This show was a long time ago.  How long ago?  This long ago:

$12.50 for two bands on a national tour! I kind of miss the prices from back then. 

The capitol of Ohio, Columbus, has changed quite a bit since 1999.  The part of town where this establishment was located is the Brewery District.  It used to be a very frequented part of town with bars and restaurants and such... then Columbus got a hockey team with a fancy new arena, and a new entertainment district  sprouted forth around it.  This spelled doom for many businesses in the Brewery District, and Ludlow's was one of these.  Alas, it is no more.  I remember it as a cozy place to see a show. Ugh, I miss cozy shows.

This particular night, both bands on the bill were from the state to the north.  At some point in the evening, I struck up a conversation at the bar with a gentleman who turned out to be the bass player from Papa Vegas.  Many of you have surely never heard of that band.  They were excellent.  As I write this blog post, I've revisited the album that they were touring to support at the time, called Hello Vertigo.  I still have it on CD.  The songs are still catchy, I still remember the words even though I haven't listened to these songs in at least a decade (!), and the album holds up. 

The band whose name is on the ticket is The Verve Pipe.  At the time, perhaps slightly to their chagrin, they had a massive radio/MTV hit single.  I owned and loved their album Villians.  For some reason, I don't have my copy of that CD anymore, which is a shame, because the version of the aforementioned massive hit song on my copy of the album is very different than the version that went to radio and MTV.  I remember picking up that album pretty much immediately after hearing "Photograph".  We did not know it at the time, but The Verve Pipe had another album on the way (The Verve Pipe), and they played a bunch of songs from it that were, of course, new to us.  The ones that jumped out and grabbed me at this show were "Hero" and "La La"... "La La" remains my favorite song on the album.  I will admit that I should have paid more attention to this album, which was their third... like Radiohead before them, they have a song on this album that is a reaction to their big radio hit.

Both bands were sufficiently entertaining that I was sure to catch them later that summer on the same tour.  I saw a ton of shows around this time of my life, and not all of them were all that great in retrospect... but this one... I still have fond memories of this one.

If you are familiar with my musical tastes, you know that there is a very special place in my heart for Fountains Of Wayne.  I listen to them and I think "this is what pop music is supposed to sound like"... plenty of hooks, vocal harmonies, solid songwriting.  A bonus with them is many of their lyrics are clearly meant to be a little humorous.  Back in the day, I don't think I associated Columbus, Ohio's rock band Go Robot Go with Fountains Of Wayne, but I really should have.  I listen to a GRG song, and I think to myself "this is what pop music is supposed to sound like"... there are plenty of hooks, solid songwriting, and plenty of light lyrics.  Let's talk about this band for a moment.

Something unique about Go Robot Go is their use of the vocoder.  On many of their songs, the vocal harmonies are sung through the vocoder.  The opening song to their album Convertible, called "see you on the radio", is a great example... Neal Havener's lead vocals are clean, and the harmony vocals sound robotic.  Sometimes they would change it up and put the vocoder up front in the song.  Have a listen to "shy (ee ii)" from the same album, and notice that the distorted vocals are there right at the beginning.  Of course, the frequent use of a vocoder might seem like a gimmick if the band members weren't actually talented musicians and songwriters... but they are, so while the vocoder is heavily used, I never found it to be distracting.

Some two decades ago, GRG was gigging around the state fairly often, and they played a lot of shows in Dayton.  I can think of at least three different Dayton venues at the time where I certainly saw them play, and if I think hard enough, I might come up with some more.  

The last album of theirs that I am familiar with is Wait 3 Days... Then Attack!   The cover looks something like this.

 

 

You might be thinking that the video game looks like it belongs in an arcade, and you'd be right.... they have a song on the album appropriately entitled "At The Arcade".   (The high score spells YOU.)  As an aside, it looks like there is some Arabic text on the video game, and I never noticed that before.  I wonder if Neal and the boys would be willing to tell us what that means.

Sadly, I kind of lost touch with this band in the early 2000s.  They released an album in 2007 called LIVE at the Zig Zag.  I am pretty sure that's a self-referential allusion to "marmalade 99".  There is also an album from 2014 called Good Vibes in Fashion Swimwear, and that one has a song about a certain intelligent cartoon lady in an orange sweater called "Ode to Velma in C Major".

I miss this band.  I've taken the opportunity recently to dip back into their catalog, and I am falling in love with them all over again.

 

 

Grab some beer, grab some snacks, and discover Go Robot, Go... warning though, these songs will get stuck in your head.

