Showing Adam a good time

So I had the day off yesterday, so I was lazy most of the day...I did fix the light in the bathroom with a combination of a hing and velcro (yes velcro).

Around 3:30 PM I headed to the back to get some cash, Target to get a bucket and a marker and then Starbucks to get a coffee (it was on my way, normally I don't go there).

I met up with Josh at his house, and after he changed, we headed over to get Adam.

I drove to Omaha...and when we got there we headed into town and went to Sushi Ichiban (which was apparently inside a Japaneese Resturant).

The Sushi was actually pretty good, not the best I've had, they lost points for some of them actually crumbling while they got picked up. It was served on a big wooden boat.

The highlight of the meal, at least for me, was Ginza No Suzume Shochu, which, apprently is a 40 proof Sake, which is off dry and light bodyied...well it pretty much tasted like water and was warm on the way down. It was quite nice. It was served in a container where they could put ice in the side to keep it cold, through the meal.

After dinner we stopped for gas and then headed over to Sokol Underground. We headed in an drank for a while, waiting for the show to start. We chatted and drank and vice versa.

First up was Mac Lethal supported by Joe Good, who I found to be quite entertaining, so much so that I bought two of his albums (The Love Potion Collection 2 (Mac Lethal) and Hi, May I Help You (Joe Good)). Good beats and good lyrics and good topics. Ranging from the silly (fighting over a baby's mama) to more serious...

After that, we had Los Nativos come on stage. They were...good, but not something that I would've picked out. I just didn't really connect to it.

After that was Brother Ali. And, like before, he put on a great show. The crowd started to pack in and the heat started to rise. The good brother maintained a masterful control over the crowd.

Afterwards, there was a long wait, which gave a chance for even more people to crowd in and the temp to rise more.

Atmosphere took the stage. Slug was initially supported by both Brother Ali and one of the guys from Los Nativos. It was quite good and a fun time, lots of crowd participation. The set went on, and his backing band came out to help with the show. It was a fun time.

Behind Josh and I was a dolt who was jamming to the music and holding his full beer...or more accuratly, spilling his beer on to our shoes. Over and over he did this...Many thoughts of violence crossed both our minds, but neither of us acted on it.

It was near this time that I was getting to hot for me. During the encore, I actually had to leave the crowd to get a glass of water. But I came back and with water and ice and I was good for the rest of the show.

Leaving the heat into the cool Omaha air, was very nice. We headed to the car and then to on the interstate. We stopped at a gas station somewhere's in Iowa and then drove the rest of the way home (I fell asleep somewheres in there).

I got home around 3:00 or so and got to bed around 3:30.

By the sounds of it, Adam did have a good time, which is the whole point of the excersize.

Punchline! (It's Chris's Birthday)

I went left work headed home and ate some fried egg and dubliner cheese sandwhiches, watched the Sopranos and then headed downtown.

I got down to The House of Bricks and met up with Brandon.

So here's the line up:

New Atlantic
Cute is What We Aim For
Punchline

Cute is What we Aim For was goodish...made me get up from the bar and actually watch, instead of just listening form the bar. Maybe it was cause the lead singer was sick...or maybe cause he wouldn't stop talking during their set...Maybe I'll listen to their music somewhere's or another.

This was probably the best I've seen Punchline perform. I was pretty happy with the set list they played and how well they played them. Apprently it was Chris's birthday and there was a lot of sillyness surrounding it.

I felt really old. I think their fans are getting younger....

It's really to bad, the poor turn out to the show, a lot of people missed out on a great show.

After the show, I thought about hanging out and having a bear with Punchline, since Chris remembered Brandon (although he said he didn't recognize him at first, cause of the beard), but I decided I'd rather go home and see Shannon...

Some things from the past week...

I have a new niece! My older brother and his wife had a little girl, Her name is Laural Annmarie. Congrats!

So this week and part of last I've had a lot of new music. And I mean A lot. I ordered a bunch of CDs with tax return money (Shannon got something so I got something too).

