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Tuesday, 07 August 2007

  • Currently Listening
    Icky Thump
    By The White Stripes
    Effect & Cause
    see related

    icky thumped

    I think that I am turning into a bad fan/groupie/roadie/stalker. I completely spaced and forgot to detail my trip to Washington D.C. to see the White Stripes! Because xanga is evil and I lost everything I just typed, setlist and pictures......

    Setlist
    Dead Leaves & The Dirty Ground
    Icky Thump
    When I Hear My Name
    Death Letter
    Cannon
    Hotel Yorba
    I'm Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman
    Slowly Turning Into You
    Instinct Blues
    One More Cup Of Coffee
    A Martyr For My Love
    In The Cold Cold Night
    Do
    Black Math
    Lets Shake Hands
    Ball & Biscuit

    Encore
    The Hardest Button To Button
    Blue Orchid
    Screwdriver
    300 MPH Outdoor Blues
    Seven Nation Army
    Were Going To Be Friends
    I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

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    the entire gang in our rented ford taurus

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    drunken debauchery begins

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    i'm a big fan of tequila

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    my shirt glows in the dark

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    grrrrrrr

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    so good

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    i *heart* meg

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    jack white is insanely cool

    A fantastic time was had by all.

Tuesday, 17 July 2007

Sunday, 15 July 2007

  • Currently Listening
    Mutual Admiration Society
    By Mutual Admiration Society
    see related

    training to be a groupie....

    Oh, Nickel Creek, how I love thee.

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    Last night, I drove up to Ashland to see Nickel Creek. Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket fame was the opening act. This is Nickel Creek's Farewell (For Now) Tour, their last before they go on indefinite hiatus as a group. I was really excited to see them. I've seen Thile a bunch of times in the past few months, but the last time I saw Nickel Creek was last September. It was well worth the wait.

    They were crazy good last night. I really wish I'd written down the set list, but I didn't. Glen came out and sang for about an hour. Then Nickel Creek came out and played for about two hours. I was very content with this. They all seemed in such good spirits, were lively, and the banter was hilarious.

    After the concert was over, we headed out to the bus, hopefully to get to chat with the band. I was shocked to see about 75 people out there, the most I have ever seen by their bus. Sara finally made her way out and started chatting with people, taking pictures, and signing autographs. I was really excited to get to meet her. I've seen Nickel Creek a bunch of times, but for some odd reason, I've never gotten to meet her.

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    She was so incredibly nice. I just wish there wouldn't have been so many people and I would have gotten a chance to talk with her more, especially about her solo cd. While she was chatting with people, Sean and Glen were hustling about between the venue and the buses. Someone finally asked Sara what they were doing and she nonchalantly says, "Oh....we're gonna play."

    They stood out by the buses and played for two hours! It was fantastic. Lots of covers and random songs. My favorites included Up On Cripple Creek (The Band), Run For Your Life (The Beatles), and Short People (Randy Newman).

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    After they were finished singing, Chris put his mandolin in the bus, then came back out to sign autographs. It was nearly 1 am and you could tell that he was tired. He was just sort of grabbing things and signing them. He snatched my program, signed it, and when he went to hand it back, he looked up and goes, "Oh, I know you." He hugged me, asked me how I was doing, etc. I gave him the t-shirt I had brought him and he almost signed it before he realized I had said it was for him.



    He unfolded it and I couldn't see his face, but he goes, "They are!" loudly. (FYI: Pickles is the nickname of the banjo player in his other band and also one of his best friends.) He said Pickles was a cucumber soaked in evil and that he was going to wear the shirt and not tell him. I'm sure that will be funny. He thanked me for the shirt, took a picture, and then we were off. I didn't really get to have much of a conversation with him because it was so late and there were still quite a few people out there. I didn't want to monopolize his time. It was 1 am when we pulled out of the parking lot and he was still out there signing for the last few people.

    This was the second time I have gotten to witness a bus-side jam, but this one definitely topped the other one simply because the entire band was out there. (The last time, it was just Chris.) It was so much fun and the entire band was just so incredibly nice to everyone.

    I'll be on cloud 9 for weeks!