Baseball is back.  It was back in Taiwan and Korea a few weeks ago, and in those places, you can actually go to the game in person, but hey... I'll take empty stadium baseball on TV.  I love baseball.  (What, you thought I was all about music all of the time?)   One of the things my wife and I like to do is go visit different ballparks and watch a game.  I like to get to the park very early - basically right when the gates open - so I can stroll around and look at the architecture.  If the teams are taking batting practice, I like to watch batting practice.  I enjoy the atmosphere of the park on game day.  

There are 9 ballparks currently in use where I have seen a game.  In reverse order, from least favorite to favorite, here are my ballpark rankings:

9.  Rogers Centre, Toronto
Let the record show that I love the city of Toronto.  We have made some good friends there.  We have had outstanding dim sum there. That said, of all of the ballparks I have personally visited for a game, this is my least favo(u)rite.  First, the things I like here... there is a retractable roof on what used to be called SkyDome, so games really shouldn't be rained out.  When the roof is open, there's a view of the CN Tower from the ballpark.  The concourses here are all kinds of spacious, there is plenty of room to walk around.  The drawbacks... well, they aren't playing the games on real grass, that's too bad.  Also, it's a big round dome... even when the roof is open you feel a little like you're indoors.  The stadium lacks character.  That said, we have always very much enjoyed our visits here.  We have been to a few games here, and since we've had multiple visits, we've tried different seats.  We've had seats directly behind home plate, back a few dozen rows... and we've had seats way up high, like these:

 

The Rogers Centre (that's how they spell it in Canada) seems to be easily accessible with public transportation, but we didn't get to the games that way.  We've always stayed in hotels less than two or three miles from the ballpark, and we always walk here.

 

8. Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati
Let the record show that I do NOT love the city of Cincinnati.  Too many one way streets.  Public transportation isn't great.  Parking isn't the easiest to find, and it costs more than I enjoy paying.  Ok, that aside, maybe the park is nice?  Well, it has character... it's outdoors and a grass field.  The sight lines are ok, there aren't any bad seats... but I don't like the way the lower level has a long slope, it just feels strange to me compared to the other ballparks I've been to.  The way the architecture is done here, the higher decks feel quite far from the field.  Also, the food options here weren't great the last time I visited.  The Ohio River is quite lovely out there in right field, however.

 

 

7. Comerica Park, Detroit
The Tigers play here. You can't miss that when you come to Comerica Park, as there is a massive statue of a tiger out front.  There are other statues of other tigers pretty much everywhere.  After a bit in the park, I kind of got the feeling that they might have overdone this motif a little.  I mean, I guess I understand it... after all, there are some other large felines across the street, so maybe folks get confused.  I found it very easy to drive here and very easy to park, and those are positive things in my book.  Now, it's been many years since I've visited, but the thing I remember most about the concessions was the abundance of Little Caesar's pizza, which makes sense, as the ball club and the pizza company are owned by the same people.  

 

 

A brief comment on the Tigers fans.  This is an old franchise.  The Internet tells me it was founded in 1894. Some baseball legends have played for this franchise, although some of them were not particularly decent human beings.  (Looking at you, Tyrus.)  A proud and storied franchise, but they suffered many years of being quite terrible at baseball.  When I visited Comerica Park, the Tigers were coming out of a long period of being awful, but nobody knew that quite yet.  (These pictures are from 2006, and they happened to win the pennant that year.)  I remember sitting behind an elderly gentleman at the game... he had a spiral bound score book... it was clearly meant for the entire season.  He had been a season ticket holder for decades.  Now, maybe it had something to do with where I had chosen to sit, but I remember that the fans near me were particularly knowledgeable on this day, and since they were Tigers fans, they were clearly long-suffering as well.  They weren't quite a friendly as the fans in Toronto, because of course nobody is a friendly as Canadians, but I enjoyed their company.

 

6. Nationals Park, Washington D.C.
Other than Sean Doolittle, I don't have very much affection for the Nationals, as they play in the same division as my favorite baseball team. The park is ok though.  It's very easy to reach via public transportation.  If memory serves, it's right at the end of one of the city's subway lines.  You leave the station, and then it's just a brief stroll to the park.  Much like many of the more modern ballparks, there does not appear to be a seat with a bad view here. You can get a half-smoke at the ballpark, which you should do when you go to Washington.

 

5. Miller Park, Milwaukee
The people of Wisconsin are different.  I had never seen tailgating at any baseball stadium until visiting here, the land of beer, sausage, and cheese.  Yes, folks come out early to the game and hang out in the parking lot drinking and grilling.  One drawback to this ballpark is its location.  It's not really close to anything interesting in the city.  It's not easily accessible by foot or by public transportation.  Other than that, it's a lovely experience.  I had my first (and only) experience with Spotted Cow here. I don't remember exactly what we ate, but I am certain it was some type of sausage... I mean, it's Wisconsin.  Miller Park features a retractable roof, and we had the opportunity to see it in action.  It was a somewhat humid and sunny day when we got to the ballpark, and even with the roof open, I had the odd feeling of being indoors for some reason.  A weather system was going to move through, so during the game, the roof closed.  After the rain moved away, they opened the roof again, and we could see the clear night sky.  

