First concert writeup in a while, so I'm a bit out of practice...



Nicole and I went to Michael Bublé at the Toyota Center, on March 1st. The opener-- hah, the opener was cool. It was a group from New York called Naturally 7, (the logo was a natural sign, made from two 7s-- one inverted, one tilted slightly, too). It was an a capella group, and they sang a couple standards, and a couple that were their songs. "In the Air Tonight" by Genesis was the neat one that I knew. They had a really cool original one, too. We're going to try to find the CD online. Neat stuff. It was, in some ways, typical a capella stuff. The differentiating stuff were these: The guy who did a really convincing electric guitar-- really cool. The "DJ"-- DJ Rock E, I think was his name-- record scratches, beatboxing, slows, fades-- it was pretty damn neat. And the guy that did the "bass guitar" was impressive too-- the bandleader told a blurb about a reviewer of the CD, and how this guy didn't believe that the low frequencies were possible to reproduce with the human voice. And then they showed this guy-- tall, with a loose hat on, and this holy-crap low voice-- kinda like Josh Turner. And yeah, I'll definitely buy that this guy can make any sound that you can hear, low-frequency-wise...

So-- then Michael Bublé comes out.

That man can SING. In no particular order, he sang:

I've Got The World On a String

That's Life

Me and Mrs. Jones

Home -- Nicole likes this song a lot. Listening to it more closely, so do I...

You Were Always on My Mind-- He did this one in two parts-- started singing, got two stanzas in, and was all "Okay, yeah, I just fked that up. You know how the title is "Call me Irresponsible?" It's true. You ever do something like that? Get there, and you're concentrating on something so hard that you see a Subway Seafood & Crab sandwich instead?" (something on that order) So he said he'd come back to that one. When he came back to it, he nailed it. Totally different than Willie Nelson-- which is the version I'm most used to hearing-- but still really good.

Save the Last Dance for Me

Quando, Quando, Quando

It Had Better Be Tonight (Meglio Stasera) - This is a neat song... I like the Italian...

Call Me Irresponsible - It's a classic, and he did it well...

That's Life -- "I've been a puppet, a papa, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king..."-- I dunno, it's a neat rhythm. And the band raises hell on this song...

Lost -- THIS-- This was a good song. Michael sings so many covers, see. And this song is one of his. And you can see that. He does good--really good-- on the others. He nails this one. It's cool to see a performer enjoy themselves so much...

Everything - Oh man, ANOTHER great song. This is another that he LOVES singing, you can tell...

Home -- Nicole likes this song a lot. Listening to it more closely, so do I...

I'm Your Man --This man sounds smooth on this song. There's something edgy on this song that I really like...
And there were a few others that I should really be able to remember...

It was really cool-- the concert we were at was the largest concert he'd ever played in the United States. And you could tell, he'd periodically look a little daunted by the sheer number of people. He was really cool about it, though-- and there were several "THANK YOU FOR COMING, seriously" moments. One of them, he said "Look, I know some of you men got dragged here, but later tonight, in a couple hours, you'll be all *mock giant cigarette drag* 'Oh man, that Michael Buble, that guy's great', later on...". And that's the closest I've ever heard a performer get to saying "It's cool, my music will get you laid", ever. (Granted, I think this was the first concert I've been to that the performer could say that...)

He wasn't really like I expected, quite. You expect someone who sings songs like that to be kind of a saint, somehow. He ain't, quite.

He did a big introduction of all the performers in the band, and talked some. The piano player has freaky-long fingers. There was a (mock-up, I think) "disagreement" between Michael and the band, and he gives the band the finger and walks off-stage. So one of the trombone players looks left, looks right, then comes to the mike and goes "OH. He says we're all 'such good friends', and it's all 'I love you guys'. I dont' even think he knows my name. He calls me 'band guy', like the three times he's talked to me. He's lip-synching the hole thing. Milli Vanilli-- yeah, like that. So-- if he's going to leave, the show has to go on, right?"
And the trombone guy starts singing. Bublé walks out and goes "Oh, what the fuck is this?" and picks up the trombone. The trombone guy goes "what are you gonna do, play the trombone, now?"
Hearing Bublé say "Oh, you're gonna look like my bitch in a minute, just watch." was classic.
So Bublé starts playing. And the trombonist is singing, and Bublé's playing, see. And the trombonist stops singing, looks at Bublé, like "hey wait, what?". Bublé brings the trombone down, and the music's still playing, and it pans over to the other trombone player, who's actually playing...

There was also the introduction of the guy who'd (whether this is true or not, I got no idea) been in some softcore porn movie as "the pizza guy", that was in the band. listening to Bublé do the
*knock knock*
"who is it?"
"It's the pizza guy"
"Oh, hello there pizza guy"
*porn music*
thing was unexpected.

(*knock knock* who iiis it? It's the plumber... *bassline*... xerophreak, b_phil, yes, I thought of that song. Gah.)

I... I had no words. It was awesome, don't get me wrong. Just didn't expect that. The crowd was... eclectic. The people there, overall, were within a couple years of 30, or 55-60.

Can't even tell you how many times we burst out laughing at this concert. This guy is an entertainer of the first order. It was a lot of fun. Go, if you get a chance.

Went to the Kid Beyond concert at the Meridian with Nicole Saturday night. He did a damn cool job. The opener, and the one after him... not so impressive. A DJ's kinda a DJ, really.

COOL NEW TOY alert. Kid Beyond did his regular thing-- lots of vocals, looped, for all the music. Very cool. He also had this LED ring he wore, that apparently, with a sensor, allows him to do record-scratch and slows, real-time. Quite cool. mothoc (since I know you've actually seen his show) and others-- if you wanna see the video, I'll see what I can do. Quite impressive. The LED is visible in the video, and the audio is tied tot he movement of his hand...

He's gonna be recording another CD soon, with that "Cathedrals" song on it, and some other good stuff. Should be fun to hear. If you get the chance to go see this guy, even if you don't like techno/dance/electronica... do it. neat stuff.

Spamalot was cool. Staying in Dallas was fun. I'm really enjoying getting to know Nicole's family, and we stopped to see them for Friday night. I hate that it's so far to get anywhere in this state, sometimes.

The show was good, though. I'm still not as big a fan of musicals, overall, but this was a good starting point.

highlights: the Black Knight, complete with blood spurts
Camelot as Vegas
The single-letter signs that were held up to spell C-A-M-E-L-O-T being misarranged as C-A-M-L-T-O-E the first time (hah)
the French Guard (Fetchez la Vache! *cow-a-pult*
Lancelot as a gay man. The Sparkly Codpiece of Doom. What. The. Hell. AAANYWAY.
You Won't Succeed on Broadway (If you don't have any Jews)

It was cool. The woman who played the lady of the Lake had a good voice, too...

It was a neat experience, srsly.

this is, sadly, the best picture I could do. Didn't have my camera with me...
BB's in the middle in the gold jacket, seated. the brass is at left. Stanley Abernathy is the taller brass player at left, Boogaloo is the man next to him.

I got the opportunity to see BB King at the Grand Opera House in Galveston, TX, last night, with Adrienne and her mother-- they had tickets for the show, previously, and her father wasn't able to attend this one, so they offered it to me.

The band came on and started playing, and they were just doing different solos-- brass, guitar, bass, piano solos. Very cool. After ten minutes or so of that, BB came out. This man-- I'm amazed. He was supposed to play a few months ago, and got very ill, the night of the concert. It really says something that the concert hall was nearly full, on a Thursday night, for the rain-check performance. This man is a living legend, so I can definitely see that people would be there if at all possible. He made a point of thanking Galveston and the hospital, profusely, for taking good care of him when he was ill, the last time. And that when "I noticed the nurses started looking prettier, then they kicked me out of the hospital, because they knew I was better."

He's 81 years old. He mentioned that one time someone said "You look good for your age" and he wondered how someone that was twenty-something would know how an 81-year-old was supposed to look...

He did a lot of talking and stories in between songs, as well. He told several stories about growing up in Mississippi, talking about segregation and how that shaped what he did. He said that one town in Mississippi, close to where he grew up, had segregated water fountains. And sometimes "I'd sneak over there and get me a big belly full of that 'white' water. And then I thought 'hey-- this doesn't taste any different than the 'colored' water!'"

He said that they lived in the country, and so on Saturday nights, they'd get cleaned up and come into town. And that the white people and the black people would both look at them like "here they come, ridin' on a wagon, with that gumbo mud on their shoes, still".

Talked about plowing fields with a donkey named Big Ben, and, partway through the story, referred to him as "Big Red". one of the band members said "...Big Ben, right?"
BB said "Ben, Red, whatever-- we called him both." (heh)

He sang, in no particular order:

Blues Man

Everybody Wants to Know Why I Sing the Blues

Just Like a Woman -- with an admonition to the men whose wife/girlfriend/SO was with them in the audience not to sing the "(ain't that) Just Like a Woman" part, if they "want any supper when they get home". Everyone sang with him on the refrain, anyway...

Let the Good Times Roll

Nobody Loves me But My Mother -- (i think this one was one he sang)

When Love Comes to Town -- this one was written by Bono of U2, for BB. He said "hear that? 'Love' is me in this song." He talked a lot about collaborating with Bono on this one. He made a bunch of crazy faces singing this one, and danced in the chair a little.

You are my Sunshine - This was awesome. He did a "if your lady is here with you, have her give you a kiss when I count to four. 1...2...3...4. no, no... let's raise the house lights. *house lights come up* 1, 2, 3, 4. Okay, do that again." and they sang several more times, with the audience singing along. (I wish Nicole had been there, I wanted a kiss... *smile*) And the "there are five or six men back there, and one of them looked at the other like 'oh, don't you even think about it'" part... heh.

The Thrill is Gone this was the encore. He said something about "look, I could play for a couple more hours.... If you let me rest and come back tomorrow", and everyone got a big kick out of that.