Saturday, 30 June 2007

  • Currently Listening
    The Village Sessions
    By John Mayer
    Good Love is on The Way (Acoustic)
    see related

    just keep me where the light is...

    I ventured up to Cincinnati a few nights ago to see John Mayer....again. I am kind of kicking myself for not trying to make more shows on this summer tour, but I figure he'll be back at it again in the fall and I can plan two or three shows then. Besides, Nickel Creek is breaking up and I have to spend my summer stalking them.

    -- Setlist --
    No Such Thing
    Belief
    Good Love is On the Way
    I Don't Need No Doctor
    I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You)
    My Stupid Mouth
    Bigger Than My Body
    Dreaming With A Broken Heart
    Why Georgia
    Gravity
    Vultures
    Waiting on the World to Change

    -- Encore --
    Slow Dancing (acoustic)
    Clarity (acoustic)
    Neon


    The two guys sitting beside of me and Cat had won passes to the Eat & Greet, which meant they got to meet Mayer before the show. We grilled them about everything. What was he nice? Yes. Was he tall? Yes. Did you see his new tattoo? Yes. The best was when one of the guys mentioned Mayer was the same height as him. Cat made him stand up next to her so she could, "get it right in her dreams." If you think we were out of control then, it would only get worse as the night progressed.

    Ben Folds opened the show up. He really wasn't my cup of tea. I spent most of the time that he was on stage chatting with the two guys sitting beside of us, praying for him to leave the stage soon. I just really didn't enjoy him...at all. His cover of the Dr. Dre classic Bitches Ain't Shit would have been amusing had he not decided he needed to sing it two times in a row.

    Finally nine o'clock rolled around and it was time for Mayer to take the stage. Holy crap! We were stage left, the side that he entered from. It was dark, but we could see him coming onto the stage. The screams were ear-piercing. We were yelling, acting like two lovestruck teenyboppers at an *NSYNC concert.

    jmcincy056

    The show opened up with No Such Thing, which is the song that first introduced me to sweet, sweet Mayer. He did Belief next. It sounds about 100x better live than it does on the cd. After that song, he decided to engage in a little friendly banter with the crowd. He has such a quick wit and always says funny stuff so I always enjoy his random remarks.

    There were actually only a few people on the floor with signs, or at least that were holding them up at that very moment. He commented on a girl's sign a few rows in front of us, half-heartedly singing "Happy Birthday, Michelle" to her, then he moved on.

    Mayer: Now the lady behind you has a sign that says, "Today is a good day.....for having your baby."

    jmcincy065

    The crazy lady holding that sign was, of course, my faithful concert companion. Next thing I knew, there we were, splashed up on all three jumbo-tron screens. That would have been enough for us both, but Mayer took it to a whole new level, going off on a slight tangent about the sign. He said that there were two possibilities:

    --that she was indeed having his baby that night and they they had met before. He said that was entirely possible; after all, "this is rock 'n' roll." He laughed and added that any romantic interactions with fans stay above the waist.

    --that she had somehow learned how to compact a nine-month gestation into a single night and would be getting pregnant and giving birth all in the same night.

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    After that, he went right into Cat's favorite song, Good Love is on the Way. She leaned over and told me she needed something because she thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown. The next song....I Don't Need No Doctor. I don't think we could have scripted it better ourselves.

    I think that any sanity we had left surely left us after that moment. We sang and danced for the duration of the show, having such a blast. I also snapped away as many photos as I could. The faces he makes are always priceless.

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    It was very exciting that he did My Stupid Mouth, both because I love the song and because he hasn't done it in concert in ages. Slow Dancing in a Burning Room and Clarity made for a great encore. I don't love Neon, but it was better than Your Body is a Wonderland. I hate Wonderland and he sang it during both encores of the shows we saw in February.

    Overall, a completely and utterly fantastic evening. I also must commend the city of Cincinnati for making it so easy to get in and out, even with all the concert traffic.

    jmcincy064

    I also must mention that I took tons of pictures. The full set can be found on flickr. The funniest thing is that in the few days following the concert, I've been getting messages from tons of people at the concert, wanting to buy prints of my pictures. Pretty cool.