At this show they did mostly songs from their new album, Truth Decay (2009).   It included songs such as Dark Star, The March, Rusty Moon, Things Will Never Be The  Same and Welcome To The Future (my favorite, I think).  Strangely in the middle of the set the band performed “On The Radio” originally performed by Donna Summer (1979).  It was a fun sing along and with the sweet harmonies of singer Jason “Shyboy” Arnold and Keyboardist Mark Nubar Donikian it proved to fit in the line up well.

As seen in this picture (left), the band sported a second guitar player (to the right).  The regular guitar player (on left) has a great mellow, rock star quality about him adding to the “this is easy” feel of the band.  I am not sure if the band is growing, or this is just the live set up for the band…. but on the CD it just lists 4 band members.  Either way, during one song, both guitarist played the song together sporting a deeper sound and rockin’ intensity ~

Hard to see, but not hard to hear is drummer Adrian Barnardo.  I am a big fan of drums knowing that sometimes, especially in rock, it can be overwhelming live.  Adrain doesn’t let you forget that he is there, however, allows for each of the other members to be heard during each song.

They ended the show with Worship Me (I’m On TV) ~ not my favorite song on the CD, but the one that is mostly likely to get stuck in my head for days!  The lyrics are very appropriate for LA and our culture of TV obsession….

Overall, a great band!  I was so glad to see them for a 2nd time and look forward to shows in the future.  And until then I will rock out listening to their CD in my car on the way to work.  ~

I always wanted to see these guys and they didn’t dissapoint.  I brought my Wife, two daughters (4 years and 3 mos. old) and Mom to babysit during the show.  We stayed at a hotel outside of the buildings on the cover of the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album.  I didn’t plan that.  I’ve never had so many expenses just to see a show but it was worth it.

Wilco set list: 10/18/09 (Chicago, IL; UIC Pavilion)

1 Wilco (The Song)

2 A Shot in the Arm

3 Bull Black Nova

4 You Are My Face

5 I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

6 One Wing

7 Misunderstood

8 At Least That’s What You Said

9 Deeper Down

10 Impossible Germany

11 It’s Just That Simple

12 I’ll Fight

13 Handshake Drugs

14 Sonny Feeling

15 Jesus, Etc.

16 Theologians

17 I’m Always In Love

18 Hate It Here

19 Walken

20 I’m The Man Who Loves You

Encore:

21 You Never Know

22 Heavy Metal Drummer

23 Just a Kid

24 Kingpin

25 Monday

26 Outtasite (Outta Mind)

27 Hoodoo Voodoo

28 I’m a Wheel

I agonized about whether I needed to buy a ticket online and decided I would swing by the venue the day before.  This theater is in a very cool neighborhood on the West side of Cincinnati.  After a great lunch at the Indian buffet a few doors down, I stopped in the theater.  They were not really open, but the House manager just happened to be in the lobby.

He told me the tour manager had the actual tickets so it would be best to just buy at the door before the show.  Then he offered to show me around the place so I could check out the layout.  All of the movie seats had been removed from the front of the house and had been replaced with round, low tables and some bar tables.  The front tables were just feet from the front of the stage.  Now I was really excited,

On the day of the show, I raced from my appointment back to Oakely and grabbed a quick sandwich.  I was 4th in line at 6:30 and started chatting with the folks in front.  Turns out, one of them had an extra ticket on reserve.  For face value of $20, I was in the door with my new best friends.

In the lobby, we had a few minutes to shop the CD’s and the bar because they had not finished the sound check yet.  As concert goers arrived, many brought gifts for the band.  Some had home-grown produce and some had bottles of Jaegermeiseter.

About this time, Marty Willson-Piper popped out of the stage doors and had a nice chat with whomever was standing around.  What?  How unexpected and totally endearing.  Relaxed and friendly.

I sat at the front table with my new pals (who are in the Kentucky-based band call the Pyramid Builders Union — check ‘em out).  House music was OLD Pink Floyd until show time.

The band was tight and sounded great.  This was only days after the death of GW McClennan and everyone seemed to be aware of this.  Steve Kilby said a few words about this and then they played Providence.  The guitar tech/roadie played the rhythm guitar and she (yes, she) was solid.

After the show, folks just milled around.  I went to thestage and asked the Tech if I could have one of the set lists that had been taped to the floor in front of Steve.  She said, “Sure.  Would you like me to have it signed?”  I said yes gratefully and she disappeared.  She reappeared about 5 minutes later the sheet, now bearing 3 signatures.  Steve Kilby did not sign, but Marty, Peter and Tim all did.

Signed Set-List

On the side of the stage, Marty and Tim were gathering gear and just chatting with fans.  I was able to thank them for a great show personally.  Marty also signed my CD of “Univited, Like the Clouds”, which I’d purchased in the lobby.