There were several more songs, also. He did a lot of talking, and the man is just... funny. Watching him play was awesome. We were in about the seventh row, and the Grand Opera House is a pretty small venue. The faces he and the other musicians made when playing... Entertaining stuff. Those men are into playing the blues.

The band leader (Boogaloo was what people called him; I can't remember his real name) and most of the band have played with him a LONG time-- several of them have played with him for better than 25 years. The thinner man on brass-- his name is Stanley Abernathy, I think-- had the Dizzy Gillespie thing going on with his cheeks. BB said he and the band have played in 90-something countries. Several of the band members were from Houston, also.

We ate at the Mosquito Cafe in Galveston. Old Galveston is interesting-- the Mosquito Cafe and the opera House are both buildings that survived the 1900 Hurricane that damn-near wiped out Galveston. Some of the old buildings in Galveston that survived the flood were there before they raised the island. After the flood, there was a massive effort to raise the level of the island, so some of the buildings that were low-- they have a floor that's effectively underground, now-- and you can see on the windows that it's the case. There's a window, three feet below street level, with a well around it. Both the Grand Opera House and the Mosquito Cafe had plaques on them mentioning surviving the 1900 storm.

It was a damn good concert. I hope I get to see him play again, sometime soon. Anyone who gets the chance... GO SEE HIM PLAY.

Went to see Norah Jones at (coincidentally) Jones Hall in Houston last night.
The opening act was a guy from Portland, Oregon named M. Ward. Article in the Houston Chronicle said his first name is Matt. Anyway-- he and Norah did a couple songs together, and that was... underwhelming, sadly. Their voices don't mesh well. After a couple of those, M. (strange way to refer to oneself, but anyway) did a couple of his own songs. VERY good guitar work. Neat stuff. The lighting was cool-- lit up from beneath, so it was a totally dark stage, with him lit up, only. Very dramatic.

Norah came on, and everyone went crazy. It was awesome. I'm not nearly as familiar with her music as I needed to be to make a playlist-- so this is just highlights.

There was one girl in her band named Daru Oda. That girl-- HOLY SHIT. Unbelievable. She played, lessee-- bass flute, bass guitar, percussion-- on some (basically) sheets of tin. (bang, bang, no kidding. Like when you used to beat the hell out of a cookie sheet as a kid. Some random instrument that was like a cross between a hurdy-gurdy and an accordion-- I think it had a bellows--something that required a back-and-forth movement, and keys, it looked like, but the sound was more like a hurdy-gurdy, and it was mounted on a stand. I have no idea what it was, honestly. And she whistled on one song. Norah is apparently unable to whistle, except in bursts, by inhaling--Norah demonstrated, even. And Daru did backing vocals, also. She can play piano-- she played on one song that Norah was playing guitar on. Amazingly talented. She was all over the stage.

I should have a picture or two to post later-- cameras weren't allowed, but we snuck a couple pictures anyway.

One of the songs-- not from the most recent album-- was very strange. Lots of percussion, and it was lit bizarrely. Very ominous. It occurred to me that if Hell had a band, and it was designed to make you uneasy, this is how it would look. Lit from beneath, all in red, with a green background.

The lighting was interesting-- there were big panels of fabric that the light would be projected onto, at the back of the stage. The sound was good-- plenty of bass, and that's what makes it work. The lighting varied during songs, even-- one song started with a lyric about daylight, and it was a sunny gradient on the panels. The lyrics shifted to something about night, and it shifted to a purple night color. The standard projection on to the panels was a black-light, it looked like that "WO THAT'S PURPLE" that your eyes don't like to resolve.
"Sinking Soon" is my favorite song off the new album, and they did that one. "Come Away with me" was good.

There was an encore-- "Don't Know Why" (to which everyone went crazy) and a Tom Waits song. Also a cover of "Cold, Cold Heart" By Hank Williams.

It will never cease to amaze me, people who skip the encore-- people left the theater as soon as the "last song" was over. Folks-- if the house lights don't come up, the concert ain't over. Sit DOWN.

Damn good concert, that one.

Nicole and I (and mothoc, zimtkolibri, nojh, and emtigereyes, too) went to see Weird Al Yankovic at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater last night. Really fun concert, that. If you get the chance to go, do it.

he played, in no particular order (since I suck at knowledge of his songs and don't know the names of most of them...):

All About the Pentiums (in a silvery metallic outfit-- baldeagle-- it reminded me of that Matrix 2 AlbinoRastaTwin costume you had that year for halloween)

Yoda (the "Y-o-d-a, yoooda" one)

The "my, my this here Anakin Guy" Star Wars one-- complete with the Jedi Qui-Gon-Jinn-style outfit and everything

Amish Paradise- Amish outfit and all

a couple medleys of a whole bunch of songs, linked up-- very cool.

a couple songs that were sung in synch to the video behind him-- It was pretty impressive, the fact that he had it timed to a video he wasn't-able-to-see-as-far-as-I-could-tell. The characters in the video were lip-synching to the words of the song. Really neat.

Eat It in the Michael-Jackson-style outfit.

You're Pitiful - Yes, like the James Blunt song-- complete with stripping off layers of clothes throughout. Ending with him wearing (hah, no, seriously) a Spongebob shirt, heart-covered boxers, and A PINK TUTU. heh, oustanding.

White and Nerdy -- He cam onstage on A SEGWAY. outstanding. There was a bunch of (rather impressive) nerdy dancing, and he was wearing a tracksuit, I think. Great.

one song that was the Al, the guitarist, and the bassist edit: and apparently the drummer and keyboardist; i didn't notice that at the time saying a bunch of... gibberish, basically, in unison. Quite impressive.

"DRUM SOLO!" *rat-a-tat* *cymbal crash* -done-. HAHAH, nice. It was like, five seconds.

I Wanna be your Lover, Baby -- he walked through the audience on this one, singing to random women in the crowd... climbing on railings, standing on chairs-- the "Just look me up in the dictionary, under KABLAM (*massive hip thrust toward random woman from atop the chair in front of her*) -- that was pretty awesome, really...

Spiderman (quote here is from emtigereyes) "I think one of the shorter segments that amused me was the snippet of "Spiderman" (done to the tune of "Pianoman") where in order to play his harmonica while holding his accordion, he had a tech hold it to his mouth. The tech stood next to him the entire time, so Al gave him comedic looks when we was singing."

(the tech in that had fluorescent orange Converse shoes on, too. Nice.)

Fat-- complete with the suit and everything-- pretty cool.

as the encore:

We All Have Cel(l)phones, so yeah, whatever -- the lyric (that was the only one-- that's basically the words) came from an "interview" of Michael Stipe that was played as one of the set changes. It was a "so, if you do the lyrics, I'll do the music" 'comment' from Al during the interview, and that was what Michael Stipe's "response" to a question was. (hard to explain, really...) And like emtigereyes said in the comments-- damn near every phone in the place was being waved back and forth during the song...

Albuquerque -- he looked at one guy, since this song went on a LONG time-- and said "you're just waiting for the song to be over, aren't you?" *Al looks at audience* "He's just waiting..."

And there were a couple more songs that will occur to me later. I'm not terribly aware of things this morning.

In between songs, since I don't think he wore the same outfit for two songs in a row, there were a bunch of "AlTV" "interviews" with people. Merciless, but funny, those. Jessica Simpson is--even allowing for the fact that they're intentionally-out-of-context comments-- dumber than a sack of hammers.

I should have pictures from the show-- one of Nicole's co-workers was in the third row, and got some damn good pictures, actually. I'll post a couple of those, when I get a chance, too.

Saw several people I recognized-- a couple from Aggiecon, and a couple random Cepheids I didn't expect to see...Troy and Robin, and Douglas.

The man's a damn good entertainer, he really is. I wasn't sure what to expect, but this was worth every penny.

(oh, sonovagun, as I type this edit, "Lola" came on the radio-- seriously. the L-O-L-A, lolololollla one. Hah, awesome.)

Yesterday afternoon, Nicole got tickets for us to go to the rodeo. Concert was supposed to be Rascall Flatts, but... the lead singer got laryngitis. So. New concert lineup was Joe Nichols, Jack Ingram, and Clay Walker. I've wanted to go see Clay Walker for years, and yesterday was great.

Joe Nichols played...

Brokenheartsville
Tequila Makes Her Clothes fall off
Cool To Be a Fool
She Only Smokes When She Drinks
The Impossible
What's a Guy Gotta Do

and at least one other.

Jack Ingram played... a bunch of things. I'm not a big enough fan to name many of them, really, but...

Mustang Burn
Love U (and that song, I like-- that's the kind of "oh, shit, that was good" lyrics I like)
Barbie Doll
And (hey xerophreak) he played that Hinder "Lips of an Angel" song... (I HATE the lyrics but it's catchy...)

And again, a couple songs I didn't catch.

Clay Walker played...

If I Could Make a Livin' Out of Lovin' You
Then What
'Fore she was Mama I love that song...Makes me wonder about my mom...

And one or two others. He walked around right next to the audience, and shook hands with a bunch of people. I really wanted to hear "She's Always Right". I LOVE that song. No such luck. Next time, maybe.

I'm really glad that Clay Walker's MS is in... remission? Stasis? It's not giving him hell, like it usually does to people. Good stuff, that.

It was a damn cool concert, though.

---

And I have a giant "Vienna Teng concert was awesome" post, coming soon, pictures and all. And I should have a picture of Nicole and me to put up, too, soon...

So I was just saying how if I randomly ran into one more person this week, that would keep my average of one person a week since February '06 going. And, well, damned if I didn't, yesterday at the Rodeo. ran into a guy from work-- good guy, and it's always good to talk with him. Hah.

---

So. Went to see Reba McEntire yesterday with a buddy from A&M. Great seats, really. His work had tickets available, and I always love going to the rodeo. It's my kind of deal, and I just enjoy the whole experience, every time.

