Nine Inch Nails
Queens of the Stone Age
Oakland Arena


We were supposed to see NIN on September 29th but it was postponed until November 19th because the drummer was having heart problems, so I was very excited to finally be seeing them. We had seem an abbreviated show of theirs at Coachella and I had really liked it. I had not been a huge fan before then, I had know their main hits but did only owned one CD. After seeing them live I went out a bought everything I could get my hands on and have been listening to them ever since.

Tina came and got my about 7:30 and we headed out to the arena which is only a few miles from my house. When we got there we started looking for the special "Spiral" entrance for fan club members. After a few false starts we found it at the side of the Arena. We got our tickets at will call and headed in. I am really glad I remembered my ear plugs, this was an especially loud show. QOTSA were already playing. I am not a huge fan of this band and it didn't help that live them kind of played like a jam band and would play the same song for 15 minutes with instrumental parts for about 10 of those minutes. Not my style at all. We did have a good time looking at all the people and reading all the t-shirts. It was like band t-shirt heaven.

Finally NIN came on. All I can say is it was a fantastic show. Very straight ahead, little on theatrics and big on the rock! They had a cool stage set and a curtain that would go down in front of them at a point in the middle of the concert when they were playing some of their slower songs. It was almost see through so you could still see the outline of the band but see the images that were projected onto the screen. It was really cool. They played about 5 songs like that with images of flocks of animals and people flowing into images of was and destruction. It got the message home without saying a word. I was very impressed. Trent was also much more animated during this show than I remembered him being at Coachella. He danced and moved around the stage a lot more. That was great to see. Trent didn't talk much, which is what I expected. There were only a few thank yous, fuck yeas and he did thank us for coming back and apologized for the concert delay.

I left there exhausted, my back and knees were killing me from standing on the cement on floor, but I was so happy to finally see this band in a full concert.

I have been in the Seattle area working, and I will be here until the end of December. I had my first day off and decided to go to the wharf and to Pike's market. I had a nice day, excluding the part where I got lost in downtown Seattle. I went to Ye olde curiosity shop on the wharf which mostly has crappy souvenirs, but does have a weird little section at the back with real shrunken heads, two modern mummies (mummified by natural causes) and a fine selection of other animal and human freakage. I bought some very fun mummy and shrunken head floaty pens and took a few pictures. I then hiked up the hill to Pike's market. This is a very nice market with every imaginable food stuff and lots of crafty stuff to buy. I bought some amazing pears and raspberries that tasted like the were grown in the summer. I then went out of the market to the street and bought handmade cheese and fresh bread to make a proper feast. I decided to go home at this point so hiked back down the hill to my car and drove the 20 minutes back to my hotel.


Here are some pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1442624/

I went to my first Sharks game in two years tonight. I was so happy that hockey was back on after the last season being cancelled. When I lived in San Jose my friend Lita and I would go to up to 10 games a season, so I have been missing my Sharks.

The Sharks were playing the Minnesota Wild. The Sharks lost 3-1. Bummer. But I had a great time with my friend Lita and got out a lot of aggression yelling at the teams and cheering on the fights. We also had our great seats again (about 20 rows up from the penalty box on the lower level) So even though they lost I left the arena very happy.

GO SHARKS!

Here are some photos I took at the game:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1442487/

October 28 2005
Hot Hot Heat
Weezer
Foo Fighters

I have been a fan of the Foo Fighters for a long time now and have seen them twice, but only at festivals where they only played for a limited amount of time, so I was thrilled to hear that they were touring and would be literally right around the corner from where I live, at the Oakland Arena. I was also totally stoked to have floor tickets. I was less thrilled that they were on a double bill with Weezer. Don't get me wrong there are a few songs on each of their albums that I like, but as a whole they just don't do it for me. But I was willing to give them a chance to see the Foo Fighters.

First up were the Hot Hot Heat. We had seen them twice before as well at the same festivals that we had seen FF. They are always a lot of fun and have really catchy tunes. But the best part of this band is the lead singer's absolutely spectacular white man fro...Fabulous!

Ok, I will admit it....I actually enjoyed Weezer. I ain't going out and buying all their CD's or anything, but I did enjoy their live show and actually knew a lot more of their songs then I thought I did. But the best part of show was the last song when six strippers came out on stage and danced in their underwear with each letter of weezer's name across their chests. It was hilarious to see these buff naked men dancing in front of possibly the nerdyist band ever. Pure genius.

