absinthe party at the fly honey warehouse

My friend called me up last night just as I was about to jump into the shower, then head off to go swing dancing. He said he had an extra ticket to the Minus The Bear show, which was scheduled to start shortly. We were orginally gonna go to the show, but he was attending a wedding and didn't know if he'd make it back in time. By around 8:00pm and with no call, I decided to make other plans. So when he called at 9:00pm and said he was on his way to the show, I was a bit surprised. And me not willing to turn down a good rock show, I decided to go.

So there we were 30mins later.....at the Media Club. The show was sold out and there was a lineup of people outside the venue trying to score a last minute entrance. Inside, a bunch of people mingled around, beer in hand, awaiting the first act. The first performance featured three ladies known collectively as New Year's Resolution. Some light mellow rock tones. Pretty drumming and swaying keyboards lead to a few standout tracks. The next band was some emo rock band that dedicates every show to John Cougar Mellencamp. Okayyyy. They were pretty forgettable.

The max capacity at the Media Club is 120 people. When Minus the Bear took the stage shortly after midnight, the place was packed. I found a sweet elevated spot near the stage that overlooked the crowd. Looking down, it seemed that there was little room to manoever. In fact, the crowd was estimated to be around 150+....well over capacity for such a tiny venue. The indie band from Seattle has been getting some great reviews on their newly released album and the Media Club seemed to be the place to be for the night.

The band's catalogue consists of very unusual titles for their tracks. Songs such as "Thanks For The Killer Game of Crisco Twister" and "I Lost All My Money At The Cock Fights" are two examples. The guitarist performed many of the tracks through fingertapping. It was very impressive....and nothing like I'd ever seen before. The keyboardist had quite a few effect and tone switches to play around with. The sound of the performance was tight and well controlled.

Near the end of their set, some drunken guy walked across the stage, then proceeded to walk on top of the row of couches along the side of the club. It was pretty funny. The band played for about 1hr 10mins total with one encore. Great night. Everyone left satisfied with the performance and I was glad I chose to attend the show. Thanks gut instinct, you did well.

hey kids what are you rocking for?

David Usher played the Commodore last night. It was my second time seeing him this year. Great show. The opening band was a local band from Langley called Doubting Paris. They provided some mellow pop tunes. The vocalist looked like Anthony Keidis from the Chili Peppers, but with blonde hair.

The last time David played, it was at Richard's and sold out so the venue this time was larger. The show didn't look sold out. When we got there, the opening band was playing and the floor of the Commodore was rather open. But things quickly came together when David and company hit the stage. There's quite a few of them up there too. Seven members including the bass player and keyboardist from Moist, and a drummer, violinist and background vocalist.

The set went for 1hr 30mins with 2 encores. They covered the four albums quite equally and even included a Moist song, "Underground". The vocals were very strong and the sound wasn't too loud despite being up close. It's always nice to leave a show and not have your ears ringing. Some highlights for me included the long question and answer interlude in Love Will Save The Day, as well as his perfromances of Devil By My Side, I'm Coming Down, and St. Lawrence River. It was also funny to run into a bunch of friends from swingdancing at the show. Maybe next time we'll lindybomb a David Usher show.

SummerSlam Review

Thoughts on the PPV today:

-on paper it looked like a decent card....unfortunately, it didn't turn out as good....they rarely ever do

-Benoit's U.S. Title win over O.J. took under a minute.....pretty bad booking to have the champion job that quick....but the show was short on time today

-Matt Hardy got shafted as expected.....once he loses his feud to Edge, he'll probably be stuck in midcard hell or be let go

-Eddie and Rey had a decent ladder match with some new spots....I'd give it match of the night...but that didn't take too much to earn

-the crowd was totally against Eugene and rooting for Angle the entire time

-with the PPV missing Shelton, Christian, and Booker T, you can see the quality of wrestling wasn't as strong tonight

-Orton and Taker's match was pretty slow and boring....the finish wasn't very strong

-Jericho made Cena look better than usual tonight....great energy from the crowd in this match with the back and forth "Let's go Cena" and "Let's go Jericho" chants

-with time being pressed near the end of the show, the Batista-JBL match lasted only ten mintues despite being a co-main event

-Michaels oversold the finish of the match and made it look unreal.....I take it he wasn't too happy about jobbing to Hogan

-I'll give this PPV a generous 7/10 with 2 decent matches being Eddie-Rey and Jericho-Cena. Good energetic crowd tonight that wasn't afraid to voice their opinion. I felt the really hot crowd helped elevate the mediocre event.

Grouse Adventures

Went and caught Wil play last night on top of Grouse Mountain. It was actually my first time up there. Their setup was on a patio at the bar just off the gondola ride. We got there shortly before the show and scored a table right in front of Wil and Pat's setup....sweet.

The show started at 7:30pm and went until 11pm. It consisted of two sets with one intermission. Most of his songs were played along with a few covers. Some highlights included "15 years", and a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" and The Tragically Hip's "Grace, Too". Wil also played "Both Hands" twice as he felt the first time didn't seem up to par.

The location of the show was a nice change from the usual small clubs. The view from the mountain overlooking the city was gorgeous. It did get colder however being on top of the mountain. By the end of the night, I looked around and people were cuddled in sweaters and coats. Then I looked at myself and I was covered in a t-shirt.

During the first set of the show, we were getting raped by the surrounding mosquitoes. Most of them left though by the second set. Thankfully as I've received about 20 mosquito bites in the last few days. The worst are the ones in between your fingers that swell up when you make a fist, and the ones right on your elbows.

Anyways, it was an enjoyable night of music and a great start to the fall tour.

Upcoming Fall Tour

Today begins my Roll Into Fall 2005 Rock Extravaganza Tour. Here's the lineup so far with possible additions along the way.

Fri Aug.19 - Wil
Fri Aug.26 - David Usher
Sat Aug.27 - Minus The Bear
Thurs Sep.1 - Pearl Jam
Fri Sep.2 - Pearl Jam, Supersuckers
Thurs Sep.8 - Oasis, Jet
Sat Sep.17 - System Of A Down, The Mars Volta
Fri Sep.23 - New Pornographers
Mon Sep.26 - Nine Inch Nails, Queens Of The Stone Age
Mon Oct.3 - Death Cab For Cutie
Tues Oct.4 - Franz Ferdinand
Wed Oct.5 - Feist
Fri Oct.7 - Arcade Fire
Sun Oct.30 - Metric

Cafe Katzenjammer

It's my friend's birthday so we went out for dinner at a restaurant called Cafe Katzenjammer. It was my first time eating German food. I went with the Beef Rouladen, which is sliced beef steak wrapped around bacon, onion, and pickles. The pan fried potatoes were also pretty good. Yum!

a day in the life

Came back from the Rain: Beatles Experience show at the QE Theatre. Good times. I felt it was very well done. The show was more than just music. They presented clips in between songs that brought back the feel of the 60's generation. The songs were performed in chronological order based on album release dates, and accompanying costume changes were done to show the physical changes of The Beatles throughout their career.

The vocals and sound were hauntingly similar, down to subtle vocal cues in songs. Highlights of the night included Blackbird, Here Comes The Sun, Yesterday and A Day In The Life.

When they played Imagine, people brought out their lighters. It was nice to see that instead of cell phone lights that are most commonly used today at shows. There's just something about a candle that is so much more peaceful than a cell phone.