Reba put on a hell of a show. Sang for better than an hour, at least. And that woman can SING. All of the musicians in her group are outstanding. There was a guy with a minute of guitar solo before one song, and the piano guy (keyboardist? don't kill me, niseag03) was great. But the one that really took the cake was the fiddle playin' girl who could play saxophone and did vocals. And she's quite pretty, too. Really something.

"Fancy" was the last song. Reba can really sing, and that one, she really let it rip... it was great. "The night the lights went out in Georgia" was great, too. I need to listen to her music again. Haven't heard it in a long time, but I always like it. And "Somebody" was good to hear. I like that one because it's accurate-- you well-n-truly might find someone-for-you in someone with whom you cross paths all the time. It works, yo.

It was a really cool night. Watched a lot of the rodeo events-- the "calf scramble" is always fun-- watching kids try to wrestle a calf, halter it, and lead it back over to the officials... I'm always amazed the calves don't get hurt. (I mean, they taste like beef either way, but...heh.) And I'm amazed at the rodeo clown who got tore up by the bull he was helping on. That guy was out about five minutes and then got right back out there. Impressive.

---

I'm headed to Temple tonight. I'm looking forward to being home for a couple days...

I'm gonna try the low-tech pencil-n'-paper journal thing, at some point, soon. I like writing with a real wooden pencil, sometimes. And God only knows, my handwriting could use some practice...

---

I went to Mojo Risin' Coffee House(yes, there was Doors shit everywhere, yes, the owners are sixty) in Houston last night, to see Mo Pair play a gig. Mo plays with a group called GRASS that I heard by... random chance in College Station one time. Not exactly "polished" by any means, but it's always fun to hear them play. And there was this emo kid there that played, too, named Cody. I hate emo. I really do.

But listening to a stoner (that'd be Mo) and a harmonica player (that'd be this guy named Wayne) cover "Dark Side of the Moon"? Entertaining. I thought they'd do... maybe two songs. No sir. one whole side of the record, at least... heh.

Found a new cool coffee place in Houston, though. That was one of my big goals, since they closed down Diedrich's Coffee. Diedrich's was, I think a franchise, but it's distinctly different than Starbucks. Last night, I saw THE Starbucks that Lewis Black refers to in this:

From the beginning of time, man has looked at the heavens and firmly believed that the end of the universe ends out in space. It's not true. The end of the universe happens to be in the United States. I have seen it. And, oddly enough, it's in Houston, Texas...I know, I was shocked too... I left the comedy club there and walked down the street. On one corner, there was a Starbucks. And across the street from that Starbucks, in the exact same building as that Starbucks, was a Starbucks. At first I thought the sun was playing tricks on my eyes. But, no. There was a Starbucks across from a Starbucks. And that, my friends, is the end of the universe. People have said to me, 'how do you know?' And I say, 'go there. Stand between those two Starbucks and look at your watch. Time stands still.' And if you turn this way, and look at just this Starbucks, immediately you think, 'You know, There cannot possibly be a Starbucks behind me. Nobody would have been that stupid, to have built a Starbucks across from a Starbucks. And if there was a just and loving God, he wouldn't allow that kind of shit to go down.' So you turn slowly, thinking, 'well, I'll see a Gap, or a Denny's, maybe even a Mobil Station... BUT THERE'S A STARBUCKS!'

( click here for a photo )

SO. Went to see Imogen Heap with mothoc, sangria2, sushi_slave, and Adrienne on the 24th, at the Verizon Wireless Theater's "Club V". Cool venue - big floor, big stage, seats in the back, two levels of seating--there's a balcony.

SO. The first act was Levi Weaver - he won some sort of MySpace contest and gets to tour with them. Not a bad guitarist, seemed a little too emo, but he's got potential. He's kinda all over the map stylewise.

And then, oh shit, Kid Beyond came on. Beatboxing has, to me, always been a cool idea. But OH MAN this guy-- this guy is GOOD. And the loop apparatus he had-- wow. He does songs, all of which are completely his voice. Here he is, mid-song:

Amazing. For example-- he'd do some "ding" bell noise. Looped it. Then a THMPA-THMPA back-of-the-throat bass noise, and loop that. And then he did a really high falsetto ethereal part. That's the setup. Now there are words that go along with this progressively-more-elaborate no--physical-instruments song. Very cool. He covered "Wandering Stars" by Portishead; it was really cool. Then there was a song of his called "Mothership", "Deep Inside" and "I Shall Be Free". Really cool. ( i realize i used "cool in every sentence in there. It's true. I'm at a loss other than that. the guy is _good_.)

Then, Imogen came on. We went nuts. Great stuff. And when I say she came on, I mean she started at the back of the theater and wandered through the crowd and sang "I am in Love with You". Really something. She had red-and-yellow feathers in her hair. Looked really cool.


Yes, actually, we were really close to the stage.

Then she did "Just for now" as an a capella arrangement, like the previous concert. Neat, to know that she's good enough to do all this without the voice processing.

After that song, she "introduced the band". The "parrot", she said - says whatever I say back to me (says whatever I say back to me). The keytar (yep, it's back) she sang "I sing the notes, and I press the keys, and it does my harmonies" in a pretty singsong voice.

She demonstrated the beatbox (which she said she would be using way less, since Kid Beyond was going to do the beatboxing; and the other keyboards. Very cool. There was a guy playing stand-up bass, and a guy on percussion, and Levi Weaver on guitar.

"Headlock" was amazing. The initial effect of the song, when it occurs to you what song it is and how well it's being done-- very nice. The combination of beatboxing by Kid Beyond, and Imogen singing-- there wasn't much need for the other musicians, but it was cool. elaborate songs are some of my favorites. Here's the stage, mostly-- I couldn't get the drummer or Levi on guitar, but, eh, y'get it. And yes, that's a plexiglas grand-piano-keyboard stand.


I'm just going to list the rest of the tracks they did and things that stuck out as I go.

"Loose Ends"
"Let Go" -- she was like "well, I guess it's time for the Frou Frou song..." and everyone cheered.
"Keep the area clear" - the loops in this one, and the effects are what I find really cool. I just... I enjoy watching her. As she's doing some songs, she's running back and forth and you can see her mind work. You can see she loves this, like a little kid.

"Closing In" - this had a do-over, since she started on "Takes me back..." instead of "I can't wait...". And she did this last time-- the "oh, shit, forgot the words, do-over." and restarted the song. I think it's cute how she was just able to go "whups" and restart.

"Come Here Boy" - 'I Megaphone' is the album this is off of, and IT'S BEING RE-RELEASED. Outstanding. The album's been out of print for a long time. She said she "can't even get a copy, except for off of eBay, and I made it!". So we'll all be able to get one soon.

"Say Goodnight and Go" - All musicians again - Good version. Elaborate.

"Speeding Cars" - her and the bass man. I love this song - it's just cool. It seems

"Blanket" - Dedicated to Tiff, who maintains her myspace and lives in Houston. She mentioned the rap section in the middle, that she was "going to try to do" and the "really hot guy in Urban Planet" who did it, otherwise. She was 17 (SEVENTEEN) when they did this song. Amazing.
"The Walk" I like this one because of the rolling percussion noise at the front. There are certain notes that always get me.
"Have You Got It In You?" - this is another song in which the urgency appeals to me, like Dar Williams' "Are You Out There?" - it's so quick and breathlessly done.

During one of these songs, she was drumming on her corset to make a sound for a loop.

"Have you got it in you" was the (air quotes by Immi) "last song".

We cheered, she came right back out.

"Hide and Seek" was great - she picked up the keytar and said "so, um, now i'm gonna do a song that starts with "hide" and ends with "seek". Everyone went nuts. It was great. She looks so peaceful during this song...

"Daylight robbery" was another one in which she was dancing around and playing onstage.

"The Moment I said it" was the last song. I love that song. very cool.

After the concert, everyone had to jet to get traveling, so we left. Slightly disappointed to not take photos and all, but it was good we got to do that in June.

She's got a new album in the works, so I'm excited for that, too. Wahah...

I went to see Vienna Teng last night, with sangria2 and sushi_slave. Duncan Sheik played, as the second act. sangria2 was there to see him play, mostly. It was a good concert-- I've seen her play a bunch of times before, and while it was more polished in previous concerts, this one was still pretty good. There were some issues with the sound, but... good, overall. There were two women playing strings along with her-- Marika Hughes, who's played with her before at another concert, and Deena McAfee(not sure if that's right at all on the last name, there).

She played:
Enough to Go By -- (I love this song, she said that this is one of her two country-ish songs. This has always been one of my favorite songs of hers.)
Whatever you Want -- (this is her "revenge" song, for anyone who's been wronged by a spouse or someone at work)
Blue Caravan -- (this one was great-- the strings added to it, in a way...)
Shasta -- (on this one, she said that this is out of character, a bit, for Marika--she sang the "There's love waiting here for both of you" part, since Marika is Jewish, and from New York, since it's a song about a girl in the West thinking about terminating a pregnancy and her run-in with a Christian woman at the abortion clinic...)
Now Three -- (This is her other song about babies, with 'Shasta' being the other one, but 'Now Three' is about a couple with a new baby)
Unwritten Letter #1 -- (This one, she played more forcefully than the normal. I liked it that way, since it emphasizes the choppy tango style. Good stuff. She also mentioned that this is one everyone has a hard time remmebering the name of, since "Unwritten letter #1" appears nowhere in the lyrics...)
Nothing Without You
Green Island Lullaby -- (She told a story of going to find food before the concert, and since it was a Sunday, in the area the concert was in, not much was open. The only restaurants, honestly, in that area, are all Chinese food. When she walked in, the restaurant staff could see, she said, that she didn't speak Cantonese, since she was raised in the United States. This is a lullaby sung in Mandarin. She always hopes to sing it correctly. I've listened to this one so many times that I can pretty much sing it phonetically...)
Recessional -- (This is effectively a "story told in reverse". This is also one of my favorite new songs of hers.)
I Don't Feel So Well -- (She saw a couple bands play once, and this is an emulation of their style. one of them was called Two Foot Yard. The song seems tango-ish to me, something like Unwritten Letter #1)
1BR/1BA -- (This one, since there is more equipment required to make the right sound than what they had, they... bongo'd the keyboard and cello to make the percussion. Unusual version, that.((I'm accustomed to percussion on a string instrument from Zoe Keating's performance, but this was different, somehow, since it was just an experiment.)))
Harbor -- (Told a story about John Glenn in "The Right Stuff". When the astronauts were in a press conference, how all the astronauts other than John Glenn made light of their family's opinion of their being an astronaut. John Glenn was grateful for his wife's support, and this song is about that-- those who are waiting for people when they return.)
City Hall -- (This is one of my new favorite sons of hers, too. had a bit of sign-language and acting done by Marika and Deena.)

