Careful what you text...

If you haven't been there yet, go to Texts From Last Night and start reading. Some of them are 'OMGIMCRYING' funny. Careful though...once you start reading you might look up and see that much time has gone bye.

Some great ones I have run across thus far:


(303): You know the guy who poops at a party and then leaves and you go in, do your business, and come out and there are girls outside that think you pooped and no one talks to you? I'm the guy who poops before you go in, because I'm in a relationship and I hate you.


(217): we got back to my place and he started talking about feelings. i politely told him to leave and that he managed to cock block himself.


(253): is there any particular reason you took a shit in a zip lock bag and left it in my refrigerator?


(209): update: the house isnt on fire anymore, but he is still pissing on all your stuff.
(1-209): the house was on fire??
(209): shit I thought I told you.


Just some great stuff there. Drunk texts.. its like when you drunk dial .. only you leave evidence behind. :P

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Crazy Weekend

It's been quite a whirlwind of a weekend, but given the choice I would definitely do it all over again. Friday at work I was just browsing around checking out some different music websites and as I was watching The Black Crowes on the projector at the time, I looked them up to see if they were going to play anywhere close in the near future. What I found was that they were indeed playing close and on that very night.

My brother and I drove down to the Waukesha fair and paid 9 bucks for admission and got to see the Crowes play live for close to 2 hours. I realized how long its been since I have seriously listened to them as I didn't recognize about 2/3s of the songs they played. They did do a couple of my favorites though including Hard To Handle, Thorn in My Pride and Wiser Time. Even the songs I didn't know were great. They still have that blues-rock sound and Chris Robinson has a great voice for it.

So that was Friday and on the way home my brother and I made plans to hang out the next day and we lamented the fact that we were not going to see Dave Matthews Band who were playing at Alpine Valley on Saturday and Sunday night. They are a favorite of both my brother and I. We had been looking for tickets, but came late to the game on that one and both shows were sold out. All the tickets we found for sale were 2-3x or more than face value.

Saturday I get a call from my brother saying he found a guy that had 2 extra lawn tickets for Sunday night that he was willing to sell to someone that could go for 50 bucks a piece.. did I want to go? HELL YES! So he made the arrangements. We hung out for the day and then I spent the evening with my SO.

After some minor issues with my car, my brother picked me up at the mechanic so we could head down and meet the guy with the tickets outside of Milwaukee. Everything was on the up and up and we had 2 lawn tickets. Gates didn't open to 530pm and it was only about 145 so we decided since neither of us had been there we would do a drive by on the venue so we knew where we needed to go and then we were going to get some food and chill for a bit.

That was the plan anyway. When we got down by Alpine Valley however, all the roads were being controlled and funneled by officers and before we knew it we were in the parking lot. We were hoping we could drive out the other side.. but nope. It was one way in.. no way out. Suddenly we were parked amid a ton of people unpacking their tailgating gear. On a whim I had thrown a couple of those camping chairs in the back of my bro's car 'just in case'. Well I am glad we did as at least we had a place to sit. We had about half a bottle of soda each left from the drive down.. and yeah.. that was it. Really were not prepared at all for tailgating.

We hung out and took stock of Alpine Valley while we waited for the gates to open. When they did we grabbed some overpriced food as we were starving and found some seats on the grass. At 7pm Umphrey's McGee opened the show and they were a great band to listen too. At about 830 Dave and crew took the state and flat out destroyed the place. Tim Reynolds has been touring with them this summer as well as Jeff Coffin from Bela Flek on the sax and Rashawn Ross on trumpet.

The setlist was:

Dave Matthews Band 7-19-2009, Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, WI
Preshow: Umphrey's McGee opened.
Set 1: Proudest Monkey, Satellite, Squirm, Pig, Shake Me Like A Monkey, You Never Know, Crash Into Me, The Dreaming Tree, You and Me, Funny The Way It Is, Gravedigger, Alligator Pie, Out of My Hands, #41, Rhyme and Reason, Dive In, Jimi Thing, Time Bomb, Two Step
Encore: Thank You, Halloween

They played all the songs I was really hoping to hear off the new album as well as some of my older favorites. Gravedigger was awesome as was Crash. I will tell you though, what really set the show off was #41. Jeff Coffin on sax and Carter on the drums....just flat out unbelievable. The song must have been close to 25 minutes long with some of the most incredible jams I have ever heard. Two-step was in that same ballpark as was Jimi Thing.

The arena was like a big sing-along dance party with 40,000 people. It was an amazing experience and we are already making plans for next years shows at Alpine Valley. We got out of the show around midnight and were home around 2am. All worth it for an amazing evening.

