Tag: Music

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Entertainment Music

Storm Large with the Oregon Symphony

Tonight Kelly and I (along with our friends M & B) went to see Storm Large play with the Oregon Symphony, and it was a blast. Kelly & I have seen her perform before at Dante’s (years and years ago), and I did see a few clips of her when she was on the reality show Rockstar Supernova (check this), so I was familiar with the tall, blonde, kick-ass, rude, beautiful, and powerful rock singer doing rock songs, but I wasn’t prepared for what she was capable of with a full orchestra backing her. She started out doing a few standards, including an awesomely spooky rendition of I’ve Got You Under My Skin, then moved on to some of her own material (including a ‘classic’ Storm song, I Want You To Die).

She managed to keep her rudeness mostly in check throughout the show (cursing only three times, hehe), and her short monologues between songs were hilarious. The crowd (a mixture of old and young) all seemed to thoroughly enjoy the performance, and even songs (like I Want You To Die) where I expected to see the silver haired in the crowd to wear confused or disgusted expressions all seemed to eat the whole thing up. It was a lot of fun, and if she comes back to so something like this again, I highly recommend you buy tickets (and early, this one sold out).

After the show I got to take advantage of one of the little perks of having a wife who works for the Oregon Symphony, and was taken with a group of contest winners back stage to meet Storm. She came into the room wearing her black velvet dress, holding a martini and instantly came to meet the 8 of us in the room. She was very friendly and chatted with the guests for a few minutes before the contest winners got to have their photo taken with her. After that, Kelly and I got our photo taken with her. She’s very tall and she decided to lean on Kelly and give me a goofy look. Makes sense, I’m kinda goofy lookin. 🙂

Anyway, it was a really fun evening.

Categories
Music

Metric at the Wonder Ballroom

Kelly and I saw Metric perform at the Wonder Ballroom, along with our friends Ty & Aymie and Miranda, meeting up beforehand for dinner in the Wonder Cafe (the restaurant in the basement of the venue). This was something of a repeat of events from the last time we saw Metric perform, back in 2006.

The show was really good, and the band (specifically the lead singer Emily Haines) were full of energy and kept the crowd buzzing. Obviously they played nearly all the tracks from the latest album Fantasies, and the single Help, I’m Alive generated a massive response from the crowd. Other tracks from the new album that were fantastic live: Satellite Mind, Gold Guns Girls, and Stadium Love.

One downside to the night was that both Kelly and I were feeling pretty tired even before the show started (the massive dinner we had probably didn’t help). By the end, we welcomed the quiet drive home. We’re like, old and stuff.

A couple more photos here and here.

Categories
Beer General Music Work

May’s Mega Recap

Since I realize I’ve so blatantly disregarded the ‘ol blog pretty much all month, here’s a mega-recap of the month of May.

Most of the month has been spent working some very late nights. This is largely why I haven’t written in so long. Spent several nights designing and coding some prototypes until nearly 2 AM, trying to meet deadlines. It’s been a crazy busy work month.

I finally retired Guinness from my kegerator (which I’d been pouring since October). Got a half keg of Trumer Pils going at the moment. Decent beer for the hot weather that Portland has had for the past couple weeks.

Kelly had her birthday last weekend (happy birthday Kelly!!!) and we had a super small BBQ at our house to celebrate. Really low-key, but a lot of fun. I spent the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend working in the yard for 5 hours, the house for 2, and had the BBQ that afternoon. Woke up Sunday with what I thought was merely a mild hangover. Only it got worse throughout the day. Spent the rest of the weekend with a nasty cold/flu (which I dubbed PigManFlu). My Memorial Day was spent watching TV on the couch with a box of tissues. Hrmph!

Last night Kelly and I went to see this 80’s tribute band show at the Wonder Ballroom. Three bands; Black Celebration (Depeche Mode), The Love Vigilantes (New Order), and This Charming Band (The Smiths). It turned out better than I thought it would. All three bands were competent musicians, and did a fair job at emulating the character of the originals. The clear winner for me were The Love Vigilantes, who were, honestly, better than the real New Order live (who I’d seen only once but are historically not a good live band). Fun night.

Today was yardworkapolooza. I mowed, pruned, raked, trimmed, and generally cleaned up the place. Later, my parents and brother T (and his family) came over for another dinner to celebrate Kelly’s birthday (since they weren’t able to join us last weekend). While they were over (and with the aid of my dad’s truck and chainsaw) I finally pulled the stump of the tree T helped me trim down a few months back. The stump came out easily enough since the tree was so rotted, but it meant a lot more cutting, chopping, and stacking. The upside, however, is that I have loads of wood for the outdoor fireplace.

After the tree carnage (and finally ending a total of 8 hours of me working in the 80+ degree weather), we all ate the delicious dinner my mom had lovingly prepared for Kelly’s birthday. After everybody left the house I took a nice, long shower and planted myself in a chair on the front porch with beer to write this post. Hurrah!

And there you have it. I suspect I’m going to be a little sore tomorrow. 🙂