I always enjoy seeing her play. Good stuff.

I went to see Theory of a Deadman play at the Scout Bar in Clear Lake, TX. The concert had three opening acts-- Anibus, Red, and Faktion. Wasn't a real big fan of any of them-- Faktion was much better than the others, but hey, whatever.

Theory came on about 11pm. They pretty much just played. no chatter, just played. hard.

they played:
Hating Hollywood
Quiver
Invisible Man (and invariably, alternative, lyrics amuse me. "Going once, going twice, fuck this, I'm gone" was this set.)
Make up Your Mind
Say Goodbye
Since You've Been Gone
Me and My Girl (with banjo, woo)
Any Other Way
Nothing Could Come Between Us
The Last Song (which apparently used to be called "Theory of a Deadman", itself)
Now Way Out
Better Off (audience helping with refrain)

and that was it.

The encore (duh, 'course they did an encore)

was Tyler playing "Hell just ain't the same" acoustic on a guitar,

Santa Monica (which was elaborate as hell and cool)
and No Surprise.

Good concert, overall.

Nine Inch Nails was a cool concert. There were a HUGE number of people there... The lawn seats me and mothoc had were some of the best to be had, without paying waay too much to stand in the front part. They played a bunch of songs-- nearly two hours. TV On The Radio was the first opener. Wasn't a big fan. Bauhaus was the second opener... right. right right. too many lil' gothlings there for me to really like that.

(there were, however, some damn hot girls there. I have no idea how girls can stand on a hill in 4" stilettos to watch a concert. But I'm glad they do. *grin*)

Nine Inch Nails came out, then. There were a HUGE number of people at this concert. Most of the concerts I go to are... like 400-ish people venues. Going to a venue that has thousands of people... new thing for me.

It was a cool show. The light show with the music... pretty cool. I could almost feel the bass. Could hear it all pretty well; the sound was adjusted pretty well.

OH MAN I WANT TO BE ASLEEP RIGHT NOW, though.

Terrible Lie and The Hand That Feeds were pretty damn cool. "Closer" was great. They played a HUGE number of songs.

And right before we left, security ws dragging this guy out and he DAMN NEAR hit me in the eye socket. Grazed my eyelashes. As we left, the security guys were sitting on him and the cops were running up. Fucker.

It was a damn good concert. And we were able to leave quickly, since the garage parking at the Woodlands is THE GREATEST THING EVER.

yaaay.

Yesterday, I went to one of the best concerts of my life.



Imogen Heap, at 'Warehouse Live' in Houston, TX. Concert started at about 8:15pm. Zoë Keating was the opening act. Zoë's act -- VERY COOL. Live, real-time electronic looping of a cello. She's in Rasputina, and does a damn cool show. loops, multiple channels, percussion from tapping and bongo-style thumps on the body of the cello. OUTSTANDING. And she has red hair.

She played 5 or 6 songs. Several, I have no idea what the names are. I have the CD, now, either way. The other songs she played are "Fern" and "tetrishead". She said we should treat these as "songs with invisible words", and suggested that the one she played next could be called "Don't Worry".

And then, Imogen came on. OH MAN, awesome.

She did an "acoustic" version of "Just for Now". "acoustic" because it was looped vocals. The loops, some of them, were ah ah ah ah repeated for, say, twenty seconds, into the microphone. Just long enough to go "what is she doing there" and then she winds it in to the synthesizer, and starts another loop, and then another, and then she grabs the microphone, and dances out into the middle of the stage. OH MAN. And she did the *sniff sniff* part, too. wahahah.

Then she introduced us to "her band". The beatbox-- bukka bukka BAM. The piano, the drums, the vocoder setting, and her (mac) laptop. Even that was kinda cool, just for the snap-into-performer-mode switch and then back to chatting with everyone.
( Imogen closeup...pretty. (picture under the cut) )
Now, the track list, and short comments on each, before I go back into OMGWHEEE mode again.

Goodnight and Go - the girls behind us (who were drunk) seemed to LOVE this one. I liked it, no doubt, but it's not my favorite. Still very cool, she looped her own vocals for it.

Come Here Boy - This is an old one of hers. Requested by the girl who maintains her MySpace page, Tiff, who was right in front and to the right of mothoc and me. I like her old material, for a different style. Voice is about the same, the instruments are... more raw and choppy. And it's a good contrast to the new stuff.

The Walk - I love this song. It was just... well done. And the bass, oh man, the bass in this song. Made my shirt vibrate.

Loose Ends - she did loops again for the backing vocals. very neat. the "dum... d-da da dum..." part was one of the loops. fades in, fades out... very slick. This was, I think, another of the ones where she set the loops and walked up to dance a bit and then returned to the keyboard to stop the loop. hah.

Speeding Cars - this is a new song, the B-side to her new single. I love it, each time I've heard it so far it's been another I think will become one of my favorites. Zoë helped on this one. The mix of strings and synth and voice and everything... very smooth. Nice.

Headlock - one of the best, definitely. Zoë played on this one, as well. I loved the low cello notes, instead of the deep-voiced AAhh-ahhh crescendo in the album version.
And the synth notes and the loop from the laptop-- damn near seamless.

Clear the Area - This was another with loops, I think. Very good.

Let Go - There were a large number of people who seemed to know NONE of Imogen's solo stuff. They all lost it and cheered HARD when she said she would play a Frou Frou song. And it was very good. She re-rhythmed most of the songs, this included. There's something really neat, seeing people who look like me, and dudes with their cartilage gauged, and all sorts of people singing along with the words.

Have You Got it in You? - this is another really great song. Again, lots of bass. made my shirt vibrate. I LOVE THAT. Not the painfully loud stuff - it's a pretty specific band of bass that I like, I think. Might ought to figure that out sometime. Zoë played along on this one, creating some percussion loops and a bit of strings.

And her "last song" was... (guess. g'head.)((and the quotes around "last song" were hers. HAH. yay foregone-conclusion-concert-encores.))
( Immi and the key-tar...(picture under the cut) )

Hide and Seek. She set a loop, I think, and then picked up the key-tar. Yep, like mothoc said, "oh my god, we're gone back to 1985." It was pretty cool. I thought perhaps she had a vocoder machine she used, for processing everything afterwards. Incorrect. The keys on whatever keyed instrument she chooses--those chords will create a harmony in the vocals, real time. Slick, this "modern technology."

Blanket Another good older song. she did all the parts, including the "traded in my gun for a pad and a biro" rap section. And the Sssss-Kck part is cool.

Daylight Robbery - lots of bass, again. Sweet. Good song.

The Moment I said it - I love this song. The beginning is so haunting, and the rest tells a story. Very cool.

There was a little rhinestone by the corner of each of her eyes that would catch the light and twinkle when she sang. Neat stuff. She had that little-kid-I-can't-believe-this-is-work attitude, almost. She just seemed to be dancin' around and chatting. Very approachable, and very down-to-earth.

---

So we hung out in (the) Warehouse. And I ran into Gene, a guy I met through Blue October (He's Justin Furstenfeld's best friend)
And when I said something about a girl's A&M shirt being a good shirt, the guy next to her got up, and went "John?"-- it's a guy I lived in Appelt Hall at Texas A&M with. hah. I _do_know everyone.

( me and Imogen (picture under the cut) )

I got a picture with her, and she signed my CD. I wouldn't have dreamed we'd gett to meet her, either. Great stuff. One of the best concerts I've ever been to. Bar none. And she'll be back in November '06.

And I will definitely be there.

I went to see Vienna Teng, tonight, in Houston, TX, with Adrienne (and the rest of her family, since they've all become quick fans of Vienna's music.)

Adrienne, me, and Alexis sat, since I bought those three tickets seriously early after they were available, almost touching(literally, like three inches) from the stage. Adrienne's parents had pretty good seats, too.

she played a HUGE number of songs, since apparently her opening act wasn't able to perform, due to a death in the family.

In order (yeah, I write 'em down, yo), she played:

Gravity

Homecoming

Blue Caravan - this is a new song, I LIKE IT, a lot.

Feather Moon - she asked for requests, since she had a huge number of songs she was going to play. I asked for this one. The "...breathe in, breathe out..." part is my favorite part, but the whole song is great. She said this was one she played to quiet a bunch of drunks at one show in ... Alabama? Smiths' Olde Bar, apparently. It reminds me VERY MUCH of the first time I saw her in concert at Fitzwilly's, this crappy lil' bar in College Station, TX. I wanted SO BADLY for everyone to shut up and just let her play the beautiful stuff coming from that keyboard. And 90% of the bar acted as if she wasn't even there.

Mission Street - this one was apparently composed on a guitar. she's learning--slowly-- to play guitar, she said. Some of her songs, though, are composed on guitar. This is one.

Fire and Rain - James Taylor - This one was dedicated to a man named Jack, who was apparently a big supporter of hers and of the Mucky Duck. He passed away, recently. Adrienne's sister Alexis really likes James Taylor, also.