So here's the list:

Ben Folds - Rockin the Suburbs
Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Amen
Brother Ali - Champion
Brother Ali - Shadows On The Sun
Coheed & Cambria - Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness
Coheed & Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
Depeche Mode - Exciter
Depeche Mode - Playing the Angel
Fall out Boy - From Under the Cork Tree [Limited "Black Clouds and Underdogs" Edition]
Greig - Piano Music, Vol. 5
Kanye West - Late Registration
Kanye West - The College Dropout
Punchline - 37 Everywhere
Yellowcard - Lights and Sounds
25 Wedding Favorites
Monty Python's Spamalot (Original Cast Recording)
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall [LIVE]

Yeah I went a bit nuts, but right now I'm stuck on Brother Ali and Coheed & Cambria....I've seen Brother Ali at the Vaudville Mews (amazing) and I'll be seeing him in a month or so in Omaha with Atmosphere.

I started walking again, instead of excersizing in the basement (the videos bore me to tears). I changed my path so that there is more up and down hills, instead of the basically flat Franklin Ave. It's been nice.

It was hot yesterday. I think it hit 89 degrees...it's april, it's supposed to be much cooler. I actually seriously considered turning on the air conditioning yesterday... It's in the 80s again today...

My Gramma had a heart attack last week, but has recovered a bit an is back in the nursing home. From the sounds of what my parents say, she is making an effort again, so she can go home (instead of being at the nursing home). I need to get up there and see her (and my new niece).

I made pot roast this past Sunday. It turned out pretty well, I vaguely followed the recipe...more just used it as a general idea. But the beef was tender and very spiced (spicy mustard will do that).

We got chocolate eggs from Choclate Stam...and well so far they've been amazing. Good things for easter.

Speaking of Easter, Brandon mentioned that Val's family was coming for easter, and with all honesty, I asked him, "That's this weekend?". You think maybe I'm out of touch a little?

(Insert Religion Name) (Insert Type of Music) Music...

So I've long held the belief that music, like Christian Rock, are not as good as most mainstream music and the only reason why they are published is because they have a built in market of people that will buy them just for thier religous content.

This, I think, is also proven by my current artist that I'm listening to. Matisyahu. His strong Jewish beliefs show through clearly in his music and here the thing...I love it cause it's good. It's really good.

I think it really shows that if the music was good I'd like it....if you take more classical music, which is inspired by religion, I really enjoy it..

Oh well...just a thought.

Panic! and Gramma

So after work yesterday, I went home, changed, ate some dinner, and headed over to the Val Air Ballroom to see the XBox 360 tour....well ok I went to see Panic! at the Disco. The rest of the bands I didn't really care that much about.

So the first two bands, well...they were ok, I guess. The second band started and I was like hey that's a good intro, then they started singing and then I suddenly didn't care anymore.

Panic! started and it was pretty good. The last time I saw them, the lead singer said that he was a bit sick and having trouble, and it really showed. They were really good live, before, and they were better this time. The second song in I got a call from Shannon (at home, not her style of music), that told me that my dad called about my Gramma.

So I spent most of the set wondering what was going on, is gramma sick, is gramma worse then sick? did she break something?

All these things kept going through my head, it really was terrible.

so when the set was over (since I could barely hear brandon and val and they were yelling right by me), I tried to find a quiet corner to call my dad.

I did get the gist of what was going on, Gramma's got an infection, She's in the hospital, we're hoping for the best. Some of the more finer details I'll leave off, since it's her life, not mine. It was still hard hearing dad, cause even if it was a bit quieter, it was still pretty loud.

After the next band started, I pretty much shrugged at them and headed home.

Visiting Ames, The Birdman, and the rest of the week...

Wednesday night, we headed over to Chris and Pat's to watch the Grapes of Wrath, for the AFI top 100 film watching thing. It was a good movie. I brought over the bottle of white that I had chilled for valentine's day. The wine was ok, not great. The movie was pretty good. Certainly gives a few into how the whole depression worked. Good times...

As soon as I had gotten home from work, on Thursday, (Shannon had taken the day off), we headed up to Ames. We wanted to get there early enough to eat and maybe make it to the book store (I was going to buy an ISU diploma frame or two so I could put up my diplomas on the wall).

