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!

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.

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.

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.