There are some pics from the show up on my facebook page, so look for them there if you would like to see them.

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Shockingly Bland

Last night my SO and I went to see a band called Cowboy Mouth at the Majestic in Madison. I was quite happy that the sound was much better this time and the show was a blast. The opening act Sunspot, which is a local Madison band, was great as well. You can check out their song Prozac Girl here:



As we were waiting for Cowboy Mouth to come on and they were doing the stage changes, we were looking around the audience from our balcony perch. Down front, right by the state was a pair that I just couldn't figure out. The older woman looked like Ma Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies and the younger 'person' (she was very 'Pat' in that we couldn't tell if she was male or female) was so emo that I wanted to cut myself on her/his behalf. It was positively oozing teen drama. I have to assume it was over 21 though since it was drinking Bud Select.. from a can. Bleh.

Anyway.. in the crowd also was a punk rocker type.. chick with shaved sides of her head and the rest of the hair in a blonde and flourescent pink mohawk on the top of her head. She looked ready to do some serious rockin. Cowboy Mouth takes the stage and they are just rockin the place. Heavy drums and killer baseline.. they are overloaded with energy and totally getting the crowd into the show.

Well, all except those two. The rest of the crowd was jammin along.. but the two that went way out of their way to stand out from the crowd and show how in touch with their emo / punk sides they are and make a point of being right up by the stage looked like rigamortis had set in. Maybe they were having a statue contest that I wasn't aware of. The one to show least emotion gets a free Bud Lime! Maybe thats what it was.

Ma Clampett was singing along to a few songs, but the two angsty ones didn't move a muscle through 90 minutes of loud, fun, rockin songs. Not even a foot tap lest they be thrown out of the 'disgruntled post-teen whiny bitches society'.

But it was a great show with tons of energy .. here is a clip of what these guys are like live.



Although the bass player they had last night was far crazier than the one in the video. She was a little asian chick on crack.

So if you have made it this far into the post.. congrats. You have just finished reading my 200th post. Who woulda thought? I feel like I should make a speech here about all the laughter and the tears we have shared over the years....but if thats what you think is going to happen here, then you really haven't been paying attention all along. Instead, to celebrate, I think we should all grab our shovels and go take over the front row at a RF concert and see how many shovels to the face they can take before they stop playing!

/cheers all

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PBR and Bud Lime and Coeds Oh My!

So last night my SO and I went to see a show at the Majestic down in Madison. Small theater.. maybe 300 people or so. Standing room only, but they had a full bar close bye so at least if you had to stand for 4 hours you could get beer easily. Now this theater is right at the end of State St. in downtown Madison, which is basically the UW campus.

The guy we went to see is not newer on the scene and I expected it to be a younger crowd, but with the exception of the couple that was probably my parents age that were not to far from us, it was pretty much wall to wall college kids. I felt rather old .. and I suppose I am over a decade older than a 21yr old college kid.

This bar had about 12 beers on tap plus a large selection of stuff in cans and bottles. You would think that with all those selections maybe people would get some decent stuff to drink. They had Guinness, Capitol Amber (local brew which is quite good) among many others. Yet the majority of them were walking arounds with 16oz cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon and some Bud Light with Lime concoction. No.. I don't mean they had a wedge of lime with their Bud, it's actually some kind of flavored beer.

What they really need to do with Bud Light if they are going to flavor it is.. well.. give it some actual beer flavor. That would be a start in the right direction. :P

The opening act was very good. Erin McCarley was her name. Very talented. Was just her and a guy on the keyboards. If you know who Regina Spektor is, she reminds me of her.. just add an acoustic guitar. Check out this video to get a feel for her sound.. definitely worth a listen. VID HERE

It was pretty much the first time I have seen Mat Kearney. He and his band are very good and the concert was fun. The sound system there at the Majestic was unfortunately not very well tuned to their sound and while I know some will mock me for being too old, its really more of an audiophile thing. I like to be able to understand the lyrics, I want to hear the notes of the guitar solo. The rythym of the song was moving at that volume, but unfortunately high notes or busy sections of the songs were just reduced to feeback filled noise. It was not that it was loud that was the problem, it reminded me of someone who takes a cheap home stereo, cranks the treble to full and then turns it up far louder than the rig can handle. It lost so much sound quality on the vocals and the melodies that I at one point wished he would just stop singing so I could at least enjoy the music.

Fortunately, towards the end of the show they seems to have dialed him in a bit more and he did more songs with the acoustic guitar / piano and it was much better. I really enjoyed the last few songs he did and he got the crowd involved. It was a lot of fun.

