Apr
30
2010

All Roads Lead Back To Tucson

Sidewinders 25th Anniversary

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosFriday, April 30, 2010 - 11:30:33 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music, Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Live Shows, Travel)
After a productive day of setting up bank accounts and grocery shopping, we hit the road at about 4, headed south to Tucson. Nice drive down, at least once we got out of the Phoenix traffic.

Photobox ImageNot long once we were out Tempe, a buzz of police cars whizzed by. Followed by K9 units and unmarked law enforcement SUV's, Which started to seem like a big deal, as the conveys periodically continued until we reached about Coolidge (and then there were a few more that were headed north, assumably from Tucson, once we'd gotten past there. We figured something had happened at the prison, but as it turned out, it was the deputy shooting out in the desert, which happened while we were on the road.

Aside from that excitement, we made good time to Tucson, getting there at about 6. Which was a little bit later than we'd initially planned, but still worked out okay. We headed through the city and just south to San Xavier Del Bac. Because of the time, we didn't go in as there was a mass in session.

Photobox ImageThe restoration work being done on it the last time I was down there is finished (you'd expect as much, it was 5 years ago), so it was pretty cool to see it without all the scaffolding on the left side. Obviously I got some great photos of it and the plaza across from it. As the sun was beginning to set we headed up the hill on the right, and watched the sun set behind the mission, which was pretty amazing. As luck would have it, my camera batteries died, so there was a scramble to get some more batteries from the car before the sun set.

After the sun went down, I had the brilliant idea of hitting up a Zia's location to kill some time before the show. And to eat at Fuddruckers. We didn't have much probably finding the Zia's on Speedyway. We want to say that we've been to every Zia's location, at least excluding Las Vegas. So we got there with no problem. It turned into such a great use of time, as we found a used copy of Charmers Green's Remedy For Everything. We've been looking for that everywhere, so it was an exciting find. Probably a success in Tucson where there is somewhat less interest in Phoenix bands. On the same token, we could hardly find any Sidewinders (or other Rich Hopkins projects) CD's, which isn't true in Phoenix. But we did find one, and the Samantha 7 record cheap.

So after our Zia's escapade, it was a mission to find Fuddurckers, in particular the one we ate out when I was out here before. So we drove aimlessly down Speedway in hopes of finding it. It wasn't looking good and I was starting to give up hope, and then miraculously we found it! So we had a nice dinner there (though my chicken was a little overcooked) before hitting the road back to where the show was.

As there was a trolley that Went down 6th Ave (who knew?), that part of Tucson seemed very reminiscent of Melbourne, at least at night. Driving down there, it was kinda like being in Prahran. Might not have been the case during the day, but certainly true at night.

Tucson seems to have a better, or at least a more organized music scene that Phoenix / Tempe. Which may big a call on just one night, but it seemed to be true. Plush was a very cool venue, and was a buzz, at least initially. When we showed up, Silverbell were already playing. We didn't bother trying to venture into the band room, opting for the seating up the back as there were so many people.

Next up was Van Christian, of most note was Joey Pena on drums. Who knew that Joey could play the drums?!? When we saw him earlier, we figured he was just there to catch the show. Jason Steed was pulling double duties on bass for both Silverbell and Van Christian. Good to know that Tucson bands are just as incestuousness as up here in Tempe. [smile]

Photobox ImageSand Rubies put on a great show. Close in set list to what they did up here in Tempe (from the video I've seen). Though a bit shorter, given they just did the one set, compared to two last week. The only disappointment is that they didn't do Sara's Not Sober, which I would have really enjoyed (it being among the group of songs I'm more familiar with. Maybe Sara needs to be in attendance for that to happen. But a really enjoyable set, just like in Tempe, going chronologically in reverse through their career. Which is set list engineering brilliance, keep your more known material until the again, with a good excuse as to why. With that said, the crowd had thinned out by the end of the night, save the group of obviously hardcore fans around the front of the stage. I'm not sure that I really understand why the crowd thinned out, but there you go. One particularly enjoyable aspect of the show was the duel drumming - both Bruce Halper and Winston Watson playing simultaneously the whole night. The only other time I've seen anything like that was when Louie Butler helped P.H out at Circus Mexicus when he busted up his shoulder. But it didn't seem like this occurrence was borne out of any injury. It's always a lot of fun to watch Winston play, and it looked like he was having a ball up there, which was really enjoyable to watch! A really energetic show, with Slutes and Hopkins flopping around a lot, and was musically great. I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish every band had kept the desert rock sound the way these guys have. But such is life I guess!

