Rock Opera in a Coffee House

Local Fort Collins artist Vee deVice as well as several friends who joined them on stage wowed friends, family and newcomers alike with their release concert of the first act of their Rock Opera: "Love Will Tear us to Shreds". The first act "And Quiet Flows the Dawn" was performed in its entirety along with narration and visuals at Everyday Joe's coffee house in Fort Collins, CO.

The night was started out in a surprisingly unique way with local band The Tanukis, a band that can be described as hardcore indie acoustic Russian folk music. Not knowing what to expect it caught me a little off guard, but I ended up really liking them. The vocal harmonies were tight, as was the music, and the song they ended their set with - a Russian folk song, song in Russian - was really good.

After The Tanukis were finished with their set Vee deVice, fully clothed in their Russian opera get up began to take the stage. Backed up with various musician friends to be able to play the album in entirety and an old public domain war propaganda film, the Narrator took the mic and requested that all applause be held until the entire opera had been performed. And then they were off into the life of Isaac Babel. Only having seen the band a couple times live I really had no idea what to expect in the concert. I was completely impressed to say the least. The album itself is extremely well written and each track fits in perfectly with the story they are trying - succeeding - to tell. The instrumentation featured acoustic and electric guitars, acoustic bass, mandolin, banjo, violin, accordion, piano, trombone and even crystal glasses. The vocal harmonies in a couple different tracks with Babel and the soldiers were particularly good and would have to be one of my favorite points of the show. The visual film in the background also accentuated the show with several times seeming purposefully in sync with the music.

After the final song was performed the audiences reaction told me that everybody there had the same impression as I did as the quality of the show. Keep an eye out for news of the release of Act II of Vee deVice's three disc rock opera "Love Will Tear Us To Shreds". If it's anything close to Act I, we're all in for a treat.

NEW HOUSE!!

I have moved a relatively few times in my life and thus lived in relatively few houses. When I was younger (<5) I moved a couple times, but then since then, I've lived up near Lory State Park for about 17 years (I suppose you could count the couple years living in the CSU and Budapest dorms, but during the summer and vacations I was always back home) and then the house near Old Town for 4 years now.
Our land lord had been trying to sell the place that I was living for quite awhile and a couple weeks ago he finally got an offer that he accepted. So that gave me a couple weeks to find a new place to live. As luck would have it, one of my good friends from high school was also looking for a place and she found a two bedroom house and asked if I wanted to move in.
Moving is a kind of a pain, but wasn't especially bad since I was only moving about 10 minutes away and I didn't have an unordinarily large amount of stuff. So yesterday I finally finished moving all of my stuff over to the new place and spent my first night there. I really like the place a lot, but we'll definitely have to work on some little "homey" touches - especially with all of the blank wall space.
Should be a great place to live though, and I'm definitely looking forward to enjoying this new change in my life.

Ben Kweller at the Fox Theatre

Last night Jules & I went to see Ben Kweller at the Fox in Boulder. I'd been looking forward to the show ever since I heard he was playing in town. The first time I'd seen him was down in Austin a couple weeks ago at the festival and he completely rocked - although it was cut a little short because of a rampant bloody nose. This show was a full set and was even better than I expected.

The Sam Roberts Band opened up and were pretty good - kind of an early 90s grunge band from Canada. Tight band and good to listen to for a little while, but it seemed like a lot of their songs were the same, and I don't think I would really enjoy a full show if they were the headliners.

The Ben Kweller came out solo and played a couple acoustic songs on the guitar and one on the piano and then the rest of his band came out starting with "Wasted and Ready" and continued to keep it upbeat and rocking for the entire two hour set. I was completely blown away with all of the talent of everybody in the band. They all played several different instruments - piano, guitar, bass, percussion - and played them all well. During the encore song - "In Other Words" - Ben Kweller got up on top of the piano and started dancing and nearly looked like he was going to tip over the piano and fall off.

Didn't get to meet him after the show or anything, but I did talk to the piano player of the Sam Roberts band and he was pretty cool. Overall just another great night of music at the Fox. Already got my tickets for Donavon Frankenreiter at the end of this month and that should be amazing as well.

Until next time!

Carbon Leaf & Matt Nathanson at the Aggie

Last night I went to see Matt Nathanson and Carbon Leaf at the Aggie. I had won two tickets, but couldn't find anybody who was able to go, but had to go anyway. Matt Nathanson is great to see live and I had heard some of Carbon Leaf's stuff, but had never seen them live, so I was really looking forward to it. Biking down to the Aggie I thought I would ride around the back to see if any of the band was out in their bus or just hanging outside the theatre. I noticed that the back door was wide open, so after locking up my bike, I took a quick look to see where the security guard was looking and then walked in and down the stairs to the green room. When I got in I saw Matt Nathanson was sitting on the couch working up his set list so I said hey and talked to him for a while. Told him I'd seen him a couple weeks ago down in Austin and that I was looking forward to the show. He offered me a beer and we talked a little more and then I headed up the stairs to check out Carbon Leaf. As I was walking out, the security guard noticed I didn't have a wrist band and noticed that I was coming from the back, so he told me I had to leave and go around the front. Oh well, no big deal.

