fan. the man lives in the home of the world series champions and he cheers for a canadian baseball team!! so, as team A and 2/3 of team B are devising plans to grab cabs and head back downtown, figuring brahm and angie will eventually realize we didnt get in and just enjoy the show, our honourary canadian, Leroy, comes over and with his stamp held high ever so subtly begins to go around our circle and stamp each of our hands. he then tells us to go in through the pub, wait a few moments and then start to come in, and smaller groups. when its our turn to go through we get up to the front and start to go in and he changes into a beast and starts yelling "i told you guys to stay in here! no more ins and outs! you here me?! you're in here the rest of the night!" - totally played it off for us to the doorman and away we were. 10 strong for bustle in your hedgegrow. amazing to get hooked up for what was destined to be an amazing show. a band which consists of benevento/russo on keys and drums, dave dreiwitz on bass (from ween!), and brendan bayliss on guitar, from umphrey's, filling in for scott metzger who couldnt be there. they do all instrumental led zeppelin, unless of course the crowd picks up the vocals, which certainly happened a few times. brendan also sang on fool in the rain - a highlight of the night which also included marco jumping off stage to play the crazy piano breakdown on the actual house piano behind these black curtains that just happened to be RIGHT BESIDE where we were taking in the show - ren got a great photo, mine is shit. slow reaction time, and the crowd really surged. that show was a totally balls to the walls rock extravaganza. it was so hot, so sweaty, people were rockin' extremely hard, and i think we all lost a good 10 lbs.... which is probably a good thing, bowling season is coming and i need to get in shape. they played some awesome zeppelin, and totally had us beaten into submission by the end of it. the band looked like they were having more fun than the crowd, too, which no doubt kept everything moving like a freight train. we left puddles of ourselves, said our goodbyes, and waited for the cabs to drag our asses back home. it seemed like forever.
house on the rock
on monday we ventured up into wisconsin so we could hit this crazy "museum" called the house on the rock. we stayed at a wicked inn and hit the pool/hot tub late night for some kickass relaxin' after the 3 day fest. we saw the museum tuesday morning before heading back to chicago. this was quite literally a house built on/in the rock in rural wisconsin. and modified, expanded into a pyschadelic walk through kitchy creepiness. room after room of weirdness. a carousel with 300 "things" and not one horse head. crazy flying mannequins with one breast showing. dolls. lots of dolls. miniatures. history of aviation stuff, old town walks, old cars, a giant whale tangled up in a squid. lots and lots of musical stuff - set up puppet orchestras. and everything was so very very grande. it was truly a spectacle, took us 3 hours to walk through and get our creep on, before we came out and had no idea what we should even be reflecting on. hit the road back to chicago, checked into a hostel, grabbed a bite and went back to grant park for their tuesday night free movie in the park - this night it was american graffiti, and we didnt stay till the end. back to the hostel where rachelle tried to sneak me into her dorm room and "hide" me under a single sheet in a single bed when we got busted. you cant even imagine the ridiculousness. like it was a cartoon or something, i could just tiptoe out when their backs were turned... uh huh.... anyways, eventually the morning came and it was wednesday. merry waitsmas.
tom waits
august 9th, 2006. rachelle and i spent the afternoon doing some touristy stuff... started the day at the sears tower, going up to the observation deck to get a wicked glimpse of the city. i personally think i enjoyed the veiw from the hancock last time, but only because you could see more shoreline from it's location. the sears gives you a better overall view of the city. i had a bit of a moment when i caught soldier field and remembered that today was the day jerry garcia had died 11 years ago and that was the place of his final show. i stared a little longer and said a little something for jerry... my eyes might have watered a little, too. after some lunch at portillo's we got on a gangster tour and it was really awesome. saw so much more of the city than i figured we would, got entertained and learned some of the mobster history from chicago while seeing the great historical sights. that took us to our hotel check in time where we met up again with ren and crystal, then i went on a crazy t-shirt mission, and eventually we got some dinner, not all of our dinners, but some of them, didnt pay for any of them, and then got in line and waited for waits. and when it was time, when the man hit the stage and the band struck up, when the anticipation was over and it had become a reality, this is what happened...
Tom Waits
Auditorium Theatre, Roosevelt University
Chicago, Il.
08.09.06.
Make it Rain(1)
Hoist That Rag
Shore Leave
God's Away on Business
All the World is Green
Falling Down
Tango Till They're Sore(2)
Tom Traubert's Blues(2)
Eyeball Kid(3)
Down in the Hole
Don't Go Into that Barn
Shake It
Trampled Rose
What's He Building in There?(4)
'Till the Money Runs Out(5)
Murder in the Red Barn
Lie to Me
Get Behind the Mule(6)
encore 1:
The Day After Tomorrow(7)
Singapore(8)
encore 2:
Whistling Past the Graveyard
Time Time Time(9)
(1) - it finally happens. tom hits the stage and chicago nearly blows up.
(2) - exit band, enter piano. just tom and larry taylor on the upright bass playing super soft. great banter about local streets and how they change, with a little tip of the hat to "9th and hennepin", a mention of being shot, and a bit about the Weiner Circle and its, umm, hospitality. crownd loses their fuÇking minds for tom traubert's blues.
(3) - casey waits beatboxing, larry taylor using his mouth as an instrument, too... strange arrangement.
(4) - my heart nearly stops.
(5) - another great arrangement, took me a while to figure out what it was.
