Can’t Miss Live Music (February ’10 Edition)
Here's a quick list of some live shows that are within a two hour drive (of me). Let me know if I missed something.
02/03/10 Wednesday
Tea Leaf Green - Chameleon Club (Lancaster, PA)
02/04/10 Thursday
Citizen Cope - Recher Theatre (Towson, MD)
RAIN: A Beatles Experience - The Academy of Music (Philadelphia, PA)
Galactic / Tea Leaf Green / Cyril Neville - Theatre of Living Arts (Philadelphia, PA)
02/05/10 Friday
Citizen Cope - Recher Theatre (Towson, MD)
Mightychondria - Malone's Restaurant & Bar (Harrisburg, PA)
RAIN: A Beatles Experience - The Academy of Music (Philadelphia, PA)
02/06/10 Saturday
Galactic / Lightnin' Malcolm & Cedric Burnside / Cyril Neville - 9:30 Club (Washington, DC)
RAIN: A Beatles Experience - The Academy of Music (Philadelphia, PA)
02/09/10 Tuesday
Trey Anastasio Band - 9:30 Club (Washington, DC)
02/11/10 Thursday
Trey Anastasio Band - Electric Factory (Philadelphia, PA)
02/13/10 Saturday
Furthur - Patriot Center (Fairfax, VA)
Mightychondria - Flannery's Tavern (Mercersburg, PA)
02/14/10 Sunday
Umphrey's McGee - Rams Head Live (Baltimore, MD)
02/18/10 Thursday
The Disco Biscuits - Rams Head Live (Baltimore, MD)
Citizen Cope - Theatre of Living Arts (Philadelphia, PA)
02/19/10 Friday
Citizen Cope - Theatre of Living Arts (Philadelphia, PA)
02/20/10 Saturday
Citizen Cope - Theatre of Living Arts (Philadelphia, PA)
02/22/10 Monday
Furthur - Bob Carpenter Center (Newark, DE)
02/27/10 Saturday
Mightychondria - California Cafe (Carlisle, PA)
Umphrey's McGee - Electric Factory (Philadelphia, PA)
Insanity: Day 2
This getting up an hour early is a bigger hurdle than the actual workout at the moment. I am having great difficulty convincing myself that putting myself in pain is better than sleep.
I did eventually get out of bed and made my way to the basement for round two. I was noticeably sore in my legs and chest from the day before. I shed a single tear when I realized that todays session was 41 minutes, nearly twice as long as the last video. 'Plyometric Cardio Circuit'; I don't know what it is but I didn't like the sound of it.
Needless to say, the workout was intense. I may have bailed on some of the sections, but it's fast action and I just wasn't able to keep up. I did at least do a few reps in each exercise and kept my heart rate pinned. I hope that the warning to consult your physician before attempting this workout was just a formality.
At the end of the workout my body felt weak, like if you threw a basket ball at my face, I would just have to take it. My muscles were not responding at any sort of speed.
For the sake of my co-workers, I took a shower, over the more preferrable option of lying on the floor. Still weak and queasy, I did not trust that I could lift my foot up to wash it without hilarious results. So I have dirty feet, perhaps you should expect this until Sundays when no insanity is scheduled.
Also, now that I'm a few hours out removed the workout, I am sore, and in weird places, like the front of my neck... wtf, but I otherwise feel good, great even, perhaps an increase in energy? I fully believe I can make it one more day (yes, I know there's 57 more in the program).
Insanity: Day 1
Insanity is billed as an intensive 60 day home workout program that will make the fat sad guy on the left look like the happy ripped guy on the right. They claim that the program is not for the weak-minded or lazy. I am both these things, so I don't see this blog series lasting very long.
On the plus side, I have a very motivated wife who likes to see me in pain will make sure I don't fall off track. I am not trying to lose weight or get fit, but if I do, it's a bonus. I really just want to see what happens when a sedentary cube monkey tries what is said to be one of the most ridiculous cardio workouts on the market.
The alarm went off this morning at 6 am. A couple minutes and an expletive later I was getting dressed and heading to the basement.