The Foo Fighters were even better than I remember. One thing I really love about this band is that they seem totally tireless. They almost never stopped playing for the full time they are on stage. They pretty much only stopped to change instruments, to let Dave and Taylor change places for a song and for Dave's hilarious rambling. In referring to the strippers he said the words "hot cock" about 20 times. You can never here those words too much. He also told the crowd that the best part of being in your thirties is that you can hold your Jeagermeister and have finally learned how to eat pussy. Oh my! I just felt sorry for anyone that had brought their teenagers to the concert thinking; "This band will be safe, they don't swear too much in their music." He also made the whole crowd say "Hi Mrs. Grohl!" to his wife who was sitting in the back of the floor seating area. They played all their oldies but goodies as well as songs off their new double album. They had a great stage set and made the show a lot of fun.

We had a great time, enjoyed all the music and it only took three days for me to be able to hear again!

While I was in Albany this last week I asked around for things to do in the afternoon after I was done at the clinic. A couple of people told me to go to Saratoga Springs, about 30 minutes away. That is were the famous race track is and they said it was a "quaint" town with "cute" shops. So, off I went. The drive was pretty, the trees are just starting to change but when I got to Saratoga Springs I realized that my idea or quaint and cute and different than most peoples. The town was nice but really yuppified. The main street was filled with Banana Republic and Eddie Bauer type stores. Not my style, I was expecting antique and coffee shops and the like. But the town did have a nice little historic park that I wandered around in and was nearly stampeded by ducks in when I went to take their picture.

Here are some pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1205688/

My friend Row and I went for a little day trip out to wine country this weekend. First we went to Santa Rosa to a jem show and bought pretty shiny things and then we made our way to Sonoma to do some wine tasting and to enjoy the day. It was beautiful day and we had a great time. The first winery we went to had a free horse drawn tour that took us around the winery and explained their wine making process. We were on the tour with the most obnoxious group of people I have ever seen. They talked over the tour guide, made stupid jokes and were obviously drunk. But we managed to have fun anyway. We then went to another winery and did some tasting and then we headed off to the Mayo tasting room were they have an absolutely fabulous food/wine pairing. I was in heaven. Each bite sized meal had a wine that complimented it perfectly. It is truly amazing how the wine changed the taste of the food into a completely different experience. I was a little tipsy after the wine tasting so we went to get a coffee and then drove over the mountain to Napa and on to home. We had a great day and I will definitely be back to do the food/wine tasting again.

Here are some pictures from our day out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1205117/

I have been traveling to Albany NY for business.
Here are some sets of photos I have taken so far.

Here are some pictures of Chicago from the Air and from inside the airport(the toilet changed the seat cover automatically, except it hardly ever worked):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1127235/

Here are some pictures of downtown Albany and the Hudson river:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1127220/

Here are some nature pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1127229/

And finally here are some fun "memory bricks" that line the pedestrian bridge from downtown to the Hudson River:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1127203/

Enjoy!

I have the flu.

I went to Walgreens to get some drugs.

What I found is the worlds most evil cold medicine.

Be afraid, be very afraid....

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.)

Coldplay
Shoreline amphitheater
August 19th 2005

Coldplay as a band is a bit deceptive. When you hear their music on the radio or on a CD it has a very laid back, smooth, quiet feel and sound to it. This is not what they are like live. I remember the first time I saw them live, I fell completely, head over heals in love, and I have stayed a fan ever since. I had heard some of their songs on MTV and on the radio and liked them, but seeing them live is a whole different animal. They rock 100 times harder, have 1,000 times the energy and the live shows are 10,000 times more passionate. If you think that their music is good, but lacks that rock edge, you will be really surprised by seeing them live. Even their live album didn't do their live shows justice, they are just one of those "you had to be there" bands. This is the 7th maybe 8th...oh, who the hell knows how many times I have seen them and I never get tired of them. I have remained in my honeymoon phase with this band. I will, however, admit that it took me some time to warm up their new album. We had seen them twice this year(once in LA and again at Coachella) and so heard a lot of their new stuff even before the CD came out, but it is hearing the CD in it's entirety that made me love it. It has a flow and rhythm that needs to heard as a whole. Of course I have my favorite songs, but each song compliments the next. I think another reason it took me a while to really get into this CD was that it had a different feel to it than their first two CDs. The other ones felt kind of like the were playing the songs for the first time. I don't mean unrehearsed or sloppy, just like they were sung from the heart, very spontaneous. This album has a more mature, electronic, produced feel to it. This concert had the same feel.

