9 posts tagged “concerts”

It's been a while since my last entry; I haven't really been in a writing mood, but I thought I'd post something as a sign of my continued existence. Some things that have been happening:

Australia
I went home for a couple of weeks. It was great as usual. Even though so much has changed since I moved away, it takes about 40 seconds for me to become completely immersed in life at home again. Except for the light switches being the other way around and driving on the left and things like that, which took a little longer. Funny how the superficial differences take longer to get used to than big things like being with family again.

I squeezed in the usual catchups with friends, and as usual most of them felt too short for either party to do any more than skim the surface of what's rolling arouund each other's heads these days. I guess that's part of life; drifting away from people to such an extent that although you trust each other to talk about things, you have so little time with each other, and so rarely, that to dive headfirst into such topics feels like plunging into cold water and so you don't do it.

My parents organised a family trip to South Australia for four days, which was amazing. The highlight was definitely Kangaroo Island, which is like a huge wild menagerie of all different sorts of animals. Growing up in Australia I stopped seeing the novelty of kangaroos or koalas a long time ago, but seeing them just casually doing their thing in the wild really brought back some excitement to the tired stereotypes in my head. It also helps that Kangaroo Island is stupendously beautiful, with wild jagged coastal cliffs, pristine beaches, iconic mallee scrub, green meadows, and random sand dunes in the middle of nowhere. The other places we visited on the trip were the Barossa Valley for some wine tasting, and a tiny bit of Adelaide (unfortunately, we didn't get to walk around and explore very much).

Work
Work has been busy, have been staying past 7 most nights (although the hours that Jon puts in make me feel lazy). Some interesting news from this week is that I will have someone reporting directly to me from next week onwards. It'll be a challenge juggling that with my own work, but I guess it's a good opportunity to figure out whether I like the whole management track or not.

Oot and aboot
There are several travel plans in the works: going to New York for a few days next week, visiting Sam in Victoria (that's Victoria, British Columbia) a week or two after that, and Thanksgiving in Whistler. By all accounts the snow is bucketing down in the mountains, so it's likely we will have some fully sick pow, bro.

Music
Have been to some decent shows recently: Fujiya and Miyagi last week (pretty good), Great Lake Swimmers (even better), Patrick Wolf (outstanding). I also brought back the 2 latest Cat Empire albums from Australia, Cities (more of an experimental album) and So Many Nights (a mainstream release). The former is outstanding and hard to stop listening to on repeat; the latter was pretty disappointing, unfortunately. New album means touring though, so hopefully they will make it to Sea'le.

The first sunny long weekend of the year in the US is Memorial Day (roughly equivalent to Anzac Day, I believe). For music lovers in Seattle, the Memorial Day weekend means Sasquatch - an annual outdoor music festival held at the Gorge, a natural amphitheatre about two hours' drive from Seattle that's a popular concert venue during spring and summer.

The two-hour drive to the gorge is pretty cool. Along the way you get to see the contrast in landscape between western and eastern Washington. Seattle is in a sort of huge protective valley between the Olympics to the west and the Cascades to the east, so for the initial stretch the scenery is lush and green and mountainous and the weather is overcast. Once you get past the Cascades though, things change quickly. Eastern Washington is flat and dry, clear and sunny, and you can see for miles and miles to all sides - what Americans would call "big sky country".

Next door to the concert venue itself is a huge campground which fills right up for big concerts and festivals like Sasquatch, when people flock to the Gorge from all over Washington, and even from neighbouring states and across the border. The atmosphere is pretty festive. We set up our tents between the two cars (Justin decided to mark our territory with garden gnomes and pinwheels), tapped the keg, and chilled out for a couple of hours.

We headed to the amphitheatre around noon, by which time it was already very hot. We were going through that water like... water. There were three stages, the bands we ended up seeing were:

• The Hold Steady

- good, but not particularly memorable

Ozomatli - a very energetic Latin/hip-hop band who seemed amazingly proud about the fact they were from LA. Good fun to watch

Neko Case - I'd been hanging out to see her for ages, she's one of my favourites

Visqueen - good, but not particularly memorable

Ghostland Observatory - their last Seattle show sold out and I couldn't go, so it was awesome to see them, their show was as crazy and antic-filled as I expected

Citizen Cope - meh

The Long Winters - Came in to substitute M.I.A. who, inexplicably, was refused a visa to enter the States. I can't believe I didn't get into this band before. They are great!