Great show, and well worth the trip down south, I'm glad we caught it. I also thought the sound set up was particularly good at Plush. We took off right after the show, and it was a pretty nice night for a drive back to Phoenix. It felt like we made great time, getting back by about 3AM.
Apr
26
2010

Music

(Add / View Comments) (0)Monday, April 26, 2010 - 11:26:12 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music)
Definitely a cool part of living out here is hanging out with and chatting to people who give a shit about the music as much as you do. Fun night! And we now own the Jetzon's LP - sweet! [smile]
Apr
26
2010

Updated To Firefox 3

(Add / View Comments) (0)Monday, April 26, 2010 - 05:37:59 pm
(Posted Under: Firefox Firefox)
I guess it's been a long time coming, but I finally updated my main browser to Firefox 3. How long has it been out? Almost two years. Old habits die hard I guess.

Admittedly my main hesitation is the slew of extensions that I didn't want to break. Many did, but were overcome with updating them. All except for a couple, the most annoying being the 'IETab' plugin. The main motivation to update on the other hand was getting sick of multiple sites bitching at me (Myspace, YouTube) and probably more importantly, Facebook getting flakier and flakier - my saving grace has been having Firefox 3 on my Linux machine.

With all that said, I've certainly noticed a massive performance increase with the update (from Firefox 2.0.0.20 to Firefox 3.6.3). With that, most of my important extensions intact, and the "Firefox 2" theme installed, I'm pretty happy with how things have turned out. Well, after making a few CSS changes to Hitter anyway.
Apr
24
2010

Another Busy Saturday

(Add / View Comments) (0)Saturday, April 24, 2010 - 11:10:26 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
Another busy Saturday today, that involved driving all over the Valley. Started off with a trip to Chandler to drop off the video camera with Marc who wanted to record tonight's Sand Rubies show. From 4here it was back to T Town, over to Tempe Beach Park for the Salsa Challenge. I was amazed with the complete cluster fuck it was. We went down after winning tickets from Facebok. On getting down there, the recommended parking was $5 (we opted for parking for free on 1st Street, which incidentally was much closer of a walk to Tempe Beach Park) and tickets at the door were $10, I know it was for charity, but I was really surprised at the sea of people, given the cost of it all - for salsa! I'm all about salsa, don't get me wrong, but I was quite surprised by the turn out!

And us such, it wasn't the most comfortable experience in the world, but all the same we samples some salsas and had a good look around.

Afterwards we headed home to kill some time. Now that we both have our acoustics here, we broke them out for jam, which was a lot of fun. After going through some stuff Katie knew (Without Warning and Mr. S.O.B), we turned to Angels Tonight - which is something we've never played together before, and I've got to wonder why. It waz really kick ass for me to jam that with someone else, Katie taking all the chords, letting me go to town on the leads and the arpeggios that make that song a masterpiece! Too much fun, that's definitely going to be a new go to song for us to play together.

Getting down with that just gave us enough time to choke down some dinner, and hit the road towards North Scottsdale. Author Laurie Notaro was doing a reading at Barnes and Noble at Desert Ridge. While I'm not particularly well versed in her books (save some specific chapters of Idiot Girls that I've read online), but am certainly more than familiar with her journalistic works, many to do with the local scene. As a matter of fact, some of the first stuff I read about Doug Hopkins when I got on the internet were written by her. Long ass drive up there, but definitalty worth it. Funnily enough, Strange Young Things were playing a gig at Dave N' Busters (but the $10 + 2 items of food entry wasn't in our budget(, and Katie spotted Adam walking around while we were looking for a park.