This was definitely the best media experience of any of the Coldplay concerts I have been to. They always have really great lighting that compliments each song, but this time they added a screen behind them as they played that showed images in addition to the different lighting for each song. This worked particularly well at the Shoreline since this venue has a large tent that covers the stage and first section of seats allowing the multi-media show to spill off the screens and onto the white tent.

One of the things I have always liked about seeing this band live is the feeling that these guys are just so fucking happy to be there. They always seem to be genuinely surprised that all these people showed up to see them and they try to interface with crowd as much as possible (at least Chris Martin does, the rest of the band usually leave the talking up to him.) Chris involves the audience in the songs and tries to get them closer and get closer to them. At one point inviting the people in the higher seats to come closer during the song "God put a smile on your face," which caused a scramble to the front clogging all the aisles. After the song security shooed everyone back to their seats, much to the disappointment of those that had come closer. Chris also made several trips into the audience to sing and get the crowd singing as well. They even like their audiences so much they turned off all the lights on the stage at one point, making it pitch black, so that the band could take pictures of the crowd. All you could see from the stage were flashes of light coming from their cameras.

They played a great set of songs, the only exception being the song "Speed of Sound." Chris kept forgetting the words and even the rest of the band didn't seem to be in synch for this one. This was strange considering that the rest of the songs they played were executed perfectly. They also sang the beautiful song "kingdom come" that they had written for Johnny Cash, along with a lovely rendition of "Ring of fire."
I am hoarse from singing every song and had a great time as I always do at their shows. My only complaint is that it was a short concert in contrast to other Coldplay shows I have been to. But a little Coldplay is better than no Coldplay at all!

Dave Matthews Band
SBC Park
August 13th 2005

The openers for this concert were Jem and The Black Eyed Peas. Unfortunately we hit really bad traffic on the bridge getting there so missed Jem as well as half of BEP. The Black Eyed Peas is a powerhouse group with more energy than four humans should have. They jumped, danced, sang and rapped there way through a booty shaking set of pure energy. I do have to say that Fergie has got an amazing set of pipes. I also like that they are so culturally diverse (one black guy, one Mexican guy, one Filipino guy and one white girl). They were a lot of fun and seriously got us in the concert mood.

Ok, so, I admit it, I have not yet bought the new Dave Matthews Band CD nor have I been listening to a lot of DMB recently. But, thankfully going to a DMB concert is like being welcomed back into the loving arms of old friends. I didn’t feel like I had been away from their music at all. It is seeing 5 old friends that love their music, each other and their fans, and their fans love them right back. Listening to DMB live is like listening to a series of perfectly crafted, brilliant gems of music seamlessly strung together until they become a beautiful stream of consciousness that washes over you like a rippling river over the rocks and each and every song is written just for you. That, my friends, is the live Dave Matthews Band experience. Tonight was no exception.

Or, it could have been the contact high I got from all the people smoking pot around us.

Naaaahhh…their music really is that good.

Want to see more photos from this concert? Click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50208355@N00/sets/759020/

White Stripes
Greek Theatre
August 12th 2005

We saw the White Stripes a few years ago at a music festival, and while we really liked the music we had not exactly been overly impressed with their stage show or their energy. Maybe they were having an off night or they were not thrilled with being in the festival. All I can say is this show was very different. They were Fan-fucking-tastic! They absolutely blew me away. I cannot believe two people can make music that big. Even though the acoustics at the Greek are not the greatest, they filled every corner with their big, tight, perfectly arranged show. They moved smoothly from the hardest rock to the twangyist blues to the quirkiest of ballads. Jack White moved from one instrument to the next with a flair all his own. He played three different guitars, the piano, an electric mandolin and even the marimbas! His high pitched, wavering voice perfectly complimenting the intense soul wrenching lyrics and ground shaking rock and blues. I can’t believe someone that young (and pale) can play the blues like that. I could feel it all the way to my bones. This man was made to perform and Meg kept perfect beat to compliment every note. This band is definitely going on the permanent must see concert list. Wow, wow, wow. If you have a chance see they live, you will not regret it!