 

4. Coors Field, Denver
When you watch baseball on television, folks always comment on how spacious the field is here.  Due to the altitude, the baseball travels farther in Denver when it is hit, so the fences are farther away from the plate than in the other ballparks.  You geometry experts out there can explain this better than me, but this results in a larger area of play.  Indeed, when we got to the park, I could see that the playing field is vast, easily larger than any I've ever seen.

 

In the first picture, look at the upper deck of seats.  Do you see what appears to be a purple line near the top?  Every seat in the rows there is painted purple (whereas the other seats in the park are green) to indicate one mile above sea level at that location.  The park is a thing of beauty, quite comfortable, very friendly staff, and it appears there are good sight lines no matter where you are.

There are plenty of beverage options here, though the most abundant are Coors products, which shouldn't surprise anyone.  There are plenty of great food options in this park as well.  I can't comment on how easily one can reach this park via public transportation, because we headed to see a game here immediately after getting off the airplane... we rented a car, drove straight to downtown Denver, parked, and strolled a mile or so down to the park.  (Parking was abundant and cheap, but that might have been because we arrived somewhat early.)

 

3. Citi Field, New York (Queens)
I am no fan of the Mets, who inhabit this place, but I very much love this ballpark.  First, it is incredibly easy to get here.  The ballpark is right next to a subway station, on line 7, more or less across the street from the tennis complex where the US Open is played every year, and quite close to the place where the alien crashed through the globe thing in the first Men In Black film.  The park is ten or eleven years old still very much has that new ballpark feel.  The Jackie Robinson Rotunda entrance is a glorious way to introduce yourself to City Field, and the abundance of brick brings some elegance.  

For both of my visits here, I sat at club level.  It's elevated, but the architecture of the stadium is such that there are seats on that higher level that have you closer to the action than lower level seats in many other ballparks.  (Looking at you, Cincinnati.)  I was amazed how clearly we could hear the ball pop in the catcher's mitt from the club level seats, just below where the broadcasters are located.  Another great thing about club level is that tickets there get you access to some restaurants and bars that are not accessible for every ticket holder.  These areas have comfortable seating, specialty drinks, good food, and delightful air conditioning... oh, and there are monitors everywhere, so you won't miss any of the game action.  If I blindfolded you and dropped you off in this area, you would have no idea you were at a ballpark.

Also, Shake Shack.  Yes, I know that this is a chain now, and they're expanding everywhere, but that wasn't always the case.  My first Shake Shack experience was here, and I very very much dig.  Also, you can get one of David Chang's delicious Momofuku fried chicken sandwiches, and you will not regret it. Really the only drawback is the proximity to La Guardia, so you hear planes overhead pretty much all of the time.  That's a small price to pay for a great game day experience. 

 

2. Marlins Park, Miami
I have been to Paris (the one in France) twelve times... maybe thirteen, I have lost count.  I have been to Florida (the one in the United States) exactly once, and it was to go to Opening Night at Marlins Park a few years ago.  If you are into baseball, you're probably thinking that nobody goes to games here.  Yes, that's pretty much true, and for me, that's part of the charm of Marlins Park.  We went on Opening Night, and the game wasn't sold out.  If you're not going to sell out on Opening Night, you're probably never going to sell out.

It's really a shame that people don't go to games here, because this is a beautiful park.  As typical with modern baseball venues, there does not appear to be a seat here with poor sight lines.  The park and its surroundings have a ton of pastel and bright colors, and you can see they're really leaning into being located in Miami.  Just about everything inside the park is labelled in two languages, as you would expect for a stadium in a multilingual city.

What a unique place.  When we visited, they still had the home run sculpture, which many people found to be "hideous", but I thought it was a quirky, interesting large piece of bric-a-brac.  Well, the new ownership didn't like it, so it's gone.  The park also used to have fish tanks behind home plate that contained live fish, but I'm not sure if they are still there.  From the outside, Marlins Park looks sleek and futuristic, perhaps like a spaceship parked in the neighborhood.  Marlins Park also has a retractable roof, which is necessary to combat the high heat and humidity of South Florida (as well as the pop-up thundershowers).

