* Just a warning this is an extremely long post, and potentially boring *

Anyone who knows me, would be able to tell you two things about me. One, I am a huge Philadelphia Flyers fan and two, my favorite band is Pearl Jam. So when Pearl Jam announced they would play 4 concerts in Philadelphia to close out the Spectrum, the very arena the Flyers won back to back Stanley cups in, I had to make the trip. It also helped that several friends would also be going, the Flyers were playing 3 games during that time, and I have never been to Philadelphia before.

I arrived into Philadelphia in the early morning on a Sunday. Flying into the city as the sun rose up to kiss the vibrant coloured leaves of autumn was certainly a nice welcome. It was a quick train ride into downtown. My hotel was really close to the city hall where I got off the train, and was impressed that they had a room available for be at 10am. After having a shower and cleaning up after my red eye flight I took to the town to do a bit of touristy activities.

Philadelphia is a really great city to explore on foot, with it’s easy to navigate grid design. The city itself is busting with American history. Being the first capital of the US a lot of major historic events took place there. It was fun to wander the old cobblestone streets, and explore the old historic parts of town. During my walk I eventually made my way to Jim’s on South Street. Jim’s is one of the big name cheese steak places in town, which was evident by the lineup that looped around the block. The line moved pretty quickly, and before long I was chomping down on a hoagie filled with beef, cheese, onions and peppers. After lunch I headed back to the hotel for a nap to rest up for my first ever Flyers home game.

I took the subway down Broad Street (hence the nickname Broad Street Bullies the Flyers were given in the 70’s) all the way to the end where all the stadium’s are. Literally every professional sports team has their stadium at this one location. I got there pretty early so I could wander around the complex and checkout the Wachovia Center. I have been to a lot of hockey arenas and I have to say this is one of the nicest ones I have been in. The building has really wide hallways making it easy to get around even with big crowds. I also really loved how many windows they had on the outside of the building letting a lot of natural light into the main aria. After wandering around I was able to find the Stanley Cup banners, which were hung up in the hallway (odd that they were not in the rafters).

I had great seats to the game. I sprung for lower bowl seats, and it was great to see all the players up close. I have to say Chris Pronger is absolutely massive. He towers over guys, even the ones who are suppose to be the same size as him. Anyway I really enjoyed my first game in Philly. The Flyers ended up losing the game to the San Jose Sharks, however for most of the game they outplayed the Sharks but couldn’t capitalize on their chances. It didn’t help either that Boucher who got the start in net played absolutely horrible. Regardless it was still a fantastic experience.

The next morning I got up at 6am and made my way to the train station. I was off to Washington DC to spend a few days and catch my next Flyers game against the Capitals. It was nice to be on a train, a nice change from the flight the day before. I got into DC in under 2 hours and found my way to my hotel. Again I was impressed that the hotel was able to accommodate me with a room despite arriving so early. After checking in, I jumped straight to work. This trip I planned to work most days as I have been running low on vacation days. During the day I found out that that night the Monday Night Football game was in Washington, and it was against the Philadelphia Eagles. So I decided to check craigslist if there was any tickets available. Sure enough I was able to find a really good lower bowl ticket for only $70. The best part was the guy who was selling it was only a few blocks from my hotel. So after work I ran down and picked up the ticket, got myself a coffee and jumped on the DC subway out to the football stadium.

Fedex Field was a long way out of the city, and took over half an hour on the subway to get out to it. Not only that, once you reached the subway station you had to walk a good 15 minutes to the actual stadium. Once I got to the stadium I was blown away at the sheer size of the building. Fedex Field is said to have a max capacity of over 91,000 people. That is practically the entire population of Kelowna to put things into perspective.

While not a huge football fan, this game was definitely an experience. I felt like I had gone back in time to the Roman ages and was watching a gladiator match. The fans in the stand were ruthless, and all very much drunk. There was fights breaking out left and right, not only between Eagles and Redskins fans, but also fights between fellow Redskins fans. The game was a complete blowout for the Eagles from the opening kickoff. I cheered outwardly for the Redskins, but inwardly was rooting on the Eagles, hoping the Flyers could follow in their footsteps the next day. As the forth quarter was coming to a close I left the game early so that I didn’t have to wait at the subway, and could get back to the hotel a little quicker.