Want to see more photos from this concert? Click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50208355@N00/sets/758944/

Howie Day
Fillmore
August 11th 2005


First I want to say something about the Fillmore. This is my very favorite venue to see a band. It is positively dripping with history and the bands that play there seem to feel privileged to do so and play accordingly. That gives the place a great vibe that can’t be found anywhere else. It also has amazing acoustics, the strongest drinks of any club I have ever been to and to top it all off, if you are lucky, you get there on a night that they are giving away free posters for the band you are seeing. Oh yeah, this place is a class act all the way.

Now on to the bands…

There were two openers:

First up was Missy Higgins. She is from Australia and plays sort of folksy, rocky stuff. It is just her playing the electric piano and another guy playing the guitar. Between each song she would tell the audience what the song was about and what prompted her to write it. It was kind of like VH1’s Storytellers – Just with someone you had never heard of.


Anna Nalick was up next. I was not impressed. She seemed to be trying way to hard and came off as over rehearsed and under talented. She sounded like Avril Lavigne trying to do an impressing of Fiona Apple. Just without Avril’s popularity and Fiona’s clever lyrics or charismatic weirdness. Whatever…Next….


The headliner was Howie Day. Oh, the sweet, popy goodness! Fun personal lyrics, good band and all the spiky hair you could ever want. He bantered with the audience and made the show a lot of fun to watch and participate in. At one point he told a lady in the front that repeatedly asked for the same song (Collide); “I remember my first beer too.” And later after she had screamed the name of the song at ever point she could he told her; “When you only have one hit you will eventually play it, so don’t worry, I’ll play the fucking song!”

He did a great cover of Crowded House’s "Don’t Dream, It’s Over", part of "Hey Jude" and even a few bars of Toto’s "Africa." Can you get better that that? I had a great time and left the show one happy camper.

San Antonio Texas

I just spent a month in San Antonio working. Let's just say I am glad to be home. Not that San Antonio is that bad of a city, it actually has some very pretty parts and for the most part it was not a bad experience. I visited the Alamo (which is smaller than I thought it would be and gave me the urge to yell out "where's the basement?") and walked along the river walk. The river walk is basically the stretch of the San Antonio river that flows through downtown and is built with a walking area on either side and lots of restaurants and a few hotels along the walkway. It is all very well done and is a tourist magnet for the city. There was also some good shopping in the area to be had as well. The place I did most of my shopping was the area called the "Mercado"(the market). It was an area of shops that sold mostly Mexican handicrafts interdispiredwith reasturants. Closer to down town was an area called "El Villita" (the village, for all you non Spanish speakers out there) it was more high end than the Mercado and was a small collection of local artists and craftspeople all set up in a historic grouping of houses.

The place I spent most of my time in San Antonio though was at the clinic were I was working. The clinic was located in the "medical area" of the city that had most of the hospitals and specialized clinics. The building where we were was a actually an old psych ward. And believe me I felt like I was right at home. The coordinators that was were working with actually had there desks right in front of the old "rubber rooms." I got to go in one and see what it was like. I can tell you it is not at all like the movies that show an all white tufted padded cell. They are actually really hard rubber walls with only a skylight for light and a drain in floor for, well, you know. They are now being used for storage. I was told all kinds of stories from the staff about the place being haunted. I can tell you it would be scary enough to see a ghost, but to see a crazy person's ghost would scare the bejesus out of me. The only weird experience I had there was in the bathroom of the office I was using (that used to the one of the rooms the patients slept in) the bathroom always smelt like flowers and even if I shut the door firmly, it would always be open again (sometimes with the trash can in front of the open door) if I left the room. Hmmm..odd.

Ok now for the bad news about San Antonio; it was hotter than Hell and so humid I couldn't wear my glasses outside or they would fog up. There were also sudden thunderstorms the caused flooding and frequent lightning strikes. Nice to look at from inside but a bitch to be caught out in. There was also the matter of the a certain type of Texan. For the most part they were very polite southern folks and it was fun to hear "y'all" all the time. BUT the other Texan was the Bush loving, war cheering, flag waving kind that really pissed me off and made me long for home where these people are in the minority.

So, there you go, a month of my life in the middle of Texas.

Yee Haw!

So Long Y'all!

Want to see more photos from this trip? Click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50208355@N00/sets/759139/