Laurie's reading was quite entertaining, as it was hilarious. Certainly listening to here made me even more bummed that Katie doesn't have her books here, because I'd certainly like to read them, and now even moredo than for just the Mill Avenue content.

From there we headed back down south to Teakwoods. The timing worked out pretty well, and while we got there early, it wasn't as early as we'd expected. Drinks at Teaks went down a treat I might add. While we only got there half and hour before show time, there was no opener, so Dead Hot didn't go on until 10. But the time passed quite easily. Great show, and I had been really looking forward to tonight, and tt dawned on me tonight that it's probably influenced by having not seen Dead Hot in two months, since we missed last weeks show. Despite the amount of stuff there was going on tonight, there was a decent turn out at Teakwoods. Highlight of the show was Kylie leaving the stage and rocking out a solo for Annma on the sofa, and then getting back on the and playing Brent's guitar - with Brent. Ahhh, the brothers Babb!

Dead Hot finished up at about 11:15, which worked out well for us, giving us plenty of time to get over to Yucca for Tramps. Again, given the big Sand Rubies gig at the Sail Inn it was quite surprising how many people were at Yucca! It wasn't long until Corey came over, at it was good to get to hear how their gig went tonight.

Tramps did a fun set (when is there ever not a fun set with Tramps @ Yucca though?), and there was much drunkard dancing. Not really the good kind, and it wasn't that surprising to anyone when it ended with at least one broken or sprained ankle...which most of the bar had seen coming most of the night. Both Norm and Corey got up and sang at one point. I actually loved that once they started playing one of their new songs (I don't know the name, but the ridiculously poppy one) I predicted to Katie that Norm would be inside rocking out. About 30 seconds later that prophecy had been fullfilled. [wink] There are some things about this scene that I can absolutely predict. [smile] Corey busted out his moves, illistrating how spot on Sara was with her depiction of him on last week's Teaks flier. [smile]

When all was said and done, Tramps finished at about 1:15, which was kinda strange to have had so much going on tonight, but still have the night end relatively early. Despite Katie really wanting to do something else, there wasn't much more fun to be had, so we headed home. But not before nabbing on of the huge cool Tramps fliers from the night.
Apr
21
2010

Google Alerts

(Add / View Comments) (0)Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - 05:53:26 pm
(Posted Under: No Category)
Speaking of Google Alerts, I got one yesterday containing the early Gin Blossoms video we put up on Lost Horizons last week.

It's been a week since we put that up, and the video is 9 views off being the most viewed video on my channel, quickly surpassing videos that have been up for almost a year. Am I surprised? Not that much. [wink]
Now Playing: Ghetto Cowgirl - Don't Care
Apr
21
2010

Sand Rubies

(Add / View Comments) (0)Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - 04:15:31 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music)
Cool article in this week's New Times, which I just got a Google alert about:

The Sand Rubies Are Arizona's Ultimate Bad Luck Story

One of the more interesting articles in the New Times' music section in a while. I'm kind of a late comer to the Side Winders / Sand Rubies. I've always been somewhat interested if for nothing else, because of the whole Rich Hopkins and Dusted connection. My first real introduction to them musically was downloading a live show a couple of years ago. The fact that there music wasn't all that accessible (in terms of getting your hands on) is probably the only reason that I am a late comer. I certainly liked what I heard, and heard some sort of correlation to the Blossoms. Which is funny, that since hearing show I've on many occasions heard them referenced in the same breath as the Gin Blossoms, which I don't really remember happening 10 years ago. Even the above New Times article mentions it.

I've been kinda wanting to go to Saturday's gig, and reading the article makes me want to go a bit more. Saturday is such an overload of choices. There's that at the Sail Inn, Dead Hot at Teaks (our chosen destination), Muddy Violet and Tramps at Yucca (which we hope to catch some of) as it is. But given the whole Sail Inn thing, I'd almost rather road trip to Tucson for the gig down there.