(6) - i love you, tom.
(7) - tom on the acoustic, and if you werent listening closely, that's all you'd hear.. the band was playing ever so softly behind him, it was incredible.. such controlled touch... just... barely... enough. 2nd time that day i had a tear in my eye.
(8) - raging.
(9) - one last time on the acoustic. thank you. goodnight.
incredible incredible incredible - my mind was blown from start to finish. the band sounds like the way marrionette's dance, and tom totally plays to that role, as well - its such a beautiful way for music to exist in a space like that. he's such a commander of the stage and the crowd, but shows no sign of ego on stage. the bands knows their spots and tom gives way accordingly. and i really cant emphasize enough how controlled the show was, on each and every one of their parts. it was just really well constructed and put together, the sound was amazing, the set choice was fine by me, and tom waits is just tom waits and thats all there is to that.
(i had already written that elsewhere, but i see no reason to say it any different - it says it all. the show was amazing.)
so, in the end, another great trip to chicago. we got lucky when we needed it, saw more of the city than i could have imagined, took in an amazing music festival, a crazy museum, we also made time for touristy stuff, like the art institute where i totally got re-inspired by a guy named harry callahan, a bus tour, and just walking around and taking in the city. i'd say we really packed it in. and we finished it all with a legend in a glorious music theatre. a trip i'll never forget.
same time same place next year, right?
Sunday, July 30, 2006
grab 07.18.06
a conversation last night about this show prompted me to put the tapes on for a re-listenin'/re-livin', and then i remember that i'd been meaning to type something up about it.. wish i could go through the minute by minute play by play as it was in my brain that night, cuz that, my friends, was fucking cool. i had a kickass time at the show, it exceeded any and all expectations i had going in.
grab.. mike and the italians... ambiguously trey duo... trey and mike with the duo... whatever you wanna call 'em... they played at the hummingbird center in toronto, and it was my first time in there... and i totally lucked out with the seats i ended up in.. long story short: scottie's extra. but the best part was someone took our seats, so we ended up taking in the show from the second set of steps, like 4 steps up, on the first balcony, dead center. it was just awesome. the sound couldnt have been better if i had it cranked to 11 in my living room. and the perspective was just incredible.. you could see enough crowd to get their energy, and make the connection of interaction with the band... the lights took on a whole new dimension, and to see different parts of the playing and make the correlation with the sounds hitting my ears, that was pretty cool, too.. for example all the footwork, the timing... i mean, you always know thats how it works, but when you're on the floor you dont see it the same way... it was just a neat way to watch the music. and the music itself, like i said, was great.
GRAB - 7/18/06
Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon, Marco Benevento and Joe Russo
Hummingbird Centre, Toronto, Ontario Canada
1. Sand
2. Drifting
3. Trouble
4. Sleep Again
5. Something For Rockets
6. Goodbye Head >
7. Plasma
8. Waste*
9. You've Got Me Floating*
10. On The Road Again*
11. Mexican Cousin*
12. Suskind Hotel
13. Who Are You
Encore:
14. These Eyes
15. Dragonfly
16. Tuesday
* acoustic Trey and Mike only
the sand opener just about knocked everyone on their ass, and drifting was a pretty sweet comedown.... it was great to hear mike so big in the mix from where we were, and he thumped away all night. joey russo, i thought, was incredible at just reading the crowd and giving 'em that little pick me up whenever they needed a little kick. the trey/marco interaction was interesting, too - you could see how marco would push trey early on, but i really thought as the show went on the tables kinda turned and trey really took over.. trey seemed to really want toronto, he played to the crowd and was very well received - and rightly so. the acoustic section with gordo on the banjo was probably my favourite part of the night - included a waste sing-a-long, a willie tune, a hendrix tune, and a fun phish tune. after they strapped the electics back on and got the band out they warmed up with one before launching like a cannonball into Who Are You - i remember the room just about exploding. end of the set, and i think everyone felt a little beat up. the encore was a request from the party they had the night before, and you know, as cool as it was and as sweet as it was to say what a great hometown the band had and whatnot, memo to trey - that hometown is winnipeg. they sorta pulled it off, but it was mostly fun anyways and the end of these eyes was pretty funny with marco pushing trey higher and higher up the scale - you could see them laughing on the stage trying to get through it, a good fun way to start the encore, that mostly was a let-down after that. didnt matter, though - they hammered us most of the night, and it was nice to see trey and mike having so much fun up there with the duo rockin' it out. good times.
high-fives to the hummingbird center staff for being pretty cool, and to that place in general - what a beautiful venue, with incredible sound!
grab.. mike and the italians... ambiguously trey duo... trey and mike with the duo... whatever you wanna call 'em... they played at the hummingbird center in toronto, and it was my first time in there... and i totally lucked out with the seats i ended up in.. long story short: scottie's extra. but the best part was someone took our seats, so we ended up taking in the show from the second set of steps, like 4 steps up, on the first balcony, dead center. it was just awesome. the sound couldnt have been better if i had it cranked to 11 in my living room. and the perspective was just incredible.. you could see enough crowd to get their energy, and make the connection of interaction with the band... the lights took on a whole new dimension, and to see different parts of the playing and make the correlation with the sounds hitting my ears, that was pretty cool, too.. for example all the footwork, the timing... i mean, you always know thats how it works, but when you're on the floor you dont see it the same way... it was just a neat way to watch the music. and the music itself, like i said, was great.
