Concert at Red Butte Gardens

I've been slipping in my blogging. :( So this event was actually a week ago from last Monday, July 13th.

My friend, Brad, texted me a few weeks ago and said that our friend Kimber had managed to buy a few tickets for Death Cab for Cutie at the Red Butte Gardens. The show had been sold out but apparently they found a few more available and they listed them online. Now I've seen Death Cab for Cutie twice prior to this. So I wasn't way excited about that even though I love the band. What intrigued me was attending a concert at Red Butte Gardens. So I said I was "in."

The night of the show, I met Brad at our usual park and ride spot. We then picked up Kimber in Draper. Of course we always have to get some food prior to a night of music. We stopped at the downtown Greek Souvlaki for a gyro. Yum!



We got the concert at the perfect time, just as Ra Ra Riot took the stage. I was unfamiliar with the band until a few days before the show. Normally I'm not too interested in the warm up groups but I was really digging what I had heard from them before the show and they did not disappoint in person. My only complaint was that their time on stage was too short.



Next up was Andrew Bird. I was familiar with some of his music. It's a little more eclectic. But he does some pretty amazing stuff live. He regularly would record a bit either of violin, guitar, or other sound and then loop it through out the song. He would add layer upon layer of different instruments or sounds to create the song. I'm sure my description doesn't do it justice. And man this guy can really whistle! I've never heard so much whistling from the artist on stage!



Last up was Death Cab for Cutie. Of course seeing them live once again only confirmed why I love their music. The temperature had started to cool and it was nice to be outside listening to great music in such a beautiful setting. If only my knees and feet could get past the pain of standing for four hours. I'm not as young as I used to be.

Ben Kweller in Concert

Saturday night I went with my friend, Brad, his wife Elizabeth, and another friend Kimber to attend a Ben Kweller concert in Salt Lake City. I wasn't terribly excited about it. I've seen Ben Kweller three times now including this last time. But I wanted to go because it's one of the few times I get to hang out with Brad. Since the ticket was cheap, I figured, "Why not?"

Beforehand we went to the Reg Iguana to eat dinner. My last experience there was not a good memory but it was also a long time ago. Ten years ago when I last tried it, the service was horrible, it wasn't very clean, and when they brought me a glass of water there was lipstick on the glass and floaties in the water. Eeek! Well, I'm pleased to report that it has much improved. (ie. no lipstick!) Actually it was quite good. I ordered the Mole Negro. I love mole. Or better yet I should say that I love El Azteca's mole. Even though the Red Iguana's was pretty good, I'm still saying that El Azteca has the best version.

After dinner we headed to the Avalon to see Ben. Before Ben, the warm up band was Jones Street Station and as far as warm up bands go, they were great. Very talented. Ben came out and I once again realized just how talented and likable he is. I ended up thoroughly enjoying the show. The highlight of the show had to be the second encore which featured his 3 year old son playing drums. I was glad to see that someone had posted that song on YouTube. You can see it below. The kid is amazing!

Winter Song (Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson)

It seems every year on So You Think You Can Dance I am introduced to a new artist or song that I really love. This year is no exception! Last night I was watching the auditions from Memphis, I think, and at least two of the contestants danced to this song. I used my iPhone to determine what the song was and who sung it. I'm familiar with both Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson but had not heard the song. It's off of a Christmas CD. So it's not exactly new. This morning I had to purchase it on iTunes and have listened to it several times. I'm not sure why I love it. Check it out and see what you think.

Sara Bareilles - New Music - More Music Videos

Winter Song - Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson

UPDATE: Okay. My niece reminded me that she performed it at our family Christmas party. I loved it then and meant to look it up. But my short term memory prevented that. Bri, thanks for reminding me where I first heard it.

The Ting Tings

Thursday I went to see The Ting Tings perform in Salt Lake City with Brad and Dan. When Brad asked me if I wanted to go, I honestly wasn't really excited about it but tickets were cheap. So of course I said, "Yes." Well, they were so worth the $16! Probably one of the most upbeat concerts I've been to in a long time. It was also fun to see Jen & Cass and Kimber & Lori.



In case you are not familiar with The Ting Tings let me fill you in. The band consists of two members: Jules and Katie. In this concert, Jules was on guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, and vocals. Katie was on guitar, bass drum, and vocals. They have the 80's pop sound which makes for a fun concert. They both were high energy and made sure the crowd was high energy too. Since they only have one released CD you can imagine that the concert was not as long as many that I've been to. But I kind of liked leaving wanting more. The next day at work I had a hard time listening to much other than them. And if you have seen any of the iPod commercials it likely that you have heard their song: Shut Up and Let Me Go.