In any case, while I really liked the article, I have to question the author on the title, surely the Gin Blossoms have to technically be Arizona's ultimate bad luck story. Well, then again, maybe that has little to do with luck.
Apr
21
2010

Cool Change

(Add / View Comments) (0)Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - 04:07:35 pm
(Posted Under: No Category)
Today there has been cool change in Tempe, which has been quite welcomed. It's pretty early in spring and has already been quite warm for the past week.

I've never been one to appreciate cooler and overcast days. Actually, I've always been more so one to hate them. But I'm starting to find a new appreciation for them.

Of course, with that said, I'm still wearing shorts and a t-shirt. [smile]
Now Playing: Sand Rubies - We Don't Do That Anymore (03/19/1997 -Hole In The Wall, Austin, TX)
Apr
21
2010

Some Say The Sex Is The Spoils Of War

Strange Young Things Videos From Saturday

(Add / View Comments) (0)Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - 11:37:43 am
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
Bang The Dash


Sweet Feather Rock


Spoils Of War


Left Breast Pocket


Lonely Hearts Are Wild


Suitcase



Apr
18
2010

Sunday Night Healers @ Yucca Tap Room

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, April 18, 2010 - 11:52:58 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
Well, it's really turned into a music filled weekend! We headed down to Yucca around 10:30pm to catch the Healers. We were both arguably too tired to go, but since it's been so long since we've seen them, we couldn't pass up seeing them at Yucca.

And given how little we've been to Yucca this month, we've certainly made up for it the past week - Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday!

It was humorous to me walking and seeing a group of faces that we've seen every day this weekend! Even PC mentioned that we're always at the shows that no-one else turns up to.

Very cool chilled out way to spend the Sunday night. Tony Martinez was in fine form, and was arguably the star of the night! It was the usual Healer's lineup with (as usual) many guest (Iccard, Deguerva, Roy from the Violets, Garvin). And I guess technically Norman playing the infamous tomato from the bar.

Tony's performance at the end of the night pretty much showcases why they're the Sunday Night Healers.

I really wish the Healer's would do Valley Fever at the Tap once a month!
Apr
17
2010

Get Your Mink Coat And Your Pink Dress

Slide It Over And We're Running Out Of Here...

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSaturday, April 17, 2010 - 06:02:13 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
That's really how today has felt, and ironically Pink Dress actually came on the iPod in the car in the midst of it all. Though, I will state that it was way too hot for a mink coat...

The day started out by heading down to the Zia Records in light of record day. We found the Exile On Cameron Harper Street compilation which was a cool find.

Photobox ImageFrom Zia we headed over to the Yucca for the big Arc Of Tempe benefit show. We were both hoping that Strange Young Things would be playing outside, and were not disappointed when we were looking for a car park and saw Adam up on the big outdoor stage. I can't say how different things look being at Yucca during the day.

It would appear that Pat couldn't make the show, to which end Josh was sitting in with them, which was pretty cool! If anyone was going to set in for Pat, I'd want it to be Josh. I don't think it'd work long term, the lineup as it is is perfect, but man, it was still a treat to get to see Josh play with them as a one off. Nice rock n' roll set, and it really kick ass to be outset in the heat watching them on a huge stage!

Once their set was over we hung around to see if the Arc Of Tempe raffle was going to be drawn. Once Captain Squeegee hit the stage we ran back to the apartment to check gas prices. Got back in term for the end of the set. No raffle drawing. So we found Bronchi, gave hie our tickets and headed off to get gas and then hit up the Chandler Zia's. With the hopes of getting a Record Day t-shirt. Not surprisingly (at about 8pm) they were sold out too. Valiant effort though. From there we swung past where Josh & Bobby were playing, decided we didn't want to go in, and headed home to eat.