 

If you can figure out how to navigate the bus system in this town, you can probably get to this park easily.  That wasn't the case for us, we had some transportation adventures in the city, but managed to get to the park eventually.  The food options here are solid, and it's Miami, so there is plenty of Cuban fare in the park.  Whenever it is safe for us to travel again, I strongly recommend taking a brief baseball vacation here.  Tickets are cheap because demand is low.  In future baseball seasons, check the schedule for when your favorite team is playing in Miami, and head on down there to see them.  You won't regret it.

 

1. PNC Park, Pittsburgh
When you visit Pittsburgh to see a game, I recommend that you stay in a hotel downtown, within a few miles of PNC Park.  On game days, many of the streets in the immediate vicinity of the park get closed to vehicular traffic, and become pedestrian-only means of ingress to the stadium. Walk across the Allegheny on the majestic Roberto Clemente Bridge,  and pause when you get to his statue to take in the atmosphere of game day. 

 

If you don't happen to stay downtown and get yourself to the game under your own power, no worries, despite the pedestrian-only streets in the neighborhood, it's a friendly place to drive and park as well.  Once you get to PNC Park, you'll notice that there are great views of the field from everywhere.  I've been to enough games here that I've sat close behind home plate, I've sat in the highest level, I've sat halfway up on the first base side behind the dugout, and a few other places.  The views of downtown Pittsburgh and the action on the field are great from just about everywhere.

 

 

 

As far as keeping yourself hydrated and fed, well, on many of my visits there was a particularly LOUD vendor who you could hear from several sections away shouting "LEMONADE!"... I hope he's alive and well.  In a nod to the Eastern European immigrants in the area, you can find tasty pierogi at a few of the concession stands.  There is a pierogi race once a game between innings, similar to the sausage race in Milwaukee and the president race in Washington.  You can also get a fantastic Pittsburgh staple, a Primanti Brothers sandwich, and wash it down with an ice cold Iron City. (Yes, it's an expanding chain now, and there is even a franchise near me, but I refuse to go.  A visit to Primanti Brothers is one of the things that makes visiting Pittsburgh special for me, and I don't want to spoil it.)

***

That's it.  That's my list.  There are some other ballparks that I have walked around (Petco Park in San Diego), or driven by on the highway (Fenway Park in Boston), or strolled by with friends (Wrigley Field in Chicago).  Currently on the list of places I wish to go visit for baseball:  Target Field in Minneapolis, Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City (which will be accompanied by a trip here), T-Mobile Park in Seattle, and Oracle Park in San Francisco.

 

Once upon a time, in a far away and mysterious land called The Nineties, there was a band called Failure.  The much younger version of me discovered them somehow, via their single "Stuck on You".  That song came with a very cool music video that was clearly inspired by the opening montage from a James Bond movie. That song came from the album Fantastic Planet, which I did not hesitate to procure, and that was my first experience with a concept album.  Alas, Failure broke up before I could see them live.  I bought their other two albums (Comfort and Magnified), I bought everything Ken Andrews released with his solo project On, I listened to the Greg Edwards project Autolux... and time passed.

After much time passed, the gentlemen of Failure - Ken Andrews, Greg Edwards, and Kelli Scott - literally got the band back together.  They discovered that people out there still loved Fantastic Planet very much.  They went on the road to play music.  This was my chance to see them... and see them I did, almost exactly six years ago.

I flew to Atlanta to see them at The Masquerade.  As is my custom, I got to the venue very early, well before the doors opened.  I was expecting most of the concert attendees to be my age or older... after all, this band had vanished for seventeen years.  I was surprised to see some young folks in line waiting for the show.  Then I remembered, that there are some younger artists who dig Failure, and other well-known bands who aren't so young who dig Failure, and maybe that's how a different generation came to discover them.

They couldn't have picked a more appropriate song to open the show.  I mean, it was the TREE OF STARS tour, they had to play this one:

 

 

Notice how perfect and pristine their sound is?  You're probably thinking that they sound this way because this is a controlled studio environment in the video.  Yes, this is... but this is EXACTLY what they sound like in a less-controlled concert environment.  This band... they are obsessive about their sound.  Due to their lengthy career and changing gear, in order to replicate all of the sounds on their albums, they use fractal technology.  I am not an expert, so I can't explain all that well how it works, but if you really want to know, Ken Andrews can tell you.  What I do know is that Failure concerts are the best-sounding shows I have ever attended.  (Side note:  Even if you don't want to watch the entire last video I posted with Ken talking about fractal audio, at least watch the beginning.  He films himself rehearsing after ten months of not having done any singing.  He sounds great.  He essentially used his engineering experience to mix the vocals and the guitar out of the recorded song, and is playing guitar and singing along to the rhythm tracks.)

