2006-05-31 - 0:16

Destroy destroy destroy

Does it seem like I should take a cue from The Fort and officially move to monthly updates? Despite my lack of writing on here, lots has been on the go.

Three days after the Lovely Feathers concert that I mentioned, I saw Alice Cooper at the Civic Centre. I was pretty happy to have Row B tickets but when I found out that there was no Row A in our section, I was very psyched. Front row for Cooper--can't complain.

Even at 58, Alice still puts on a fantastic show. He concentrated on the hits, of course, although he trotted out "I Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills" for the encore. Sometimes I think that From the Inside may be my favourite Cooper album, so that was a treat. We also walked away with fake money from "Billion Dollar Babies" (Laurie's grab) and a guitar pick from Damon Johnson (my find).

On the full review side, my Lovely Feathers recap is here, while my response to Alice Cooper is here.

Laurie's mother and sister came up the following weekend. Despite the grey skies, we checked out the Tulip Festival, where I snapped a few good pictures. Believe it or not, I'm actually trying to go through my pictures to do a long overdue update for my other site, so maybe I'll have those available soon. That visit also coincided with Mother's Day, so it worked out well in that regard, too.

The Victoria Day long weekend was excellent. Saturday was Robin and Charles' wedding, which was a lot of fun. Since it was out of town, we had to scam a ride, but Bart and Ainsley helped us out there. We ended up hanging out with them for most of the wedding, which was good for some laughs.

The best part of the wedding (even better than the God-free vows) was the music: Calexico, Belle and Sebastian, Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, Velvet Underground, and the like. I even danced (!)

The holiday Monday saw the Tulip Festival wrap up with a performance from The Dears. Laurie, Aaron, Colin, and I all made it out for that one. The band was up to its usual high standards. (This was my ninth time seeing them and the only time that I've been less than blown away was an opening slot for Matthew Good.) They played a lot of new material, which has me counting down the days until their new album, Gang of Losers, hits stores.

Although the night was surprisingly chilly, the only real downside to the affair was the group of people beside me who wouldn't shut up, most significantly two girls. Girls have a much easier time getting away with shit like that because they don't feel the threat of violence. Guys at least have the notion that they could get hurt when they act up, which acts as a check to antisocial behaviour. If those chicks didn't feel secure in the knowledge that I wasn't going to elbow them in the windpipe, maybe they wouldn't have felt so confident about being assholes. Ah well.

It was also a drag that I couldn't scam a setlist. There were only three of us asking for one but the guy on stage made a point of picking up all four and then not giving them out. If Valerie Jodoin-Keaton had come out on stage seconds earlier, I'm sure that we would have gotten them. She was nice enough to name a couple of the new songs in the set and autograph the live CD that I picked up, though.

Also on the notion of surprising web updates, I recapped that concert the same night. I did take ten days to mention it on here, though, so I think that counterbalances my promptness.

If all goes well, I'll be checking out The (International) Noise Conspiracy tomorrow, though, which will give me another chance to try for a quick turnaround.

J.