Get out of the way! We have a bad elephant!

The new season of the Amazing Race started tonight. The teams began the race at the beautiful Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. I can't wait to see a show there one day.

One of the most entertaining couples from previous seasons of the Amazing Race was Meredith and Gretchen. That time when Gretchen was riding on that elephant and started yelling was absolutely hilar.

NHL games resumed again today. In one of my pools, I have two people that already retired this season (Palffy and Lemieux). I wonder if we can make it three? At least I did something decent and picked Ovechkin last round in one pool.

Been listening to some songs by this twin sister duo Kate and Kacey Coppola recently. Looking forward to hearing their whole album when it gets released.

It's so damn hot! Milk was a bad choice.

So I get to pretty much lie around and amuse myself as I recover from this flu. My first thoughts when I get sick are usually:
-When can I get back in the gym?
-This is gonna screw up my weekly split.
-If I have a concert lined up, I'm still going.

Wow, I'm such a geek.

One way I decided to pass time was by listening to these funny clips from Anchorman.

Brian Fantana: They've done studies, you know. 60% of the time, it works everytime.
Ron Burgundy: That doesn't make sense.

Picked up tix for all three MG solo acoustic shows. Another sign of my geekdom.

Hooray!

This book's been flagged... it's been in the bathroom

Tonight's Seinfeld was awesome. It was the episode with George bringing a book into the bathroom at a bookstore, then being forced to buy it.

Jerry: Hey, there's Leo.
Kramer: Oh? Who's Leo?
Jerry: Uncle Leo.
Kramer: Oh, yeah. Right. Uncle, Leo. Forgot his first name.


The initial lineup for the Sasquatch Festival was announced today. This year's rock extravaganza at the Gorge Amphitheatre will span over three days from May 26-28. Some featured attractions announced so far include:

Friday May 26
Nine Inch Nails, And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead

Saturday May 27
Ben Harper, The Flaming Lips, The Shins, The Tragically Hip, Neko Case, Sufjan Stevens, Rogue Wave, Architecture In Helsinki, Sam Roberts, Constantines, The Brunettes

Sunday May 28
Beck, Death Cab For Cutie, Queens Of The Stone Age, The Decemberists, Nada Surf, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Arctic Monkeys, We Are Scientists

Many other artists are expected to be added over the coming weeks. I smell a road trip.

Listening to:

City And Colour - The Death Of Me (Demos)
Animal Collective - Feels
Deerhoof - The Runners Four
Architecture In Helsinki - In Case We Die
Jason Collett - Idols Of Exile

the office

Had a marathon session watching the British version of The Office series.



It's pretty funny, especially Mackenzie Crook, who plays Gareth. The epsiode where Ricky Gervais plays guitar and sings to cheer up one of his employees is hilarious.

reading between the lines of an empty page

Rocked out to some yoga today. Had to rough it out since I can barely walk after doing heavy squats yesterday.

There are these guys at my gym that come in and breakdance every so often. Next time I'm gonna join them and bust out my mad breaking skills. This one guy tried to do a backflip but did one of these instead.

Picked up tix yesterday for the Death Cab - Franz show. It's funny they're playing on the same bill this time cause I saw them on back-to-back nights last October. The venue isn't that great, though there isn't a middle sized venue in the city that meets the demand for the show. Nonetheless, it should be good times.

There goes my life, passing by with every departing flight

Finally got around to watching the movie Crash. It's been sitting in my room for the last few weeks. Terrific film.



Picked up tix the other day for the upcoming City And Colour concert. Wow! It was sold out within the first day. Haven't been this excited for a show in quite awhile.

The River

Caught Wil and Shaun Verreault at the UBC Pit Pub last night. They both played solo sets.

The first band that came on to open the evening was some local duo. Didn't catch their name, nor could I make out any of their lyrics. One of them played bass and sang/mumbled while the other one was behind the drum kit. The drummer was decent. You have to admire the other guy for trying to strum out power chords on an acoustic bass! The sound hole on the bass was unique since it was located off to the side rather than under the strings.

Wil took the stage next and displayed his awesome guitar work. I first saw the Calgary based musician perform when he opened for Matt Good during the Fall '04 tour, and have become a fan of his music ever since. His songs definitely need to be seen live to be fully appreciated. His ability to break strings through intense strumming is amazing. He didn't break any strings last night, but his craft is still a sight to see.



At Wil's merch table, he offered neat bracelets and earrings made out of broken guitar strings from past shows. They were pretty cool. Some highlights from his 55min set included Sweet Rebecca, 15 Years, and Honey Pie.

Shaun Verreault came on shortly afterwards and displayed his vocal range and talented guitar skills. The Wide Mouth Mason singer is quite an established blues guitarist, and showed it throughout his performance with excellent scales, progressions, and solos. He recently recorded a solo acoustic record for this tour, consisting of new songs and reworked Wide Mouth Mason songs. A lot of the new tracks were recorded only minutes after they were written, and on their first or second take. Only 200 copies of this record were produced.