The best part though was the drummer. If you have ever seen the movie 'Knocked Up' or "Strange Wilderness" you will know who I am talking about when I say the dark haired skinny stoner guy. As soon as he came on stage, I thought to myself that he looked just like that guy and later on in the show I leaned in and yelled that fact into J's ear and she said she had the exact same thought when she first saw him. Anyway, it was fun to watch this guy play the drums:



Speaking of drumming though.. I stumbled across a couple of clips from Carter Beuford who is the drummer for Dave Matthews Band. He put out a DVD called 'Under the Table and Drumming' and it is pretty amazing to watch him play. Check out the rythyms he is knocking out in 'Tripping Billies' .... just incredible.

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Oh the drama...

Every now and then my otherwise well behaved boys remind me that they are indeed still children despite the fact that they are fun to hang out with now at their age. Case in point yesterday.. G decided that what I had asked him to do was well above and beyond what any mortal 11 year old should be asked to do.

I know what you are thinking.. I must have asked him to reroof the house. Or maybe I asked him to cure cancer. Surely it must have been some kind of request that was just too damn much for an 11 year old to handle. Had you seen the argumentative fit that quickly turned into tears and then a look like I had beaten him with an old belt for an hour or two...you would have assumed that my request was THAT monumentous.

My request however was simply that he clean the kitchen. Something he does on a regular basis. However, it wasn't HIS turn according to him. And it wasn't. There is a system and a pattern and it technically wasn't his turn. However, I asked him to do it anyway and while I didn't expect him to be happy about it, the emotional drama that ensued was absurd.

So, my younger son and I sat down and had a little chat. I reminded him that while he sits home all day during the summer enjoying computers and xbox's and wii's and mp3 players and tv and bikes and going out with friends, he is actually asked to do very little in return. They are occasionaly responsible for cleaning the kitchen and they have to clean their room. Every now and then they have to mow the lawn. Thats pretty much it. Cleaning their room is not even enforced that often and most of the time it looks like a tornado passed through right after someone dropped a couple of hand grenades in there.

So, after reminding him how many things he COULD be doing during the day to help out around the house, he smartly decided that it would not be too much to ask of him to clean the kitchen even though it was not his turn. See.. its all about perspective. He even came up and apologized for being a drama queen over the whole thing. Maybe there is hope for him yet!

I get to go see a show tonight for the first time in a long time. I love live music. If its live acoustic music, even better. If its also in a small venue, then its perfect. Really looking forward to it. I have never seen Mat Kearney, but my SO really likes him and he seems to be in the Jack Johnson / Josh Kelley vein so I am sure I will enjoy his music.

My family is flying in on Thursday and I can't wait to see them all. Bring your winter clothes Mom. It was 54 on my way into work this morning. :P

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This is why I love WI

I know I have been quiet lately.. but things have just been plugging along that I haven't just had a 'wow I should blog about that' kind of moment lately. Last week I was finishing up a lot of the details that go with moving and getting settled into the new place so I didn't even have my PC hooked up for a while.

It was miserable last week.. in the 90s and humid. There were about 4 days in there that it was just downright unpleasant to be outside. It was like Arizona where you just stay inside in the air conditioning. However, the reason I love WI so much is that after a couple of days in the sweltering heat, it cools back down. Yesterday and again today we are talking a high in the low 70s. Cool, overcast and a nice breeze. It just doesn't get any better than that. It was 55 as I left the house for work this morning. I love it.

The boys are enjoying summer break so far and I haven't heard too many 'I'm bored's yet. They have a wood carving class they enjoy on mondays and most days they go bowling with friends. The local bowling alley gives out passes for those students who get all A's and B's that allow them one free game of bowling every single day during the summer so they like to walk down and meet up with their friends in the afternoon for a game. Other than that.. they are your typical teen/pre-teen. They have to be reminded they have to shower even on summer days and they like to lounge around watching TV and playing computer / xbox / wii etc.

We are slated to go see Transformers 2 tonight, providing B is feeling up to it. We were going to go for Father's day weekend, but alas it didn't come out til the following Wed. Imax here we come. Hopefully. :)

I stumbled across another band that has just blown me away. Their sound is very hard to nail down.. soul, blues, some funk and other influences as well. Give it a listen. Amazing feeling in their songs. The band is called Mofro.. sometimes JJ Grey & Mofro. Here is a song called "The Sun is Shining Down"



And since those of you that know me well know that I absolutely love acoustic music and versions of songs.. I found a solo acoustic version of JJ Grey doing this song. Its simple and stripped down and still incredible. He has a very soulfull voice..

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