Silver Needle at Dragonfly

Went to see Silver Needle at Dragonfly on a Sunday night.

An interesting encounter with the ticket guy occurred that night. I was told it was free before 10 p.m. I got there around 9:45 p.m. and the guy demanded that I pay up. One of my friends said, "We were told it was free before 10 p.m." The guy said, "I didn't hear anything like that." We paid up, but quickly found someone in the band to discuss this issue.

Phone calls were made and the issue about 10 p.m. was cleared up, but . . . when we went to the ticket guy and asked if he'd return our money, his response was, "No, it isn't my money to give back. I can't give a refund."

I was dumbfounded. Clearly I would think this was a matter of fairness. He was unaware that the night was free before 10 p.m. and insisted that we hand over $10. One of the guys in the band called up the owner of the Dragonfly and cleared up the matter. Other people started to file in for free. We go to the ticket guy and ask that he provide us our refund since he was wrong in taking our money. He refuses. Crazy.

Anyways, more e-mails/calls were made to the owner and our money was returned.

As for Silver Needle. A good set, fun times. And a birthday cake.

Lake @ The Smell

A friend of mine a few weeks back had suggested checking out his friend's band, Red Pony Clock at The Smell. I'm always up to checking out new bands so off I went . . . even if I was feeling slightly under the weather. I met up with four of my friends.

The first band up for the night was Stellaluna. They're a band from Phoenix. They played in the front stage. There was a nice crowd to see them though perhaps a bit shy. The band kept on encouraging people to come closer. They had just arrived from Phoenix, traveling throughout the day.


In the back stage was Red Pony Clock.. This is a large band. They had seven folks on stage. From what I could over-hear, they were missing members so they're even a larger band than just seven. One member plays a vibraphone -- sort of looks like a xylophone. Another played the accordion. Then you had a violinist. I love violinists in bands. I have to say what I found interesting was the fact that three of the band members were using music sheets. This sort of makes me wonder if a number of the band members are new.




During the break, one of my friends mentioned that a band called Lake was headlining. He went to check out when they were playing and was "told" that they were playing last. He was like, "Well, they're really good, but I don't think I can stay out that late." So off he went. Meanwhile, the third band was starting to set up. I don't know who said it, but one suddenly asked, "Is this perhaps Lake?" A crowd was beginning to form. I turned to a couple guys hanging nearby and asked, "What band is this?" The reply, "Lake." Well, a friend quickly sent a text message to the guy who had left. He probably missed one or two songs. Lake is also a rather large band of six. They also have the trait of switching instruments throughout the set. I loved them from the start. The lead singer at one point said, "You guys need to talk over our songs to make us feel more comfortable." Yes, they had all of our attentions. Too bad they're from Seattle -- though one of the female members mentioned that she used to hang out at The Smell when she was in high school. Who knows, maybe they'll relocate and start playing at Spaceland in a year or two.






The last band I saw was actually Lake again as they accompanied their friend Karl Blau. There was perhaps a fifteen minute break and then they all came back on stage, but this time Karl Blau led out. So I got about an hour of Lake and really did enjoy it all.






The one great disappointment: there weren't any vegan tacos like the last time I went to The Smell!!!

Switchfoot at The Roxy

Roxy. Switchfoot. A couple months back a group of us decided that we were going to go see Switchfoot. And so the day finally arrived, November 11th. My friends decided that they were going to head out starting at 5 p.m., because they believed the band was playing at 7 p.m. I was like, I can’t leave that early. I have work. So they took off without me. I headed off around 6 p.m. I caught up with them at about 6:30 p.m. They were in line, waiting. It is sweet having friends who like to go really early, because then you can just cut in line. Anyways, come around 7 p.m. we were still outside waiting. One friend started to wonder what was going on since the band was supposed to play at 7 p.m. Well, when I got there I was given my ticket so I looked at the ticket. Hey, wait a second, it states that the doors open at 7 p.m. Hmm. Well, I believe they started to let people in around 7:15 p.m. Once inside, we waited around some more until the band finally came on at around 8:45 p.m. Interestingly enough, there was no opening band.

There were a number of false alarms regarding Switchfoot coming on stage. Starting around 8 p.m. after every single house music song died out folks felt for sure that Switchfoot was going to start playing. Cheers would go up and then die down. I noticed that one of the band technicians came over and removed the microphone and at that point I told a friend, “They’re going to start.” Soon after, Jon was seen on the VIP section wall. He then pushed through the crowd to get back onto the stage. Actually, he didn’t push through, the crowd just departed for him. He passed right next to me. For some reason, I always find these concert moments interesting. You're packed in close and yet somehow during certain points of a set, the crowd opens up.

Now this Switchfoot concert was dedicated to playing their new album, "Hello Hurricane." I hadn’t purchased the album in advance so I wasn’t familiar with the material. So my honest opinion: I thought the concert was choppy. Some of the songs I thought were awesome. Some of the songs I thought weren’t so great. Perhaps if I listen to the album a few more times I'll gain a greater appreciation of the album as a whole, but for now I have to go with a choppy set.

After playing through their album, they left the stage. They then returned for a seven song set of their greatest hits. Now this part of the set rocked out as I was obviously well versed in the music. A fun part of the show was towards the end (I forget which song, perhaps it was “Twenty-Four”). Jon said they wanted to do something new and a kid in the audience yelled out, probably the following, "Let me sing with the band." Well, he was brought up onto the stage to help with the song. That was cool. During “Twenty-Four” Jon told a story about the time he wrote this song. He was showing off his skate boarding abilities in front of his girlfriend. He fell and broke his wrist. It so happened that he married this young lady.