When I was young, there was a great deal of jumping around and jostling at a loud rock show.  I'm too old for that now of course, and was just a tiny bit apprehensive once Failure got into the groove onstage.  They have plenty of songs that aren't as laid back and restrained as "Another Space Song".  Well, there was no jumping around at this show.  No jostling.  No shoving.  There was some singing along, but barely even anyone nodding their head.  I looked around at the audience, and I immediately understood.  Most of these people were about my age, and none of us ever thought we would see this band play live.  We were all just in too much shock at what we were seeing. I kept watching in awe, trying to figure out how to play songs that had come out of my CD players over and over again by watching Ken's hands. I was also rather transfixed by watching Kelli Scott's drumming in person, especially on their song about Virginia Woolf, "Wet Gravity".  

They didn't disappoint.  They played something from all of their first three albums.  I mean, this setlist, wow.  When they played "Dirty Blue Balloons", it made all the sense in the world hearing the audience sing "I've waited so long without you/ I've waited too long for you"...  Indeed, indeed we had.

This is a question I have been asked many times.  After all, bass is not an instrument that lends itself all that well to solo performance, unless you happen to be Victor Wooten.  (I am not Victor Wooten.)  The role of the bass in a band is to help the drummer with the rhythmic foundation, whilst also lending some bottom end support to the rest of the music... sometimes, some melodic stuff, but generally, the role is a supporting role.  Bass players are usually the people in the band whose name everyone forgets (with a few exceptions), standing in the back by the drummer (I see you Colin Greenwood), holding it down without recognition.  That's ok, I dig that role.  Why do I dig that role?

Well, think about when you used to drive around in your car listening to music.  What did you turn up to really get your head nodding? (I'm going to guess it wasn't the treble.)

I think back to some of my favorite songs on the albums I used to listen to back in the early nineties.  On Nevermind, it was "Lounge Act", especially the first ten seconds.  On Foo Fighters, it was "For All the Cows", with those fantastic slides. How about Superunknown?  "The Day I Tried To Live".  Dirt? "Would".  Notice something in common?  SO VERY MUCH GROOVE.  The bass makes those songs what they are.

Here's what really made up my mind though.  This video, right here:

Be still my heart.  I was in high school, and still remember thinking this was one of the coolest musical performances I had ever seen.  Listen to how much the bass moves around, but never gets in the way.  Hear those awesome bass slides in the turnaround?  They're so much more groovy than the guitar slide sound.  In the second chorus, wow, look at the bass gentleman's fingers, looking like a person briskly walking.  Ooooh, then the break down.  Not only could this gentleman play, but he also sang harmonies!  Check it out:

 

This gentleman's name is Rob DeLeo.  He plays bass.  He sings.  He also wrote most of the best riff-tastic parts from this band's catalog.  A bass player that writes songs, how about that?  He also made playing bass look cool, even though nobody ever looks at the bassist.  I mean, look at his outfit here, in what is admittedly, a delightfully cheesy music video:

 

In summary, Rob DeLeo was the factor that made teenage me decide to learn bass.  Now, I'm old, and have lost all concern about looking cool, because whatever, just listen to my music.  I still like singing harmonies though, even though I'm not good at it.  I still like playing bass, finding that groove.  I still like writing songs.  I also still consider Rob DeLeo to be one of my favorite musicians.

 

Making an album is a long journey.  The time spent writing and re-writing, then re-writing again at home.  The arranging, which often requires another re-write.  The demos.  The gathering in the studio to discuss and plan.  Session after session after session with a whole bunch of really talented people.  Take after take after take of singing, repeating the process if you're a little sharp or a little flat.  The listening to studio bounces over and over and over and over.  The mixing.  That's my process and my journey at least.  Many musicians probably have it easier.  For me, it's a long journey, and it's hard work, and I wouldn't be able to do it without the help of a great many people.

I'd like to celebrate a little more than a year spent working on Anxious Inventions & Fictions by means of a photo blog entry.   

 

Let's begin:

This is engineer extraordinaire Patrick Himes adjusting the boom for Eric Cassidy on June 2, 2019.  Eric sang harmonies on "Bright Ideas".  Ultimately, that song didn't make it to Anxious Inventions & Fictions, but it is out right now as a stand-alone single.  Please click here to listen to it.

Here's Eric Cassidy again, this time holding an accordion.  He played this on June 30, 2019, during the outro on "Pauline".  You can hear this song on Defacing the Moon, as the songs from that album were chosen from these sessions.

 

 

This is Dustin Booher, with me on June 29,2019.  He is a fellow Xenian, and we have known each other since we were five years old.  He sang on "Sunday (That Pill)", which is on Defacing the Moon.  He also lent outstanding vocals to "Never Let Go", which is the 4th song on Anxious Inventions & Fictions.

