30 April 2007

damien rice, earth day, random stuff...

I am posting this kind of late given the concert was Wednesday, but if you have been reading along with the rest of us you might have been wondering how it went. I will tell you now.

First off, Brett Dennon is great. I figured he would be but I guess I didn't realize how new he is. I mean in spite of his physical stature he looked incredibly intimidated by the mass of the spectators gathered to celebrate Earth Day (yeah right). Anyway, had I any doubts, he would have relieved them with the first song. He played four. All very good and a great way to open the show. I'm sure very soon he'll be able to beef up his touring band from 1 other member to at least 3 and begin establishing himself as a prick (more on that later).

I'm not going to give the rundown on the setlists folks and I didn't bring my camera or digital recording device for any bootlegging. I'm just there to enjoy myself and go home. If I cannot remember what was played and what wasn't, so be it!

Anyway, Damien Rice got up and to my chagrin was missing his former partner in crime. However, he has beefed up his band since 2003 and while the music is still moody and sentimental on the albums, it takes on another dimension live that I insist makes him a must-see-in-person artist. Trust me, I have scoured the internet and there are no versions of his music that measure up to what he did with songs like "Grey Room" at Bennaroya Hall. Also notable was a very edgy and extended version of "Woman Like a Man."

I was also pleased that he did keep several songs stripped down to the bare essentials, yet nearly every song had been given some attention beyond what was on the albums. The staging was subtle, yet impressive and the lighting was spectacular and somehow not overdone. Ok on one song I asked myself why I didn't bring my sunglasses and flashed back a smirk of disapproval, but that was all.

So if you don't know who Damien Rice is, shame on you. If you have some misconception that his music is depressing still, shame on you. Go google him and find out why women worship him and men would give an eye or even a testicle to be him, or just have his way with words I suppose. And yet he's still humble enough to beg women not to sing his praises between songs or he'll be even more a prick than he already is.

Well, in other news, on Saturday I finally got all my furniture moved in. If you have been keeping tabs, that was 3 months in the trailer and 5 more weeks of watching television from the floor of my new living room. Alas I am chilling on my good couch (more on the bad one later), blogging and ignoring the tube for now. Looking forward to Heroes tonight though, aren't you? Kind of irritated S60 isn't going to be back until late May and who knows when TBD will be back on television (though it is on nbc.com for those who miss it but didn't know where it went). If you don't know what those acronyms are for then you weren't fans enough to care!

So there is still a lot to do to get my house ready for guests, but sooner or later I'll get a day off and start plugging away at it. For now my bookshelf is in the middle of the living room, the dresser is next to the windows, the other bookshelf is upside down (but standing) next to a stack of boxes that is nearly blocking access to my bedroom and several other boxes are piled up near the bar in front of the kitchen just to give you a quick visual. Yet somehow everything I need for live is in its place already, go figure!

I estimate many boxes will not be unpacked, instead I'll stack them in my storage unit downstairs. I know that's where my golf clubs, camping and rock climbing gear will go, but I'm also sure there are boxes that have things I should've gotten rid of a long time ago that I suppose I'll just tuck away and see if I start wondering where something is for a few months before I let them go permanently.

Well, my boss is sending me to Seattle on Wednesday for some kind of seminar/training opportunity that a few of us were selected for. Maybe this is a good sign. I've been getting a lot of extra hours which is nearly turning this into a full time job, however so many of those hours have been on my weekends off that it's about to be 7 in a row for me that I'm working some part of the weekend. I said no more! I want early June weekend off to be turned into a mini vacation. I would only have to take 2 days off to make it nearly a full week so I'm going to see about that.

Not much else to say. I suppose I could do some laundry, watch the end of Regis and Kelly and the View and if I get really ambitious, I could get my books out of boxes and onto the shelves. I doubt I'll get that energetic today, but then again I have a bottle of Yerba Mate in the car still (from the concert). I'm afraid to drink it though because one of its major ingredients is a drug we routinely test for in the lab when it is being given to a patient (because it's dangerous... why else?). Why would they put that kind of drug in an energy drink and how much does it amount to? These answers and MORE on my next edition of random crap!

Peace,

Brian

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