After doing so it was off to Teakwoods to see Glodie. When we pulled up we heard "Left Breast Pocket" coming out of the doorway, and were pissed figuring that Corey had gone on first, and we'd basically missed his whole set. We walked in anyway, with out "Fuck Strange Young Things" stickers from earlier in the day still affixed. Teakwoods was fairly dead (with Corey basically playing to Sara and Andrew), and there was a look of relief when we walked in. And we were glad to discover that although Andrew was going to go up to do a set, Corey had another set after him, so we hadn't missed out on too much! Andrew was quite good (although I was on the patio for a good portion of his set talking to Glodie) and it was really cool hearing him do Greyhound Soul's Midnight Radio.

Corey customized our set for us, playing a lot of stuff that we "have never heard before" (and some that we had, I'm glad he did Dirty Mothers), we always enjoy getting a personal show. [smile] It's funny, since over dinner Katie had suggested that because of the Dead Hot gig, it might be the four of us (Sara, Corey and us) starring at each other. [wink] That assumption certainly summed things up, particularly when Andrew left. ha! But it was pretty cool for us. [smile]

The fact that it was so quite also meant that the Teaks board got done early, so it was pretty cool getting to see Sara's art happen.

Good times, and a fairly non stop day! With a quarter bag and a gin and tonic baby...
Apr
17
2010

Irony

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSaturday, April 17, 2010 - 03:29:12 am
(Posted Under: No Category)
This is a savage case of it. At 8 o'clock tonight I just wanted to get into bed and stay there. It took all my will to not crap out on tonight's rock at Teakwoods. It's now 3:35am and I can't sleep! Sheesh!

Hell of a fun night though. Marc & Thomas opened, Silverbell were up second. Don't know them, but they weren't bad at all and definitely worth checking out. A very adequate description is "a little bit country - and a little bit rock n' roll. And closing out the night were Los Guys. For a little something different, Thomas sat in on guitar. Obviously there was something a little Pistolero-eque about the whole thing, including getting Jacky by special request. We even broke it down during Essence, which I'm sure was comical to all of Teakwoods patrons. [smile]

Oh, and faces were melted by Thomas! [smile] I could watch that dude play guitar night and day!
Apr
15
2010

One More NME Photo Down

(Add / View Comments) (0)Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 10:41:53 pm
(Posted Under: No Category)
Last night we watching an "Awesome Adventures" Katie had saved on Tivo, as it was set in Memphis.

It's not like we needed any further proof, but in case there was any question that New Miserable Experience is my favorite album of all time, it wasn't long into the episode before I was like "that's in one of the photos inside NME!". Funnily enough it seems like years since I've looked at that stuff, but still it was immediate recollection.

So two locations within New Miserable Experience identified. Definitely will be on my list of destinations if we're ever in Memphis.
Now Playing: Sledville - Bar Room
Apr
15
2010

Dust Mouth

(Add / View Comments) (0)Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 02:52:59 pm
(Posted Under: No Category)
It was only a month or two that I was looking forward to it getting hotter. I felt kinda lame about doing so - having a great winter compared to what I'm used to in Melbourne (which admitadly is nothing compared to say the midwest winter), so bitching about it didn't fully seem right, but I did it somewhat anyway.

However, it's only the start of spring, and I'm starting to reconsider my wish. Goddamn it's hot! Norman said exactly the same thin at Teakwoods the other week - "I always say I want winter to be over, and once it is I'm like 'what was I thinking!?'". I'm so with him on that.

It's only April. I am wondering - by the the time August rolls around, am I going to be singing Idiot Summer ("But I like the goddamn heat!") or Dust Mouth ("Dry fucking heat, my electric bill swipped me clean. I swore I wouldn't be here for one more summer!") I don't want tpo be a sell out, and want to saw the former, but I have some fears that it might be the latter! [smile]

We'll see. It'll probably be a mixture of the two!
Apr
15
2010

Sarah Bunch Benefit

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosThursday, April 15, 2010 - 02:05:41 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
The Sara Bunch benefit show at Yucca was a lot of fun last night.