All in all, this was a great show and a great experience.  This has been a favorite band for decades and I’m still thrilled that I was able to see them live.

Lots of Ass-Kicking!

** SPOILER ALERT **
Do not read any further if you plan to see this movie!
** SPOILER ALERT **

Apparently, there’s a big-ass space ship hovering over the entire city.

The space ship is empty, it’s former inhabitants now living in a tent city on the outskirts of Johannesburg. These aliens are called “S’crimps” because they look like tasty shellfish.

So Wikus is in love with this girl named Penelope Widmore, whose dad, Charles, is a giant asshole. Charles is always scheming and trying to find some island. I sure hope by “island,” he doesn’t mean “spaceship,” because that thing is floating above his head the whole time! Anyway, Charles doesn’t want his daughter, Penelope, to be with Wikus, so he plots to put Wikus in charge of “relocating” 1.8 million S’crimps.

Wikus sticks his face where it doesn’t belong, and eats a face-full of space dust, which slowly causes him to mutate into a S’crimp.

That’s when Wikus and one of the S’crimps named “Christopher” get all Lethal Weapon and shit, taking out humans left and right like any good “buddy flick” duo must. There’s also this totally cool Steven Segal part, where Wikus and Christoper open a can of whoop on some Nigerian drug ‘n gun traffickers.

Thanks to his mutated alien arm, Wikus can operate the organic alien weaponry. One of the guns makes people explode like a frog in a microwave. It’s so totally kick ass, they show it about 48 times.

Anyway, Wikus and Chris then go all Terminator 2 by breaking into Skynet to steal this technology that Skynet shouldn’t have. Chris needs it to “phone home.”

Then, more ass-kicking and frog-nuking.

Chris uses the Skynet technology to fire up the big-ass spaceship. Chris splits, leaving all his S’crimp buddies and Wikus, who eventually morphs entirely into a S’crimp.

The documentary ends by explaining that because Wikus was such a lame-ass, incompetent worker, Dunder-Mifflin gets some freelancers to do his job for him. These consultants successfully relocate all the shellfish to another area, called “District 10.”

Hey, I have an idea: They could totally make a sequel, and call it District 10. That would be rad.

I read The Lord of the Rings
as a child and re-read them as an adult.  When I worked in a group home for boys, I read it to them.  Several things stick out for me when I think back to seeing this movie on New Years in 2002.

One is how impressed I was with the character development and how much I could easily care about all of them, just as I had when I was reading the book.  Not just the “good guys” either ~ the movie actually made me appreciate characters that I had ignored or not focused as much on while reading their journey.

I know that some things were missed, some things were changed, but the overall story had passion for each character.

Another thing that impressed me was the how much of the story they were able to do. And with such skill.  It would have been so easy, and so Hollywood, to make this beautiful book into one movie.  But three movies!  So wonderful! To fully take us on the journey of “The Fellowship of the Ring”.

One more thing.  The love story.  It is not the most important part of the book ~ but it was important to me.  The three LOTR movies did it with a beautiful subtle romance.  It could have taken over the movie, it could have been taken out and replaced with more fighting scenes.  Instead, it was done with care.  I will also admit I am a fan of Liv Taylor.

If you have not seen them, or you were put off by the obsession that some have for this story, I recommend that you at least read the book.  The movies are beautiful and impressive (and very long) but the book is a classic work of art.

~I would say more about The Hobbit, but I hope to be able to write about THAT movie soon!

Book covers shown above:  The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy) done by J.R.R. Tolkien.  I did hear somewhere that Tolkien could not get The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy) published as one book, so he split them into three and was able to get them published that way.  He was way ahead of his time.  ~

The Viper Room Stage Sign

My prevailing thought this morning, after seeing L.A.-based rock band Hypnogaja live at The Viper Room (great live music venue once owned by Johnny Depp): I need to go out and see more local bands.

Seriously, Hypnogaja’s music is superior to 95% of the music we hear on Rock, New Rock and Modern Rock radio.

To my ear, Lead singer Jason Arnold’s (AKA “ShyBoy“) voice floats somewhere between Aaron Lewis (STAIND) and Maynard James Keenan (Tool, A Perfect Circle, Puscifer). The band also features guitarist Jean-Yves “Jeeve” Ducornet, keyboardist Mark Nubar Donikian, drummer Adrian Barnardo and bassist Bryan Farrar.

