concert count

#17: Red Hot Chili Peppers (25-Sep-06) - Air Canada Centre

well, this concert wasn't much to write home about. i was a little disappointed, and maybe i had too high of expectations, or maybe i was just too tired from work to be really in concert mentality.

first of all, what is with the abundance of weed at concerts? does it really enhance the experience? because it ruins mine when everyone around you is getting high.

one major reason why this concert wasn't great was the sound. the volume on anthony keidis's mic was kinda low and sometimes you couldn't even hear him. he was still really hot though. but like my comment about john mayer, he also needs a haircut. something like what he had in the otherside video. that was hot. he still had lots of energy to dance around stage though.

the best part was actually the encore. john and chad came out first and did two short covers of sunday bloody sunday and went right into smells like teen spirit. and then flea and anthony joined them on stage for a few more songs. the light show was also quite impressive, as michael mentioned in his posting.

the funniest part was this guy sitting beside me got so drunk that he passed out during the encore! hilarious! i didn't even realize until the lights came on and we were all getting up to leave, and he was hunched over in his seat sleeping.

another sign that i'm getting old: i can't stand for a whole concert. my legs were getting all sore halfway through it, and i was already dreading it when people started standing at the beginning of the show. just can't do it anymore.

so all in all, not the best show i've been to. definitely not as good as the first time i saw them at the coliseum in edmonton.

next up on deck: nothing! i think this may be the first time i don't have any concert scheduled while reviewing the last one i went to. oh no!

in unrelated music news - i just about freaked out when marco told me dallas green was at his store in edmonton over the weekend. i can't believe it. so close, yet so far. but he didn't even talk to him! i'm surprised dallas didn't go up to marco and tell him to stop copying him and wearing tight jeans. why can't i run into dallas randomly on the streets? although, i might faint.

computer nerds - help!

this post is probably more for ryan.

how can i convert my videos from AVI format to something i can download to my DiPod?

and any idea of how to rotate a video? i took a video, but not in landscape, so unless i tilt my computer, it's at the wrong angle.

i don't know anything about technology.

quarter of a century

i've officially moved out of the 18-24 demographic and into the 25-34 demographic. does this mean i'll stop watching laguna beach because it's not targeting my demo group? yeah right.

so far, it hasn't been a great start to 25. i had a stressful week at work. and then when i went out on friday with friends, i had a little too much to drink at home, and basically went to the bar, got sick, and then went home, where i got sick again. at least i felt better the next morning!

i guess at this point, all it can do is get better. here's to joining the quarter of a century club. cheers!

the "DiPod"

so i finally joined the iPod family. sure i had a shuffle, but it's limited in function, and i definitely need more memory than 512MB.

i got the 60GB iPod. it's being discontinued, and all prices on iPods have been reduced, so it went from $460 to $350. the 30GB one is $300, so after a day of deliberation and being indecisive due to buyers remorse, i finally made my decision.

i had originally ordered it from bestbuy.ca, but went to the apple store, and they had one left, so i bought it. it gives me more peace of mind that i can bring it back to the store if something goes wrong.

one of the main reasons i would want to get the 30GB one is because i can get it engraved, and i wanted to call it the "DiPod." oh well, it is still the DiPod, just not branded with it.

i can't wait to put all my pictures on it, all of season one of prison break, probably my whole music collection, AND still have room left.

i love my DiPod.

john mayer needs a haircut. badly.

but he sounds amazing.

she's no justin timberlake

today was the first of two free concerts for the grand opening of the new best buy in downtown. beyonce performed tonight, and john mayer is performing tomorrow. not in the actual store, but in yonge and dundas square, which is right outside of eaton centre.

i walked by tonight to see if i could catch any of it, and there were tonnes of people. i don't think i saw beyonce, but she did bring dancers too, which surprised me b/c i didn't think she'd make it into such a big production. then i just left b/c i don't like to be in crowds of people unnecessarily.

i'm looking forward to seeing john mayer tomorrow though.

two worlds colliding

did anyone see miami ink this week? did anyone notice the girl who wanted to get a bird tattoo to remind her of her grandpa and she brought in the city and colour cd cover! or at least a picture of the cd cover, i'm not sure if she actually has the cd or just found the picture on the internet.

now i know a tattoo artist did all the artwork for the cd, are there copyright laws for tattoos? the end result didn't look exactly like the cd cover though. the tail was extended and colours changed. maybe ami knew it was another person's work and changed it up a bit.