Manu Chao - I hadn't heard of him, but apparently he is an international superstar everywhere but the US. People were really pumped to be seeing him. His band was very energetic and got the crowd excited, but the songs all started to sound the same to me after a while. And they kind of outstayed their welcome. Maybe you had to be stoned to really enjoy it.

Arcade Fire - as ridiculously awesome as expected. Their anthemic songs definitely lend themselves to being played live. This was a great set (apart from the jingoistic Canadian bogans in front of us).

Bjork - by this stage I was utterly exhausted, so I stayed for the first song which was pretty much the only Bjork song I know (Earth Intruders). She seems pretty good live. Justin and Punit stayed till the end and said it was quite a show.

We headed back to the campsite buggered and very tanned around midnight. Maggi noodles have rarely tasted so good.

Woke up pretty early the next morning, not because I felt I'd had enough sleep, but because it was boiling hot inside the tent, and it was such a beautiful morning it would have been a waste to be inside. I went for a bit of a walk, had a bite, and made hot dogs for everyone when they woke up (cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast). Then we tried to make more of a dent in the keg.

The acts we saw on Sunday were:

• Stars of Track and Field - we liked their album, but they were pretty meh live. We ended up falling asleep in the sunshine and waking up about an hour later to find a completely different band on the stage.
• Patrick Wolf - after discovering him only recently thanks to Sam, I was REALLY hanging out to see him. He is quite the showman, very charismatic and played all sorts of instruments. It was a fun show, and because it was on a smaller stage and he doesn't seem to be big at all in the States (even on an indie scale), I got to be pretty close. This was probably the highlight of Sasquatch for me along with Arcade Fire.
• The Polyphonic Spree - this band was kind of crazy. They had about 20 people on stage, I could only describe it as a rock choir. It was cool.
• Tokyo Police Club - good, but not particularly memorable

So - I'd been warned by my friends that every year, the weather goes a little crazy in some way at Sasquatch. Last year it was hail. Apparently it really, really hurt. Well, this year it was wind. Fucking ridiculous wind. Imagine a strong wind. Then imagine a strong wind blowing k's and k's down a wind tunnel (ie. the gorge) right to where you are sitting. In a mini skirt. Bone-chilling stuff.

The wind was so strong that they had to stop the music on the mainstage for a few hours so they could take down all the suspended lights and speakers, which were swinging dangerously over the stage. We tried to tough it out in the gale for a few hours, even going hobo style and sheltering in cardboard boxes, but then it just got ridiculous - once we'd gotten over the novelty of the cardboard boxes (which lasted for a while, I must say), we weren't even enjoying ourselves. We ended up sleeping in the air conditioned Xbox lounge just to get some warmth, which was lame. Most of our crew decided to wait it out for Spoon, but Sean and I had already seen them at Bumbershoot last year, so we passed and headed back to the campsite.

We came back to a disaster zone. Unsecured belongings flying around, tents nearly flattened by the wind, bewildered-looking campers wandering around trying to get their dishevelled campsites back into order. It was not looking good. One of our tents (which I'd borrowed from Jordan) was practically flat to the ground, and we spent about 45 finger-numbing minutes trying to rescue it. We finally gave up and made an executive decision that we would pack everything up, and drive home as soon as the others got back. It was just not going to be a fun night to camp out. It was only when we took down Jordan's tent that we realised the strength of the wind had ripped through the groundsheet and splintered one of the fibreglass poles! I'd never seen anything like it before.

So my inaugural Sasquatch weekend was cut short by one night, but it was still quite the adventure! I'll definitely be back next year.

I haven't been updating this blog much since I made the move downtown - I blame the fact that I now have a roommate, which makes it much easier to spill what's on my mind over a cup of tea, rather than trying to get it into a coherent written form here. On the upside, the fact that people have been calling me out for not posting anything proves that somebody apart from my mum actually reads this thing (not that I don't appreciate your readership, Amma :]).