So the weather was supposed all nasty and awful, as was predicted, but it really wasn't that bad, or so I thought. The Interstate was fine, and until we turned off I35 on to Highway 30...Suddenly it was very windy. Apprenty the wind was blowing south.

I gave Seth and Briana a call and they agreed to meet us for dinner. I had been craving Great Plains Pizza for a while. It's one of the two resturants in Ames that I actually miss (The other being Battle's BBQ). So we went there. We had pizza and some soda and it was great. We caught up with Seth and Bri, which was great. I got to do my favorite part of the pizza, taking the end of the thick wheat crust and covering it in honey to finish it off. Their pizza is probably my favorite that I've had.

So being that we still had lots of time to the concert, we headed next door to the Corner Pocket. Seth, Bri and I had a Guiness and Shannon had a Bacardi Raz and Seth and I played a game of pool (which he let me win). Afterwards we said our goodbyes and Shannon and I headed to the M-Shop.

We parked, headed in, checked to see if the book store was open (it wasn't, it had closed 15 minutes before), and then, since we were still running early, headed in to the reading library (which during my 6 years at ISU I had never actually gone in), and hung out for a little while and read.

So we headed down to get into the show, and apprently because of some sort of delay, the show wasn't going to open it's doors until 8:30 (instead of 8). So we stood around and waited and waited...

and waited...

At around 8:50 they finally opened the doors. We had been near the doors, until we both started feeling a little crowded and moved more to the back of the line and less of a crowd.

It took us a while to get in and were a bit disappointed when we found out that they didn't have chairs setup...

So we took a spot to the side of the stage where it wasn't so crowded and then moved back a bit to get out of direct line of the speakers.

The first person up was Haley Bonar. She had a very breathy voice and she sang folksy songs about various things, including her cat. We both liked her, enough so we tried to buy her album, after her set...and...well...couldn't. The Andrew Bird people were not selling her stuff, and she was no where to be found...But after the entire show, we picked up both Lure the Fox and The Size of Planets. I'll let you know how much I like her albums when I get a chance to sit down and listen to them both...

Next up was Martin Dosh. Shannon really didn't like how much bass there was. But after it listened to it for a while, I kinda liked it, not enough to buy...yet...but certainly enough to see him with someone else I liked. A good example of his music and how he does it is in this video.

Then the headliner, Andrew Bird. Now this is the same guy where after I saw him in October in 2004 I went out and bought all the albums that he had. He played with Martin Dosh and Haley Bonar over his set, and he had quite the mix of the old and current (redone in the way that his music grows and changes) and the new as well. With the new really making me crave his next album, which his site says should be recorded this year. Sometimes when he was talking between songs, I wanted to whack some people on the head and tell them to stop talking and pay attention to the show. But I was impressed. By the end of the show, Shannon was getting very tired, so we prepared to go.

He did do an encore, and for that he also had everyone that had played over the night help him out on the last few songs. It really was a good time. Here's a good video from his website on how he does his shows., not the best audio quality... Over here they have an entire show, audio quality much better.

I bought Haley's CDs and then we headed home. It was really cold, but the roads were fine. We got home at around 1 AM. I had to print out maps and make sure Shannon's phone got charged up so I didn't get into bed until 1:30 or 1:45, which made getting up at 6:AM to shovel the light fluffy snow all the tougher, espically since it was windy and cold.

I was a bit grumpy until Brandon and I took a trip to La Mie and I got myself a mocha and a cinnamon roll, then my day started to look up.

Shannon's Mom was coming up to take a peek at the wedding venues, and spend some time with shannon to get a better idea of decorations, colors, and what not. So they headed over to the wedding chapel and met the caterer (Winstons/Chef's Kitchen) at the nature lodge. I met up with them and we had lunch at Palmer's over in West Des Moines.

So with discussions with the Nature Lodge and Winston's/Chef's Kitchen, we are going to have a Cash bar. The contract that I got from the nature lodge pretty much said we'd have to pay for everything, but when I emailed and asked, it turns out as long as our caterer has the license and the insurance, then it's fine to actually sell beer/wine. Of course I've now asked for a new contract, cuase the way this one is written doesn't make any damn sense, for what we want to do.