concert count

#16b: Virgin Festival - Day Two (10-Sep-06) - Olympic Island

today's lineup was packed. besides alexisonfire on day 1, day 2 was definitely better.

we had planned to get there to see matt mays, but only ended up catching half of his set because i had a broken bag incident on our way to the show (the strap snapped), so i had to stop at eaton centre to buy a new bag. matt mays only had a half hour set, so only seeing half of it meant i only got to see 15 mins. too short. he was still really good though. he's one of those musicians where i keep wanting to check out, but haven't yet.

then we didn't know some of the set times changed, so ended up catching only half of wolfmother. did get to see them perform 'woman' though. the lead singer has a crazy wicked afro for a white australian dude.

after wolfmother was sam roberts, who i was looking forward to seeing. i just bought his new cd, so wasn't too familiar with his music. he was really good, and i love his new single 'bridge to nowhere.' was never a fan of 'don't walk away eileen' and he didn't sing it. watched his whole set, and it was great.

next was the strokes. besides 'last night' i don't really know any of their songs. but their music is great and the show was equal in caliber. i stayed to watch their whole set, but my friend left early to go to the other stage to wait for zero 7, who she was looking forward to the whole weekend.

i was planning on catching part of zero 7 before going back to the main stage to see the raconteurs. but they were running late on schedule on the 2nd stage, so i didn't end up seeing any of zero 7. i saw the whole set for the raconteurs instead. besides 'steady as she goes,' i don't know any of their songs, but they were pretty good. jack white doesn't sing all of them, which i didn't know. jack white made a comment about it being hard to get into canada, i wonder if he had problems or if he were referring to massive attack.

so massive attack was suppose to close the festival, but broken scene was there last minute to fill their shoes. we caught 3 songs and left because we had already saw BSS at their own festival earlier in the summer and it was already getting late.

all in all, it was a good weekend. it was bloody cold when the sun went down (i brought my down vest on sunday). i bought a sam roberts tshirt and an alexisonfire tshirt. met some funny people in the line up for the ferry and got to see some great performances i otherwise would never see.

concert count

#16a: Virgin Festival - Day One (09-Sep-06) - Olympic Island

i love outdoor music festivals, even if sometimes i might not know half the bands, it's cool just to be outside. but today was actually kind of cold and it had rained in the morning, so it wasn't the nicest weather for an outdoor show.

we started the day off with seeing buck 65. i'm not familiar with his music, but ever since he DJ'ed at the junos, i've been impressed, so i wanted to check him out. it was a really entertaining show, his songs are really catchy. i don't think i'll get his CD, but he's definitely a musician who puts on a good live show.

next we wanted to check out the dears, but didn't really stay long enough to hear more than one song because we went to get food instead.

so we went to watch starsailor next. i have their first CD, and i remember really liking it when i bought it. they're one of those british bands that are very coldplay-ish, so it's a given that i'd like them. they also put on a good live show and it made me want to get their 2nd CD. love those brits.

we walked back to the virgin stage to wait for kid koala, but the muse were still playing, and we caught most of their set, which i'm glad we did because they were really good. this is a prime example of why festivals are good. i get to check out bands i don't know much about and see if i like them. now i like the muse and will probably buy their CD.

kid koala ended up losing his first set, and only had his second set after gnarls barkley. if the schedule was followed properly, i would have been able to see gnarls barkley and still have time to walk back to the futureshop stage to see alexisonfire. but no, that didn't happen, and i caught 2 songs of gnarls barkley and left. i'm okay with it since i really only wanted to see alexisonfire today, everyone else was just filler.

i watched aof perform alone because my friend didn't come with me (story to follow), and it was awesome. because they were doing this festival, they didn't have a separate date in toronto for their tour they're on right now. which is too bad b/c they only played for an hour. it was great though, i've never seen aof perform before (except seeing them at mtv), so i was looking forward to my first aof show. dallas didn't disappoint. he was amazing. george took off his shirt, even though it must have been only 10 degrees at that time. and wade is really funny, he definitely should talk more. he said there are two things he hates the most and they are white guys with dreads and beach balls at rock shows. they sang a mix of old and new songs, which i thought was surprising since they had only an hour anyways, so i thought they'd sing most of their new songs. i really wanted them to sing rough hands, from the new cd, but they didn't. it's my favourite song, mainly because it has lots of dallas in it. they said they're coming back to TO in december to do 4 shows, so i'm definitely looking forward to going. i just need to find someone who likes aof to come with me!

