Oct
28
2009

Neil Young Night @ Yucca

(Add / View Comments) (0)Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - 11:55:05 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Live Shows)
Katie decided to sit Yucca out based on some developments we'd guessed earlier in the day and confirmed later tonight, so after dropping off Katie at the apartment, Aaron and I headed over to Yucca. It's the first time I've been since having the apartment, and driving down there really drove home what a sweet location we picked to live. A short ride up Hardy and then an even shorter one down Southern, and there you in the parking lot of Yucca Tap.

Photobox ImageHaving a cigarette before going in made me think that it's almost been a week here and we hadn't yet been to Yucca, which felt mildly strange, and cool to be there. Within minutes the cavilcade of familiar faces became known - first JV who walked out for a smoke right when we got there, Corey, Rich & the guitarist from SYT, Daryl Icard, PC, Mark & Emmett...and the list goes on. Given there were a lot less people we knew last time we were at Yucca, it was really cool to have more familiar Yucca experience. And to boot, Venus was behind the bar. Being their last month with no Venus was just weird to me.

We stay until 12:30 when Aaron started to get tired and decided to head back. On the way out Mark said he was going on after two bands - which seemed surprising given the time. As much as I'd have liked to have seen him, the Neil Young covers had less appeal and given how tired Aaron was and I was starting to get there too, heading home was the best idea. Plus Aaron had determined that Jesse wasn't playing which gave him a lot less reason to hang around.
Oct
28
2009

Mark & Emmett @ Murphey's Law

(Add / View Comments) (0)Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - 11:35:54 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Live Shows)
Tonight was Mark + Emmett @ Murphey's Law, which was much anticipated by me because the last time I saw these guys was really cool. It was 3 years ago, and it was so good that I wanted to go the next week, promptly broke my arm, and that was the end of that!

As expected, it was value for money, which is no way a reflection on the fact that there was no cover. While I was in the bathroom, Mark stopped by our table and Katie found out that they don't have any copies of Situations Like These left, which was really surprising to me. Although it came out a year or two ago I didn't expect that they'd fly off the shelf and there would be any problem in getting one once we got here.

During the first break I went out for a cig, while Found Out About You was playing over the PA - rock! And when I came back in, Mark was playing Gasoline with, after a talking to Emmett seems like it was Pete Milner - guitarist for the Mistaken era of the Chimeras...cool.

Not long into it I decided that I wanted to hear Whiteout. I didn't catch Emmett's eye while Pete was playing, so once he was back up there with Mark and asked for requests that was my queue! After dealing with some accent barriers, he worked out what I wanted to hear and graciously honored the request kicking it off with "cool, that's one that I wrote". The second and third set contained a lot of their own stuff (whether or not it was due to my request I don't know) - Spittin' Into The Wind, Easy and a couple more off the new Tramps record, and a bunch from the number of projects Zubs is/has been involved with.

With Whiteout played, there was another that I really wanted to here, and didn't neccesarily want to harrass them too much with requests. But I didn't have to, because towards the end of that night, Mark launched into that 12 bar bluesy swing - "the black girl in the white dress in the city sleeps away...". Yep, finally have gotten to see Zubs play Absolutely Right Or Wrong. And it sounded absolutely glorious.

After their third set, Emmett came back up to our table and was quite happy to have people their requesting these songs instead of the usual requests for "Brown Eyed Girl". Which is funny to me - I'm like "no, thank you for playing the original stuff that I want to hear!" It's why I'm out here after all.

Once Aaron had finished his beer it was over to Yucca Tap Room (more or less following Mark & Emmett ironically) for Neil Young Night.
Oct
28
2009

Resturaunt Mexico & Four Peaks

(Add / View Comments) (0)Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - 06:16:39 pm
(Posted Under: No Category)
Things are starting to equalize with things being setup. We took care of some stuff this morning and were going to do some other things out and about, including getting a pumpkin for Halloween.

Aaron called to hang out, so we combined the two things. We went out to Resturant Mexico for lunch. It's somewhat surprising to me that I still hadn't been there. Funnily enough, when we walked in, we were seated by Sarah Ventre - the Blaze DJ that does the local music show that we had been listening to every week. Once we sat down Katie asked if she was Sarah Ventre, and it was obvious that she was trying to work out who we were and how she knew her. When Katie said 'Mark & Katie from Australia' you could see the association click, but Sarah's look of disbelief and confusion at us sitting at Resturant Mexico on Mill was priceless. After getting us seated and service some other people, she pulled up a seat and chatted with us for a bit, and offered to give us a tour of The Blaze studio after lunch.

Aaron seemed preetty into eating at Resturant Mexico since he has listened to live records with Robin referencing it for years, but didn't realize that it was a real place. The food was really good. When we finished lunch Sarah seemed vusy, so we didn't bother her with the Blaze tou'd be really cool to do sometime. While paying I noticed that the resturant had photos of their previous location up by the counter - what caught my eye particular was the building that used to be across from Long Wongs on 7th Street. I'd come across a small photo back in Warsaw one night goofing off on the net, and so it was really cocl to see a large shot of the whole building. I think I need me one of those!

After lunch we took a walk down Mill, which didn't really provide much excitement as it was pretty dead - which prompted discussion about everything that is wrong with Mill Aveneue.

So it was back to the car to go over to Tempe Market Place so we could get our pumpkin, as halloween is approaching quickly. After that Aaron wanted to have a beer and decided on Four Peaks, which always sits well with me, so we cruised over there. After a while I noticed what seemed like a familar looking guy emerge from the studio next door, but couldn't quite work out whether or not it was who I thought it was. The second time he came out I was still unsure. While I was trying to work uut, I saw a tall lanky guy and thought "gee, that guy looks a lot like Bill. OH, wait a second..." and moments later saw Valenzuela. After having just seen Sarah at Restaurant Mexico and then this, it's hard to deny the wonders of living in Tempe Arizona!

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