2006-03-28 - 0:23

Monthly update

Eesh, I haven't updated in forever. Most of the major happenings lately haven't been mine, anyway. After Greg and Kelly had their baby boy and Nick bought his house, I'm unable to compete in the Big News department.

Things have been decently busy, though. Liam and V�ronique came up last weekend for the Coldplay concert. While I didn't go to the show, I did scam a day off on the Friday to wander around with them. Although they stayed with us two nights, it was a whirlwind tour for them, so it was great to be able to have that day off to hang out.

The only downside was that they ended up being here for what may be the last chilly weekend of the year, as both the one before and the one after were sunny and beautiful. With double-digit temperatures forecast for the rest of this week, there won't be snow left on the ground for long, which is fine by me.

Since last I wrote, it was quiet for concerts, until this weekend's Magnolia Electric Co./Destroyer bill in Montreal. Laurie and I stayed overnight to catch that one and it was well worth the trip. Magnolia Electric Co. is such a good band and I quite enjoyed Destroyer, as well, although their pacing was off. I'm pretty sure that Dan Bejar walked offstage at one point and did nothing other than have a drink.

As usual, I got to the very front of the floor. In fact, I was close enough that Destroyer's guitarist told me that he was afraid that I was going to accidently unplug them and Magnolia's keyboardist joked about the same thing before his set. It's not my fault that they taped the power bar two inches from the edge of the stage. At any rate, I was under control. I guess that they just don't recognize a dependable face when they see one.

Amazingly, I'm on the ball to the point where I already have my review posted, which was aided by my acquisition of the only setlist. That makes me two-for-three on Magnolia shows, although I did have to resist the guilt trip of a girl who was hoping to get me to give it up.

It's too bad that they only had one on stage but I was hoping for it since before the first band started, thinking back to the last show that I saw at that venue, when I only missed a setlist because Jason Molina fiddled with his monitors so much that he boxed me out.

In the realm of less impressive turnaround times, I also posted my overdue Cuff the Duke review, which was a full month after the fact.

At least I'm caught up again . . . until Wednesday, when Blackalicious is in town. The show schedule should stay decently full, too, although there are several Montreal concerts that I'd like to see but probably won't.

I'm sure that other things have been on the go this month but that'll have to do for a recap for now.

J.