so the reason my friend didn't come see aof with me was because she was on stage dancing for the flaming lips!!!! while we were waiting for kid koala to start, these two scruffy looking guys come up to us and ask if we like the flaming lips. even though i've never heard one of their songs, and the only reason i even have heard of them is because i saw a story one time about justin timberlake performing a song with them, i told the guy yes. so we asked if we wanted to dance on stage in costumes during their set. i asked what time we'd have to be there, and he said 9:40, so i said no right away because i'd been looking forward to aof the whole day and i wasn't going to miss it. but my friend went. i know some people are going to call me crazy for passing up the once in a lifetime chance to do something like this, and the roadie guy who asked us said the same thing, but i don't regret it. i know i'll see aof some other time, but i also don't know any songs by the flaming lips, love aof to death, and don't necessarily want to make a fool of myself.

the promoters had to shut the flaming lips down early because the festival was running overtime, and they have a strict curfew b/c it's on olympic island and there are residences around there, so there are very strict noise laws. they ended up only playing 30 mins, which totally suck for anyone who was waiting for the flaming lips. i saw the lead singer up close though b/c i was waiting for my friend to come out from backstage, and security was trying to clear everyone out, so a security guard took me backstage to meet up with my friend. everyone got shirts that said "i ____ with the flaming lips. a) danced. b) had sex. c) took drugs." and option a was circled. that was kind of cool to get a free tshirt out of it, i admit, but i still don't regret skipping out on it for aof.

all in all, today was a good day. it totally made my day to see aof. the only crappy thing about all day festivals is that there are always multiple stages with set times overlapping. tomorrow will be difficult to coordinate since there are more bands and more of them overlap. i want to see... wolfmother, sam roberts, matt mays, the strokes zero 7, broken social scene, and the raconteurs. massive attack was suppose to be the closing band, but i heard they didn't get their visas or were turned away at the border or something, so BSS took their spot. i've already seen BSS, so massive attack would have been way cooler to check out.

hopefully day 2 is as good as day 1.

ah....university

the joys of living right beside the u of t campus...frosh week. means i get to hear chanting at all hours of the day. last night, they were chanting at 11:30, when i was going to sleep. and still chanting at 3 am, when i woke up in the middle of the night. looking out my office window today, i watched kids play leap frog across a street, and splashing around the fountain in nathan phillips square (think the fountain in front of city hall in edmonton). i'm so glad i never participated in orientation in my first year of university. on friday, they usually have some sort of dance at the open field beside my house, which means it'll sound like i'm pumping the music in my room, but it's actually from outside.

i remember the first year i started working after graduating, it was so weird not to go back to school in september. i want to go back to school. no obligations. work is only full time for 4 months. all you need to do is study and go to classes. and there's always an end to look forward to. now i'm in the real world. i hate the real world because it only gives me 3 weeks of vacation and i have to pay rent. boo to responsibilities. and i'm turning a quarter of a century in a few weeks. boo to turning older.

otherwise, everything's just peachy. some friends were visiting over the long weekend, so that was good. i miss my friends and hanging out like we used to. those were good times.

alex...is...on...fire!

just got back from seeing alexisonfire on mtv live. we sat in the balcony seats, which was fine because i didn't want to be on the couch or on tv. i was probably at least 5 years older than the average person there, it was kinda funny. but we were sitting by the dj, and they panned across the top balcony at the beginning of the show, i just hope we didn't get on tv b/c we were sitting on the end. so embarrassing.

anyways, the show was really good. it goes much faster watching in person than watching on tv. daryn is funny, jessi is blah. also saw dan walking around, so cute, and taller than i thought he'd be. alexisonfire sang one song, than sat down to do the interview, and after the show was over, sang 3 more songs.

i absolutely love dallas. more and more everytime i see him. i can't wait for the v festival and see an entire set. i really think george is going to lose his voice completely in 10 years if he keeps screaming like that.

i dragged my two friends to come with me, both of which did not know any alexisonfire songs. one is a country music fan, and the other is into r&b and hip hop. i think they still enjoyed it though.

funniest thing from the show, they were being interviewed and talking about tattoos, and george said he wanted to get a tattoo on his face of the face of a good looking man. i almost died laughing.