The Crystal Method
Ruby Skye

I was totally exhausted from having just flown in that afternoon from New York and I considered not even going to this show. ( I had actually fallen asleep in the shower while getting ready for the show) But I am glad I decided to go after all.

Ruby Skye in an ultra cool club in San Francisco that caters to the dance music crowd. It is housed in an old theater that retains a lot of its old features but at the same time is a completely modern club. It was a great light system and good acoustics. There is a downstairs dance floor with two bars and the stage and an upstaires balcony area with another bar and the VIP section. They also have go-go dancers and my favorite, a girl that dances with a hoola-hoop that lights up. All I could think was that this place would totally rock if you were on ecstasy! We stayed mostly upstairs since you could see the stage better from up there and the fact that the downstairs was a bit (ok, more than a bit) of a meat market.

We got there at about 11pm and got some drinks before heading upstairs. There was a DJ playing that just OK, but we were anxious for the professionals to show how it should be done.

At about 12:30 The Crystal Method came on. Now, this was a DJ gig not them playing music off their CDs. I think some people were confused on this point and were a little disappointed. The guy next to us kept saying "that's not them...it doesn't sound like them." I tried to explain that it was a DJ gig, but I don't think he was convinced. I just had this vision of him marching downstairs and demanding his money back because he thought it wasn't The Crystal Method.

All I can say about these guys are 1) they are nerds, but who else besides nerds would stand behind turntables for probably 15 hours a day perfecting beats? 2) these guys are not two of the best DJs in the world for no reason! They had fantastic mixes and wall (and ass) shaking beats. I had to keep reminding myself that it was all live because it sounded so flawless. Someone might say; why pay to see a DJ..Aren't all DJs the same? Oh no, my friend, they are not. The first DJ of the night was a two year old's birthday clown to Crystal Methods Cirque-du-Soleil. Oh, Yeah...that different!

We left at 2:30 or so and it took us nearly an hour to get out of the city, but I was home by 3:30 and in bed by 4 am, a mere 22 hours after I had gotten up the day before...and it was well worth it!

Aqualung
The Great American Music Hall

Or as we now call it after realizing how much the inside of this place looks like the theater in the Muppet Show: The Great American Muppet Hall.

Every time I have seen this group it is slightly different. I have seen incarnations from just Matt Hales at an electric piano to a five piece band (once even with his wife singing) so it is definitely never the same show twice with these guys even if you are hearing the same songs (which I never get tired of by the way) This is a band on the low key side of the spectrum as far as music is concerned. Not that they are low key as people, there is always a lot of energy and Matt Hales is one of the funniest musicians I have ever seen. I think it also helps that he usually plays with his brother (Ben) so there is always good natured teasing between them. This show was the full band variety with Matt actually playing guitar in addition to the piano, which I had not seen before. In addition to all their great songs they ended the set with a totally kick ass rendition of Queen's Somebody to Love! Oh yeah!

The Bravery
The Fillmore

As I have said before I love the historic Fillmore theater. I have also said the bands that play here are thrilled to play here and show it. The lead singer of The Bravery confirmed this for me. Before they started he said how cool it was to be playing here. I believe his exact words were; "This is some historic shit!" Well said my friend, well said.

Now, when I talk to people about The Bravery, I usually get one of two responses; enthusiasm or ambivalence. I am not sure why this is, I think they are great...as long as you don't take them too seriously. They are a fun band to listen to and look at. I am not saying that they are the greatest band out there, not by a long shot. But I have found that people tend to be music snobs. They wont admit to liking a band unless the band is branded "cool" by the rest of the world. I am not a music snob. I like ALL kinds of music and many, many, many different bands within each genre. So there! ;)

This show was great fun and the crowd was most definitely enthusiastic! Everyone was singing at the top of their lungs and jumping around and being generally silly fans. The band interacted with the audience a lot (which is a big plus in my book) they were having as much fun as we were. I think the band comes off as very aloof and ultra cool, but they were gracious and a little dorky (another big plus) The lead singer even dedicated a song to his dad who was there at the show.

I was hoarse from singing to all the songs and all tired out from jumping around. The only disappointments were that the show was not long enough, though I don't know what I expected since they only have one album out and it is only 37 minutes long! And that I got caught taking pictures during the next to last song and security made my erase all the pictures on my camera, damn effective security!

I encourage anyone with a sense of humor and a sense of fun to see this band live. Long live faux-pretensious music!

Today I went to get my hair cut and then hit a few second hand shops. I always find cool/wierd/funny stuff when I go to these places. Here are a few of my finds from this trip. Enjoy!

Wicked
Orpheum Theater

My friend Row and I took our moms to see wicked this weekend.

To be honest I have not always been a big fan of musicals, I kind of think they are cheesy. So, maybe it is old age setting in, but they have started to grow on my the past few years.

I enjoyed this production mostly for the spectacular stage set up and the cirque-du-soleil-esque wardrobe. I still think the singing is a bit cheesy, but could get past that for the cool story. It did not hurt that the play was at the orpheum theater, which is absolutely beautiful.

Row said the musical was not very close to the book (which I have just started reading) and that they changed a lot of the story. But that is to be expected, it is not too easy to cram a whole book into a two hour production, and there is always "poetic license" taken when plays and movies are taken from books. It is more "inspired by" the book than based on it.

All in all we had a great time with our moms and a great dinner before the play at a restaurant in Berkeley called Seasalt. Even if you don't like musicals, this one was not half bad.

Holy shit! The world is falling to pieces!

Wars, genocide, hurricanes, typhoons, people falling of bridges, AIDS, malaria, hunger and a bunch of plane crashes.

Oh and on a personal rant... last year our "great" leader cut, by over 50%, money to the Army Corps of Engineers that would have been used on levee maintenance and reconstruction and hurricane preparedness (mostly because these funds cut into his Iraq war money). What a Dumb Ass! (But I bet you already knew that!)

If you want to help go here:

www.redcross.org
or here:
www.secondharvest.org
or here:
www.theglobalfund.org
or here:
www.one.org

I saw this sign in Walnut Creek, Ca and it made me laugh. My first thought was: Are the women still married?

(turns out it is a "men's only" legal office. Hmph.)