GRAB - 7/18/06
Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon, Marco Benevento and Joe Russo
Hummingbird Centre, Toronto, Ontario Canada
1. Sand
2. Drifting
3. Trouble
4. Sleep Again
5. Something For Rockets
6. Goodbye Head >
7. Plasma
8. Waste*
9. You've Got Me Floating*
10. On The Road Again*
11. Mexican Cousin*
12. Suskind Hotel
13. Who Are You
Encore:
14. These Eyes
15. Dragonfly
16. Tuesday
* acoustic Trey and Mike only
the sand opener just about knocked everyone on their ass, and drifting was a pretty sweet comedown.... it was great to hear mike so big in the mix from where we were, and he thumped away all night. joey russo, i thought, was incredible at just reading the crowd and giving 'em that little pick me up whenever they needed a little kick. the trey/marco interaction was interesting, too - you could see how marco would push trey early on, but i really thought as the show went on the tables kinda turned and trey really took over.. trey seemed to really want toronto, he played to the crowd and was very well received - and rightly so. the acoustic section with gordo on the banjo was probably my favourite part of the night - included a waste sing-a-long, a willie tune, a hendrix tune, and a fun phish tune. after they strapped the electics back on and got the band out they warmed up with one before launching like a cannonball into Who Are You - i remember the room just about exploding. end of the set, and i think everyone felt a little beat up. the encore was a request from the party they had the night before, and you know, as cool as it was and as sweet as it was to say what a great hometown the band had and whatnot, memo to trey - that hometown is winnipeg. they sorta pulled it off, but it was mostly fun anyways and the end of these eyes was pretty funny with marco pushing trey higher and higher up the scale - you could see them laughing on the stage trying to get through it, a good fun way to start the encore, that mostly was a let-down after that. didnt matter, though - they hammered us most of the night, and it was nice to see trey and mike having so much fun up there with the duo rockin' it out. good times.
high-fives to the hummingbird center staff for being pretty cool, and to that place in general - what a beautiful venue, with incredible sound!
Sunday, July 09, 2006
wilco is cock
you can write it on a flag, but please, for the love of god, DO NOT PISS ON THE MONUMENT!!
the surprise of the summer, wilco played london fucking ontario last nite, at centennial hall, to one of the most jubilant crowds i have ever seen, and been a part of, in this fair city. london, you surprised me last night, a great big kudos to you.
the show was just a thrashing of left jabs, right hooks and crushing uppercuts... i mean, they probably couldnt play anything disappointing to begin with, but i think they really pulled out all the stops, and more importantly, the flow, and energy they kept up throughout the entire show, they were just relentless. nils is a fucking madman. john stirratt is still one of my favourite bass players to watch and listen to - man, there was one point in the encore when he just got rockin', jumpin' up and down, hammering down on that bass, so thick givin' it right back to tweedy, just awesome. they all had so much energy. i really think the crowd helped that out, they were totally into it all night, singing along, getting excited, crazy encore call out, i think that really goes a long way into making the show rock that much more - the band plays to that. tweedy was incredible as always, didnt say much to the crowd, but was corgial when he did. the waving to the audience might have been one of the funnier things i've seen - or, rather, the waving back. and i swear, if he was dirty blond he'd be a dead ringer for boyko. dirty cottage boyko. sorry, man - we got photos, though. anyways, he sounded great all night, and now the 4th time i've seen them since 2001, and he just seems to get better and better at his craft - the front man... the guitar player... the songwriter - consistently improving. the new songs they unleashed were quite good - especially the opener. here's a setlist:
new song-There's a Light
The Late Greats
Misunderstood
Far, Far Away
Company In My Back
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Handshake Drugs
new song-Impossible Germany
War on War
At Least That's What You Said
Jesus, etc.
Walken (Talking To Myself About You)
Theologians
I'm The Man Who Loves You
Hummingbird
---------------------------------
Airline to Heaven
Forget the Flowers
She's a Jar
Kingpin
I'm A Wheel
---------------------------------
A Shot in the Arm>
Spiders (Kidsmoke)
was really glad to hear misunderstood, as thats probably the song that really made me a fan.. she's a jar is in a similar class, as well... other highlights were forget the flowers, company in my back, jesus etc, and handshake drugs. i mean, everything was a highlight, but those ones keep sticking out to me.
oh, and great job on the sound at centennial hall. that's always my beef with that place, but it sounded fantastic last night.
so that was easily the best wilco show i've seen yet - far and away. havent felt like that leaving a show since the ice cream truck. wonder what chicago's got in-store....
was real good to hang out after the show with craig, sari, kaidy, lacey and brian, too.... good times in the park, hahahah, good times... man, i love great shows so close to home.
the surprise of the summer, wilco played london fucking ontario last nite, at centennial hall, to one of the most jubilant crowds i have ever seen, and been a part of, in this fair city. london, you surprised me last night, a great big kudos to you.