The next day I decided to work a half day in DC. So I took the morning off and did a bit of exploring. My hotel was just a few blocks from the White House, and most of the site of DC, so I decided to walk around and explore. I had been to Washington once before when I was really young, yet don’t remember much from the trip (besides a visit to Ikea, and the Smithsonian). So it was nice to experience everything over again. While the weather wasn’t the best for a day of tourism, it did mean that most of the monuments were deserted, which was nice. I also found it really amazing how beautiful the fall colours were despite the dreary weather.

After checking out the major monuments in the city I decided to goto one of the museums. I decided to goto the Holocaust Memorial Museum, which I had heard good things of. Despite being very somber, I have to say, it told the history of the holocaust extremely well. One thing I found was really well done about the exhibit is that it really showed the human aspect of holocaust through use of photos, videos, and informational panels. I highly recommend going to the museum if ever in DC.

I made it back to my hotel after lunch to put in my half day of work. I was really excited about going to the hockey game that night as the Capitals are one of the most explosive offenses in the NHL right now. I was also extremely excited to get to watch Ovechkin play, and to see how the Flyers would stalk up against him.

So after work I made my way down to the Verizon Center. The nice thing about the arena in Washington is that it is right downtown. So it was a quick 15 minute walk from my hotel room. As I approach the arena, I couldn’t believe how many caps jerseys I saw. This team had really become a big thing in Washington, largely due of course to the personality (and of course incredible talent) of Ovechkin.

This was now my third game in three nights, but I was still energetic. Actually probably more so for this game than any other. I really had a great time at this game. While the fans in Washington are not the most knowledgeable, they made up for it with their enthusiasm. After tying the game 2 – 2 with the Flyers the arena exploded into cheers, and I hate to admit it, but was a more exciting, and loud venue than what I had experienced in Philadelphia.

As it turns out the Flyers lost again in Washington. The game was a lot of fun though, as the Flyers again outplayed their opponent but were shut down by solid goaltending, and missed opportunities. I have to admit, it was fun to watch Ovechkin score 2 goals!

The next day I was once again up at 6am to catch a train back to Philadelphia. Once again I was impressed by another hotel for having a room ready for me so early in the day. After putting in a full day of work I was really excited, as I was going to meet up with my two favorite Californians, Joe and Kasie. They had arrived into town the day before and would be around for the rest of my stay. I hadn’t seen them in close to a year so it was nice to be able to get together with them. That night we went out for dinner with their friend Susan from Philadelphia who they were staying with. Wednesday was the first game World Series of Baseball game being played in New York against the Philadelphia Phillies, so everyone was dressed in red, and ready to watch the game. I really wanted to experiencing seeing a game in Philly, while Joe and Kasie were more interested in seeing Pearl Jam. So we parted ways, they went off to the show, and I stuck with their friend and who I accompanied to a sports bar to catch the game.

I have to say I am not really a baseball fan, in the very least. With that said, watching the game in a packed bar of 300 people, all rooting on the Phillies was sure fun. Everyone was cheering, and chanting, and clapping, and just overall having a great (albeit suspenseful) time. It helped that the Phillies won the game. The next day after work, I met up with Joe, Kasie and Susan again to catch game 2 of the world series, unfortunately, the Phillies weren’t so lucky and lost the game.

As Friday rolled around it marked the arrival of a lot more friends coming in for the remaining 2 Pearl Jam shows. I had taken the day off so that I could hang out with those who were arriving, and spent some more time with Joe and Kasie. I had a fun day exploring the market in Philadelphia with Vanessa and Tatiana, before meeting up with Jason and the rest of the gang. It became evident very quickly that our hotel room wasn’t going to fit all those who were suppose to stay in it, so I jumped ship to stay with Joe and Kasie. The rest of the day was spent hanging out with everyone and doing some more touristy things.

That night I got to see my first Pearl Jam show at the Spectrum with Vanessa. We had really awesome seats, and it was a lot of fun to rock out with her. The show that night was really excellent, and Pearl Jam played a large number of my favorite songs. It was really exciting too knowing that in that arena the Flyers had won their Stanley Cups. It was sad to think they are going to destroy the building in a few short months.

After the show we partied it up until the wee hours. Despite my urge the next morning to sleep in until the afternoon, I had to get up early once again, as the Flyers were playing an afternoon game. It was also Halloween so I had to get my costume ready. Jason and myself decided to go as Wayne and Garth from Wayne’s World. I was Garth.