So, updates.

A couple of weeks ago I organised a dinner party for my friends who helped me move. It was Prasad, Ricmoo, Radhika, Shivani and Astha - Sean was still in China so couldn't attend. It was my first time cooking for guests in my new place, and I decided to go for a Malaysian/Indonesian theme - I made laksa (from the amazing laksa paste my mum sent back with me last time I went home), nasi goreng, a crunchy Asian salad, and almond jelly. It was fun to make and I was very happy with how it all turned out. I don't find myself cooking as often these days - the commute gives me less time to do all the organisational stuff around cooking, it just gets easier to pull something out of the freezer or make some quick pasta or stir fry. I need to make more time for it though.

Prashant and Pooja got back from their wedding (in Delhi) and honeymoon (in New Zealand) last weekend, and incidentally the day they arrived was the day after Pooja's birthday. We decided, in true Quirkmeister style, to break into their home (okay... we had a key), decorate it, and jump out at the bewildered weary travellers as they walked through the front door. I haven't been seeing much of my east side friends since I moved downtown, so that was fun. We looked through all the wedding photos - they'd done a mixture of north and south Indian ceremonies (Pooja is Punjabi and Prashant is Tamilian), so it was interesting to see all the costume and mood changes through the albums. And I have to say, Pooja looked absolutely stunning.

Went to a couple of shows this week - Bright Eyes on Tuesday and the Decemberists on Friday. Bright Eyes was pretty good - I'd only heard his most recent album, Cassadaga, which I quite liked, and the songs he did from that one were great. I didn't like his older stuff that much - it seemed very emo and in parts sounded like the missing link between noise and sound (apologies to Danny Bhoy for ripping off that phrase). And the frontman was a little too  much of a primadonna for my liking. I guess that's what happens when people start calling you a "young Dylan" when you're sixteen. The show was definitely entertaining though. He had three percussionists, a full string section, and great backdrops.

The Decemberists gig was simply stupendous. I have no words to describe how good this concert was. Just try to imagine a totally packed Paramount Theatre with every single person in the room laughing, jumping, singing, and dancing, completely rapt in the experience of seeing and hearing an amazingly talented band who are at their peak and having just as much fun as the audience. Incredible. I am still buzzing. And I want to know when they are coming back to Seattle.

Apart from that, work has been really busy, and I have been getting into a really good exercise routine, running about 4 miles three times a week. I am training for a 8 mile run which is happening in two weeks, and that's been a motivating goal for me. I've also gotten back into piano - Punit now has one at his place (minding it for a colleague who is overseas for a few years, I believe), and we've been trying to put a few songs together, him on guitar and me on piano. It's good to be playing again - I am a little rusty but it's coming back slowly but surely.

This week will be busy again with preparations for a bachelorette party and mehndhi for Aparna, who is getting married in a fever hotter than a pepper sprout. Also some big deadlines at work this week, I just hope I manage to fit everything in!

... was the theme for the night, when Al and I went to see Rocky Votolato play at Neumo's on Friday. Al has already written up a full report, so I will not repeat all the details of the evening, except to reiterate that it was a great show, and I was impressed that Rocky managed to get through a full set plus an encore despite having pretty much lost his voice over the course of the tour. He growled his way hoarsely through most of the numbers, which was something to get used to considering his voice sounds fairly soft and soothing on the albums. But it gave the songs a different dimension, and I enjoyed the show. I really need to get hold of Suicide Medicine somehow. It isn't on Zune Marketplace.

Yesterday a group of us (Aparna, Astha, Andre, Ricmoo and I) decided to inaugurate hiking season with our first outing of the year at Rattlesnake Ledge, about 45 minutes east of Seattle. It was a nice little warm-up hike, with some great views at the top, and all the fresh air apparently sent Moo into a state of exuberant craziness that I never thought possible even from him, climbing into hollow logs, striking statuesque poses atop rocks, and chasing chipmunks around perilously close to cliffs. It was a thoroughly entertaining morning. (A sampling of pics below, full collection here.)