the show was just a thrashing of left jabs, right hooks and crushing uppercuts... i mean, they probably couldnt play anything disappointing to begin with, but i think they really pulled out all the stops, and more importantly, the flow, and energy they kept up throughout the entire show, they were just relentless. nils is a fucking madman. john stirratt is still one of my favourite bass players to watch and listen to - man, there was one point in the encore when he just got rockin', jumpin' up and down, hammering down on that bass, so thick givin' it right back to tweedy, just awesome. they all had so much energy. i really think the crowd helped that out, they were totally into it all night, singing along, getting excited, crazy encore call out, i think that really goes a long way into making the show rock that much more - the band plays to that. tweedy was incredible as always, didnt say much to the crowd, but was corgial when he did. the waving to the audience might have been one of the funnier things i've seen - or, rather, the waving back. and i swear, if he was dirty blond he'd be a dead ringer for boyko. dirty cottage boyko. sorry, man - we got photos, though. anyways, he sounded great all night, and now the 4th time i've seen them since 2001, and he just seems to get better and better at his craft - the front man... the guitar player... the songwriter - consistently improving. the new songs they unleashed were quite good - especially the opener. here's a setlist:
new song-There's a Light
The Late Greats
Misunderstood
Far, Far Away
Company In My Back
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Handshake Drugs
new song-Impossible Germany
War on War
At Least That's What You Said
Jesus, etc.
Walken (Talking To Myself About You)
Theologians
I'm The Man Who Loves You
Hummingbird
---------------------------------
Airline to Heaven
Forget the Flowers
She's a Jar
Kingpin
I'm A Wheel
---------------------------------
A Shot in the Arm>
Spiders (Kidsmoke)
was really glad to hear misunderstood, as thats probably the song that really made me a fan.. she's a jar is in a similar class, as well... other highlights were forget the flowers, company in my back, jesus etc, and handshake drugs. i mean, everything was a highlight, but those ones keep sticking out to me.
oh, and great job on the sound at centennial hall. that's always my beef with that place, but it sounded fantastic last night.
so that was easily the best wilco show i've seen yet - far and away. havent felt like that leaving a show since the ice cream truck. wonder what chicago's got in-store....
was real good to hang out after the show with craig, sari, kaidy, lacey and brian, too.... good times in the park, hahahah, good times... man, i love great shows so close to home.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Canada Day Weekend - Ottawa
well, we're getting better... 3 days after the fact is a little better than 10, eh?
so rachelle and i went up to ottawa for the big canada day weekend celebration... we left late thursday afternoon to hopefully beat holiday traffic, but still managed to get somewhat fuckled by traffic and construction, and arrived after about 8 and a half hours on the road... the trials and tribulations of my late afternoon prior to leaving, coupled with the joys of holiday highway driving made for a cranky guigsy, and no doubt made the ride somewhat hellish for rachelle... sorry 'bout that.
friday afternoon i hit the links with jordan while rachelle went out on a big 3-4 hour cycle tour... had a great game of golf, shot 101, and my short game was unstoppable. chipping from the fringe and beyond was easy as pie, long range putting - no problem. i even had some success off the tees - if i could learn to hit my 3, 4, or 5 iron, i might put a decent game together one of these days. jordan's a damn good golfer, and it was a treat to watch him play - i picked up a few things just from observing, so that was cool. blew through 5 or 6 groups of people, and finished 18 in just about 3 hours or so.
after some dinner, time for the burties....
Burt Neilson Band - Mavericks, Ottawa 06.30.06
distraction >
holes
down with the sound
untied
in the belly
full tilt
stop 28
these days >
by the door
st. andrews
wyld knights
encore:
watchin' tv that no one else could see >
jack lumber
and, whoah boy, did they rip it up!! full tilt and untied are 2 new songs, and wyld knights was an older one they dusted off, after about 5 years on the shelf.
full tilt was a more upbeat jeff song, featuring a trombone (nice to see a horn back in the burtie mix!), and untied sounds distinctly like a mike song, a good groove and progression, a nice bit of writing for sure.
my highlights from the show were the distraction opener, that song just gets better and better each time i hear it, it's really evolved into a great tune... down with the sound is always great to hear, and this night was no different with a deep spacey chevronesque jam in the middle... stop 28 brought it hard, and how can you argue with the watchin' tv > jack lumber encore? great show, high energy, thanks boys!
next up...
Canada Day Party at 40 Main
so many great bands throughout the day, 28 kegs of steamwhistle, johnny's pizza from carlton providing the grub, McVelvet on the mic keepin' us entertained between bands, and all sorts of various this' and that's of goodness.
my favourite acts on the day were the spades, my first time seeing them and loving every second of their brand of alt-country-rock, and dave lauzon doing a rockin' solo set, a real treat for me, having not seen dave play a guitar since nero's new years eve finale a couple years back. the man brought it hard and rocked our faces off... lotsa layering and building, keys and acoustics... loved it.
and i cant forget El Beejay covering the rheos saskatchewan, rocked up style, and LURE sounded pretty good, too... both featuring jay mcconnery from nero on the kit. vanderpark sounded alright, and it was towards the end of their set that the po-po came and shut 'er down... not bad, we got through 9/10 of the day, anyways... but i really woulda loved to see Bullmoose... they rocked it last year!
so much fun hangin out with so many great people, playing with balloon animals, catching the fireworks, etc...
the folks up in ottawa really know how to show out of towners a great time... to all the folks at 40 main who threw the party, the folks that helped make it run so smooth, jordan and lisa for giving us some crash space, thanks so much - it was great to be up there celebrating the weekend with you guys.
moment of the weekend: getting my thrush hermit t-shirt back after almost 2 years!
game of the weekend: fog or mist
quote of the weekend: "the room smelled like death slept over and fucked your mother"
see ya next year.