We met up at the Wachovia Center at Noon, and were shocked to find so few people dressed up for Halloween. I didn’t let it get my down though. This was my last Flyers game of my trip and I wanted to enjoy it. As the arena filled up we did manage to see a bunch more people dressed up, which made us a little more happy.

So the last Flyers game I caught was a complete blowout by the Flyers. They won 6-2 and completely dominated the game from start to finish. The game was also full of fights which made the Australian Hinn, and Brazilian Tatiana happy. After the game we parted ways, and I met back up with Joe and Kasie. We had a really lovely dinner at this restaurant called Pumpkin, before heading back down to the last ever concert at the Spectrum.

For this show I was sitting with Jason. Our seats were really similar to the seats I had the night before, which was nice. After we got settled we sneaked his friend Sophia down into our section as well. The final show by Pearl Jam was one crazy show. Pearl Jam played for close to 4 hours, and played some songs they hadn’t played in 10-15 years. It was truly a memorable night, and a lovely way to end such a fantastic trip.

The next day I left early for my flight back home and my week long recovery from my week of no sleep. While busy, I really had an amazing time on this trip, and look forward to the next time I can visit Philadelphia and Washington again.

Here are a few final images from my trip.

So I had been meaning to write up a Sasquatch review, but have been way too busy. So I am just going to send you to Jason’s writeup instead. I think he covered things well:

http://www.thisallencompassingtrip.com/2009/05/26/sasquatch-festival-at-the-gorge/

Things to note. The Decemberists new album in full was amazing. I will possibly write a blog post about that in the future (but yeah you know how it goes). Explosions in the Sky were amazing, “We’re not trying to bum you out, we’re going to try and bliss you out”.

“Party On Dudes!”

Got back early this morning from the first ever Pemberton Music Festival. It was a solid 3 days of fantastic music, traffic jams, dust storms, and peculiar weather. All in all though one fantastic weekend. As with the “first” of most things, this festival was not without problems. The major issue of course being the anticipated traffic issues, and the what should have been foreseen issue of the shuttle buses.

So I will give my two cents on the major issues Pemberton faced, and maybe a solution or two on how they could have done things better.

The Bad

Parking off site and shuttle to festival grounds: This was in my eyes the greatest blunder they did. I realize it was likely done as they likely didn’t have enough room on the festival grounds to handle both tents and cars. If they were to keep the external parking and shuttle system they need to make some serious changes. The first major issue with their current setup was that the parking area (the airport) was in a location that only had a single access road. What this means is that both the shuttles, and all incoming vehicles use the same access road into the parking area. Thus when traffic into the parking area increases, the frequency of shuttles decreases due to increased traffic. This in turns increases the number of people waiting in the parking lot for a shuttle, which in turn slows down the number of vehicles entering the parking area, which essentially creates one hell of a nightmare.

The smarter thing to do would have been to pick a parking site that would have two access roads. One which the festival goers could take to and from the camping grounds, and a second access road dedicated purely to the shuttle buses to move between the parking lot and the festival grounds. This would have kept the shuttles moving smoothly, would have sped up the traffic moving to and from the parking area, and overall would have reduced the headache that everyone seemed to experience on their way into camp.

The next major issue with the shuttles was that everyone was putting their gear directly into the bus. This caused the buses to run about half full of people, and half full of gear. That is not a very optimized situation. If they wanted to optimize the seat space in the shuttles they could have had them all pull a trailer behind the bus used for all the luggage people had, while keeping the bus for what it should be used for; transporting people. The other solution would have been to have flatbed trucks to transport peoples luggage (which could be tagged) then have people collect their luggage on arrival to the festival grounds.

Lastly I think the final problem with their setup (at least when we arrived) was that they were largely understaffed at the parking area and the staff that were there were very confused about what they were suppose to do. This caused a lot of chaos in the parking area, and turned things into a mess of every man for himself.

Traffic: While we didn’t have to compete too much with the traffic, it was an issue for a lot of people. 3+ hours drives from Whistler to Pemberton for a drive that normally takes 25 minutes is ridiculous. I think part of the reason for this was due to the poor organization of the parking facilities, but also due to the single lane roads. The parking issue can be fixed. Unfortunately unless the government is willing to twin the roads all the way to Pemberton there is not much one can do about the single lane traffic.