It's funny how you actually forget just how awesome Strange Young Things are sometimes until they take the stage! It was our main reason for going, but even so when they started playing it was like "oh yeah, this is why I see this band any time that I can!" All were particularly floppy all over stage, of course with Corey Gloden who was obviously the ring master, hurling himself all over the place. Between us and Norm I'm not sure who was more delighted by the performance going on (and with Corey, of course off) the stage. Towards the end of the set PC donated a whole bunch of cash to get up and do School with them, which was pretty cool! As is always true with SYL at YTR, it was some what life threatening. Please people, stop standing up Corey's mic stand! [wink]

Thankfully we didn't miss Los Guys (as a three piece) who closed out the night. It was a particularly memorable performance, with Zub's instructing everyone on Easy, attempting to induce an open bar before Whiskey Song and doing a killer version of Lovin' Cup (not that that normally isn't killer though). Much dancing issued, including some unmemorable involving us and Emmett! [wink] Fun times.

Had a cool chat with yesterday's birthday boy, and I can say that I really love being in the company of people that love this shit as much as we do!

But yeah, talk about a kick ass night at Yucca. And I got some particularly good photos of Strange Young Things - even with Glodie in my face getting me to sing Bring It On Home To Me with him! [wink]
Now Playing: `
Apr
14
2010

Lost Horizons

(Add / View Comments) (0)Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - 11:16:38 am
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music)
I predict traffic to Lost Horizons is going spike today.

But maybe that it isn't rocket science of a prediction. [wink]
Apr
11
2010

All Hail The Three Minute Pop Song

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, April 11, 2010 - 11:43:52 pm
(Posted Under: No Category)
The title says it all...
Apr
11
2010

Celebrity Apprentice

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, April 11, 2010 - 11:27:48 pm
(Posted Under: TV)
For someone who doesn't like reality TV (or "reality" TV - because, let's be honest here, it's scripted) I've sure watched a fair bit of it tonight.

First up was The Amazing Race, which I've been into for a few years now, and Kstie and I really enjoy watching. I think it's the only thing we watch regularly every week with the exception of How I Met Your Mother. Then wr decided to get started on Celebrity Apprentace, which has sparked our interest in no small part because of the Bret Michaels factor.

Since Tivo let us down, we hit up the internet (this whole American networks / full episodes online thing is gold), which turned into a hell of a Celebrity Apprentice marathon, watching 3 in a row. Which normally wouldn't be a big deal, but each episode being 2 hours (just in case there was any question that Trump has tickets on himself!) it was quite a feat! I was quite surprised how into I got especially given my lack of tolerance for this sort of programming. But I guess having a celeb that I give a shit about (and added to the Shaz Osbourne and Cindi Lauper) makes a difference.

Funnily enough after tonight's massive marathon, we're still not caught up yet.

Oh, snd did I forget to mention how much the Amazing Race lesbians getting the boot brought me much joy?!? [wink]
Apr
10
2010

The World Famous Truckers On Speed

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSaturday, April 10, 2010 - 11:53:22 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
We got to Teakwoods by 10 tonight, with the intention of eating there, so it was a later dinner. Damn you Marc Norman. [wink] There weren't many booths near the stage given the time. We eyed off one that hadn't been bussed, and then retired to the patio for a smoke. Sara must have noticed us eyeing it off and came out and asked if I wanted that booth which was much appreciated! Have I said how much I love Teakwoods? [wink]

Looking over the menu I noticed the "G. Brian Scott" burger, which I thought was really cool. Even though it was our first time eating there, I have looked at the menu at Teaks before and I don't know how that hasn't caught my eye before. About 2 minutes after noticing it and pointing it out to Katie, I looked up and there's G. Brian himself walking past our table. [smile] At some point Rational Anthem came on the house music. More evidence to why Teakwoods is my favorite place to hang out.

I decided to go for the fish & chips special, and while it was nice, what I was really taken by was the jalapeño coleslaw side! I've never come across something like that before, and it was awesome. Eye watering, but awesome. [smile] My new favorite side dish? Maybe! Which is funny to say given how good Teakwoods curly fries are.