So to clarify and ask a few questions, Shannon and I went to Chef's Kitchen for dinner (through the very cold weather). They let us sample a bottle of Champagne to use for the wedding, which, for Shannon, got a "It's not to bad", which, from her, concerning booze, is more like a this is pretty damn good! from other people. It was not very strong and more fruity then dry, so I think it'll work out great for us. Dinner was good too...yes...we had champagne and french fries :) I had the muffeletta sandwhich and Shannon had the chicken alfredo sandwhich.

Aftewards we rented The Producers and Must Love Dogs, and went home to watch them. We watched The Producers, during which, since I had around 4 hours of sleep, I fell asleep once or twice, I'll probably watch it again today though. For me, around 9:PM I headed up to go to bed. When Shannon came up, I got up and brushed my teeth and actually got ready for bed rather then sleep in my clothes.

Busy at home, busy at work, it gets tiring.

little things

Shannon came home last night with a drastically changed hair cut. She went to salon that she had reccommended her by a co-worker. I did balk a little when she told me how much it cost (I gave her the money that her dad gave me and she had the money that her dad gave her and it was more then that). But has trouble believing me when I tell her she looks pretty (She has said that she thinks I'd find her pretty in a potato sack). I dunno about all that, but I did have trouble keeping my eyes off her all night...so...she should take that as a hint (she even commented on it).

Made home made mac and cheese a couple of days ago. It was good...needs a bit more sauce and less bay leaf...it was even good reheated in the microwave (had it for lunch today). It was a lot easier then I thought it'd be, although it dirtys more pans then you do when you make box mac, but it has a lot less salt...

My older brother, his family, and one of my younger sisters are coming down tonight. Alissa is flying out tomarrow, and so they thought they should stop by and visit (for longer then 30 mintes). I'm gonna cook 'em dinner and breakfast too. For dinner we're going to have veal and lamb meatloaf (mmm...baby animals), and real mashed potatoes. I'm also gonna pick up some bread from La Mie. For breakfast I'm gonna make some french toast (with Challah from La Mie) along with bacon and sausage...maybe I need some potatoes there too...

I'm taking work off tomarrow...so today is my last day of work for the year....mmm...no worky. I got all the things that I needed to do done, or am at least waiting on other people to get back to me.

I got me a bottle of Laphroaig 15 year old Whiskey. I'm taking it to CR for the tiny little quiet new years celebration at the Matta's. So no ending up passed out on the kitchen floor.

I've been playing a new playlist that was suggested to me by Brandon. It's been kinda fun. It's songs with a 4 or 5 star rating (out of 5) that haven't been played in 2 months. Some of the songs I've been shocked that I've not heard them in that long (Been Caught Stealing), and other's have gotten demoted to 3 star status. But it's kinda nice to go through.

The kids make me feel old

So I showed up last night at the House of bricks about half a hour before the show started. I left my coat in the car, in my sweet parking space across the street (so that for most of the time that I was in there I could watch my car). I went in, paid my 10$ cover and got me a Bass beer...mmmm...beer.

So the show that night consisted of:

The Fully Down
I Am The Avalanche
Punchline
Halifax

So I assume the first band was the Fully down, and well not really my style. They were from Canda...or at least they said so on stage. One suggesting here, less talk more rock. They kept trying to get the crowd to come in closer and be more active, the crowd wasn't so much into that.

Brandon arrived and we started yelling at each other about work (kinda hard to talk over the music).

Second up, was I am the Avalanche, I assume. I got groovin to this one a little, but certainly not enough to actually buy anything.

Brandon and I chatted more.

Punchline came up and Brandon and I headed towards the stage. It was fun, and by no doubt in my mind the best I've seen them. I guess being on the road for most of 3 years certainly helps your comfort level. It was a lot of fun, their short replacement guitarist was good too and really knew the songs. It was quite impressive actually (their regular guitar player apprently was on a long before planned vacation w/ his mom). The bass player was a bit tipsy and kept giving shout outs to long standing fans. Also near the end of the show, they said that Des Moines was the capitol of Snapping (yes it's silly).