Hypnogaja Live at The Viper Room (2009)

The bands touring resume (playing with acts Shinedown, Saliva, 311, Cold and Godhead) gives a strong indication toward their sound. Yet Hypnogaja feels more “accessible” — radio-friendly, even! — as compared to others in their genre. I mean, keyboards and gorgeous harmonies? The fearless audacity! Who do they think they are, Saigon Kick?! (Full disclosure: SK is one of my all-time favorite bands).

The band has been playing L.A. for ten years, clearly enjoying a good following. Case in point: After their set (playing first), the room literally CLEARED OUT; everyone was there to see them. If you’re in or around L.A., I urge you to check out this utterly sick band before you have to pay stadium ticket prices to do so. I can’t wait to see them again soon, hopefull next time they play The Whiskey!

"ShyBoy" Arnold and Chelsea, outside The Viper Room (right where River Phoenix OD'd)

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (film) 1990

My favorite movie of all times is
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1990) ~ the screenplay was done by Tom Stoppard, the same man who wrote the play by the same name (first staged in 1966). The movie stars Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Richard Dreyfuss and Joanna Roth. I actually still have a VHS copy of this movie and like to watch it at least once a year.

One year the actual play came to Kirkland, WA in February 2001 and I got to ~

Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead (2001)

It was very well done and fun to see the play vs. the movie. Live theater is such a treat and I don’t do it often enough. To truly love this play, or movie, you need to know the play Hamlet by Shakespeare ~ there is just no way around it. Rozencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is an inverse of Hamlet. So, if you know your Hamlet, you will love this story ~ if you don’t I still believe it is a must see if you like any of the actors in the movie. Gary Oldman and Tim Roth are so much fun to watch in this movie. So when I saw the play it was wonderful but really wanted Gary Oldman and Tim Roth to be the ones on stage.

This was my wife’s and my second time seeing the Decemberists. Last time at the Paramount, this time at one of the nicest outdoor venues in the Puget Sound area. Their opening guests were Blind Pilot and Andrew Bird, both of whom were extremely good in their own right.

The Decemberists were amazing. I appreciated the new music and the old favorites, but to me the best moment of the night was when they busted out the Heart cover “Crazy on You” with their two female vocalists dressed like Ann and Nancy Wilson. They rocked the song, and I loved seeing Colin belting out the backup vocals, his guitar held over his head. Love that guy.

The only downside of seeing a concert at Marymoor is that apparently people pay $35 + Ticketbastard fees to talk through the entire concert. Some young gay couple next to us were clearly courting and so they chatted and chattered all through. And then there were the three ditzy blondes making Blondetalk in front of us, and then the group of behind us yammering about the music and the song titles without actually listening. Sheesh! Finally the Mrs. and I went up front to dance and catch the music unmediated by the idiots.

They wrapped up the concert with “Sons and Daughters,” which is a great song to send everyone home with. It sticks in your head, and we sang it all the way home.

Disneyland (1997)

These pix and tix are from my trip to Disneyland in 1997 ~ which is funny to me now (12 years later) because I now live so close.  I had never been to Disneyland as a child, but got to go as an adult (I was 23 or so).  The cool part was that my boyfriend at the time had an Uncle that worked there.  And I don’t mean running a ride, or serving up fries, he was the Director of Operations of Disneyland.  It was great to see the “behind the scenes” and get an explanation of how it all works.  I think if I had been a kid and had the same tour it would have ruined the magic of the place.  But as an adult I found knowing the Disney secrets made it much more fun!  I rode the rides, got pictures of Winnie the Pooh and got a pair of Mickey Mouse ears to wear around for the day.  I know a lot of people say that when you go as an adult, it isn’t really that fun ~ but I have to say I had a great time that day.

Disneyland 1997

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)

Not everybody keeps movie tix, not every movie would be worth it anyway, but I used to keep my movie tix to keep in my photo albums. It is fun to look back at pictures to myself, my friends, where I used to live ~ and see the movies I was seeing at the time. You can almost go right back to the time when someone asks, “Did you see Top Gun (1986)?” or “Who did you see Usual Suspects (1994) with?” I can often answer that question ~ Movies have become crazy expensive, but I still make sure to see some movies in the theatre.
In 1996 I saw Long Kiss Good Night (for just $3.00), staring Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, Yvonne Zima. I personally really liked Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson and wouldn’t normally put them together in a movie, but in this movie, it worked. I have two favorite parts of this movie, one is when Geena’s character is starting to remember her past life through strange skills she has. She is in the kitchen, cutting veggies, and suddenly becomes VERY skilled with a knife. She does a great job being a sweet mommy and badass chick at the same time. The other part I like is when being chased by the bad guys, Geena and Samuel have to jump out a window of a building onto a frozen lake ~ which I believe she shoots as they jump so that the ice is broken when they land! The dialogue is great for this type of movie and if you haven’t already seen it, I recommend it for sure! ~