Dust: Having the festival on a farm that probably hadn’t been rained on in over a month caused for some extremely dry land. Add 40,000 people and you create one dusty hell. I know the organizers tried to mitigate the issue by spraying down the grounds with water, however that only last for a short time before the dusts starts to be kicked up again. It also didn’t help that they had motor vehicles driving all over the place further adding to the dusty hell that was experienced. For a first festival though there is not much more I think they could have done. For the future however, if they are serious about turning this festival into an annual event, and to re-invest into their festival grounds they should look into installing sod. I went to Coachella a year ago, and Bonnaroo this year. Both festivals in very hot and dry locations. Both festival sporting nice fields of sod. Both festivals were very much dust free. (or at least much less than we experienced in Pemberton).

Bathroom facilities: Probably could have been a few more toilets in the camping areas. Long waits, no toilet paper, and “full to the rim” toilets were some of the major complaints I think a lot of campers had. A few more toilets in the camping area, and more cleanup services and I think people would have been happy.

Bacardi Tent: The Bacardi B-Live tent (the tent were all the electronic acts were) was a closed tent, and sold alcohol and thus had to be run like a club. This meant that they had to have a maximum capacity on the tent (which was a very low 2,500 people), and also meant that it was virtually impossible to get into. If they restricted the sale of alcohol to a beer gardens near the tent, opened up the tent on 3 sides, it would have made the tent a lot more accessible for people, and given people who didn’t plan on spending the entire day in there a chance to see some of the acts.

Those were essentially my issues with the festival, and in no way are they unsolvable problems for next year.

The Good

Music: The music all weekend was fantastic. It was a excellent lineup, and most bands seemed generally happy to be there, and put on some great shows. The set times were for the most part on time, and there were plenty of viewing areas to catch the acts you wanted to see.

Camping: While the camping was a bit unorganized in terms of plots (again I think they were very understaffed and unorganized in terms of dealing with the number of people), the campsites were all extremely close to the festival grounds. They also had an in/out policy which meant you could always return to your camp for a drink, something to eat, or a quick nap. They were also very unstrict about what you brought too and from your camp, which meant that you could simply go back to your camp, mix yourself a drink, and return to the festival, saving yourself the pain of shelling out $7 for a beer or mixed drink.

Water Stations: There was a good number of clean drinking water stations that allowed you to fill up your water bottles. This was a cost saver, and a great way to keep people hydrated all weekend. These water stations also doubled as showers for campers. While the water was glacier cold, it sure felt good in the extreme heat.

Vibe: There was a lot of talk before the festivals that it could attract a very rowdy crowd, that would be intent of getting drunk, starting fights, and destroying stuff. While a lot of people were getting drunk, and I must say a very large number of douchebags, most people were really tame and just their to enjoy the music and have a good time. Having a crowd like this makes for an enjoyable weekend.

Friends: Having the festival so close to home meant having a lot of friends in attendance at the festival. As the saying goes, The More the Merrier.

The Music

For the most part I stuck to the main stage all weekend (along with everyone else it seemed). Here is the list of bands I caught this weekend, organized by day:

Day 1: Metric, Wolfmother, Serj Tankian, Interpol, NIN
Day 2: Sam Roberts Band, My Morning Jacket, The Tragically Hip, Black Mountain, The Flaming Lips, Tom Petty
Day 3: Inward Eye, Wintersleep, Death Cab For Cutie, Matisyahu, Jay-Z, Coldplay

I think my favorite acts all weekend were probably Metric, NIN, My Morning Jacket, Tom Petty and Wintersleep. Jay-Z was also highly entertaining.

I really have to say that Wintersleep put on one hell of a show. With borrowed equipment no less. They said that they had had all their equipment stolen a day or two before the festival so they had to borrow equipment from the other bands playing that day (unfortunately it meant Weighty Ghost was played on a wrongly tuned acoustic borrowed from Sam Roberts; I still enjoyed the song though!) . It didn’t seem to get them down however, as they seemed really happy to be there. Not only that they played probably the best set I have ever seen them play. They had a big crowd out for their show too, who knew their songs, and were not afraid to jump, clap or sing along. Their set was much heavier than the previous time I saw them (in London a few months ago), which for me made them sound that much better.