so rachelle and i went up to ottawa for the big canada day weekend celebration... we left late thursday afternoon to hopefully beat holiday traffic, but still managed to get somewhat fuckled by traffic and construction, and arrived after about 8 and a half hours on the road... the trials and tribulations of my late afternoon prior to leaving, coupled with the joys of holiday highway driving made for a cranky guigsy, and no doubt made the ride somewhat hellish for rachelle... sorry 'bout that.
friday afternoon i hit the links with jordan while rachelle went out on a big 3-4 hour cycle tour... had a great game of golf, shot 101, and my short game was unstoppable. chipping from the fringe and beyond was easy as pie, long range putting - no problem. i even had some success off the tees - if i could learn to hit my 3, 4, or 5 iron, i might put a decent game together one of these days. jordan's a damn good golfer, and it was a treat to watch him play - i picked up a few things just from observing, so that was cool. blew through 5 or 6 groups of people, and finished 18 in just about 3 hours or so.
after some dinner, time for the burties....
Burt Neilson Band - Mavericks, Ottawa 06.30.06
distraction >
holes
down with the sound
untied
in the belly
full tilt
stop 28
these days >
by the door
st. andrews
wyld knights
encore:
watchin' tv that no one else could see >
jack lumber
and, whoah boy, did they rip it up!! full tilt and untied are 2 new songs, and wyld knights was an older one they dusted off, after about 5 years on the shelf.
full tilt was a more upbeat jeff song, featuring a trombone (nice to see a horn back in the burtie mix!), and untied sounds distinctly like a mike song, a good groove and progression, a nice bit of writing for sure.
my highlights from the show were the distraction opener, that song just gets better and better each time i hear it, it's really evolved into a great tune... down with the sound is always great to hear, and this night was no different with a deep spacey chevronesque jam in the middle... stop 28 brought it hard, and how can you argue with the watchin' tv > jack lumber encore? great show, high energy, thanks boys!
next up...
Canada Day Party at 40 Main
so many great bands throughout the day, 28 kegs of steamwhistle, johnny's pizza from carlton providing the grub, McVelvet on the mic keepin' us entertained between bands, and all sorts of various this' and that's of goodness.
my favourite acts on the day were the spades, my first time seeing them and loving every second of their brand of alt-country-rock, and dave lauzon doing a rockin' solo set, a real treat for me, having not seen dave play a guitar since nero's new years eve finale a couple years back. the man brought it hard and rocked our faces off... lotsa layering and building, keys and acoustics... loved it.
and i cant forget El Beejay covering the rheos saskatchewan, rocked up style, and LURE sounded pretty good, too... both featuring jay mcconnery from nero on the kit. vanderpark sounded alright, and it was towards the end of their set that the po-po came and shut 'er down... not bad, we got through 9/10 of the day, anyways... but i really woulda loved to see Bullmoose... they rocked it last year!
so much fun hangin out with so many great people, playing with balloon animals, catching the fireworks, etc...
the folks up in ottawa really know how to show out of towners a great time... to all the folks at 40 main who threw the party, the folks that helped make it run so smooth, jordan and lisa for giving us some crash space, thanks so much - it was great to be up there celebrating the weekend with you guys.
moment of the weekend: getting my thrush hermit t-shirt back after almost 2 years!
game of the weekend: fog or mist
quote of the weekend: "the room smelled like death slept over and fucked your mother"
see ya next year.
Monday, July 03, 2006
bachman cummings retirement drive
i have to learn to get better at writing sooner after things have happened... it's already been a week, but last-last saturday, june 24th, i, along with about 8 or so of my fellow henrys colleagues, got kicked down some bachman/cummings tickets for their show at the JLC... great seats, too.. and my pair included a meet'n'greet - gotta love the management perk! thanks Vivi!!
shelly took my extra and probably had more fun than anyone in that arena - i shouldnt have been so blown away that she knew the words to pretty much every song, save 1 or 2... a champ, for sure. i know my guess who fairly well, but the solo stuff gets a little messy for me...
anyways, they dubbed it "a celebration of the songs they had written together" - fair enough. at least i was warned. what followed was truly a lesson in self indulgent rock'n'roll cheesery, a hit parade drenched by swirling tungsten bulbs and propped up by the 4 guys hiding in the misses. no need giving a setlist, you know the songs. grab greatest hits vol. 1 and 2, add a couple BTO classics, and you got the idea. london ontario decided "takin' care of business" would be the highlight of the night. sorry, burton.
of course i knew this going in.
but you cant help but hope for these guys to celebrate each other in self indulgent rock'n'roll wizardry, like they were once capable of. they had some balls back in the day, it's too bad they hung 'em up somewhere along the way. but i guess everyone's gotta get back the money they pissed and snorted away, eh?
of course the playing was well executed, obviously well rehearsed, and bang on. but neither did anything out of the ordinary, except for when burton was off stage and randy got to talkin' about lenny breau and played some pretty cool jazz licks - it woulda been nice to hear randy do some new shit that he's into and let him go off, i bet he's a more interesting and diverse guitar player than he lets on.
i cant say it was a bad show, it was certainly entertaining, and i actually had a lot of fun, but... you know.. it's old hat.. done... over.. it's the retirement drive.. the self indulgence got old fast, the classing themselves with the dylan's of the world, calling themselves geniuses, i mean, who does this? the celebration just seemed silly.
