2006-10-12 - 0:34

Contact high

I've been harassed into updating again, so here you go. Things have been going great here, capped by a couple of major concerts.

The first of those was Yo La Tengo playing Babylon with Why? opening, which I caught with Laurie and Sarah. Why? played a strong opening set, with Yoni proving to be quite captivating and his brother Josiah hammering the hell out of his drums. Yo La Tengo was as epic as ever. I think that I actually liked this concert better than the three that I saw them play in 2003, perhaps because the new album has more kick. You can read my full recap of the show here.

If you looked, you'll notice that I not only got a setlist, I had it signed by all of the band. They were nice enough to hang around and chat with the fans after the show, where I snagged the autographs (and Ira's notation "and so much more" to signify the encores). I also got to chat with Yoni, who signed a CD for me and had a big smile when I told him that I was present for the last show that he did here, in 2002.

In addition to talking to the bands after the show, we also spoke with Babylon's DJ about the possibility of having him work our wedding. (Laurie and Sarah knew him from his days working at Zaphod's and came up with the idea.) He said that he does weddings but he hasn't written back to my email yet, so we'll see how that goes.

The Thanksgiving long weekend was beautiful, coming after what seemed like a solid month of grey skies and rain. I got over to Gatineau Park with Laurie and Aaron for a hike and some pictures. The park looked as nice as I have ever seen; I'll have to dig through the photos and get some online. Also on the weekend, I saw Trailer Park Boys: The Movie, which I'd recommend to any fans of the show, and went over to Aaron and Loralei's to take advantage of plentiful leftovers and play some games.

The second big concert was The New Pornographers, playing Capital Music Hall on the holiday Monday with Immaculate Machine and Novillero. Nick and I caught that one, securing a spot at the front of the stage, which saw me net two more setlists (although the Machine's was written on a napkin). I'm on quite a streak in that regard.

The show itself was great, as I detailed here. A.C. Newman was less chatty than he was at Bluesfest but the band really kicked out the jams at a wicked pace. At one point, somebody called out, "Where's Neko?" which I thought was pretty disrespectful to Kathryn Calder, who did a great job again on vocals.

Oh, the band took my request in the encore. Even though Laurie was home sick, I went with her favourite song, "The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism," which they played. I'm actually not sure if I've ever had a request taken before in all the shows that I've attended, so that was a bonus.

In unhappy musical news, singer Nirmala Basnayake left Controller.Controller, who I mentioned seeing play for the sixth time in my last entry. She was probably the most approachable and engaging personality that I've come across in a band, always chatting with the fans and taking an active online role, making you root for her band's success. I'm glad that I saw the group as often as I did.

J.