As far as the warm-up bands goes, they were horrible and I don't even want to mention them. :)

Me Unplugged

Twice this week I have lost power for extended time. On Sunday the power was out from around 9:30pm to after midnight. And then Wednesday morning the power went off very early in the morning and didn't come on until I was at work.

Normally it seems that when I loose power at my house it doesn't take too long for it to come back on. Last Sunday when it went out, I was in the middle of rearranging my furniture and cleaning since I was hosting FHE the next evening. I carefully felt my way around the furniture in their unusual locations until I got to the kitchen and found my emergency flashlight. I then lit candles through out the first floor. It was almost like I had regular lighting. But what I didn't have was TV, computer, music, etc. So I had to find a way to entertain myself until the power returned. I started reading a neglected stack of magazines. That didn't last long. Soon I turned to my new iPhone and started playing a little Sudoku and texting a friend who was also lacking power. But when the power on my phone started to get low, I decided that I better save some juice in case it might have to be my alarm clock for Monday morning. Eventually I decided the power was not coming back on anytime soon and went to bed with a headlamp and a book. It was a quiet evening until I was awoken just past midnight from the noise of my television downstairs.

During all this quiet time, it just made me realize just how noisy my daily life is. When I'm at home my TV is generally running or there is music playing. And when I'm at work, it's a rare occasion that iTunes is not busy. It made me think that maybe I shouldn't be so disturbed by the quiet and that I should spend more time without all the distractions. Since that thought the power is back and so is the noise. But maybe I'll turn off radio when I drive. Maybe. And even if I don't at least I'm going to be more grateful for electricity.

An Evening with Adele & James Morrison

Several weeks ago a several friends and I decided that we wanted to go see Adele & James Morrison in concert. I created an event on Facebook right away and got everyone invited. And being the procrastinator that I am I never tried to go buy my ticket until the Saturday (Jan 17th) before the show. So I was shocked and saddened to find out that the show was sold out. Once again my procrastination had not paid off. When will I learn?! I sent out an e-mail to everyone I invited and told them that the show was sold out. And what I found was that most of the people were procrastinators also. Fortunately Lindsay, Lexi, Molly, and Mitch were smarter and picked up tickets early. I still had hope that I could find something on craigslist or ksl.com. When that didn't turn out, my new best friend, Mitch, said he'd let me have his ticket which was incredibly nice of him. But that is just how Mitch is. Plus he wasn't all the excited to go to being with. :) Still very nice of him.

So last night (Jan 23rd), I picked up Lindsay, Lexi, and Molly. We headed to Murray to see the show at the Murray Theater. On the way we stopped at Pei Wei to eat some dinner. It was great. We need one of the those in Utah County. After dinner we drove up the street to the show. The timing was just right for not missing the show. But unfortunately I was not familiar with the venue because we really should have been there much earlier. Just a few minutes after getting there James Morrison began the show but we were barely able to get in the doors of the auditorium. I could barely see him and I'm the tallest of our group. We did eventually find a better spot by going through the north doors. When we switched sides, Molly overheard that if you bought James' new CD you could meet him after the show and have him sign it. So I was all over that. We both bought CDs and when we thought he was about done, we headed over to where we could get backstage. While we were waiting Molly spotted none other than the David Archuleta coming down the stairs from the box seats. I tried to get a photo once it registered. Molly became a 12 year-old girl again, screaming "David, Hi." He turned and waved with his trademark grin. Made her night. Molly & I were the first of the group going backstage. I was already with my camera too. I wasn't sure they would allow photos but I wasn't going to ask either. After we met James and got our photos taken with him. The promoter was telling everyone that there wouldn't be group photos because there wasn't time. Good thing we were first.

We went back in the auditorium to watch Adele. This time we decided to try and work our way down to the 2nd level. After some work we got there and the view was much better. We just had to make sure people were not stepping on Molly's foot since she just recently broke her leg. Adele was amazing. Her voice is just as great in person and it was nice to see her personality. During one of her songs she forgot the lyrics and it was pretty obvious. Before the next song she apologized saying basically that she only has one album and that she should be able to remember the lyrics. It was cute. The show was great. Glad I got to go. Thanks again, Mitch!