The Tower

That's Where I'll Be - Brian (sp?) Webb (They toured together a while back, and this is one of his songs. Good song. I'll have to look for an album of his, or something.

here was an intermission

Enough to Go By - This is always one of my favorites. This wasn't the favorite time she's played it; it's been better before. I won't lie on that. But the song always makes me smile. Actually, I smile after the first two bars, usually, and throughout the song.

Daughter - this was written during a period of 'drama' between her and her father. She said she has recently begun to understand many sacrifices and things her parents did that were not obvious before, and gained a lot of respect for them.

Nothing Without You - written in much more of the 'adolescent style' than most of her songs. She discussed the fact that her first album was from a bit of a college point of view, and the second more mature, and the third from an "older woman" viewpoint (which drew a laugh from the crowd-- a good contingent of the audience was 50s or older.). She said this one was included despite initial objections from the people helping select songs.

Now 3 - neat song. I need to listen to it again.

Lullaby for a stormy night - I think this is the only time I'm ever able to listen to this song-- in concerts, that is-- that it doesn't make my eyes go all sparkly. It's just... sweet, and very caring.

(and apparently you can sing the verses the wrong-way-round and it still works. She's done that, she said)

Shasta - was written to try to understand the pro-life movement. She "apparently nailed it", because a pro-life radio station wanted to use the song. Don't think it happened, ever, but the thought is interesting. She said she is pretty much opposed to the viewpoint in the song, but it was interesting to try and write.

Atheist Christmas Carol - this one, apparently, is part of the 'maternal' section of the concert. Said she wasn't sure if her mom was atheist or not-- hadn't asked, heh.

Unwritten Letter #4 - This is the tango. This song is about unrequited love. The piano fingerwork on this song is the thing I always watch. AWESOME. And on a certain level the words sting a little, right at the moment.

Drought - she went to play piano for a Waltz society, somewhere in the South (alabama, atlanta, I honestly don't remember). There, the members don't make a lot of airs about their appearance, apparently, and she met a man who was... less than the-most-handsome-guy-ever, shall we say. But he could dance. And she said for a few minutes, she felt like a princess, dancing with this man. So this was a song for him.

Green Island Lullaby - this song is beautiful. In Taiwanese.

City Hall - this one she wrote in the style of Dolly Parton, she said. Is this song abotu gay marriage? Honestly seems to be what it's about, to me.

Harbor - I love this song.

Soon Love Soon - had the audience sing along with the chorus. This is usually one of my favorite parts. It's been VERY cool sometimes.

---

Went up, thanked her for the concert, and came back to go to sleep. I very much can't WAIT for the new album. It comes out July 25th.

went to see Blue October play at a CD-release party for Foiled, their new CD. Slick.

I like the CD, so far.

they played 5 songs, and...yeah. awesome. Normally they said they only play two songs, but hey, we're in their hometown, so... whoop.

they played In the Ocean, Hate Me, Schizophrenia, Overweight, and 18th Floor Balcony.

opinions:
In the Ocean
I like this song. As soon as they started singing. Love it.

Hate Me
Man, this one brought up some past thoughts for me. The lyrics are based on his past, and it's And I like it, in that "hmm. that's... wow." kind of way. Made me think, and made me think back. It was good.

Schizophrenia
I love the violin in this, every time. Gives me chills. And Justin's (and Jeremy's too, i suppose) mother was there, so this time Justin was singing _to her_ for part of it. The "...since 1993, when my mother held me..." part got a massive cheer.

Overweight
I like it. It's... just a cool song.

18th floor Balcony
This song, every time I hear it, chokes me up a little. Very good song. And I love that they did this song on this album. I wanted a clean copy. GREAT.

It's really a good album. Redone versions of a 5591 song, which is also great. Buy it.

And that's one more concert for my mission101 goal for going to ten concerts. that's five. And I have, lessee... at least three more already slated. tickets already bought for:
Nine Inch Nails in the Woodlands on June 4th (hey cool),
Imogen Heap at Warehouse Live on May 12 (WAHAHAH, AWESOME),
and Vienna Teng at the Mucky Duck (great, she's awesome live) on May 9th.
(that's reverse order, apparently. heh)

And there's a Blue October show at Warehouse Live on April 20th, that I might go to. not sure on that one.

---

Man, I have bought an INSANE number (for me, at least) of CDs lately.
Fiona Apple - When the Pawn...
Bon Jovi - New Jersey
Blue October - Foiled
Nine Inch Nails (halo 19, I have no idea what the actual album name is right at the moment)
Staind - Chapter V
Little Feat - Waiting for Columbus (for my dad - it's the album with "Dixie Chicken" on it. HAH)
Gasoline, Theory of a Deadman
Finally Woken, Jem

weird. I damn-near-never actually BUY CDs. but, well... artists I like? yeah.

---

so it's been a good afternoon. And I have a good weekend planned. hanging out with sushi_slave and sangria2 tomorrow, I think. And Adrienne and I are going to Galveston Saturday.

Last night Adrienne and I went to The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. fun stuff. we went to see Alan Jackson, (well, sorta. Adrienne wanted to see the rodeo, and I kinda actually wanted to see the goats at the stock show.) So we went through the shops, and all, and then went to go look at the livestock some. See, and it sounds all redneck (and to a point I'll grant you that) but the animals at the stock show are some of the best examples of stock you'll ever see. They're all clean, and HUGE and all that. The rabbits were... massive. Most of those were kinda cool, except for the ones with the red eyes. Creepy.

And the Boer goats (the ones I wanted to see, they're neat lil' goats) got sold earlier in the week already and they were gone. so... hmm. went to watch the rodeo. Good stuff. There were several really good rides on the bull-riding, and the bucking-bronc riding was kinda lame. Lots of guys in the steer-wrestling just... clean-up missed the steer. overshot, undershot... just... no good.

ok. Concert rolls around... Alan Jackson's looking kinda... older. (which makes sense, some of hiw really big hits were in about '93, '94. Anyway... played a pretty good set. He played, in no particular order, "Little Bitty", "remember When", "Chattahoochee", "Who's Cheatin' Who"(which has a racing video, and I've never understood why),"Pop a Top", "It's 5 o'clock somewhere", "Drive", "Where I come From", "Gone Country", "I Don't Even Know Your Name", "Livin' on Love" (I think he played this one, anyway), "Don't Rock the Jukebox" (which I heard, the day-before-yesterday on the radio, heh), "Here in the Real World", and maybe one or two others.

Good stuff. And even Adrienne had a Texas accent a little last night.

Definitely something y'all should do, if you've never been to the rodeo.

You cannot imagine how outstanding the seats at Bon Jovi were last night. Dave bought these at Randall's, fro teh ticketmaster machine. AWESOME SEATS. There was the huge nosebleed-well,-they're-way-over-there-singing section around the outside, and the floor section down front. we were in the midsection-- but the deal was, we were on the side of ths stage. Next to the walkway that came out to 10 feet from the audience--less actually, sine he could reach out and touch people. so, like... 15 feet from Jon Bon Jovi when he walked out on it. Pretty damn cool. the girl behind us-- i thought she was going to explode-- she went up and he touched her hand.

it was great to be there with Dave and Holly (my uncle and aunt that live here in Houston) since they actually really appreciate the music. yep.

He also sang from like 4 different places in the crowd. one stage in the middle of the far end of the floor, one in the middle of the same side we were, the main stage, and then just kinda out-in-the-crowd. Always had a security detail, but... man... cool stuff.

they played, (mostly in no particular order on this list):
Last Man Standing (my personal favorite from have a nice day, this one was first)
Bad Medicine
I'll be There for you
Won't Back Down (Tom Petty cover, pretty cool)
It's my Life
I Want to be Loved
Complicated
Just Older
You Give Love a Bad Name
Raise Your Hands
Runaway (with a cool intro "you're in a time machine. 2005...2004...2003" (i whooped)... -all the way back to 1984... and then they started)
Born to be My Baby
Sleep When I'm Dead
Bed of Roses
Livin' on a Prayer

and "Bounce" and "Wanted Dead or Alive" (and one other, that totally slips my mind) as the encore

Sarah Bettens (from K's Choice) is headlining an event at SXSW (in Austin, TX) next year (march 16-18th, '06, that is)

So apparently, I'm going to SXSW. for the first time ever, actually. But I'm excited. woo.

Anyone wanna go with? vivaldia? lesliessexxy?(ever heard of K's Choice?) Either way, I have me a concert to go to in March. whoop.

(oh yeah, and it's apparently a girl-band thing. Which is also my kind of deal.)

link here: http://www.gogirlsmusic.com/sxsw/

Before the show, Adrienne and i went to Katz's, this lil' kosher deli underneath Momo's Club, and had a sandwich, which was totally unremarkable, except I saw Justin (Furstenfeld) and he recognized me. I was surprised, sorta. Maybe I stand out at concerts, or something. Recognized Adrienne, too, it seemed.

Kirk played acoustic versions of a bunch of Greatness in Tragedy songs... which were good, but, just sorta 'unplugged' versions. not really much different than the normal versions. not bad, though.

Then Matt Novesky (sp?) played a couple, and... while he's a great guitarist, his voice just drives me up a wall.

---

Then Justin came up a played his set. Awesome. Totally different than a lot of the Blue October stuff. Setlist, mostly--and comments as i can remember things from what he said:

Mountain - he wrote this when he was 14.

The 21st - had to do with a girl he dated for a long time.

Sorry Hearts (I have no idea if that's the right name, I think that might be it tho)

Who Am I - written when he was with Last Wish, an old band. New music to this one, I think, since the old band won't let his use the old material.

Morning Everything

Kangaroo Cry - (this quote is from an mp3 i have - "uh, this next song was, uh, sponsored by September 11th. Kind of opened my eyes and made me not take things for granted. So, sat down in the van and wrote this song. it's called 'Kangaroo Cry'")

What went Wrong - I think this was the one he wrote when he was 15 that freaked the SHIT out of his mom, he said. It';s aabout a man who murdered his whole family.