The first day's workout wasn't horrible, it was 23 minutes, and ran the gamut of basic cardio moves. They do expect you to get as many reps as you can with some unfamiliar (to me) moves. So I probably looked as awkward as I felt. I would suspect that an outside observer to my morning workout would be hard pressed to believe that I was imitating the people on the screen.
I can't lie, I was winded in the first minute, and struggled to make it to the end of any of the short sections without slowing down or taking a break. But my heart raced, my body sweated, and my stomach felt sick. These must be good things, right? ugh. But I made it through and spent the next twenty minutes lying on the floor. Not bad, I guess. Oh, and this was the fitness TEST, the real work starts tomorrow... <expletive deleted>.
The Chalkies: Phish @ Albany Edition
The Chalkies are presented at arbitrary times to arbitrary nominees recognizing arbitrary achievements.
Best Jam: Seven Below > Story of the Ghost. Clocking in at just under 50 minutes, The Story of the Seven Ghosts Below was far and away the most exploratory jam of the tour. The jam opened the second set of the final night in Albany and traversed many distinct jam sections with varying textures. Honorable Mentions: Light, Piper
Best Eats: This coveted award goes to Wolf's Biergarten. If you are ever around the Albany area do yourself a favor and stop in. The place is far from fancy; long picnic-style tables, peanut shells all around. But the German beer and food are authentic and delicious. Honorable Mention: Franklin's Tower
Biggest Breakout: Uncle Pen. This track has not been heard since 2000 (129 shows). Honorable Mention: Two Versions of Me (65 shows)
Best Debut: Golden Age. This 'TV on the Radio' cover got all phished up for it's debut in Albany. A very danceable track w/ potential for huge jams. We all can hope that this stays in the rotation. Honorable Mention: Tomorrow's Song
Best Beverage: My bag of Franzia Merlot. Hey, don't mock my bag wine! Honorable Mention: Some expensive Strawberry beer that came in a tiny glass
Shoutouts - Andy who gave us copies of his Section 1 Floors. Security for letting us in with... Gatorade! The cabby that picked us up on a street named after a dead president. Green Man. The city of philadelphia for getting TTE'd so Albany wouldn't have to.
Because I said so: Go see Zombieland
Do yourself a favor and check out Zombieland. This movie breathes some fresh air and style into a typically uninspired genre. A perfect amount of gore and humor wraps a sweet creamy filling to make a well rounded donut... erm movie. Even if the main character is a poor man's Michael Cera, Woody Harrelson is so good in this. There are some cliche zombie moments in this but it's just done so well and the cameo appearence is brilliant.
I highly recommend this one!
WWIAFTM Sighting #3
Oh, snap! A scarecrow. Way to raise the bar!
Location: The National Apple Harvest Festival - Arendtsville, PA
From the Peanut Gallery: Phish @ Merriweather (8/15/2009)
Even the prison warden style security can't get me down when I'm at Merriwether Post. The roving packs of uniformed goons had a buzzkill aura that would silence all within it's miasma. But as they pass, the murmer of excitement and anticipation would return to their previous levels.
The weather was hot and the air was still but this is what we come to expect from mid august at Merriweather. We stubbed our good friend into the pavillion just as the roar of the crowd heralded the band's arrival on stage for the second to last show of the tour.
Set One
* Crowd Control
* Kill Devil Falls
* The Sloth
* Beauty Of A Broken Heart
* Axilla I
* Foam
* Esther
* Ha Ha Ha
* Party Time
* Tube
* Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan
* Strange Design
* Time Turns Elastic
Set 2
* Tweezer ~>
* Taste
* Alaska
* Let Me Lie
* 46 Days
* Oh! Sweet Nuthin'
* Harry Hood
Encore
* Good Times, Bad Times
* Tweezer Reprise
The setlist on paper is a 4/10. Wow, that's surprising to me. For this rating, I basically just look at the song title and give a knee-jerk yes/no on whether or not I'd like to see this song then divide by the total number of songs played. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a lower number as far as set list strength. Overall, we saw a number of breakouts in a very strange and heavy first set. I can't say that it was great. Set two and the encore caught a nice groove and went a long way towards redeeming this show as a whole.