the meet and greet was hooked up by panasonic canada, i believe they were the tour sponsor. that was certainly interesting. bachman was first out and he was real interested in talking about the air conditioning and the temperature of the place - fair enough, you meet a lot of people, what're ya gonna say? he seemed cool enough. they had to call burton out for the photo op, and when he came out to shake hands he didnt want any names because "he wasnt gonna know them anyways", after he went down the line i commented on the sweet patches on his jacket and he spun around, pointed to one on his lower left stomach side and said "do you know what this one is?" - it was a Dead patch, but i didnt know the album.. didnt matter, before i could finish my sentence he cut me off and in a most pretentious voice said "oh, you young kids these days.. this is the grateful dead and an album called terrapin station, and on that album is a song called estimated prophet which was written in 7/4 time." - then he turned around, we took a picture, and he was on his way out. what the hell do ya say to that? i mean, there are lots of songs written in 7/4 time. that doesnt make bobby a genius. besides, the best thing about any estimated is the eyes that usually comes before or after. my head could have very easily exploded.
anyways, he kinda redeemed himself when the tour manager held him back to meet some more people that were waiting and one dude had brought a couple 7 inch singles from germany, one for randy, one for burton, and neither of them had any idea that they had released either of those 2 songs as singles at any point in their careers. they seemed genuinely blown away and sincerely thankful to the guy, which was cool... i mean, he seemed like a real music fan, right, not just someone who was part of a sponsored meet and greet. fair enough.
shelly took my extra and probably had more fun than anyone in that arena - i shouldnt have been so blown away that she knew the words to pretty much every song, save 1 or 2... a champ, for sure. i know my guess who fairly well, but the solo stuff gets a little messy for me...
anyways, they dubbed it "a celebration of the songs they had written together" - fair enough. at least i was warned. what followed was truly a lesson in self indulgent rock'n'roll cheesery, a hit parade drenched by swirling tungsten bulbs and propped up by the 4 guys hiding in the misses. no need giving a setlist, you know the songs. grab greatest hits vol. 1 and 2, add a couple BTO classics, and you got the idea. london ontario decided "takin' care of business" would be the highlight of the night. sorry, burton.
of course i knew this going in.
but you cant help but hope for these guys to celebrate each other in self indulgent rock'n'roll wizardry, like they were once capable of. they had some balls back in the day, it's too bad they hung 'em up somewhere along the way. but i guess everyone's gotta get back the money they pissed and snorted away, eh?
of course the playing was well executed, obviously well rehearsed, and bang on. but neither did anything out of the ordinary, except for when burton was off stage and randy got to talkin' about lenny breau and played some pretty cool jazz licks - it woulda been nice to hear randy do some new shit that he's into and let him go off, i bet he's a more interesting and diverse guitar player than he lets on.
i cant say it was a bad show, it was certainly entertaining, and i actually had a lot of fun, but... you know.. it's old hat.. done... over.. it's the retirement drive.. the self indulgence got old fast, the classing themselves with the dylan's of the world, calling themselves geniuses, i mean, who does this? the celebration just seemed silly.
the meet and greet was hooked up by panasonic canada, i believe they were the tour sponsor. that was certainly interesting. bachman was first out and he was real interested in talking about the air conditioning and the temperature of the place - fair enough, you meet a lot of people, what're ya gonna say? he seemed cool enough. they had to call burton out for the photo op, and when he came out to shake hands he didnt want any names because "he wasnt gonna know them anyways", after he went down the line i commented on the sweet patches on his jacket and he spun around, pointed to one on his lower left stomach side and said "do you know what this one is?" - it was a Dead patch, but i didnt know the album.. didnt matter, before i could finish my sentence he cut me off and in a most pretentious voice said "oh, you young kids these days.. this is the grateful dead and an album called terrapin station, and on that album is a song called estimated prophet which was written in 7/4 time." - then he turned around, we took a picture, and he was on his way out. what the hell do ya say to that? i mean, there are lots of songs written in 7/4 time. that doesnt make bobby a genius. besides, the best thing about any estimated is the eyes that usually comes before or after. my head could have very easily exploded.
anyways, he kinda redeemed himself when the tour manager held him back to meet some more people that were waiting and one dude had brought a couple 7 inch singles from germany, one for randy, one for burton, and neither of them had any idea that they had released either of those 2 songs as singles at any point in their careers. they seemed genuinely blown away and sincerely thankful to the guy, which was cool... i mean, he seemed like a real music fan, right, not just someone who was part of a sponsored meet and greet. fair enough.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
a month in the making...
well i've managed to neglect this little place pretty good over the last little while. lots has been goin on, though... lets see, we had the may 24 weekend, i turned 26, seen some bands, been to a couple weddings, went on the work retreat.... consider this the monster update...
so i've seen a few shows since i wrote last.. first was Islands, they did an early gig at Call The Office a few wednesday's ago... i dunno... they werent really my thing, exactly... i decided they were indie's answer to the string cheese incident... SCIslands. they had an equivalent sound and persona, just in a different genre... i got a kick out of that, actually. i remember the fiddle players standing out, but thats all i remember standing out. for the most part, they were pretty predictable and boring, i found... an amalgamation of a lot of sounds and bands, certainly falling within the canadian indie rock mantra, but just ultimately weak.
