Thursday
Wasted away most of the day - trying to recover from some late nights. Beth Orton was delightful - I think I'd have preferred her solo, as opposed to with a new band - but the new stuff sounded great, and she really seemed to enjoy herself after a period of non-touring, I suppose. She's back in August at the Phoenix if you missed her this time.
Saturday I contemplated a shopping excursion (need some shoes for a wedding), but in the end I did nothing until it was time to head to the final show of the week. The Pattern, Mooney Suzuki, and The Hives were all extremely enjoyable. A very high energy show was put on by all. Each band claimed they were the best thing to happen to Rock N' Roll, and I think a few people in attendance were inclined to believe them. Mooney Suzuki were fantastic - and I really feared for any band that had to follow them, but The Hives did a pretty decent job of things. The people I went with, who'd never heard of either The Pattern or Mooney Suzuki before seeing them live, were both quite impressed. We were extremely close to heading to the Shoe to see Mooney Suzuki play again, later that night. The saddest part of the entire concert was the fact that The Hives set was shorter than both of the opener's sets. I didn't mind too much because I'm not a huge fan of The Hives, but I imagine people must have been upset with a shorter than 45 minute set (that's including encore). It was a relatively intense 45 minutes, though.
I picked up the latest discs by The Pattern and Mooney Suzuki since the prices were quite reasonable.
I think I've wasted enough of this day, so I'm gonna go for a bike ride. Hope everyone had a good weekend.
It's gonna be sweaty today.
With The Breeders the following Tuesday, that's a lot of Ohioan's within a 7 day period. Hope I can handle it.
Listen to the new stuff here. (Link via Catherine's Pita)
Oh, I should add that I caught one of the opener's last night, and they were pretty decent. Anyhow, they were The Carnations. Since it's such a rarity, I always appreciate when Lee's has a good opener. They played with The Weakerthans for some (all?) of their 5th Anniversary dates back in February, so I am sure some of you have seen them before.
James Taylor has a new song to download. I won't bother with a link, since I imagine the number of JT fans that read this is slim to none. But I'm excited - new album August 13th, and a fall tour. Hopefully he'll make it here. Last time he was supposed to be here was with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and they just happened to be on strike - I was hoping he might just play on his own, but no dice.
In unrelated news, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club was good, and also fairly long, compared to the last few shows I've been to. Should make for a long day.
Beth Orton tonight, and then one more tomorrow. Then I get to sleep till next Wednesday or so. So far, I haven't bought any merchandise, but I might end up getting some Pattern stuff tomorrow, if the price is right.
If you live in the U.S and you think of it when you're out and about, could you please check the price for Sony's MZ-N1 Net MiniDisc Walkman Player / Recorder for me? When I was in NYC, mini disc players were consistently much cheaper than up here in Canada - so I'm thinking I'd actually save money ordering something from the States.
Oh, and for anyone else - if you know what Customs does with electronics packages, in terms of charges, I'd appreciate info. on that too.
Thanks!
My descent into caffeinism has been slow, but it definetly exists. I still haven't had an actual 'coffee' per se... but I have embelished a few caffe mocha's, lattes, and the like. Time to cut it out completely me thinks. I also think I'll have to go for a bike ride tonight - even though the weather is fairly poor, as I'm starting to fall back into the 'sit on the couch and read all evening' mode. All these concerts don't help too much - either, in terms of free time I could spend biking. My new house is 6.5 km's away from work - so I think when I move I'll be biking to work a lot. I look forward to that, even if it is still 6 or 7 months away (not to mention the fact that it'll be winter, and I probably won't be too keen on biking in the dead of winter).
I've made it through the whole day without listening to Ben Kweller today! And I picked up a copy of "Warm Springs Night" by Joel R.L Phelps at lunch. And F found me a copy of "I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One" by Yo La Tengo so I finally have that.
Can anyone recommend some good software for making those virtual tour things? Using quicktime, or Java, or whatever? Thanks.