Keep on Pushin'

I think I might've mentioned this before. But I'm not sure I really drove the point home. Ted Leo is crazy good.

I saw him tonight. I'd been looking forward to it for a long time. It lived up to the hype.

I missed his first song or two. I'm still not exactly sure why. I mean, I know why, but at the same time, I don't.

I went to buy a beer as the show was being set up. Doors were at 9:00, music was supposed to be at 9:30. I got there around 9:25 and nothing was happening. I got a beer then. The venue was an all ages, "alcohol-free" place. Which apparently meant that you had to go to the bar downstairs to get beer, and if you were willing to go to the effort of brining it upstairs to the show, that was allowed. 45 minutes later, nothing had happened and I needed another beer. I went downstairs and waited in a huge line to get it. When I got back upstairs, they were playing. There was supposed to be an opening band. I still don't know if they didn't play, they went on early, or they only played for like 5 minutes. But in any case, I missed a song or two.

They played for a solid hour and 15 minutes, plus about a 20 minute encore. About the same length as last time. I maintain that Ted is one of the best performers around these days. Not only do his live shows sound good, not only does he know how to put on a show, but he knows how to put together a set list. I don't know that it would've been possible to play everything I wanted to hear, but they put together a solid show from start to finish.

As usual, the encore started with a cover. This was one I wasn't aware of. He did "Keep On Pushin'" by Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions. There's a recording of it here. As usual, it was really good.

There's not a whole lot else I can say. It's rare for me to go to a show and then go home and want to listen to the band even more. I'm doing that tonight. That should say something.

Life as a mix tape, etc.

So, for one, I finished my mix tape. I'm generally happy with how it turned out. It's not perfect, but I don't know if anything ever is these days. For those who are interested, here's what I ended up with:

The Strokes - "Someday"
Jimmy Eat World - "A Praise Chorus"
Rainer Maia - "Southpaw"
Halloween, Alaska - "I Can't Live Without My Radio"
The Anniversary - "The D in Detroit"
The Bouncing Souls - "Say Anything..."
The Get Up Kids - "Ten Minutes"
P.O.S. - "Suicide Uma Schranz"
Okkervil River - "For Real"
Saves the Day - "This is Not an Exit"
The Decemberists - "Everything I Try to Do, Nothing Seems to Turn Out Right"
Ted Leo, Pharmacists - "Timorous Me"
Straylight Run - "It's For the Best"
Rancid - "Corazon de Oro"
Joe Strummer - "Silver And Gold"
Matt Pond PA - "Halloween"
Paul Westerberg - "Knockin' Em Back"
Sims - "No Homeowners"
Motion City Soundtrack - "Attractive Today"
The Plastic Constellations - "Bring What You Bring"
The Weakerthans - "Sounds Familiar"
The Hold Steady - "Killer Parties (remix)"

It's damn good. There are a couple sequence things I question, but I think it turned out as well as it could've.

I played frisbee Friday and it made me aware of just how out of shape I am.

I am really out of shape.

I'm hoping this whole summer thing will help me get it back on track, but that remains to be seen. I'm about ready to be done with classes. I had 6 this week (as I do most weeks). I made it to three of them. It was a huge step up from last week's zero.

I don't know that I can afford to skip class all the time. I do know that I prefer sleep to class. That's pretty much been the driving force so far. Any appeal this semester had over the last one seems to have worn off. I haven't noticed any big consequences to the skipping though, so I suppose it's ok.

My first class tomorrow is canceled, so I feel more justified than usual in being up as late as I am. It's raining, which I think I like. I'd appreciate a little more lightning though. We had some earlier. One bolt of lightning. It was a good one though. It was followed by thunder that quite literally shook the building. I don't know how close it hit, but it was definitely the most powerful thunder related experience I've ever had.

I don't need any more like that. Just a few pretty flashes of lightning to make the night a little more interesting.

Seriously.

Seriously, folks. Get drunk and listen to The Go! Team. I highly recommend it.

I saw Of Montreal on Conan tonight. It was a more intricate performance than I ever could've imagined. Not outstanding or anything, but enjoyable. I'm sure it'll show up on the interwebs in the near future if you want to check it out.

Geraldo Rivera, voice of reason

Matt mentioned this video the other day, and I finally got around to looking it up just now. Geraldo on The O'Reilly Factor. It's an enjoyable, if mildly absurd clip. I honestly never thought I'd see a time when I thought of Geraldo as a reasonable fellow, but O'Reilly has amazing powers to make everyone around him look decidedly sane. It's worth checking out if you haven't seen it yet.

It's like Groundhog Day, only not funny

I think I have the "Groundhog Day" of sicknesses. Every morning I wake up feeling completely sick, and then during the course of the day things get better and better. Even when I don't take any medicine, I get to the end of the day and feel pretty good. And then I wake up the next day and feel exactly like I did the previous morning. And the cycle repeats.

I don't think it's getting any worse, but from one day to the next it doesn't really seem to be getting any better either.

On another note, I haven't shaved in like a week and a half, so I feel like now is pretty much my prime opportunity to do something facial hair-wise. I have no idea what that would be, but I'm open to suggestions.

Take me out to the Twins game...

So, for one, I'm not in Vegas. Plans changed, people couldn't go, and it ended up just not working real well for me. And I'm fine with that.

So, that means I'm at home. And it's probably for the best. I think I was on the verge of being sick at the end of last week. Which means now I am sick. It's not like debilitiating sickness, it's more just the kind of thing that makes you vaguely uncomfortable most of the time. I'm still doing everything I normally would (aside from perhaps rollerblading, but the rain/snow would've stopped that anyway), I'm just doing more. Like coughing up everything short of my lungs. So far it hasn't been too bad, but I just keep waiting for it to suddenly get worse.

It's worked out ok though, since all I really planned on doing was spending the week relaxing anyway. As of yet I really haven't done much.

I went to the Twins game last night. That's one of the things I know I'm going to miss while I'm in Madison all summer. It was a good game though. A good way to start the season. I saw that the Twins are playing in Milwaukee over a weekend at the end of May, so I think I'll probably make the short trip out there to see at least one of the games, if not more.

On another Twins related note, The Hold Steady have released a Twins-centric version of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". It got played during the game last night. It's kinda cool. I imagine some of you don't appreciate that as much as I do, but that's ok. I enjoyed it.

I'll probably just be sitting around all week. I'm hoping to be a little healthier by the weekend so that we might be able to partake in some shenanigans, but we'll see how that goes.