the jimmy swift band also rolled through town at the beginning of june, and that was actually a real treat to see them... it had been about a year and a half or so, at least, since i'd seen them, so i was excited to hear some new stuff - had heard a lot of this new drummer and some of the new rocker tunes... well, the new drummer certainly wasnt a disappointment, but i dont think he's the god-send that some people make him out to be. though, he certainly fits their sound nicely, and may be part and parcel to an emerging sound from them... that bigger heavier arena rock sound. some of the new tunes they unleashed on us in their 50 minute or so set were full of fresh pop goodness, catchy and full of hooks for sure. Medicine Chest is a stand-out new song that goes from 0-60 in about 2 and a half seconds, cranks it up Van Halen 1984 style, eases into a sweet dub/ska groove (surely inspired by fellow east coasters, slowcoaster), then finishes with a strong left hook. all in just over 3 minutes - there's no reason it shouldnt the radio hit of the summer. lookin' forward to their new release, slated for july or august, im told. nice to get back into some JSB, i think that shorter set was perfect for what they gave us, and im lookin' forward to more from them in the near future.
up next was g. love in toronto - went out to the big smoke to hang out with aagaard and catch the show... had a big fattie meet-up with basher and julia in the park beforehand, and once the heads were taken care of, into the show we went. it'd been 7 years since i last saw g. love, that was also the last time he did a headlining slot in toronto, so im sure im not the only person who was just buggin' to see him... this time, a bit of a step up venue-size-wise, i think... the Phoenix this time, vs. Opera House last time. truth be told, i preferred him the first time around. by no means was he bad, or having an off night, i dont even think, i just dont think this incarnation of the band did as much for me as the last one: this time he had a 5 piece, the main trio, plus a 2nd drummer, and a guy on keys. at times the show (and playing) seemed to lack some cohesiveness, and the vocals were mostly lost in the mix. that said, the band seemed to have a lot of energy on stage, and the set was pretty good, too. the thing i really love about g. love's guitar playing, although he may not be the craziest virtuoso out there, he gets this great sound from his sweet touch and carries a brilliant tone.. he really is a treat to listen to when he's goin on off on his laid back swanky blues... i really coulda used more of the laid back and swanky g. love and special sauce trio feel, but the sound this band puts forth is a little more rock than that... setlist highlights: baby's got sauce, and cold beverages for sure. love the old school.
last on the showlist was bright eyes, that happened last tuesday. another hit and miss show. the band seemed to really lack the intensity that they can carry on their albums... which is usually backwards in a live setting, but oh well... a tuesday night in london to a half empty concert hall, i think maybe they can be forgiven. Connor Oberst had his moments, but he seemed to be really choosey as to when he was going to let loose for us... i wish he would just go off - the guy seems to have endless potential. the band was mostly a disappoint.. i didnt think they had any real stand-out players at all, and in fact the drummer was just terrible to watch. too.much.ro.bot.ics.
so, what else? oh ya, i mentioned i turned 26. yes i did. may 29th. i feel pretty good about that, so far so good for 26. i didnt really do anything for my birthday, had dinner with rachelle and hung out with some friends at scottie's later on - it was cool of him to have some people over for me. the last few years have been some pretty crazy show-goin birthday times, so maybe it was time i took a year off. haha. we'll see how we can up the ante next year...
james had his surprise wedding and it went off without a hitch... i wish i was there for the whole thing, but the box of wine after JSB got me and i spent most of the next day horizontal - i did make it for the dinner and reception, though... just wish my stomach was in better shape to enjoy that roast beef. gotta give the guy credit: he totally pulled it off and set the romance bar at an astronomical height. way to go, big guy.
and also marian had her hawaiin wedding last night, and man that was a blast, too... all the people in their hawaiin/polynesian get-ups were awesome to look at... some beautiful colours for that wedding...
so congrats to all of them, too... james and steph, marian and ryan - way to go, guys!
and lastly to finish this update... the managers retreat was last weekend. and sweet holy jesus, what a time. Henry's did a good job for us at the White Oaks Golf and Spa Resort in Niagara-On-The-Lake - from tee off till the moment we left i had a blast. played a great round of golf sunday morning, i dont think i'd ever been consistently hitting the ball better, both off the tee and in my short game, i had a great day. rode with Nathan as well, and that was a lot of fun - it was good to catch up throughout the afternoon.. and he brought wicked stogies! dinner and drinks the first night brought a lot of laughs and was a great ice breaker with the baby picture/current picture game... though, i think the real ice breakers came with the card games and the excess boozing later on, but thats where the real conference takes place, right? heheh. i won the first poker game and the weekend continued on the up and up from there.. had a blast getting to know different people, and getting different perspectives and approaches to our jobs... enjoying the company of some people i probably never would have had the opportunity to, otherwise, and generally, just loosening up and letting our guards down, so to say... there certainly was not a dull moment from 8am - 3:30am, action packed, and fun. even the facilitations were interesting and informative, and good groups of people to keep it serious, but light enough as well. they brought in a comic on the last night for us, and she was a riot, too... they loaded her up with a lot of personal ammo on all of us, and she went to town... good sports, around.. really, i cant say enough of how good a time it was. and i succeeded in not puking in front of the owner, too.... though, the same cant be said for all of us.
