I just heard The Shins are playing First Avenue tomorrow. I was totally unaware of this until just this moment.

In more disappointing news it appears the show is sold out.

If any of my loyal readers have tickets and want to take me to the show, please leave a comment. The person writing the funniest comment gets to take me. As a thank you gift, I’ll create a very special blog post just for you.

I recently went to see a play near my house at the “Lakeshore Players Theatre” in White Bear. Actually it wasn’t a play but nine ten minute plays written for a contest.

It was really fun. The actors were very good. To my surprise I knew one of the actors, Mike Laudenslager, who I now know is on the board of a local theater Lyric Arts. He was such a good actor, I wasn’t sure it was him until I saw him outside during intermission.

The thing I really like about the plays was their brevity. If you didn’t like one, all you had to do was wait ten minutes and you would get a whole new play to enjoy.

I didn’t agree with the judges of the contest at all. They ranked the serious plays as the top three. The funny plays were much better in my book. The word play in “Old Maids Never Worry”, by Rich Espey, was especially good. I also enjoyed “Speed Date” by Carol White.

Current song stuck in my head.

I love the impermanent nature of an ice castle. Castles are fortresses intended to project permanence and strength. But an ice castle (if not dismantled prematurely for safety and insurance reasons) simply melts away when the temperature rises. It’s an excellent metaphor for life. Everything we build or accumulate that looks permanent eventually seems to fade, tear, rust, stain, melt, rot, or die. Funny how the impermanance of the ice castle doesn’t take away from my pleasure in seeing it. For some reason at this stage in my life I seem drawn to impermanent, impractical displays of beauty even those with little practical purpose. I find myself entranced by impermanent beauty, flowers that bloom for just one day, fireworks that vanish in an instant, 7500+ Gates that just dissapear, quick smiles, knowing glances and shared laughter.

When I fired up iTunes today, I discovered a new feature of the music store. Called iTunes Essentials, it’s like a list of really cool songs in a particular genre, by a particular artist, or related to a certain theme, for instance “00′s Alternative Rock”, “Stevie Wonder”, “70′s One Hit Wonders” or “Valentine’s Day Alone.”

The title of one of these collections caught my eye, “Gay Pride: Girls”. I clicked on the link to check out what the “girls” might like. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I share a remarkable musical affinity with demographic targeted by this Essentials Collection.

I’ve been accused of liking girl music; it turns out that perhaps what I really like is music that girls who like girls like. This explains a lot.

I finally got the iPod I’ve been dreaming of. I like to call it “the precious”. It’s phenomenal, with only a few nits. Syncing with multiple computers isn’t quite as simple as I would expect it to be. I also want to know why it is so difficult to delete music? It seems like an easy feature to implement.

Now that I’ve got an iPod, I’ve been checking out podcasts. Some of these “shows” are terrible beyond belief, others are quite good. Once I find some podcasts that are consistently good I’ll put some links up.

So I went to see Bowling For Soup, the much-blogged Texas joke-rockers.

Disclaimer: I don’t see much live music. I especially don’t go see live music at all-ages shows in small clubs, so your mileage may vary.

Here is a list of personal firsts associated with the show or at least the venue last night.

Crowd Surfing

I didn’t actually participate in this, but there was a lot of it and it was close by. I was fascinated by this expression of pure rock and roll love. Larry offered me a boost up, so I could crowd surf. This caused the girl standing behind him to back away with a scared wide eyed look.

Hosed Down

Periodically, throughout the show, the security staff would squirt the audience with what looked like a garden style device for spraying pesticides. I hope it was water.

Teeny-boppers

I don’t hang out with teenagers, and really haven’t since high school. In this crowd, I felt really old. I wasn’t the oldest person at the show, but it was obvious I was encroaching on the kids’ territory just a little bit. There were parents at the show who drove their kids to the show and appeared to just endure the show.

Cell Phones Lighters

Everyone had cell phones, well everyone except me. During a rock ballad, people used their cell phones as mock digital lighters to express their solidarity with the band. People also took a lot of pictures with their phones. Given the quality of cell phone photos I have seen taken in well lit locations, I have to think that these aren’t going to be hung in a museum for posterity.

Moshing

I’ve seen moshing plenty of times. This was the first time I joined in a little. Mostly I enjoyed shoving the moshers back into their little pit of whirling dervishness.

Reading during the show

There was a woman, who sat in the 21 and over section, and read through the entire show. I’m quite sure she had driven her children there. I talked to her for a minute, since I was dying to know what book could be so enthralling as to engage her when there was so much noise in the room. The book was “The Kitchen Boy”

So how was the music?

I really like the main act. The first two acts, MC Lars and Riddlin’ Kids were simply endurance tests. The best thing about the first two acts was that for the first time in my life, I was quite confident that I could have done better than the performer on stage. American Hi-Fi, the third band was ok. They knew their own songs and had a much tighter sound. I could imagine listening to one of their songs on the radio and not turning the station.

Bowling for Soup, on the other hand, had a great sound. They played mostly from their last two albums, “Drunk Enough to Dance” & “A Hangover You Don’t Deserve”, with a few older songs thrown in. They also threw in the classic rocker, “Sweet Home Alabama” crafted to remove the bit about actually loving the governor.

They were very expressive on stage, especially the lead guitar player Eric. Eric bugged Larry (the only person to go to the show of the 40 odd people I invited) to no end, but I thought his odd hand motions and movements were inspired and rather funny.

The band constantly joked on stage. Most of it was rather low-brow as one might expect but there were a few gems mixed in. A few times BFS stopped mid way through a rocking song to crack a few jokes. This was cute the first time, but the gag wore thin after a while.

All in all I really enjoyed it. It was especially fun to see the band with an enthusiastic audience who could sing along with most of the songs. I would probably see them again if given the option.

No matter how much I liked the music, I am in no hurry to go to another all ages show at a club. I am a fan of quiet conversation. Having to shout in the ear of the person next to you can make the evening seem long.

Just a friendly reminder that you have been invited to hang out with me at The Qwest, next Tuesday night, to hear on of my favorite bands, “Bowling For Soup“. See the FAQ I posted for more details.

I have just found out that one of my favorite bands will be playing in
Minneapolis soon. Since I have wanted to hear this band play for a
very long time, I am super excited.

Why am I telling you this? It’s because I’m going and you are invited too!

I’ve prepared a handy FAQ for you.

Read the rest of this entry »

I just learned today that one of my favorite bands, Bowling for Soup, will be appearing in Minneapolis, on February 1st at the Quest Club. I can’t wait to see them. Hopefully, I can convince someone to go with me.

If you haven’t listened to this band, you really should. They have this great sound, funny lyrics, and amazing delivery.