After the show, with a little reminder from Brandon, they remembered who he was and Brandon talked to a few of them for a while. I think one of the highlights of the conversation was between the bass player and brandon and how wierd he thought it was that some of his friends (Fall out Boy) were now millionares...I imigine that would be wierd.

Then Halifax came on stage, meh...

After more chatting after the show ended, they kicked the minors our and shortly after that I decided that it was time to go home.

On thing that I've been having trouble with lately, is that the music I like is more youthful then I am. So, I often feel very old at these shows. At the House of Bricks, I was probably the oldest one there....excluding the staff of the place. It was the same way the Last time I saw Fall Out Boy. But I still enjoy it. Oh well...

Nintendo Fusion Tour

So I left work yesterday, hurried though the falling snow home, changed, quickly ate, headed back across town and went to the Nintendo Fusion Tour at the Val Air Ballroom.

So I parked in the snow covered grass as they do at the Ballroom (which I hate), got out of my car, and dumped my coat in my trunk and headed towards the front. I started to text message Brandon to see if they (and val) were there yet, but then got a call, so I looked up around and there they were.

So we headed in, so I wasn't in the cold for too long. Up the stairs and inside. While going in, I lost track of Brandon and Val, so I figured they'd head over and get something to drink, but I was mistaken. I tried to order something, and one guy was gonna fill my order, but then was reminded that I needed a band on my arm, so I walked all the way across the ballroom again, got my paper band, walked all the way back, and got my $4 bud light...yeah...that's a bit much. Then I started look for Brandon, so I texted him, and he called me back and gave me a general idea of where they were.

I made my way through the crowd and found them eventually. I taunted brandon a bit about the beer, but he responded that he drank some cold ones at home where it wasn't near as expensive. Oh well...So we didn't have to wait for to long before the show started.

Panic at the Disco

On the stage first. Brandon had let me listen to thier CD on his iPod and I had liked it but never got around to buy it for myself (I did this morning though). I thought they put on a pretty good show and had a lot of fun. there was even a stint where the guys on stage were dodging snow balls from fella's (I think from FOB) off stage. It was funny and at the same time pretty cool, cause it didn't really mess 'em up. The kids liked 'em too.

Boys Night Out

While waiting for them to setup, the crowd starting to go back and forth, and occassionaly you'd get some sweatty guy who basically rubbed his sweatty body on you while passing. It was quite gross.

The finally took the stage and the crowd didn't seem to like them as much as Panic! but I didn't find that too surprising since I thought they were kind of boring and all their stuff sounded exactly the same...I had trouble telling the differences between the songs. They still had a decent stage presence, and one of their songs brought a cheer from a large portion of the audience.

Motion City Soundtrack

I think it was Motion City that had quite a bit of trouble with their equipment, and during their set too. It was good. Certainly better then Boys, but not as good as Panic!. I had a decent time, even though some kid had a lot of fun jumping up and down and doing so on my toes. I think they are ok...and maybe I'll buy a CD. I know Brandon doesn't much like 'em but Val does...so who knows. I haven't really heard anything recorded but one track off a collection (which I liked). So I'll have to think about buying it...maybe.

The Starting Line

I found them boring, but the kids seemed to like them. There were a lot of kids that wanted to work their way to the front, either around or through me (happend a couple of times where someone walked right into my back...). even a few people talked about how I was the "bad guy" and wouldn't let them by. It was crowded enough (being a sold out show) without cramming more people into the front.

They stopped quite a bit during their set. Songs done, lets talk to each other on stage and not to the crowd for like a minute or two. It's not like I was paying to see...oh wait I was paying to see them. They did look very young, and skimming through their bio, they are...or at least the lead singer is...

Fall Out Boy

There was quite a wait between the end of the previous band and FOB. But when they took the stage, the ballroom erupted with cheers and screaming. Quite a bit more for any previous band. Before they came on stage, a guy walked across with a big sign saying, "Act I".

