Our trip to New Orleans was only five days, but it spanned so much awesomeness that I’ll break this into a couple posts.
Wednesday was our travel day. The nice thing about New Orleans is that it feels pretty distant, but isn’t terrible tough to get to. Some friends were even driving down, but at 12+ hours we were gladly flying. Airline checked bags fees aside, the flights were uneventful and we were in the Big Easy by mid-afternoon.
Our hotel was right in the French Quarter, less then half a block off Bourbon Street. Shortly after checking in we ran into Brian and Amanda (the bride and groom to be) and we opted for an early happy hour at the bar right next to our hotel, The Old Absinthe House. Bourbon street is really interesting. Besides all the cheesy bars selling tropical drinks by the yard and all the houses of ill repute (er, Gentlemen clubs) there are also some very historic bars and some very exclusive restaurants. There’s no such thing as a good end or bad of Bourbon Street – like gumbo it’s all mixed up from door to door. The Old Absinthe House is a dusty old corner bar, but has stood there since 1807. Faded pictures on the wall showed that the bar hadn’t changed much through the last two centuries. We relaxed into the NOLA scene with a couple rounds.
Then it was time to head to House of Blues, for some much needed food and a concert later in the evening. The HOB was only about five blocks away and there was no wait for a table. D and I torn into some of the best skillet cornbread we’ve ever had before moving onto yummy Cajun entrees.
Making our way into their music hall I didn’t know how large of a venue to expect. I’ve always heard of big acts playing at various HOBs, but never seen a show at one. Luckily it turned out to be a pretty small room with elevated sides and a cool wrap around balcony. As a restaurant patron we got in sooner than most and snagged a great elevated spot at house left. The opening band was Brahms, a sort of dark-wave three piece from NYC. They did a pretty decent set, and I dug their all electronic setup, but they seem a bit out of their element playing to the sizable HOB crowd. Next up was the Canadian indie band Tokyo Police Club. They brought more energy to the stage and helped amp things up for the main act. I’m a fan of their singles, but their other tunes seem to lack a few hooks, and their style works best with a good hook.
By the time Passion Pit took the stage the house was packed. They are still touring off their first full album, Manners, from 2009 so the setlist was as predicted, except for the awesome encore cover of the Cranberries’ “Dreams”. Hardly any other male singer could attempt the soaring vocals in that song, but it was right up the alley of Michael Angelakos. You can tell they’d been touring behind that material for a solid year, everything was well-paced and effortless. I’ve been enjoying that album since it came out and it was great to see it live after skipping their set at Lollapalooza last summer. All in all, a super fun show and a great finish for our first night in the Big Easy.
June had been a crazy busy month, so it’s time to speed-post a few things. First up…
Dawn and Chris tied the knot earlier in the month. The wedding was…Catholic…but whispers of spaghetti monsters and big Jesus hugs helped pass the time for us pagans in the back pew. Everyone was looking sharp, and Dawn and Chris looked completely happy and content.
The reception was very nice with good food, good musicians, and of course more shenanigans. The official festivities ended fairly early in the evening so we decided to have an impromptu afterparty on our deck. There were probably 10-12 of us (including the bride and groom) and we drank and laughed deep into the evening. It was a great time (exhibit A – check out the ladies having fun with crazy hats).
Posted Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 9:56 AMNo Comments
D and I completed another 5k this weekend, this one circling through the old neighborhoods of Covington. It was a much smaller event – less than a quarter of the runners in the Flying Pig 5k – but still a good turnout. Although the weather was perfect when we left the house, heavy rain moved in as we drove down. And it didn’t stop. We were all drenched before the starting gun, and endured steady to hard rain the entire race. By a mile and a half in my shoes were squishing and contacts sliding around. It was also a pretty hilly course, none of the grades were steep, but there were a lot of them.
Despite the conditions I still managed to knock a minute and a half off my Pig time. My first split was around 9:40 (which was great) and I had a fairly strong finish, but I’m still struggling in that middle mile. Did I mention it was pouring, though :) So, I didn’t make it under the half hour mark as planned, but that’ll be the goal next time out.
Time
Pace (per Mile)
overall place
men’s place
division place (M 35-39)
32:19
10:26
221 / 456
130 / 158
11 / 15
Posted Tuesday, June 15th, 2010 9:56 AMNo Comments
A friend’s band, Bludstone, celebrated their 20th anniversary last Friday with a show at Dirty Jacks, a west side bar. It was a reunion show of sorts in that many different musicians who had played in the band over the years all came together to contribute to the show. As a homage, Joe, Chris and I had worked up new arrangements of a couple of their songs and practiced (inconsistently) for a couple months. For me, it was the first time I’ve played out in around 8 years, and the first time since high school on a drum set. For Joe, it was his first public bass playing since high school. Chris on the other hand is a seasoned performer, but was getting married the very next day, which brought its own set of nerves.
The performance space at Dirty Jacks is actually pretty impressive for a grungy bar. The room can fit a lot of people (there were maybe 50 people comfortably spread out and more back by the bar) and there’s a decent raised stage with lighting. By the time a couple other bands played it was close to 12:30 by the time Bludstone was getting set up. We used their equipment for our short set, then they took over for the rest of the show. Because there were so many musicians involved, the setup and sound check was hectic. Joe and Chris barely had time to check their own levels, and I had just enough time to wiggle in behind the kit, before we were off and running. In the scramble we had to ditch the sampler which would have been a nice compliment. It wasn’t integral to the songs, but would have provided some great segues.
Ralph (founder of Bludstone) opened with a few words about the wild ride over the past 20 years. He introduced us and Joe added a few words about how Bludstone might have slowed down a little over the years. And that led into our loungey version of a typically-sinister Bludstone song, “Check the Children”. After thrashing to metal all night, we weren’t sure how it’d sit with the crowd, but applause and laughs reassured us we’d hit the mark. From there we launched into a nice driving rendition of their song “Necronomicon”, which proved we weren’t there just for the lols. Except for Chris maybe – he wore no shirt and an authentic Mexican wrestling mask. It was pretty epic.
It all rolled by in a flash of adrenaline. The drum kit we were sharing felt great. There were toms, cymbals (omg, all the cymbals!), and accessories everywhere. Any random swing of an arm was sure to land on something. And when you’re playing a strange kit in front of an audience with no warm up, that’s a good thing. We’re still waiting on getting photos or video of us, but here’s a couple Bludstone shots that you can Photoshop us into if you like :)