:)
so i've seen a few shows since i wrote last.. first was Islands, they did an early gig at Call The Office a few wednesday's ago... i dunno... they werent really my thing, exactly... i decided they were indie's answer to the string cheese incident... SCIslands. they had an equivalent sound and persona, just in a different genre... i got a kick out of that, actually. i remember the fiddle players standing out, but thats all i remember standing out. for the most part, they were pretty predictable and boring, i found... an amalgamation of a lot of sounds and bands, certainly falling within the canadian indie rock mantra, but just ultimately weak.
the jimmy swift band also rolled through town at the beginning of june, and that was actually a real treat to see them... it had been about a year and a half or so, at least, since i'd seen them, so i was excited to hear some new stuff - had heard a lot of this new drummer and some of the new rocker tunes... well, the new drummer certainly wasnt a disappointment, but i dont think he's the god-send that some people make him out to be. though, he certainly fits their sound nicely, and may be part and parcel to an emerging sound from them... that bigger heavier arena rock sound. some of the new tunes they unleashed on us in their 50 minute or so set were full of fresh pop goodness, catchy and full of hooks for sure. Medicine Chest is a stand-out new song that goes from 0-60 in about 2 and a half seconds, cranks it up Van Halen 1984 style, eases into a sweet dub/ska groove (surely inspired by fellow east coasters, slowcoaster), then finishes with a strong left hook. all in just over 3 minutes - there's no reason it shouldnt the radio hit of the summer. lookin' forward to their new release, slated for july or august, im told. nice to get back into some JSB, i think that shorter set was perfect for what they gave us, and im lookin' forward to more from them in the near future.
up next was g. love in toronto - went out to the big smoke to hang out with aagaard and catch the show... had a big fattie meet-up with basher and julia in the park beforehand, and once the heads were taken care of, into the show we went. it'd been 7 years since i last saw g. love, that was also the last time he did a headlining slot in toronto, so im sure im not the only person who was just buggin' to see him... this time, a bit of a step up venue-size-wise, i think... the Phoenix this time, vs. Opera House last time. truth be told, i preferred him the first time around. by no means was he bad, or having an off night, i dont even think, i just dont think this incarnation of the band did as much for me as the last one: this time he had a 5 piece, the main trio, plus a 2nd drummer, and a guy on keys. at times the show (and playing) seemed to lack some cohesiveness, and the vocals were mostly lost in the mix. that said, the band seemed to have a lot of energy on stage, and the set was pretty good, too. the thing i really love about g. love's guitar playing, although he may not be the craziest virtuoso out there, he gets this great sound from his sweet touch and carries a brilliant tone.. he really is a treat to listen to when he's goin on off on his laid back swanky blues... i really coulda used more of the laid back and swanky g. love and special sauce trio feel, but the sound this band puts forth is a little more rock than that... setlist highlights: baby's got sauce, and cold beverages for sure. love the old school.
last on the showlist was bright eyes, that happened last tuesday. another hit and miss show. the band seemed to really lack the intensity that they can carry on their albums... which is usually backwards in a live setting, but oh well... a tuesday night in london to a half empty concert hall, i think maybe they can be forgiven. Connor Oberst had his moments, but he seemed to be really choosey as to when he was going to let loose for us... i wish he would just go off - the guy seems to have endless potential. the band was mostly a disappoint.. i didnt think they had any real stand-out players at all, and in fact the drummer was just terrible to watch. too.much.ro.bot.ics.
so, what else? oh ya, i mentioned i turned 26. yes i did. may 29th. i feel pretty good about that, so far so good for 26. i didnt really do anything for my birthday, had dinner with rachelle and hung out with some friends at scottie's later on - it was cool of him to have some people over for me. the last few years have been some pretty crazy show-goin birthday times, so maybe it was time i took a year off. haha. we'll see how we can up the ante next year...
james had his surprise wedding and it went off without a hitch... i wish i was there for the whole thing, but the box of wine after JSB got me and i spent most of the next day horizontal - i did make it for the dinner and reception, though... just wish my stomach was in better shape to enjoy that roast beef. gotta give the guy credit: he totally pulled it off and set the romance bar at an astronomical height. way to go, big guy.
and also marian had her hawaiin wedding last night, and man that was a blast, too... all the people in their hawaiin/polynesian get-ups were awesome to look at... some beautiful colours for that wedding...
so congrats to all of them, too... james and steph, marian and ryan - way to go, guys!
and lastly to finish this update... the managers retreat was last weekend. and sweet holy jesus, what a time. Henry's did a good job for us at the White Oaks Golf and Spa Resort in Niagara-On-The-Lake - from tee off till the moment we left i had a blast. played a great round of golf sunday morning, i dont think i'd ever been consistently hitting the ball better, both off the tee and in my short game, i had a great day. rode with Nathan as well, and that was a lot of fun - it was good to catch up throughout the afternoon.. and he brought wicked stogies! dinner and drinks the first night brought a lot of laughs and was a great ice breaker with the baby picture/current picture game... though, i think the real ice breakers came with the card games and the excess boozing later on, but thats where the real conference takes place, right? heheh. i won the first poker game and the weekend continued on the up and up from there.. had a blast getting to know different people, and getting different perspectives and approaches to our jobs... enjoying the company of some people i probably never would have had the opportunity to, otherwise, and generally, just loosening up and letting our guards down, so to say... there certainly was not a dull moment from 8am - 3:30am, action packed, and fun. even the facilitations were interesting and informative, and good groups of people to keep it serious, but light enough as well. they brought in a comic on the last night for us, and she was a riot, too... they loaded her up with a lot of personal ammo on all of us, and she went to town... good sports, around.. really, i cant say enough of how good a time it was. and i succeeded in not puking in front of the owner, too.... though, the same cant be said for all of us.
:)
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