Murdered a Friend

Spotlight

Artha - another Last Wish song, but written about his grandmother, after she passed away.

____________ - I didn't catch a name on this song, but I'm keeping the order as best i can.

Define the Trail

Graceful Dancing

Gunmetal Blue

3 weeks, She Sleeps (this is such a fun song. he had everyone sing along with the la-di-da, la-di-da part. Loved it.)

Sack Lunch - he was trying some new stuff, with a friend named Alan. turned out cool. synths and all that.

The Week Below the Sea - synths, drumbeats, all that. very neat.

The Fern - I love this song. very electronic.

Italian Radio - the lyrics were the same. Damn near everything else was different. very neat.

---

Shook Justin's hand, got him to sign the ticket stub, and then I went back and slept. It was a good night.

Jason Boland and Rich O'Toole played a 4+ hour set at the Dixie Chicken. I watched the whole thing. highlights:

epic-length jam sessions of

Purple Rain,

Seven Spanish Angels,
and, in no particular order:

Boys From Oklahoma( which, holy shit, that was a long version ("i like to smoke, i didn't learn it from my daddy, my wife is skinny but i sure love the fatty" and others, inserted in the song)

Shot full of holes,

Mexico or Crazy

Tennessee Whiskey and Texas Weed

When I'm Stoned (some guys have weird ways to write love songs to their wives, see this link to the Ben Arthur concert for proof)

Copperhead Road (with the story of how JB met Steve Earle in a sushi restaurant)

Are you sure Hank done it this way

OD in Denver

Hank Williams

Devil's Right Hand

LA Freeway

The Road Goes on forever

Sangria Wine

Roadside Prayer

waylon cover

Bleu Edmondson cover
and there were many, many more. Very cool.

Montgomery Gentry was the concert Thursday night at the Houston Rodeo. The concert was great... they sang all the good songs, and a couple that were either new or a cover. The rodeo was good. I went with Ali, and that was fun. The cover they did of "wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi-- straight up awesome. Especially cool since the last rodeo concert I saw, in roughly the same seats in 2003 (whoop), was Bon Jovi two years ago with Andy.

"Speed" was distinctly my favorite of the ones they played. I love that song.

I wish we'd known better when the concert was goign to start. We's have liked to gone to the market and stock show, too, but after the concert didn't start til 930... (tickets said 7:00 pm, we figured 'surely it's starting soon' for about two hours.)

Lots of fun, though...

---

yeah, what I really need... is an open road, and a whole lot of speed...

Chris LeDoux passed away. I wasn't really a massive fan of his until last year, when i heard he'd be coming to the Texas Hall of Fame (it's a dancehall) in College Station. I found some of his music, and enjoyed(and still do) the tar out of it. The concert was great... see this entry from January 25th, 2004 for my thoughts on it back then.

"he's the last to quit, and the first to buy the beer..."

went to Northgate for the Northgate music festival last night, heard a couple of bands, and met msmacphisto and her sister (eesh, they're tall) and a bunch of other people. The bassist for A+ Machines is insane. Incredible to watch. And the Burden Brothers (they used to be the Toadies, mostly) were all right. If they'd played "Possum Kingdom" or "Dollskin" (or any toadies music) they would have been the hit of the festival...but apparent;ly they don't wanna be the Toadies anymore. (which is dumb, they had ten times the following as the toadies...)

but anyway.. going back out there tonight, Better than Ezra is playing. should be a good show.

(and there's something really strange about seeing a 40-ish year old woman with her tongue pierced...)

*grin*

going to the rodeo, with Ali, on the 17th to see Montgomery Gentry.

She called tonight, with a "you always call all late right before i'm going to go to bed and so i'm calling early" at 715-ish. And so i got to talk to her for something like an hour and fifteen minutes tonight before I went to mig_unit's birthday thing at Bennigan's.

And this will be my first concert this year. which is weird... since i went to... 13, 14 concerts last year. I better get started...

Cowboy Mouth is coming to CS on May 9th... going to make that one. Crossfade will be in Houston on march 27th... might try to make that one. that'd be three...

i'm having a good night, too. yay. I should go to sleep now...all early and stuff, i know.

---

Class was interesting today-- identifying machine parts and purposes. i'm good at that... yay. and class tomorrow won't be a big deal. and then that's it for the week, again. I like 4-day weeks.

well, this is weird. Mixed signals, yay.
( sheesh... )
god, the moon looked cool tonight. < /subject-change>

---

Still looking forward to Sunday evening and Monday, either way. yay coffee and studying.

---

Bulletproof Brown concert was good, as always. Good to hear they're going to be playing more often; It's been too long since they played.

---

This is a cool song. I think I'm going to go find more music by Olive. And get some sleep. Jeesh, I've been tired lately for no good reason...

So, tonight was my second concert in two days in Houston, which involved (both times) roughly an hour-and-a-half of driving each way.

So anyway. the concert was cool, Vienna was pretty, as always. purplie top, black pants. Tonight's show was her and a violin and a cello. Allen Lin, Eric Cheng (www.echeng.com) and Marika Hughes on either cello or violin. Good stuff. They played a really large set.

This is the set list, and paraphrased comments as best I remember them.

Shasta--about a girl who is pregnant and wonders what to do, she is accosted by activists at a clinic. one of my favorites. I interpreted it correctly, which is always nice to know you understood what she was trying to say.
My Medea--a blatantly non-happy song, subject of backhanded compliments to Vienna
Enough To Go By--Also one of my favorites. Always a good song.
The Tower-- misinterpreted as "a song about 0wning and getting 0wned"
Gravity
Say Uncle--written after her uncle's death, the oldest song of hers she still performs; she wrote it when she was 16. It has parts from an Elvis song, a Simon & Garfunkel Song, and Bette Midler's 'Wind Beneath my Wings' in the piano solo, since those were the songs played at his funeral.
Anna Rose--a lullaby from the second album. The dynamics of her voice when she sang the words "Anna Rose" int he song were beautiful....
Unwritten Letter #1--her attempt at a tango. She said since people were arguing whether it was a rhumba or a tango, she felt good about it.

---------intermission was here------------

Taiwanese Folk Song--beautiful, sounds very much like Enya, but in Pinyin, instead of Gaelic. She was raised in California, so she never actually lived there. She apologized for singing it in an American accent. She told us that, while we wouldn't notice, there are a bunch of others in the audience who would.
Atheist Christmas Carol
"Cannonball" by Damien Rice--"Stones taught me to fly--Love taught me to lie--Life taught me to die--So it's not hard to fall--When you float like a cannonball." Beautifully sung by Vienna.
Boy at the Piano--apparently one she doesn't play often...must find lyrics...
Between--pizzicato violin, pizzicato and bowed cello, backing vocals, and a very small amount of piano. Very acoustic, very unplugged, and very awesome.
Feather Moon--very cool stuff done wtih the violin on this one, lots of improvisation
Leaving Atlanta, by Brian Webb, a friend of Vienna's--good song.
Soon Love Soon--she had the audience sing with her, the "soon, love, soon, mmm-mmm" and "And we will be as one god...and we will be as one people" parts.
Harbor--Very nice. I wanted to hear this one. This is apparently her try at a prog-rock/alt-rock song. Again, the vocal dynamics on this one are great...

---

Her hands spring and dance on the keys when she plays. It's very much a sight to see... and she's so graceful when she plays...

again, a very good concert. I met Adrienne's mother tonight; very nice lady. Good to finally meet people you've heard about for 5 years.

ahh... now to bed.

Got there at around 5:45. doors weren't going to open until 7, so i figured I had some waiting around to do. parked right up front, and that was cool. got out, and this girl named Lauren was there, too, about the same time. So we're walking, and we look over there, and I'll be damned if Gert (Bettens, the lead guitarist and backing vocals; Sarah's brother) isn't sitting on the ground just picking on his guitar. He was teaching another guy, Kurt (kirk? dunno; he was the tech guy) how to play some of the songs on acoustic. So Lauren and I go sit on the ground next to them, and Listen to that for a while. We look up on the stairs leading into the building, and Sarah (Bettens, the lead singer, and Gert's sister) was standing there, talking on a cel phone. And we were both flipping out, sitting this close to them and just listening to them BS and sing a little. Yes, I went all sissy-fanboy. Yes, i giggled like a moron. I've liked this band for going on eight years now. I have gotten through breakups, shitty dates, deaths in the family, and general heartache of various and sundry kinds listening to this music. I'm allowed to be that excited. so there.

So after a while Sarah gets off the phone and comes down to walk around a bit. we flip out, since she's gone over to talk to some other girls that showed up, Darlene and Ashley. Darlene is a hardcore fan, as am I, and so is Lauren. Ashley really couldn't care less. So Darlene is literally almost crying she loves this band so much, and my legs are shaking, i'm all nervous. It got better. We went to talk to Sarah, and I got my picture taken with Sarah, Gert, and Eric(bassist), each separately. So cool. The shirt Sarah had on for the concert was a tomato-soup colored ringer tee that said "you say tomato, I say fuck you" with a lil' tomato flipping you off on it.

They(Sarah, Eric, roadie named Chris) walk to some chinese restaurant near the venue. So Lauren and I sit and listen to Gert a little more, and then he got on the bus so we went inside. Darlene, Ashley, Lauren and I got a table at the very front. I got the "10" DVD, Sarah's solo CD, and a real copy of "Almost Happy". Had them sign the copy of Almost Happy. hahah. awesome.

Her tattoo: I asked, it's an S, with an wave, like the ocean (almsot verbatim there). the S has the bottom loop closed around, and then the wave goes like the swoop in a fermata, but vertical, perpendicular to the S, connected on the end. All in black ink. It's her only tattoo. (looking at the DVD, she used to have one in the same place of a cross, made of lines...)

The opening act was Jen Foster, a singer from... Houston, I think. She wanted us to "lend her our energy" by sitting right near the stage. So we did. woohoo. Stood right near the stage, and that was nice. Good stuff, from what I heard. It'd have been nice to have known the words. I caught a shirt, that she tossed (about two feet) to me. yay. It was good, overall.