 

 

 

There is Dustin in the background... and here is Tim Pritchard on July 27, 2019, playing guitar.  You can hear his fine work on "I Am a Number" and "Promise".

 

 

 

This is Jackie and Brandon, who are half of Westerly Station. I met them in Austin at the CD Baby DIY Musician Conference.  (I wrote about that before.)  Brandon is a fellow Ohioan, and we even grew up in the same county.  It was quite convenient that they came from their Texas home to Ohio when I was in the studio, and they had the time to stop by.  Brandon played mandolin on "Sunday (That Pill)", and it sounds great.  

 

Hello there, Ken Hall.  Normally, you can find him seated behind a piano, a task he performs in Shrug and Human Cannonball.  I invited him to play a little trombone.  You can hear Ken play for about a second and a half on "Your Anthem", which is the first track on Anxious Inventions & Fictions.

 

This handsome fella is Kent Montgomery.  He is the lead guitarist from The New Old Fashioned.   He was kind enough to play guitar on "Never Let Go", "Won't Love You Anymore", "Run To You", and "Wapakoneta".  That last song didn't make the album, but I will release it at some point.  

 

 

Here I am with Nathan Peters, who I've known over 20 years.  You might recognize him as the lead singer and keyboardist from legendary Dayton band Captain of Industry.  These days, he fronts Lioness.  He was kind enough to come to the studio and play piano on "Goodbye".  I wrote the song on piano, but I don't have the chops to give it the recorded performance that it deserves.  Thanks to Nathan's work, it sounds so very good.

 

The most recent photo.  January 23, 2020.  As you can see from the wood floors and the walls, this photo was taken after the great Reel Love flood and subsequent remodel.  (Scroll up to the first picture for the old school look of the main room in the studio.)  This was my last day in the studio for work on the album.  There was a mixing session after this, so the official end date was in February, but I didn't need to head down for that.  Patrick's steady hand guided me through this process, as he has done so many times for so many other musicians.  He has a fantastic ability to hear the song behind my low-quality home demos.  I can tell him what I am trying to accomplish as far as the sound I hear in my head is concerned, and he can figure out how to get me there.  This gentleman is a multi-instrumentalist, great singer, and true professional.  

I hope you have enjoyed this brief photo journey through a year's worth of work.  There are plenty of behind-the-scenes photos that I haven't even seen.  I have 5 disposable cameras that came to the studio with me, and they are filled with photos.  If you are curious as to what might be on them, they are available as one of the rewards on my Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund pressing Anxious Inventions & Fictions to vinyl.  Why not head over to the campaign and help me press some vinyl?

 

Usually, I write these concert memories posts about a show from at least a year ago, and this one just happened in January.  However, it was such a fantastic couple of days that I couldn't help myself.

If perchance you have read my blog before, you know I have seen Elbow live before.  You also know I love them very much, ever since their first album came out. They released a new album recently, Giants of All Sizes, and are out playing shows to support it... as one does.  They only scheduled four (4!) shows in the United States, and quite sadly for me, they were all on the West Coast.  After careful consideration, I decided that this was something my wife and I could not miss, so we flew out to San Diego on a Friday.

San Diego.  What a lovely city!  Let's put that aside for the moment though.  We land rather late, and we get to our hotel.  We are in need of drinks and snacks, so we set out on foot to procure these things.  While walking down one of the streets, I see a gentleman who bears a strong resemblance to Craig Potter.  (Craig Potter plays keyboards and sings harmonies in Elbow.)  As we get within a few meters of this gentleman, I say "Hey, you're Craig Potter."  Call me captain obvious.  Just a few steps behind him, well, there was lead singer and lyricist Guy Garvey.  I had missed Craig's brother Mark, he was a bit ahead of them, and had managed to walk by us without me noticing.  We had a very nice chat with the Elboys.  (Pete was in the hotel trying to sleep off some of the jet lag.) 

If you're wondering if it was cool to meet them, I assure you that is most certainly was.  My wife and I couldn't stop giggling about it the rest of the night.

You see, over in Europe, these guys are rock stars.  They routinely sell out arenas.  They play before thousands of people at festivals.  They even played at the 2012 London Olympics.  Now, here in the United States, yeah, not so much.  For whatever reason, they aren't famous... which is fine, as it means they can walk through the streets of an American city without being mobbed.  (Craig told me that he and his brother and Pete can usually walk around without being recognized, but Guy can hardly be outdoors without people noticing him.)  The other benefit that we have in the United States to Elbow not being overwhelmingly popular is that they play rather small venues, which is really the best way to experience live music.