There are some videos at the that bottom of the this entry that I took of a few performances. The video is not great but the sound is pretty good.

A Sweet Night of Guitar Hero

So back during my work Christmas party I got a gift certificate for a season family pass to Thankgiving Point. In case you haven't noticed, I don't have a family of my own. So I traded it to another guy who was going to buy a family pass anyway. In return I got a gift certificate to Sundance. That was much better for me. But then I realized that my brother buys a season pass to the cross-country track at Sundance. So he bought my gift certificate and in exchange I bought Guitar Hero. Perfect!

Anyway, my friend, Lindsay kept on asking when she was going to get to come play my new game. So I thought why not make a party of it. Then I remembered that she is on a sugar fast. No sugar for two weeks. Ughh! So being the super supportive friend that I am, :) I decided to make it a theme for the evening. So you could bring snacks as long as they were sugar free. I provided diet sodas, almonds, sugar-free pudding, sugar-free jello, sugar-free cool whip, and pretzels. Some other friends brought a great veggie tray and dip and dried mangoes. The mangoes had sugar but we pretended.

We had a great time rocking late into the evening. I just hoped my neighbors enjoyed it as much as me. :)







Those attending: Me, Lindsay, Anna, Molly, Colette, Mitch, Rob, and Eric. Thanks for coming!

Try

This week started out rough for me. I was feeling down on Monday and future wasn't looking so bright for me. It wasn't really something that I could explain if you asked me to.

Fortunately through a series of events, I was able to snap out of it. Several of those events involved good friends both old and new. And as I was awakening from my depression, I was at work playing some music. First, let me tell you that I am not a "lyrics" guy. Normally I hear a song and rarely do I remember or even notice the lyrics. I was listening to a song I have heard dozens of times if not more. But this time I was hearing the lyrics and they were speak to me about me. The song entitled Try is by Lisa Loeb and here are the lyrics:

What’s the difference between you and me?
To me it’s kind of small, to you it’s like a prison.
What’s the difference between you and me
To me it almost happens, to you it almost isn’t.
How did you become so sure?
Your girlfriend never smiles, no one ever calls.
You begin to wonder if they were your friends at all.
You frown, you take a look around.
You shout, this’ll never get better.
But the doubt that you grow in your field is sprouting
turning your field into into a deeper valley.
You’d find
the mountains aren’t so high
if you’d only try
to do better
9:33 in the traffic at the stoplight
somebody hits you, nothing ever goes right
in the gridlock, nothing ever goes right.
But it’s just a little scratch, not a permanent scar.
Just a tiny dent, you don’t need a new car.
Just a little mess, your dreams aren’t shattered.
You climb up while I hold the ladder.
You’d find
the mountains aren’t so high
How many times I’ve tried, how many times I’ve missed and I’ve tried.
How many times I’ve tried, how many times I’ve missed and I’ve tried.
When everything’s so difficult, I feel so low
I find a better view on the other side of the window.
So that’s the difference between you and me.
What it you believed that the grass could grow
up through the snow, it’s possible
You’d find
the mountains aren’t so high
if you’d only try
to do better than get by

If you want to listen to the song you can go to lisaloeb.com

I decided that I had been pretty negative about a lot of things and as a result had lost my hope. The thing is that I have plenty of positive in my live and that I should be focusing on that. So, I'm going to try to do better...

English Beat

On Tuesday the 9th I joined my friend, Brad, and we headed up to Salt Lake City to see the English Beat. Brad had created an event on Facebook and invited a bunch of "old" high school friends and quite a few were on board. It was looking like it was going to be a fun evening with lots of friendly faces. We headed up to SLC around 5:30pm and doors didn't open at the show until 7:00pm. Plus there was a warm-up band of two. That was fortunate for us because after passing the point of the mountain, we got a flat tire while in the HOV lane. Brad was driving and pulled over into the middle median. After trying to change the tire ourselves and finding that we had two spare tires but no lug wrench that would work on his wheels, we gave up and called 911. They sent a UHP car which took forever. When it did get, the officer wasn't much help. He told us we were in a good spot, which neither Brad or I agreed with. Fortunately for us Brad's brother Dennis saved the day. He lives at Traverse Mountain and was quickly there to help us out. He called his AAA service to come out and fix it right away. Thank you, Dennis! So after an hour we got back on the road.