Yesterday can be decreed an awesome day purely on the basis of variety. I spent the morning and early arvo getting a start packing up my stuff for my impending move, and caught up with my parents on the phone. Later in the afternoon I headed to Pooja's bridal shower (she and Prashant are getting married in Delhi next month). It was a nice event - everyone was dressed in Indian clothes, there was chaat and fruit punch and games, and we all got mehndhi done.

This was a week of music. Al, Astha, Sam, Alice and I were at KeyArena on Tuesday to see Snow Patrol. As if that weren't an exciting enough prospect on its own, the opening acts were Silversun Pickups and Ok Go. I bought my tickets almost 2 months in advance, that's how pumped I was for this concert.

SSPU were on first, and although they acquitted themselves pretty well and played all the songs I was hoping to hear, I just didn't feel like they were ready to play in such a big venue yet. Even though their music is, going on pure decibels, more than loud enough to fill up KeyArena, it just didn't feel like they did. The frontman was chatty and energetic, but he didn't interact with the other band members at all, and that really detracted from the show. I'm sure as they get more experience playing to a big crowd it'll improve, but it seemed to me they were a little overawed. That aside, they played well. I was totally rocking out to Well Thought Out Twinkles and Lazy Eye. I'll definitely go see them next time they're here if they play at a more intimate venue.

It's quite possible that I judged SSPU more harshly on the basis of the band immediately followed. Ok Go were an absolute whirlwind of colour, light and energy on stage. They were simply awesome. Everything was quirky and fun, from the lead singer's banter to the wacky videos playing in the background to the crazy guitar-toting dancing of everyone on stage. Talk about a fun 45 minutes. I didn't want them to go off stage.

Snow Patrol took long enough to come onstage that Astha got pissed off and threatened to leave several times. She was just about to start looking for the exit when the lights went down, and from then on she forgot all her annoyance, because they were truly awesome. Gary, the frontman, charmed the entire crowd and kept the energy high throughout. They did all the right things - let the crowd sing, pulled a girl on stage to do a duet, crazy antics, it was a great night.

Last night I went to a much smaller show, the Mountain Goats at Neumo's with Sean and Justin. They were pretty awesome too. I couldn't tell whether the lead singer was high on something or just plain crazy, but he did keep the crowd entertained. I couldn't understand half of his intros, and I'm still not sure whether that was because I'm clueless, or he was just talking nonsense. Most people there were hardcore Mountain Goats fans, so everyone was singing along and dancing and having fun - it was a great atmosphere.

I should mention that I ironically spent my one year Seattle anniversary in Vancouver - went up with Al, Shivani and Tom for a short weekend visit. It was great as usual - I got to satisfy my Roots obsession (Canucks know how to make warm clothes), and stuff myself silly as per the Vancouver road trip tradition. I had idli-sambar for the first time in over a year (heaven!), ate mahi poke that made me weak at the knees, and of course hit up the simply divine True Confections for their ridiculously good chocolate hazelnut mousse. We also met up with Al's friend Wuhai (sp?), who was pretty cool and made me glad I don't work for Electronic Arts. Sometimes I wish I lived in Vancouver, or that the food in Seattle compared, but it's probably better that neither of those ever happen, because I'll weigh 100 kilos after about 6 months.

So, life is good these days. Work is hectic but in a good way, because I'm enjoying it, and the busyness also makes the work week go really quickly and the weekends come sooner. I can't believe it's already Friday. Plans for the weekend: first cricket training of the spring season, finally hitting up the famous Salty's for Sunday brunch, and some night skiing at Stevens. Talk about the good life.

Catchiest song ever. (Listen at your own risk.)

 

Speaking of music, Modest Mouse's first single from their new album just got released online: http://www.monqui.com/files/music/m3u/modestmouseDashboard.m3u. I have to say I'm not so enthused. It just sounds so... generic. If it weren't for Isaac Brock's vocals, it could be any band, which is a pity because I like MM's unique sound.

And these are some upcoming Seattle concerts I am looking forward to:

• 27th Jan - Rocky Votolato
• 29th Jan - Cat Empire
• 2nd Feb - Trucks instore
• 15th Feb - Gomez / Ben Kweller
• 27th Feb - Snow Patrol / OK Go / Silversun Pickups (WOW. What a lineup.)