Set One:
Crowd Control - I love this song... on the album. I like this song live and I really think if they worked on the live version (only the fifth time played) it could be a powerhouse.
Kill Devil Falls - Another great new tune, not really exploring new ground in this standard rocker but a great showcase of skill and a great vehicle to energize the crowd. A good selection in a good position (Set two, song 2)
The Sloth - A real treat for the Phish historian. Very nicely played, especially for not being seen in over six years. Trey's dirty tone and vocals really set the mood.
Beauty of a Broken Heart - Something a little more rhythmic in comparison to the sloth, but really does not grab me in any significant way.
Axilla I - At this point I am beginning to question this set, they seem to be all over the place and not really able to settle into any cohesive piece. In my opinion Axilla needs to be set up, and Beauty of a Broken Heart didn't do it. High energy and very well played but I was distracted trying to figure out the rhyme and reason behind this first set.
Foam - It seemed like trey was really struggling through this one, granted it's a very complex jam and he got it together towards the end allowing us to see another great example of Phish's eclectic reptoire.
Esther - Woo Hoo, love Esther.
Ha Ha Ha Ha - Phish is weird... This show is weirder...
Party Time - A Fishman original, apparently. A real fun tune that I expect to get a lot more play. I love that they play two fishman tunes in a row and all the lyrics between the both of them are "Ha", "Party" and "Time".
Tube - Something tells me that this wasn't the best tube of the tour (Camden?). But this definately is one of my favorite songs of the tour. Some real funky lines on a trippy sonic texture.
Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan - A slow heavy-handed rocker. Can't say I'm the biggest fan.
Strange Design - Stock version.
Time Turns Elastic - The musician in me appreciates this song, the party-boy in me doesnt want 20 minuets of elaborate composion to disrupt the flow of set. It does eventually get pretty crowd friendly towards the last section and I must admit I was pretty into it by the end.
So ends set one. How weird is that. Read through the first set setlist aloud and tell me how all over the map they were musically. Aside from Crowd Control / Kill Devil Falls, I don't see how this set list works in that arrangement
Set two
Tweezer - a.k.a. 'We're sorry about that first set'. So glad they picked a can't miss song like tweezer. Well played but nothing notable about this tweezer.
Taste - I dunno how this will hold up to other tastes but I was really digging this. Everyone sounded really tight. Probably the best taste that I can recall.
Alaska - Of the Trey solo songs Phish could have picked to incorporate into the rotation, I wouldn't have picked Alaska (Push on till the Day, please).
Let Me Lie - @!#$
46 Days - This is the jam of the night for me. the 46 days weaved seamlessly in and out of many distinct textures. They really showed off their improvisational talents in this jam. So good.
Oh! Sweet Nuthin' - Another Page tune. A nice way to calm the house down after the monster 46 Days jam.
Harry Hood - The Hoods of this tour have been amazing and constantly getting better, we'll call it the Usain Bolt of the tour. A perennial favorite, this Hood was worthy of being the final hood of an anzing summer tour that featured many unique and great Hoods.
Encore:
Good Times, Bad Times - This is how you end a show, a rippin rendition of Zepplins GTBT. Page is sick on vocals and the band is as tight as it gets.
Tweezer Reprise - Nicely done, always expected and always loved.
I hate to sound ungrateful but I think I have to give this a 6/10. Set two had some highlights but overall the show really pales in comparison to Hartford (previous night) and Saratoga (following night). An off performance will not tarnish my memories of this night tho, for a phish show is more than just the music, its about friends, old and new... and coffee... with a kick!
In order of length…
the greatest band names of all time:
SNMNMNM
Test Icicles
Bloody Panda
Assholeparade
Mad at Gravity
Fuck...I'm Dead
Municipal Waste
Portugal. The Man
Iwrestledabearonce
Agoraphobic Nosebleed
The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza
Quaint Vermont home for sale
A really sweet house sitting on 259 acres of Vermont hillsides is for sale. The previous owner melts faces for a living but has recently moved to New York (apparently his mandated 12-15 months in NY really had an impression on him). It has a barn (not to be confused w/ THE barn) and comes w/ a washer and dryer. 1.6 mil and it can be yours now...
Mention this site if you buy it, maybe ill get some commission...