The second act, "The Skills of Ortega" was... too much like Tori Amos, if she wanted to be electronic. Their purpose was the raise awareness of cervical cancer in women, which is an admirable cause. But the woman sang kinda... not awesome. The electric cello was kinda cool tho.

Then K's Choice came on.

And I lost it. So excited. They played, in order (since I got a setlist):
Another Year, Cocoon Crash, Believe, Butterflies Instead, Come Over Here (a new song, sounded cool), Almost Happy, Not an Addict, Too many Happy Faces, Winners, If You're Not Scared(my personal favorite), Hide, Not Insane(another new one, also good, different style, sorta), My Heart (she had us sing. Eric "was speechless", in that "It's not supposed to be depressing" kind of way. So we all grinned and bucked up and sang our asses off.), Breakfast, Losing you(another new one), and Busy.

If You're Not Scared was my favorite. Distinctly. I LOVE that song. they did an awesome job on it. beautiful. Watching Gert and Sarah lean in and play facing each other... god, I wish i'd had pictures left to take. I took a BUNCH of the first songs.Winners (before If you're not Scared) was also very very good. I love that song too, one tiny little bit less than If You're Not Scared.

Listening to the 15 or so of us that were up front, singing along with Sarah... it was like a little choir. we were ALL singing our asses off. and grinning like crazy. I love it. I've never been to another concert where there were so many people singing that you could hear it over the monitors. It was surreal...

Her favorite guitar was a Fender 'flying V' style one, made of wood stained sort of a walnut color. We were so close to the stage you could see that Sarah has a lil' vein that shows under her right eye when she is singing. Gert has one on the right side of his head that shows when he plays... yay, being all up close to the band.

After they played "Busy" they went away, and we cheered for them to come back. we'd seen the setlist; I knew they were coming back. Sarah said we sounded like 500 people. They then played Everything For Free, and God In My Bed.

That was it. They left after that. And then I said goodbye to everyone (Lauren, Darlene, Ashley) and left. As I was leaving, Shannon (another girl from inside, CUTE) was leaving, and I told her goodbye. She said to call her. Will do.
And then I drove home.

---

Random snippets/thoughts about the evening:

--the conversation Sarah had with Jacob(a lil' dude who came to the show with his dad and held up the phone so his sister could hear the concert) and his sister:

"Hello? Are you enjoying the concert? Where are you? San Antonio? (to audience) how far is that? Response:three hours. Three hours? that's nothing. you should come next time we play...Bye..." and then gave him back the phone.
----------
Man, there were a LOT of cute girls there. um, cute, lesbian girls. yeah. (did i mention I got two phone numbers?) What? I'm a sucker for short hair. In my defense, each asked me to call her... *grin*
----------
That show kicked a lot of ass.

---

that was an awesome concert, and I am extremely grateful to have gotten to see them, finally. It was worth every penny.

Football game was good. WE WON. Reggie McNeal is nerve-wracking as a quarterback. but we won, 41-30. Gig 'em, Aggies!

Adrienne didn't go want to go to Yell last night; something came up with her classes and she was in a bad mood. Thus, I didn't go to yell either. This getting-stood-up-in-person-for-previous-plans shit has got to go; it's getting really old.

---

Bonfire cut was canceled this (saturday) morning, since it was raining like nuts. I'm insane, since i'm going to try to go tomorrow (Sunday, three hours from now at roughly 6AM) and go cut trees for 6 hours. aaaaaaa.

---

And Blythe should be back in town tomorrow. whoop. *smile*

---

my ticket to K's Choice is in Temple, waiting for me to pick it up. I'm going to go home this coming weekend and go get it. It'll be good to go home... going to a gun show with Daddy and that'll be fun. I like going home. amybe i'll actually get to shoot a little while i'm home. Haven't shot in a long time. hehehe.

AND-I-GET-TO-SEE-K'S-CHOICE-IN-EIGHT-DAYS. hahahahhahahahahahahah. awesome. hahaha.... I've waited like... eight years for them to come close enough I could go. Like, in this hemisphere. And I get to go in 8 days. I'm a bit twitchily excited...

and then in nine days --yeah, the day after K's Choice-- I go to Vienna Teng with Adrienne and her mom. yes, I know, meeting her one of her parents. I'm starting to get confused on the "females" situation, myself...

---

gah. sleep.

K'S CHOICE IS COMING TO HOUSTON!

K's Choice is my favorite band ever ever ever.

and they're coming to houston. in like two weeks. I'm honestly so excited i can't see straight. hahahahaahahahaaa!

I wish y'all could experience the peace that comes over me when i hear the first couple bars of the violin on this song. I LOVE this band. I love this violin...

The Bulletproof Brown show was cool too. Live music with a bunch of friends (on stage playing, and in the audience) is a ton of fun. I wish that the girl from my class who wanted to come ('cept she was very ill) could have come; that would have been cool. She may go cut trees with us some weekend, though. that will be cool. I need to go buy workpants and an axe. tonight after lab, perhaps.

This is turning into a pretty random post, I guess.

---

hahahaha... awesome. Cowboy Mouth is coming to College Station again, on October 20th. I'm going to go broke going to concerts this year. between concerts, lack of sleep, and the whole "chopping down the forest for the trees" thing, school is going to be a pain in the ass to not flunk. (yes, misguided priorities, I know). bah.

one more thing, in the next entry. see y'all in a second. seriously, this is a big enough thing it gets its own entry.

The Blue October concert was awesome. I got to be in essentially the second row. right near the stage. Things like that, where you can feel the bass in your clothing, and your body vibrates from the sound.... I LOVE IT. my ears really don't care. doesn't bother me at all. "Schizophrenia" was beautiful. All of it was great. The crowd was good... nothing rowdy I can remember.

Apparently this is the last time they'll come to College Station for a while. Too bad. I like seeing them perform every couple months. it's great.

I met the band afterwards, asked justin what his tattoos were.
*points to underside of right forearm* "this one says 'nevermind'".
*points to left wrist, at W.W.M.D. tattoo, above the red star* "this one stands for 'what would mom do'"
*points at ring-finger tattoo (two thin blue lines with green diagonals)* "...and this one stands for 'never let a bitch ruin your life'."

and then he grinned and I went to Piper for my autograph. Got all them to sign a poster. yay autographs.

More later. I just wanted to get that about the tattoos down before it slipped my mind.

well.today was certainly a good day. woke up about 10. Talked to Adrienne about noon, she said to come over about 2 and we'd go to Houston. She drove. good stuff. Got to Houston, we bummed about (bummed about? what was i thinking when i wrote that? anyway...) the Galleria for a few hours. Adrienne got a watch, one of those bracelet type ones, and then we went to Cheesecake Factory to eat. Had spinach artichoke dip(yes, green veggies, me, yeah...) and that was good; a salad each, and then split a piece of cheesecake with strawberries on it.

so. the "Modern Troubadours" (Vienna Teng, Abra Moore, and Ben Arthur) concert at McGonigel's Mucky Duck was awesome; we got there and the venue is indeed tiny. Saw compasslizard again, good stuff. tickets were assigned, somewhat based on when you got your tickets and reserved them. We had great seats; i kicked myself for not bringing a tape recorder, or some way to record this thing. beatiful singing from Vienna, as usual; Ben Arthur, funny, and cool stuff. Abra Moore... well... Abra was, interesting. reminds me of the stereotypical awkward, lanky girl who was more than a little self-conscious in grade school. And she does the Stevie Wonder/Ray Charles thing when she sings sometimes.

Vienna remembered me from the College Station show I went to; the first time i saw her, on September 27, 2003. Wow, it didn't occur to me it had been that long ago, or that I had made that kind of impression. She didn't remember my name, but the look of recognition was nice. She plays so well. She has such a beautiful voice. She played, in no particular order: Lullabye For a Stormy Night, Gravity, My Medea, Homecoming, and Harbor. And one of Teitur's songs, even though he had to go home to... Norway, i think they said.

Ben did several cool songs. He played, again in no particular order, Mary Ann, Tonight, Broken-Hearted Smile, Keep me Around, and End of the Day, and this little spoken word thing about Jesus and a lactose-intolerant guy on a trip through Wisconsin, with Jesus performing minor miracles like turning unpasteurized milk into gasoline, and adolescent girls saying 'hey hunk,' and he and Jesus not knowing whether the girls meant one of them or the cheddar wheel inthe nearby window. The two that stick out in my mind as highlights, though they were all good, are Mary Ann, and Keep me Around.

When an artist (Ben did this) says something like,"the theme of this song is...(insert dramatic pause for effect here) dry-humping. there was a *GASP* from stage right, back behind us. and then he goes "who was that?" and three people point at one woman, who points backwards, at... someone, anyone else. hehehe. that was his song "Mary Ann". "Keep Me Around" was funny, since his wife told him to write a love song, and this one, while kinda sweet, in a weird, macabre way, was... um, not your usual love song. He said he wanted to write something kinda like "When I'm sixty-four", by the beatles, but, like an audience member pointed out, 'it's been done'. So instead there was this song telling his wife to use his body, around the house. lyrics like

"Keep me around, my whole life long
and when i'm gone don't you bury my bones
Keep me around

it's not that i'm jealous,
I just make a lovely stand
for umbrellas

and you can toss your keys
in the caps of my knees,
when you come back from town"

and others... yeah, I laughed the whole time he was singing this one.

Abra Moore wasn't bad, but nothing really spectacular comes to mind. She was nice, but i was there to see Vienna.

Got autgraphs from all three, and I now own three more legal CDs. whattaya know. I do buy CDs from artists I like.

Very good concert. the three of them switched around singing, with each singing one song, in a rotation, and playing on the other's songs. When Vienna played "Lullabye for a Stormy Night" no one sang with. other than that, they all sang/played on all of them.