The show itself was great. Carbon Leaf is a great band and really tight on their live performance. They've got a really good sound and a lot of catchy songs. I haven't heard all of their new CD, but from some of the stuff they played off of it last night, I might have to check it out. Favorite song that they played was definitely "The Boxer" and their hit single awhile ago "Life Less Ordinary" was a close second. After they were done, the band came out to the crowd and hung out to listen to Matt Nathanson play and I got to meet and talk with their keyboard player and one of the guitarists. Pretty cool guys.

Then Matt Nathanson came on. No big surprises since I'd seen him recently and several times before, but it was still a great show and he played a lot of songs that I really enjoy and that the Waido Band covers. "I Saw", "Little Victories" and "Suspended" were among my favorites of the set.

Everytime I see this I laugh

There are just some things that no matter how much you see them elicit a chuckle or two and just make your day better. I am happy to share one of mine with you. No matter how much I see this particular Calvin and Hobbes it makes me laugh (I think its the word 'ludicrously').

Hope you enjoy it too.

Tour de Fat & The Ditty Bops

20060923_Ditty Bops at Tour de Fat

Sep 25, 2006 - 23 Photos

Yesterday was the annual Tour de Fat wrap up party at the New Belgium Brewery and the festival just keeps getting bigger every year. I slept in a little this year so didn't participate in the bike ride around town, but was able to see some of the crazy home-made bicycles and all of the riders in their costumes.

The festival itself was a great time with a lot of New Belgium Beer - from organic biodegradable cups - and pizza from Cozzola's. The Handsome Little devils(http://www.handsomelittledevils.com/) opened the festival with their unique juggling/vaudeville act. They were on for about an hour and ended their show juggling a chainsaw, a bowling ball and a ping pong ball. Needless to say, it was pretty impressive.

After The Handsome Little Devils got done, the Ditty Bops took the stage. I had seen them once before when they came through on their cross country bike tour and played the Aggie Theatre. It's a four piece band, two vocals - Amanda, who plays mandolin & washboard, and Abby, who plays guitar - and then a piano and acoustic bass. Really good old style swing music - reminds me a little of Squirrel Nut Zippers without the horns and a lot like the music from "The Triplets of Belleville". Check them out: http://www.dittybops.com/

AUSTIN CITY LIMITS - DAY 3

Finally, the last day of the amazing Austin City Limits festival. This was an incredibly full day, but I only saw four bands instead of the usual 10+. The place was packed for the last day, and we decided rather than go to several different stages, we would just stay by the main stage and try to get as close as we could. It did not disappoint.

First was KT Tunstall at 2:30. Awesome. Played all of her songs off of her CD "Eye to the Telescope" which was great to see live. If you haven't already picked up that CD, do so, it's a great one. She does a couple songs with a loop over her vocals so during the chorus she was harmonizing with herself which was pretty sweet. Her band was great too and they all looked like they were having a lot of fun.

After KT Tunstall ended we began the surge towards the front of the crowd, which basically took me until 8:00 (5 1/2 hours) to get to the fourth row for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. At 4:30 Matisyahu took the stage and blew my mind. I had heard his CD "Youth" only recently before seeing him live and I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. The band was incredibly tight and Matisyahu himself was awesome. Seeing this jewish rabbi with the full get-up, beard and all, dance all over the stage, jumping up on speakers and singing reggae with the best of them was surreal. The music was great and the crowd was really into the whole show. Quite the memorable experience.

After another hour of crowd surging towards the front (I ended up in about row 10) The Flaming Lips came on. Best live show I've seen ever. It was incredible. They had Wonderwoman and Captain America setting up, a huge plastic clear ball that the lead singer got inside and rolled over the crowd in, huge cannons that fired billions of scraps of confetti, streamers, smoke machines, fox tails, strobe lights, fake blood, a group of dancing girls dressed up as aliens, a group of dancing guys & kids dressed up as santas, two huge blowup dancing astronauts, a huge blowup dancing alien, a huge blowup dancing Santa and a dancing guy in a mouse costume. Not to mention the band. Only four people in the band and if you've ever heard their CDs it is hard to believe the music can be performed live. But they completely rocked. It was incredible. If you ever get a chance to see them live DO NOT pass it up.

And then it was another hour (in which I moved probably 20 feet to get to the fourth row) watching all of the stage hands clean up all of the streamers and balloons and confetti on the stage to get it ready for Tom Petty. Tom Petty is one of those bands that I've been listening to since pretty much forever. I grew up with the music of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Stevie Ray Vaugh, BB King, and Led Zepplin to name a few. To be in the fourth row at Austin City Limits with 80,000 screaming fans behind me seeing Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for the first time - well it was an experience to say the least. It pretty much rocked. The show was great, they're old - and they look it - but they can still rock with the best of them. They played all the old hits: Mary Jane, Free Fallin', Refugee, American Girl as well as a lot of new songs off of the "Highway Companion" album. I thought it was a pretty awesome show and apparently so did Matisyahu and Matthew McConaughey because they were standing in the front VIP/Press section.

And that was Austin. Three days packed full of music and fun. Definitely worth the entire trip, and I will definitely be going back every year from now on.

20060915_AUSTIN CITY LIMITS DAY 3

Sep 18, 2006 - 70 Photos