After having only caught a few songs of My Morning Jacket at Bonnaroo I made sure to get up front and catch the full set at Pemberton. While it was restricted to 45 minutes (they played over their limit at close to an hour), they played a really fantastic set. Touch Me Pt 2 was fantastic as ever, and Jimmy James was all over the place. He even dedicated a song to the lone moose, and lone grizzly bear that maybe wandering in the forests surrounding the festivals.

Tom Petty was also a blast. His set was non stop one hit after another, and the crowd ate it up. People were dancing and singing everywhere. Was really fun to see him play, and his stage setup was also pretty cool. The biggest complaint I heard about his set was that he didn’t play You Don’t Know How It Feels, however he spent the morning sound checking the song, so essentially we all got to hear it.

Finally NIN put in another solid show. I don’t know another band that is as consistently awesome live as NIN are. I guess it is the perfectionist in Reznor. Their stage setup for the show was similar to Sasquatch a few years ago where the bring down the gate in front of the stage and project pixelated images over top of the band. I think they have taken the visual to another level for this festival, as they were even more impressive than when I saw them at Sasquatch.

Conclusion

Pemberton was a really enjoyable weekend, and a really good start to what hopefully becomes an annual event. It wasn’t without problems, but like I outlined above, they are issues that could be easily fixed for next year. With that said I have to give the Pemberton Festival a thumbs up, and will gladly attend next year.

Coming off a great trip down to Coachella, the month of May looked to follow up nicely with some stellar shows.

I started off by seeing a musician named Royal Wood (yes that is his real name). I have been listening to his music for around 7 years now after a recommendation from a friend of mine. My buddy had gone to high school with Royal and now is his webmaster. Anyway this was the first time Royal made it out to the west coast so I was very excited. He played this tiny little restaurant out on Main called the Purple Crab, and put on a really fun show. While I would have loved to see him on piano instead of acoustic guitar, I will take what I can get!

The next day I went to see Murder by Death open for Reverend Horton Heat. It was a pretty pricey show for just wanting to see an opening band, but I wasn’t let down. Their music live has so much more power to it than on the album. I love how the cello can add such depth to a song, and it really rang through in their performance. I think the show could have been better with the vocals a bit higher, but overall I was still quite happy. We took off after about 7 songs into RHH set; he just didn’t do anything for me.

The next week I went to see Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. They played Richards on Richards. The Fratellis were suppose to open, then canceled. Then The Black Angels were suppose to open, then they canceled. So we got in the end a really long set by BRMC (close to 2 hours). It was really awesome seeing these guys play in such a small venue. They sound so good live as well. A highlight of the night was when some barfly started dancing on a speaker and not a 1 person (or band member) paid any attention to her. I hope her ego took a hit.

The following week I went to see Feist at the Orpheum. I must say this was probably the best show I have seen all year. Feist played for a good hour forty five, and put on such a well put together show. Not to mention she is really fun on stage, and just an overall cool performer. I loved the way she utilized her loops to create effects (like her whistles became birds chirping), and ripped it up on her guitar. It was such a fitting venue for her (the Orpheum is gorgeous and has such a fantastic sound) , and the crowd was completely into the show. At one point she got us all to hum a little verse, and it just resonated throughout the theater. Magical.

Finally last night I went to see The Arcade Fire at Deer Lake Park. This was my first every concert here. Parking was a bit of a nightmare, but we still got in in time to catch the end of the opening band, who were well suited for the job. The Arcade Fire put on a great show (I thought however they were more intense at Coachella), and the venue was really fantastic. It as also extremely easy for us to get right to the front of the stage without any hassle. So that was an added bonus. They have some really excellent visuals on stage for this tour, and I am curious as to how many hidden cameras they use. Anyway a fantastic night, and a great way to cap off my May concerts.

After Manu Chao the grounds began to get tighter and tighter. Joe and me were still a pretty far ways out, and it didn’t look like we were going to be able to get any closer until the show started, so we waited it out. I was happy they didn’t draw out the Rage show, and they came and took the stage only 5 minutes after they were scheduled to. Without much talk they started right into Testify.

What a way to start a show. On that opening riff I just started jumping, and that was the last I saw of Joe until after the show. I think being tall helped me tremendously. Every time I would jump up I was like a kite in the wind, as people behind me would latch on and push me forward. By the third song I was pushed way closer to the stage, and within probably a good 5 meters of the first barrier. At this point I was right in the thick of it. I was rocking out harder than I have ever done before, and completely gave in to the music and all the chaos that was going on.