House of Blues.  That's where they played in San Diego. It's a small room.  The Internet tells me that the capacity there is 1000.  Yeah, that's a small room.  For you Ohioans, that's smaller than Newport Music Hall on High Street in Columbus, and it's smaller than Bogart's on Vine Street in Cincinnati.  Yeah, that's a small room.  That's where Elbow played.  

We showed up early to queue for entry.  We met some lovely people who also made a trek for the show. Cricket was the first person in line.  She's quite ebullient, and is from Seattle.  I don't even remember how many times she said she has seen Elbow, it was 14 or 15 or something insane. Cricket also coincidentally managed to pick the same hotel for her San Diego stay as the band did, and had breakfast with Guy Garvey that morning.  We also met a wonderful couple from New York, the tastefully named Mike and his wife Christine, who were there with a local friend of theirs also named Christine.  It became apparent that although the people who enjoy Elbow in the United States are not numerous, they tend to be passionate about the band and their music.

The show.  The show was great.  Jesca Hoop opened. She was wonderful.  She also contributes some harmony vocals to the first track from Giants of All Sizes, so she came back out to sing those after her set.  In case you are wondering what exactly Elbow played... well, here's a picture of their setlist, which California Christine was kind enough to let me take.

 

It's not every day you get to see some of your favorite musicians up close.

 

 

 

After the show, we're hanging out and chatting with the folks around us... talking about how great the show was, talking about music in general.  Our new acquaintances from New York tell us that the gentleman who is lead singer for The Verve Pipe was in attendance, and how they had seen him and talked to him at a New York show.  I asked to clarify... "you mean Brian Vander Ark is here"?   See, I love his voice.  Love.  He's a great songwriter, having written one of my favorite songs of the entire nineties.  I also went to a few Verve Pipe shows back in the day.  Christine was kind enough to introduce me.  Again, being captain obvious, I start off by saying "so... I am told you're Brian Vander Ark".... I've really got to get better at opening lines when I meet a musician I respect.  So, I officially meet Brian and his wife Luz.  They came out for the show all the way from Michigan... and Brian was surprised that so many people flew such great lengths to see Elbow.  (Once I learned he was there, I thought to myself that it made perfect sense.  As the kids say, game recognize game.)

All told, yeah, a pretty great weekend.

 

For Squirrels - Example

 

This album came out while I was in high school.  I loved the lead single, and remember watching its video quite a bit on MTV, but by the time I got my hands on the album and listened to the entire thing, there were six or seven songs I liked even more.  Front to back, this is an album I always loved.  

Tragically, a van accident killed the lead singer and bass player shortly before this album was released, so this band remains rather obscure.  I remember in my early twenties always being surprised when I would meet someone who also had this album.  Usually, if someone had it, they were just about as enthusiastic about it as I was.

Example reminds me of my youth, gone many years ago.  It reminds me of longtime friends,  many of whom are gone in different ways.  It reminds me of driving down 35 or 270 or 33 to go hang out.  It makes me wish I could write a song that makes someone feel the way that "Disenchanted" still makes me feel all these years later.  It makes me wish I could write something with the brilliant simplicity of "Eskimo Sandune".

Also, these lyrics from "Under Smithville" have taken on different meaning for me than they did back in the day:

"And I've been feeling so old / Tell me now who you think I am"

Boyz II Men - Cooleyhighharmony

 

This album came out in 1991.  I was in junior high school.  I remember that you couldn't get away from the two hit singles on this record.  The more upbeat of them, "Motownphilly", had a video that was on MTV all of the time... you know, back when MTV played videos.  Four young black men, well-dressed, and singing some tight harmonies over a hip hop beat.  I don't remember having heard anything like it.  The other ubiquitous single, "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday", was sung a cappella in four part harmony, with finger snaps being the only percussion.  I didn't know at the time that this was a cover.  What a fantastic choice to do a rendition of this song like this and put it on the album.  Maybe the album doesn't go nine times platinum without this song.

To do my due diligence for this blog post, I went back and listened to this album again.  It sounds very much of the time period from where it came, but it still sounds good.  

Those of you who remember this album might think that I have forgotten to mention "End of the Road", which was another single that you couldn't escape from hearing.  Well, it wasn't originally on this album.  It was a single produced for a movie soundtrack, and it did so well, that the label put it on the re-issue of Cooleyhighharmony that came out in 1993.  (The re-issue contains a fantastic a cappella rendition of "In the Still of the Night", and I remember wishing I could sing like that.  I mean, check out the glory of the nineties in this video.)

Listening these songs again takes me back to wandering the halls of Central Junior High.  I am also reminded of my younger brother, who loved this group and this album.