There were a few cancellations from friends and it was sounding like it might just be Brad and me. We went ahead anyway. Right after we walked in to buy tickets, Dave Wakling, the only original guy from the English Best, walked in too. So we weren't late. During the evening we found out that several of our friends had made it. Even though the music was great as always, we spent most of the evening chatting it up. Good times!

FHE - Rock Band

This week we had family home evening at my house because the guy who was supposed to host it had a hot date. (At our age, that's a legit excuse.) So I had to come up with something quick. Rock Band always seems to be a crowd pleaser and Nick was generous enough to let me borrow his system and the game. (Thanks Nick!) Rock Band at FHE was a hit. We had 14 people as opposed to the normal 6 to 8. We had a few new people visiting FHE for the first time. It's always great to meet new people. The more the merrier, right? And of course there were drinks and snacks. Can't forget those. Here's some of the action photos.

David Archuleta's New Video

David Archuleta released his new video for the single Crush on iTunes. But there you can only preview a small snippet of it or purchase it. I'm all for supporting David but I also wanted to share it with those who have not seen it yet. It appears that YouTube has had the video posted a few times but had to remove it. Of course China isn't concerned with whether they have permission or not so I did find it posted on a Chinese site. (The video above is not hosted on my website, thus the Chinese lettering.)

I really like the video. It totally fit's David's image and that's good to see that they aren't trying to change him too much.

David Archuleta's New Single

So I was checking to see what new releases were out there and look what I found. David Archuleta has already released (at least digitally) his new single, Crush. And be the Archie fan that I am I immediately had to purchase it. I got to say that it works really well for him and what I think is his demographic. See what you think.

Early Signs of Talent

I recently rediscovered a cassette tape (remember those?) that had a recording of me singing and accompanying myself at the tender age of three! (A few years after I started playing the piano as evidenced by the photo above.) I gotta say, I was pretty good. With a few more lessons I'm pretty sure that I would have been the original Josh Groban. See what you think. Enjoy!

Adele - 19

So lately I've really liked listening to Adele. I first heard her Chasing Pavements song on VH1's Top 20 Countdown. I immediately liked that song and decided to try out the rest of her album, 19. To me she sounds a little like Amy Winehouse but vocals are much smoother. And you don't have the icky visual of Amy Winehouse when you hear her music. Check her out. See what you think.

Jon McLaughlin - Beating My Heart

Just watched Jon McLaughlin's new video on Amazon.com. I really love this guy's music. I could listen to him over and over. In fact, I often do. I believe he's toured in Utah but I wasn't smart enough to go. I'm hoping he comes back soon.

If you are not familar with him, you really should check him out. You might have listened to him without even knowing it. He sings the So Close song at the end of Walt Disney's Enchanted.

His new CD is not out until Oct but You can check out his "old stuff," Indiana.

Weepies - Hideaway

So my friend, Brad, has enlisted 3 of his kids to star in a music video he made for the Weepies song Hideaway. He has entered it in the Weepies 'Hideaway' Video Challenge. Best of luck Brad. Judging the posts so far, I say he has it. Plus can you beat a flying super hero eating a snack?!

Dashboard Confessional - The Shade of Poison Trees

My latest purchase, The Shade of Poison Trees, is Dashboard Confessional's latest CD. Sure it's not like hearing them live. But seeing them live has it's own pros and cons. I experienced them live a month or two ago at the Summer Jamboree. If you're not into listening to screaming girls or a large crowd singing along to every song then it's probably best that you just get this CD and listen to in the privacy of your own home. All of the tracks and the entire CD of MP3s are available from Amazon.

Jon McLaughlin - Indiana

It was earlier this summer that my friend, Brad, introduced me to Jon McLaughlin. Well, not to Jon himself, but to his music. It was an easy sell. I was immediately hooked. I've loved listening to the MP3s I had but now I am the proud owner of his CD entitled Indiana. If you like Ben Folds and John Mayer, then I'd recommend you try Jon McLaughin's work. All of the songs from his Indiana CD are available DRM-free from Amazon.

Jamboree Music Festival

So yesterday was the big Jamboree Music Festival 2007. Seeing how this is the first year of teh festival, I wasn't quite sure how it was going to work. I had never been to a show (or much of anything) at Thanksgiving Point. The stage and all was set up in the north west corner of the Electic Park. We had VIP tickets, so we entered in the west entrance. Where we picked up our free t-shirts, limited edition posters, and our VIP passes. We got there about 3pm expecting that we'd probably still get to see all the bands except for maybe the local band (who's name I don't remember) and maybe one other band. Instead we got there right at the end of Limbeck's set. So we missed Piebald, Steel Train, Limbeck, The Stella Brass, and the local band. Suprising since the show started at 1pm. Apparently in 2 hours they were able to zip through five bands. Oh well.