Surprisingly by the time Truckers took the stage the crowd had cleared out somewhat, and we moved to a table for a better view of the band. The set list was absolutely great, and I'm fairly confident that they played all of our favorites. The most impressive thing was that they played for 2 hours straight! There was no set breaks. There was no calls for alcohol. There was no screwing around. They started playing at 11 and kept on trucking (yes, pun intended) until 1am! That really blew me away.

Photobox ImageThe Dead Hot Workshop parts of the night just kept coming. I'd ironically worn my Dead Hot tee - Dave Speed was also sporting the sleeveless version. About half way through the set they broke into A which was a real treat! After the show when I picked up the new disc the fact we were sporting the same shirt wasn't lost on him, and said that he hoped I wasn't disappointed with the version - and I wasn't. The other notable cover (or should I saw "cover") was Lightning Speed - I was really happy that they played that. Getting to see both a Dead Hot Workshop and Piersons' song in their set was pretty sweet.

Chad had the lap steel in front of him all night for Lightning Speed and 42-40, and kicked ass on the latter. I don't feel like I've listened to that a lot, but was certainly quite familiar with it and really enjoyed it. Original bassist Theron Wall was there and sat in for Omaha and Ice Cream, and added backing vocals on a couple of songs including Cindy Crawford, which was one of our favorite songs of the night. Not that that's too surprising though! Dave's punk rock four count on that one was pretty cool too.
Apr
10
2010

Fun In The Sun

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSaturday, April 10, 2010 - 08:15:35 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
Fun day today. We went down and checked out the Guitar Show, which was pretty much a bust, but I'm glad that we did it anyway. I did get to see a car from The Saltmine, which I guess was kinda cool.

I wasn't ready to go home, so we dropped by Kwantis park and had a walk around which was actually really nice. From there we did some shopping and got home just in time to head out to see Marc & Thomas. Despite our boycott of Wongs at the Firehouse. Which was a huge moral dilemma, though throughout the day we decided we really wanted to see Marc & Thomas. If you don't buy anything, then surely you're not selling out too much? That's what I keep telling myself, though I would like to still be able to say that I haven't set foot in the place. It's not like I needed any confirmation, but it did confirm what I knew to be true. The place is lame.

Photobox ImageAside from looking like every other Wongs that came before it, the place is a complete cluster fuck once you get more than 5 people in there. It makes me wish even more that there was a "Long Wongs At The Firehouse is not Long Wongs On Mill" Facebook group. I'd be their first fan. [smile] With that said, it was a fun set by Marc & Thomas and my video of it came out pretty good. And my new favorite comment was coined on stage "I don't mean to sound like a dick, but absolutely no fucking way!" [smile] There was a guy there assumability talking to someone in Australia on sykpe, which Marc enjoyed. I wonder if he knows they had Australian listeners long before this!

In any case, we'd rationalized our penance for stepping foot in that establishment (which I fully place blame on Marc Norman's shoulders [wink] ) to be dinner at Teakwods, and it didn't take us long after the boys had finished playing to get the hell out of dodge and over to Teakwoods. On which point, let's never speak of this again. [smile]
Apr
09
2010

22 Hours To Phoenix

Moving To Arizona Video

(Add / View Comments) (0)Friday, April 9, 2010 - 12:25:06 am
(Posted Under: Livin' In The USA Livin' In The USA)
So the whole move thing happened 5 months ago, but I've only just finally got around to finishing the videos of it.

22 Hours To Phoenix - Day 1


22 Hours To Phoenix - Day 2


Originally I'd planned on sorting out the software thing (ie: not trial), but who am I kidding? It's already been 5 months, time to get this out there despite the annoying "trial" text. Oh, and I would like to take the opportunity to vocalize how much Microsoft Movie Maker blows chunks.