I have a vegan sister-in-law.  As a present to her, I made reservations at Le Potager de Charlotte when we went to Paris in the spring.  Note that I am definitely NOT vegan... but this place is fantastic, and even if you are an omnivore, if you happen to be in Paris, I recommend you stop by.

First, it's a family run restaurant.  There are two of them... one is in the 17th arrondisement, and the other is in the 9th.  One of the co-owners greeted us at the door and was also our server.  I like to support small businesses, especially the kind where the folks who own the place put so much work and energy into their restaurant.

Second, the food is outstanding.  Here, have a look at the menu. Note that some things on the menu change, based on what kind of vegetation happens to be fresh and in season. 

I started with the chickpea and rice crêpes.  (A side note to the folks at Le Potager de Charlotte... I'm an anglophone, and personally, I think it sounds strange to call these "pancakes".  Sure, they're thicker than your normal French crêpes, but I feel that your English-speaking customers know what a crêpe is without needing to translate it.  Just my opinion.)  You can see a picture of this starter on their website.  That cashew cream filling... wow.  It tasted fatty and cheesy, and the espelette powder on it added just a small background spiciness.  This was outstanding.  As you can see in the picture, it was served on some mixed salad.  No complaints about this course.  For my second course, I had another entrée, the avocado.  This is where I wish I had taken a picture.  It was basically a riff on a hard-boiled egg... but this is a vegan place, so the avocado was standing in for the solidified egg white.  The substance that made up the "yolk" was a deep yellow color, no doubt due to turmeric... and also a creamy and fatty mouth feel... see, this is the challenge with vegan food to me... how to make up for the taste and texture requirements where animal-based fats traditionally exist in a recipe.  These folks were super successful doing so.

I had small tastes of what my wife and her sister had ordered.  One of them got soup.  It was good, but could have used more salt. I forget what the other one got... suffice it to say that every bite I had was delicious.  Again, let me repeat... I am NOT vegan.

As for dessert... well, the description doesn't do it justice.  The picture doesn't either, but here it is anyway:

 

 

Coconut whipped cream... and the texture was fantastic.  Roasted hazelnuts.  Beautiful flowers (yes, I ate them).  Chocolate powder.  Under all of that stuff was this substance that strongly resembled chocolate mousse... turns out they make that with avocado... they need the fat for the right texture... but you couldn't taste avocado, it tasted like chocolate mousse.  This dessert was delicate and flavorful, and I would eat it again any day.

Wonderful food aside, let me tell a brief story about our arrival experience in order to show just how great the folks were here.  The day we had this reservation was our first day in the country, and I made the reservation at a normal French dinner time (read: very late for your average American) in order to force us all to be awake and active all day so we could sleep well that first night and beat the jet lag.  Well, through no fault of my own, we were running quite late to dinner.  No worries, I called the restaurant and told them that we would be late.  See, the restaurants are small, so if someone misses a reservation, that costs them money... they combat this by charging your credit card if you don't show up.  Well, when I called from the phone of the apartment we had rented, I managed to call the wrong location.  They are a small enough business that they could handle this... the very nice lady who I talked to said she would pass the message along.

Fast forward.  We are late, and we take Métro line 12 to Notre-Dame-de-Lorette.  Now, I've been to Paris many times, and know my way around some parts of town very very well... well enough that on more than one occasion, I have been able to give directions to actual French people.  This part of town is not one of the ones I know.  I had never been to this Métro station, nor had I been to this part of the 9th.  When we exit the Métro... chaos.  It's one of those odd French intersections where multiple roads converge in a less-than-logical fashion.  On top of that, there is construction.  On top of that, the street signage leaves much to be desired.  We get lost.  I am not often lost in Paris, so this was frustrating.  We wander one way, and when that clearly is wrong, we wander another way... and then I decide to wander into a local hotel to ask for directions.  The folks in the hotel are not familiar with this restaurant, and are also not familiar with the street it is on... but I was able to point out to them on one of their hotel tourist maps where I thought it was, and they were able to tell us how to walk in that direction.  Ok, finally headed the right way... and from that point, it's only about 15 minutes to get to the place.  We get there, and we are so late... very much later than we had possibly foreseen.  We're so late that they have locked the front door, as they're not letting any more folks into the restaurant.. However, upon seeing us, they open the door and ask if I am Mike.  I say that I am and explain that we got terribly lost getting there on foot, and profusely apologize in the most respectful French I could summon.  The very kind co-owner gentleman who I mentioned before lets a sigh of relief and immediately shows us to the table that had been reserved for us.  We received a fantastically warm welcome.

To sum up... food outstanding, service outstanding, experience unforgettable, you should go here if ever you are in Paris.