On this night, Shaun pulled out great versions of Smile, Companion (Lay Me Down), and Midnight Rain. During the set, he used a looper to play and record some rhythm riffs, then layer it with lead riffs. He also did it vice versa looping a lead riff, then playing rhythm. That was neat. Another thing Shaun did was use a wah wah pedal on his acoustic guitar. His vocal skills were quite impressive, though he does like to hit a lot of high notes throughout the set. He played for 1hr 10mins and mentioned that him and Wil would be back on stage to play a few more songs together.



The combination of Wil and Shaun on stage feeding off each other and trading licks was incredible. Both are such established guitarists and singers and the energy was fantastic. They played Both Hands, an awesome version of Ease Your Mind and a heartstopping cover of Hendrix's Little Wing. This was followed by On Top Of The Dome, and Mama to cap off the evening. The final set together lasted 45mins and finished past the regular curfew time at the Pit.

Live through this and you won't look back

Stars played to a packed crowd at the Croatian Cultural Centre last night.



The opening band was a local act named the Thurston Revival. They were very thurston forgettable. Moving on...

Stars played a fantastic set. They opened with Theme From Stars, followed by a great performance of Set Yourself On Fire. Seven of them filled the stage for most of the evening, including an accompanying violinist and trombone player. During a couple songs, an additional trumpet player also took the stage.

The band sounded very tight despite not playing at a venue with the best sound system. The hall we were in also wasn't well ventilated. It got kinda toasty in there with a capacity crowd of close to 700 people crammed inside.



Torquil sang with a ton of emotion, and his vocal duties with Amy blended nicely. Amy's voice was angelic, especially during Look Up and Calendar Girl.

Some other highlights during the 1hr 35min set included Heart, Soft Revolution, One More Night, and Ageless Beauty. Your Ex-lover Is Dead was excellent, and had the crowd singing along.



During The First Five Times, Evan jumped into the audience and crowdsurfed for a bit before returning back on stage. The band ended with Calendar Girl.

After most of them left the stage and the houselights came on, people started to leave. Torquil stopped everyone and got the houselights to turn back off. He told us this is what we're gonna remember when we get home, then sang another song with Chris on keyboards to end the night.



Encore:
The First Five Times
Elevator Love Letter
Calendar Girl
Song by Torquil and Chris

Hungry Heart was a Bruce Springsteen cover. He Lied About Death was called Georgie on the setlist.

sideburns guy

Today I saw a guy with the coolest sideburns. It was unforgettable. If only my sideburn growing skills were just as good.....

This Is A Protest

I am a notion... I'm all emotion... I am a cherry ghost

Jeff Tweedy played the Commodore last night. It was the Wilco singer's first show amongst a few westcoast solo acoustic dates.

Glenn Kotche, drummer for Wilco, opened the evening. His set was all-instrumental on drums and the performance was fantastic. There were some pre-programmed effects that played along in the background to accompany him. During the set, he would pull on strings attached to his snare drum that would produce a unique sound. During one song, he also took a metal rod and scratched it along one of his cymbals to create an interesting effect.



Glenn opened with the title track off his forthcoming second release, Mobile. The next song was a solo interpretation of the Balinese monkey chant. He also performed an interpretation of the Music For Five Pieces of Wood by Steve Reich.

In addition, he played a song adapted from the jungle sounds of the book Where The Wild Things Are.....one of my favourite books growing up. His last effort was entitled Projections of What Might. Set lasted 40mins.

Jeff Tweedy used 6 different guitars on this night. 5 shown here plus one he walked out on stage with.



Coming in, we knew it would be a special night at the Commodore. Not often does an artist like Jeff get to perform in Vancouver solo, and in such an intimate setting. Jeff came on stage with guitar in hand and harmonica attached, and sank right into an amazing version of Sunken Treasure. Throughout the night, he would tell some stories and crack countless jokes with the capacity crowd.



The audience was really responsive and appreciative of Jeff's performance over the course of the set. In between one song, someone threw a bag of B.C.'s finest export attached to a CD onto the stage. Jeff acknowledged it and mentioned since he got out of rehab recently, it would be best to pass on it.

Some other highlights over the 1hr 45min set included I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, Summerteeth, Theologians, Passenger Side and War On War. For the first encore, Glenn Kotche came back on stage to play drums for a couple songs. Heavy Metal Drummer featured Tweedy on the 12string and Kotche hammering out the drum riff at the end.



For the second encore, Jeff came back on stage solo and played a couple more for us. The much requested California Stars throughout the night was performed and the set ended with a solid version of Acuff Rose. A great ending to a terrific night of music and entertainment.

Setlist:

Sunken Treasure
(Was I) In Your Dreams
Please Tell My Brother
49th Beard (Bob Dylan)
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
The Ruling Class
All The Same to Me
Summerteeth
Is That The Thanks I Get?
Theologians
Shot In The Arm
Airline To Heaven
ELT
Passenger Side

1st encore w/ Glenn:
I'm The Man Who Loves You
Heavy Metal Drummer
War On War

2nd encore solo:
New Madrid
California Stars
Someone Else's Song
Remember The Mountain Bed
Acuff Rose