Great live concert, great venue. I got autographs after the concert, which was the last of the tour, and then we went back to College Station.

scratch that. Watching Spiderman 2 with Adrienne now on Monday. only going to one of the Vienna Teng concerts--the Houston one, (not too bummed, since it'd be a metric-ass-ton of driving otherwise) but i really did wanna see her twice. Can't really think of any other way to swing it tho; wouldn't be too much fun to go by myself.

And it turns out that I have (according to adrienne) a 'cute', non-irritating texas accent. that;s good to hear. And Adrienne's sister just kinda started speaking with hers. It's pretty good, tho; usually when someone makes up an accent it sounds like hell.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
went to Northgate last night for shots (ouch, holy $$$hit) and sangria-and-sprite with baldeagle and gzamerath and they were kinda quite intoxicated when we left. since Andy cut me off (good idea, tho) partway thru the second pitcher, since I was driving, I don't feel like i've-been-hit-with-a-truck this morning.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

blarg, I'm so lazy lately. really feel kinda bad about thazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz *snerk* huh? what was I saying?

Right. Gonna go get cleaned up and go see I, Robot in a bit. woohoo, movies.

So... I am gonna be at a lot of concerts, come the end of july/start of august:

7-31 - Blue October, Time Square, College Station TX

8-02 - Vienna Teng, Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk, Houston, TX 77098

8-03 - Vienna Teng, Cactus Cafe, 23rd and Guadalupe, Austin, TX 78713 512.475.6515


HOLYCRAP, so cool. very excited. hehehehehehehe. I may well go to both the Vienna Teng concerts. yay, driving.

Ohgod. I have to get up in 4 and a half hours for work.

hahahahahahaha. awesome.

Cowboy Mouth was awesome at Wolf Pen Creek Amphitheater in College Station. I met compasslizard out there about 6:30 or so... and then it came pouring down rain, and then after about three inches of rain (it felt like) the Wolf Pen people came out, assured us the rain'd pass, and told us not to leave. A lot of people did, though... stupid people...

by then it was like 7:15. The Mouth didn't come on until...8:30, I think. But they put on a hell of a show. between the giant guy in front of us who drank a liter of vodka watching the show, to Mike,(the guy who I knew that met me out there) and all the people wiht the red spoons...

it was a hell of a show. And I got fred's autograph on my bonfire hat. So my "Texas A&M University BONFIRE" hat has a little Louisiana on it...

Jenny Says was first. then was in no particular order, Laughable, Uh-oh, (a couple I didn't know, don't kill me please, but they were good), and Everybody Loves Jill. And a bunch more. And it throws me for a loop that when they say, "this is our last song" they mean it, there's no encore. weird.

This little girl got on stage and played drums, when a boy sitting in the front row, somber and pissed-looking, didn't want to go... they picked him first. Later in the show, Harley (the boy) finally went up, and everyone went nuts... he caught on pretty quick how to play the crowd. He was having an awesome time. It was cool stuff.

And watching the people jump in the moat (what, water between the stage and the people; it's a moat...) after the drumsticks... the first guy who went in shallow-dove in... the moat might be 3 feet deep, but it has sharp rocks and shit at the bottom... he scraped the crap out of his nose...

hmm... Badass concert, couldn't hardly talk afterwards...

I loved it. and it was FREE.

So... went to the Blue October concert. It was awesome. went to dinner at the Chicken Oil Company with Adrienne, then she and I went to the concert. Andy and Kevin were at the concert, too. Adrienne can play pool better than she lets on.

The concert...

Awesome. I bought a copy of History for Sale. girl_villain, they didn't have The Answers for sale... I checked twice. Sorry bout that.

The concert was great, again. The bass was up so loud when they played "Amazing" was so loud it made my jeans buzz. I neglected to put "Amazing" on the Blue October CD I made Adrienne a while back, so she didn't know the song, woops. If you've never been to a concert that loud, it's awesome. It drives Andy nuts, since it makes your ears feel like they're full of cotton, and I like that. He uses his ears to navigate, and so it pisses him off. Heh. I sleep like a rock after concerts... the world is so quiet....

We were in this little tiny room at a place called Time Square. The room was little, and looked like it was made out of concrete, in its entirety. Tehe acoustics were better than I figured they would be, but all the same, a concert with probably 300 people in a little room with two tiny exits makes me nervous. One guy tried to mosh (all by himself, what a dumbass) and they hustled him out of the front section. We'll definitely go back to Time Square to hang out... the pool tables are AWESOME. still nice and flat, and the cues are nice and straight. haha... it's amazing how well you can play pool with good equipment, when you're used to using a 15-ounce, crooked cue on a cockeyed table. haha. And Adrienne likes playing pool. Whoop.

Blue October played for about an hour and a half. Adrienne and I missed the first two acts... "Greatness in Tragedy", and "iSOLA". Greatness in Tragedy is fronted by a guy from my high school, and they suck, in their current incarnation. they may be good in studio, but they sucked the last time we heard them at the last Blue October concert. iSOLA, from what i heard from a friend, was pretty good. we were playing pool when they were p[laying, and came in right as they were leaving. missed that one, woops. Kinda wish we'd heard them, the last concert's 2nd act was good.

Ryan played his typical solo, as the beginning of the encore, and it was great. I love the sound of that electric violin. Anyone know of any other electric violinists? Or if he has a solo recording out?

Great concert. Good company. Loved it. *grin*

The GRASS concert went good. they remember me, and since there were like seven people there, so they spent a lot of time talking to us. they played a song called "Cappuccino" for me since they remember me from the shows at Sweet Eugene's.

good stuff, good stuff.

Jarle (one of the two singers) is moving to Maryland for like a year, so it'll be a while before i see them in concert again. but i will, woohoo.

so i took a decongestant (read: legal speed, only weaker) and i'm awake at almost 5am on a saturday morning. whee...

ran into my Junior prom date at the dance hall the other night...
and I'm going to give her a call, today sometime, i think.

hehe.

- ------------------------------------------------ -

Blue October post:

blue october concert rocked out.
the (first) opening band had a guy from my highschool, Kirk, as the lead singer. and mostly, the band was good. Except for Kirk. hmm.

Second opening band was a band from Memphis TN called Ingram Hill. they were really good. "Almost Perfect" and "Maybe It's Me" are good songs, both of them.

Blue October... just ruled. I shook hands with the violinist, after the show. and the singer from Ingram Hill. the violinist is tied with Justin for my favorite member of Blue October. the violin lends SO much to their sound. I loved it. he did a long solo, and it was so cool... just to stand there, close my eyes and listen to the music, feel the bass, and just be there.

And "Italian Radio" was one of the encore songs, sweeeet. Last Blue October concert I went to I got the setlist Justin wrote out. whoop. I have Blue October memorabilia.

Only bad thing, was the concert was at a place called the Tap. full of frat-boys and sorority chicks. Not My Bag, Baby. I can't deal with that shit. Andy and I found a couple of girls to talk to that were also just there for the concert, and weren't frat/sorority people. helps a lot to have someone there to talk to, when you're bored.


Sheesh. that was two concerts, and a shirt at each, in 4 days, for a total cost of thereabouts of 60 bucks total. cool. That RULES.
- ------------------------------------------------ -

Okay; night, y'all.

this time last year sucked
this time this year RULED.

Blue October is awesome.

(ain't that right, girl_villain?)
EDIT:(ain't that right, also, aircrash
more tomorrow. (or later today)

SO...

I went to the Chris LeDoux concert tonight, at the Texas Hall of Fame, in College Station. lots of fun. For people who don't know aobut Chris LeDoux, he sings rodeo songs. I don't know how else to describe it... all his songs are about the rodeo. Tonight they sang:
( setlist... )
It was a LOT of fun. hmm. I like being a redneck. (hey there, Eb!!)
hell of a concert. when you can feel the bass in your shirt (not your body; the actual shirt fabric was vibrating), yeah, that's cool. that's part of the experience of going to a live concert; the "feel" of the bass, and the lights. This concert was well worth the money.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
on another, very cool note,

Jenelle called. whoop!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

so... like i said, a really good night.

Tonight I went to the Vienna Teng concert. She's a singer, who plays piano and writes all her own songs.
website is http://www.viennateng.com, i think.
She used to be a software engineer. Quote from Anna, the girl who sat next to me at the concert: "she's good in front of either kind of keyboard..." hehe.


I think it's so beautiful to see a piano being played as it was supposed to be.

The elegance of a woman who can sing and play the piano...

And the singing...oh, that woman has a beautiful voice. I wanted so badly for that concert to occur in a carpeted hall, with a Steinway grand piano, and a spotlight. So beautiful. Her hands moved on automatic pilot, twirling and dancing on the keys. I couldn't take my eyes off her while she played. She swayed to the music, and played, and sang. *smile* So cool.

Fitzwilly's (the bar where the concert was) doesn't do a beautiful voice justice, when you have so many people drinking and smoking and a bare brick wall behind her. Country is one thing, but piano music and a gentle voice... not the intended venue. That's the mark of a good performer, to kick ass in even a terribly-suited venue. She did. I wish terribly that I could get the CD with only her playing piano, as she did here... the other instruments are really unnecessary.

Set list from tonight, most of which are on the first CD:
Gravity
Daughter
Momentum
The Tower
Enough to Go by
John Denver Cover: Annie's Song-- not on the CD
Soon Love Soon
Eric's Song
Unwritten Letter #1


Was a fabulous concert. I got an autographed CD, and had her autograph a blank one before I realized she was selling CDs. Oh, and she sat at the same table as I did, for a bit, during the pre-show time...I met her and talked with her a bit. She's pretty, too.

Almost brought tears to my eyes with some lines. Did, with others. She is now officially one of my favorite artists.

DEFINITELY a recommendation. Buy it, listen to it, and tell a friend.

*smile*

"I need ... someone who reaches out to my weakness and won't let go..." <-- from "The Tower" by Vienna Teng