As I mentioned already, when we go there Limbeck was already playing. I'm not familar with their music at all but I enjoyed the few songs that they played while we were there.

Next up was Lucas Reynolds formerly of Blue Merle. Now I gotta say that I'm a Blue Merle fan and have been them twice in concert and really enjoyed both times. I kind of thought that Lucas was the keystone of Blue Merle and that he would be just as enjoyable on his own. I wish I wasn't saying this but I was not impressed by his solo act. Maybe he's still figuring it out or something but by himself, he leaves a lot to be desired. Of the songs he performed, his lyrics were comedic at best. I'm still hoping that he gets it together though. I'm rooting for you Lucas!

Colbie Caillat was the next to grace us. Now I had heard Bubbly and I had seen the video on VH1. Thus I was expecting her to come out and look a little folksy. So it was a little shocking to see her come out wearing what Stacy and Clinton would call a pot holder (mini skirt) and a halter top. It just made me think Mariah Carey. (and that's not good.) Fortunately Colbie is very talented and it showed in her voice.

Now here's where the show got really interesting for me. Another band that was new to me, The Format. Good stuff! I thought the lead singer looked like Stephen Tyler of Aerosmith until my friend suggested Mic Jagger. He was right. The band was very entertaining and had a great sound. I'll be adding some of The Format to my collection.

Toad the Wet Sprocket was after The Format. Now Toad has been a favorite of mine for years now. It was nice to see them playing together again. (In case you didn't know, they have "broken up.") I've seen them perform together several time now as well as Glen Phillips on his own. These guys are amazingly talented. Too bad the high schoolers standing behind just didn't get it. We wanted to deck them after several comments. I think they were just interested in crowd surfing anyway. Hard to do that while listening to Toad.

The headlining band was Dashboard Confessional. This was the second time for seeing them live. Chris Carrabba is amazing! What big talent in such a small package. That doesn't bother the girls though. They were going crazy the whole time. I felt like I was at a Backstreet Boys concert. (Other than I actually love the music.) If you've never seen Dashboard live, here's what you need to know: The audience will be singing every lyric. So be prepared!

Fountains of Wayne @ The Depot

Last night was my first time attending a show at The Depot in Salt Lake City. The Depot is located in The Gateway and is acutally in the old Union Pacific building. If you've never been there, you're missing out. It's a great venue! If only every concert could be held there. (No I don't own stock.) What did I like? Well first of all it's clean. I know, it's a novel idea. Also the layout is great. Not a bad view of the stage from anywhere in the place. Of course we were front and center for Fountains of Wayne on August 21, 2007.

If you've never heard of Fountains of Wayne, you probably just don't realize that you have heard them. There "big hit" from their last album, Welcome Interstate Managers, was entitled "Stacy's Mom." See! I knew that you had heard them. Of course that is probably not one of their better songs. (Depending on who you ask, I suppose.) Prior to last night, I was always annoyed with bands who refuse to play their hit songs that fans always seems to want to hear. Last night I actually felt for FOW as they started playing Stacy's Mom and a horde of drunk girls belted out the song at the top of their lungs while dirty dancing with each other. Personally I could have forgone the song rather than have that image burned into my mind. I'm guessing that the girls were there to get drunk, oh and to hear that one song.

But if we ignore drunk girls, the show was great. Fountains of Wayne has lots of fun lyrics and upbeat "pop" tempos. Don't let "Stacy's Mom" keep you from giving them a listen. They've got several CDs all of which are great:

Here's a clip of Fountains of Wayne at The Depot singing Hey Julie:

Josh Rouse - Nashville

Here's my latest purchase from BMG, Nashville by Josh Rouse. Actually they mistakenly sent me Al Green's The Definitive Greatest Hits. Not really even close. Fortunately for me BMG is really good at righting their shipment mistakes. They are even letting me keep the incorrect shipment. (I can always use a good white elephant come Christmas time.)

All the tracks are available on iTunes:

1. It's the Nighttime
2. Winter in the Hamptons
3. Street Lights
4. Carolina
5. Middle School Frown
6. My Love Has Gone
7. Saturday
8. Sad Eyes
9. Why Won't You Tell Me What
10. Life