FOB for the previous time that I saw them at the House of bricks, has put on a real high energy show, and this was not a dissappointment. They hit most of the songs that I wanted to hear and did them quite well. Lots of crowd surfing. And some kid behind me asked me to help him up to get on top of the crowd and I flat out refused and even explained why. As for one who has been kicked in the head a time or two by a crowd surfer, I certainly don't want to help anyone else do that to someone else. He looked very dissappointed, but who cares.

Instead of going off stage and having an encore, FOB had an intermission (same guy, different card came across the stage). That was pretty cool. Most encores are planned anyways, so it's just a sort of ploy to rest a bit and draw crowd cheers.

They came back on stage, and played the rest of the songs I wanted to hear and it was quite a great finish to a good show. During either the first or the second, a pit was formed, on the encouragement of FOB and Brandon got drawn in. He figured that since he was in he might as well use it as an excuse to fight to the front, and he ended up there right at the gate for the rest of the show.

As they finished, the lights came on and people started filing out.

Some people got the bright idea to head out the side exit doors, which was met with much scorn from the crew, but created a cool instant fog effect from the cold air blowing into the very hot and humid air of the ballroom. The crew quickly closed the doors and then stood in front of them.

We headed over to the merch tables to see if we could find anything to buy...but we didn't find Panic! so we tried the other set, no Panic!, so we headed out...I lost Brandon and Val on my way out, kids all pushing in front of me, and me being relatively polite about it...Oh well.

Outside was cold and there was snow on the cars.

I headed to where I thought my car was, but didn't find it, and then headed back, and didn't find it and headed forward again, and finally saw my blinking lights from me pressing the buttons. Yeah, I'm old, I'm forgetting things...but this I'm blaming on the buses moving, and they were my frame of reference... I quickly put my coat on and turned on the car, and then went about scraping off the snow/ice from my windows. And then sat and listened while the parking lot cleared out a bit. I talked to Shannon as she already in bed, and then let her go to sleep. After a bit of listening to Love Line and Rob Schnider make a complete jackass of himself, I headed out. I went to the west exit...but after waiting there for a while I decided to try the other way, and after fording a huge puddle (and getting my car covered in mud), I was out in about 8 minutes on the other side. And home I went.

Brother Ali

So last night around 8:10 I headed over to Casa de Josh and we (Josh, Adam, and Lindsay) headed towards the downtown to see the Brother Ali show.

So the bill was going to be:

GaiDen Gadema w/ Really Real (Local)
Swollen Members (Canada)
Brother Ali (Minnesota)

So GaiDen Gadema...was ok. Certainly growing the more practice he gets. And I also think that he is helping build a local audience which is also bringing in the crowds that then in turn justify people hiring a bigger act cause the crowd is there. When we got there somewhere between 8:30 and 9, I was kinda worried that there wasn't gonna be enough people to pay for the show, but after 9, the crowd came in, and it was actually pretty crowded. We sat back, and I sipped on a Guiness. It was a good time. The beats were ok, and I was starting to groove to it a little. The mix was was a bit wierd, so catching all the words was a bit tough.

Swollen Members....yes that's their name. They were....fun. Good party time hip-hop, certainly high energy. Maybe worht investigating more. A good portion of the crowd knew who they were and got right into it.

Brother Ali. Albino...so we all (eventually) got up and headed up towards the stage. And while we were waiting for the Brother to come on, we were subjected to a tweaking kid, who was so high, he apprently thought he could freestyle rap. It was actually quite funny to listen to. One of the people in front of us actually recorded (I dunno if it was video or just audio) this tweaker and said he'd put it up on something like ebaumsworld. He just could not stop moving. And the younger kid he was with, couldn't either. It got kinda obnoxous. Oh well, what can you do? So after a bit of a wait, he took the stage. It was actually quite impressive. A man who I could probably look in the mirror and see (except him being shaved bald and even whiter then me), and with and obvious skill and power over the crowd. His topics ranged from his child, his childhood (always feeling as if he was the ugly kid), to more fun things. During one of his more serious and quiet lyrical movements, he actually had to tell the tweaking kids to not clap. It was all slow and subtle and it was like these two were listening to the same thing...except in fast forward.

After the show came to a close, We all headed home. I got home and in bed just before 1:AM.