Anyways, enjoy scenes from the cross country move...condensed into two four minute nuggets. [wink]
Apr
07
2010

Teaks & The Vig

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosWednesday, April 7, 2010 - 11:35:45 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
A bit of a change of pace tonight at Teakwoods - since Josh is still out of town, it was Bobby with the Judge, which was kinda cool to see something different. I certainly noticed tonight that Bobby can certainly hold his own on the guitar. You never notice when Josh is around, however the tightness tonight was all coming from Bobby. It was kinda cool getting to see Bobby do Sick In Bed in it's entirety.

Afterwards we headed over to the Vig to see Scotty and Steve. The extremely cool part of this was getting to hear the new Blossoms song "Going To California" for the first time. That alone made it worth the trip out there! And once again, heard Follow You Down twice within a 3 hour period. [wink]
Apr
03
2010

Dos Zubia's En Una Noche

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSaturday, April 3, 2010 - 11:58:12 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
Photobox ImageTonight we saw two Zubia's in the one night, just not on the stage. Stellanova and Violet Wild played at 910 Live, where we started out the night.

Violet Wild sounded a lot better tonight, it was clear that Ryan was a lot more familiar with the songs tonight. The set seemed a bit short to what I'm used to, but that may have had to do with the paltry crowd that was there.

After having a smoke, we took off for Teakwoods in the hopes of catching some of Los Guys. Our plan worked out quite nicely as they played for about another hour after we showed up. Although we missed Tramps' set, Emmett was up on stage (makes sense, as Josh was at 910) which made us glad that we went over. Fun set, and like the other week, it was cool to just go over to Teakwoods and chill out. Plus, it being the 6th anniversary of Wong's closing, it seemed like an appropriate thing to do.

Aside from the opportunity of seeing Emmett play with Los Guys, I was really glad we went down there when they broke into an old south of the border Zubia song which I absolutely loved. Funnily enough while they were playing it I thought how Roger could only dream of writing a song that good, and I wasn't the only one who thought so. The next time I see those guys I need to get the 4-11 on that song, because it was great!

So not only did we see two Zubia's tonight, but we actually saw the sum total of the Pistoleros on stage - just different stages across town.
Apr
03
2010

Velvet Elvis and Violet Wild @ Teakwoods

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSaturday, April 3, 2010 - 11:07:38 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
Fun at Teakwoods tonight, with Velvet Elvis and Violet Wild. Otherwise known as the Josh Kennedy double header. Well, technically for Ryan too, who was doing double duty covering for Chris who is out on tour at the moment.

Lately I've had a wanting to see Velvet Elvis, and they certainly dominated the evening. I actually thought tonight, though I've always liked them, I haven't always actually listened to them that much, well compared to Katie at very least. But I have to question why. Between the pop gold brilliance and the rock factor, there really isn't much for me not to go nuts over. But anyways... It was a great set, and included some covers I haven't seen been (Paint It Black, Green Eyed Lady and Morn's lounge version of You Shook Me). Covers of theirs I'm familiar with buy were yet to see for myself.

The front and center seats on the couch were quite nice - even Sara mentioned that we had to best seats in the house. [smile] I saw a couple more familiar faces at Teakwoods, including G. Brian who briefly shared our couch with us, which makes me think that the Teakwood's word is getting around. Despite Marc's smart-assy "9:31" show time, again there was a weight for the drummer in transit. Before taking the stage Norman explained to Katie and she and I are the two sides of the anchor of his performance. [smile]

Apr
01
2010

Don't Wake Me, I'm Finally Out!

(Add / View Comments) (0)Thursday, April 1, 2010 - 04:37:52 pm
(Posted Under: No Category)
As of last Sunday we're sleeping in our own bed finally! It's the first time since May 20th last year which I have, and god it was a comfortable night sleep.

The inflatable mattress was a functional and cost effective short stop without a doubt, but after 5 months of being in Arizona, hence sleeping on it, I can't say that I'm going to miss it! [smile]

It's also pretty sweet having both of our acoustic guitars here too.
Now Playing: Marc Norman & Thomas Laufenberg - Same Sad Story (Teakwoods Tavern & Grill, March 27, 2010)

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