2004-04-30 - 2:01

All my friends, where did they go?

It has been a busy few days; but my cable modem went wonky on Sunday, so I haven't been on to update. (And, on a seperate note of Blinternet woe, my web server is also down for the time being.)

Saturday night, Colin and I caught the Joel Plaskett Emergency. That was a good, solid rock show. Plaskett is a lot of fun on stage and the crowd was energetic. On a bonus note, the opening act, Wil, featured the best acoustic guitar display that I've ever seen.

Of course, that outing was sure to be overshadowed by the back-to-back Einst�rzende Neubauten concerts: Tuesday in Montreal and Wednesday in Toronto. The sets were practically the same (I think that the middle sections may have been rearranged); and the playing and sound quality were stellar each night. Of the two performances, I'd say that the Montreal concert was slightly superior, mainly because the crowd was better.

The Toronto audience was a bit strange in that there were a high number of people yelling things at odd times. Yelling "let's go" while the band is in the middle of actually playing can't be considered good form. One particularly vocal girl at the front was told to "shut the fuck up" by Alexander Hacke, after she screamed out one too many command for Blixa. I also got a kick out of a guy behind me who offered a constant stream of feedback over the latter portion of the evening, feedback chiefly comprising the phrases, "aw, nice!" and "beautiful!" (I'm still waiting for somebody to outdo the guy you can hear screaming "more muscle!" at Rollins on Do It; but that may be too high of a mark to best.)

If Montreal was the better concert, Toronto was the better experience. In Montreal, Laurie and I arrived after much of the floor had filled, which hurt our vantage point, and we had to run for the bus immediately after the band ended. In Toronto, Richard and I got quite close to the stage and I got to stay with the other supporters at the end of the night to chat with the band.

I wasn't feeling especially outgoing; but I did get signatures from Hacke and N.U. Unruh and I got to say hi to Rudy. N.U. and Jochen were particularly engaging, although everyone was nice. Oh, and another supporter took a picture of me with N.U., so I'll be sure to post that when he sends it my way.

One of the best features of this tour is the instant bootlegs. Every show is recorded, so I now have double CDs for the two concerts, spanning from the opening notes through to the end of the first encore. Very cool.

My musical touring vacation continues tomorrow, as Laurie, Aaron, and I fly to L.A. before making our way to Indio for the Coachella festival. They finally posted the schedule, which is looking very promising. Some sacrifices have to be made; but I think that we have a handle on a plan of attack that lets us take in a ton of quality bands.

Speaking of this trip, I should probably get some sleep now, so I wake up in time for the flight.

Oh and hockey . . . well, at least I got to shave my playoff beard before facing the insane desert heat. Plus the pool is looking quite positive. (We won each of the first five days of round two and are sitting in first place right now.)

I'll be back next week with some festival stories.

J.