After this second half of the set ended, the audience demanded an encore. They got it. A final song. Jon asked for a music request. The request was to sing “Dirty Second Hands.”

Some notes: On stage, there were a number of decorative birds hanging from the ceiling. At one point, Tim jumped so high that he sent one of these birds in motion. He took some amusement in this, watching for a moment as the bird swung above him. There were a couple guys near the front of the stage that were jumping around throughout the set. Awesome. Back to 6:30-ish, there was a young couple waiting in line. My group of friends and I spent the rest of the concert hanging out and getting to know them. What was fun on my end was watching one of my friends. She’s a bit Switchfoot fan. Throughout much of the set, her hands were clasped together.

Anyways, here's the set list I found from a blogsite called wereawakening:

blinditachil7 also provided the setlist:
01 - Needle and Haystack Life
02 - Mess of Me
03 - Your Love Is a Song
04 - The Sound (John M. Perkins' Blues)
05 - Enough to Let Me Go
06 - Free
07 - Hello Hurricane
08 - Always
09 - Bullet Soul
10 - Yet
11 - Sing It Out
12 - Red Eyes
13 - Dare You to Move
14 - Stars
15 - Oh! Gravity
16 - This Is Your Life
17 - Twenty-Four
18 - Only Hope
19 - Meant to Live
20 - Dirty Second Hands

Below are some photos I took:



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A Movie Review: Capitalism: A Love Story

"Capitalism: A Love Story." Derivative. I do agree with his attack on the Wall Street/US Government bailout, but I find his use of sob stories irritating. Often times all you need to do is take out a calculator and you realize why people lose their homes. I'd really have liked to have known a little bit of the background story of these individuals. Also, there is a moment in the film where he attacks Timothy Geithner and then at the end of the movie he holds great hope for President Obama. Wait a second, isn't Geithner now Obama's Treasury Secretary? Oh well.

Happy Hollows and Casxio at Spaceland

Spaceland. A friend of mine had never gone to Spaceland. She wanted to go. So a small group of us headed out. Two of them (including the friend that had never gone to Spaceland) showed up at 9:00 p.m. and sent a text asking me about my whereabouts. I had previously sent a text stating that I wasn’t planning on showing up until 9:45 p.m. I figured, oh well, I better head down there. So I arrived at around 9:15 p.m. and caught the back end of the first band called The Widow Babies. I can’t really say too much about them. The next band up was Casxio. I’d heard of this band previously. In fact, I believe they were on a bill once with another band I wanted to see, but I didn't stay around long enough to see them play. So this was the first time I’d actually seen them. I have to say I enjoyed their set greatly.









Finally, my last band of the night though not the official final band of the night, The Happy Hollows played their residency. Towards the end of the set, Sarah made a fun comment. Here's my attempt to repeat what she said, “We wanted to put up a poster out front, advertising our residency. But we’ve had no time. So we brought some crayons and paper. It is over in the back. You can design a poster for us. The winner will win a prize. A big prize.” That's a cool thing to do, but I didn't participate. Not artistic. And I needed to go to bed.

A Movie Review: Where the Wild Things Are

"Where the Wild Things Are". This is a movie that didn’t have to be made. It is a movie about nothing in my opinion. Yes, there are the underlying currents about feelings of rejection, about wanting to ignore pain and replacing it with constant fun. These are important concepts, but it is all wrapped around a movie where a boy goes on an imaginary adventure that really didn’t inspire me. He gets on a boat. He ends up on an island. He runs into some wild things who make him king. They play for awhile. He decides it is time to go home. It is a nice tale for a children’s book, but I’m not sure it makes for a good movie.

Note: Is it too scary for children? Obviously, I'm way pass my childhood years, but in my opinion -- no, it isn't too scary. Is it potentially too boring for children? Yes.

New Fidelity, Woolly Bandits and The Dollyrots @ The Roxy

I headed off to The Roxy on Thursday to see three bands: New Fidelity, Woolly Bandits and Dollyrots. I say this was a night of band interaction with the crowd. The New Fidelity started it off towards the end of their set when one of the guys in the band noticed a girl texting away. He jumped off stage, took a peak at her cell phone and started to do some texting himself. The girl found it amusing. Up next were The Woolly Bandits. I saw this band for the first time at the Eagle Rock Music Festival. There was some interaction here as well as the lead singer took off into the crowd twice as well as bringing up a fan onto the stage briefly. The lead singer also brought out an harmonica for a tune. Finally, the Dollyrots had some Halloween candy treats for everyone. To start off the set, Kelly had some difficulties with her bass and had to switch out. They ended their set and walked off stage and everyone just sort of stood around wondering what was going on. Then the Dollyrots quickly re-emerged and Kelly said something like, “I was hoping we could get away without playing that song.” And then they hooked everything back up and went into “Because I’m Awesome.” An over-all great night though a little too late in the night for me.

French Semester and Finn Riggins at Silverlake Lounge

I headed off to Silverlake Lounge on Wednesday to catch French Semester. At the Eagle Rock Music Festival I overheard them as I was heading off to see another band, but decided at that point that I wanted to see them live at another point in time. Well, that point came soon enough with a night at Silverlake Lounge. But I misjudged their start time. They were scheduled for 9:00 p.m., but I figured it’d be a few minutes later. Well, I was wrong. I suspect I missed about 10 minutes of their set.







Next up was a band from Idaho called Finn Riggins. They had an unusual set-up (for me at least) where the drummer was up front and the guitarist was in the back. As they were setting up, I immediately found myself intrigued just by that. Even though they hail from Idaho there were a handful of people who seemed to know the band. I loved their set.