Sometime during the first few songs my shoes became untied. This kind of sucked, so inbetween songs I would tuck my laces into my shoes. Everyone in the pitt was really cool, and looked after each other. There were only a few big mosh circles going on which I avoided quite well. I stuck to jumping around with the crowd. It was really fantastic having an entire crowd all bouncing to the same beat, rocking out so hard.

Eventually the power that had pushed me into the thick of things, continued to push me forward, and before long I was about 3 people off the rail. While I enjoyed being that much more closer, my movement was much more restricted and I had to resign to often being squashed up against the person in front of me. After the first set I had thoughts of getting out of the pit and watching the rest of the show from higher up, but decided I would just power through it, as this was a once in a lifetime experience.

Anyway here is the setlist of the show:

01. Testify
02. Bulls On Parade
03. People Of The Sun
04. Bombtrack
05. Bullet In The Head
06. Down Rodeo
07. Guerrilla Radio
08. Renegades Of Funk
09. Calm Like A Bomb
10. Sleep Now In The Fire
11. Wake Up
12. Freedom
13. Killing In The Name

They closed the first set with Wake Up, which was probably my highlight of the night. Opening the encore with Freedom was also pretty rad. The whole set however was a treat. They played the majority of my favorite Rage songs, and they barely let up at all. I was almost hoping for a slow song or two so that I could catch my breath! The security guards around the rail were really great though. If they weren’t lifting people out of the turmoil they were watering people down with bottles of watter and sprayers. I relished the moments when they would hit me with even the tiniest amount of water.

Anyway this was such an unbelievable show for me. I had so many expectations for the show, and there was so much hype surrounding it, and yet Rage were able to completely destroy all of it. This was probably one of the best live musical experiences I have had, and I am completely satisfied now having finally seen a band I have been listening to for so many years.

After the show I was completely soaked from head to toe as if I had jumped into lake. I was also completely stunned. I had to rip off my shirt as it was stuck to my body. I took a photo of myself right after the show, I think the look on my face will give you an idea of how stunned I was from such an amazing show.

Sunday was the day I was most excited about. I would finally get to see Tapes ‘n Tapes, Explosions in the Sky, and of course Rage Against the Machine. The day started the same way Saturday had, waking up bright and early at 7am due to the heat. i decided to shower in the morning due to the not so long lineups. Yet I still stood in line a good 45 minutes. for the rest of the morning we spent playing more Joe Rummy, and chilling under the tent. Around 2pm we finally headed up towards the venue.

Here are the shows I caught Sunday:

Tapes ‘n Tapes
Explosions in the Sky
Rodrigo Y Gabriela
Kaiser Chiefs
Willie Nelson/Crowded House/Air
Manu Chao
Rage Against the Machine

Tapes ‘n Tapes started the day. I had been addicted to their album since the summer and was happy to finally see them play. They sounded great, however I wish they had put more volume into the vocals. Plus I was a little disappointed that they used a drum track for a number of their songs, I thought that was pretty weak. Overall though another great band to start the day (In the Mojave tent no less).

Next up was Explosions in the Sky on the main stage. Their set started at 4pm, and it was crazy hot outside. I could barely handle watching the show, but powered through it. Security was throwing water bottles into the crowd, which was good in some ways as they were cooling down the audience, however it was also pretty dangerous, as they were throwing them pretty good. Of course there is the irony in that they are throwing open water bottles into the sky while a band called Explosions in the Sky is playing. Anyway back to the show, Explosions rocked hard! Really awesome show. Only complaint was that they only played for like 40 minutes. I guess they go for the adage quality not quantity.

After Explosions we kind of wandered around a bit before finding ourselves getting drawn into the Gobi tent. This was the second time I had been drawn into this tent, and this time it was for a group called Rodrigo Y Gabriela. The whole tent was hopping, and overfilled no less. This duo from Mexico put on one of the most exciting performances I had seen all weekend. Really fantastic. I suggest everyone go checkout their album.

Next up we made our way to the Outdoor Stage to checkout the Kaiser Chiefs. They were really nothing to write home about, and I eventually took off to get some food. After that I caught a bit of Willie Nelson, and a bit of Crowded House, before finally making my way back to the outdoor stage to see Air.

My plan was to see Air before Rage. Kind of like the calm before the storm! However Air was late. Really late. Like 35 minutes late. They took the stage 15 minutes before they were suppose to be finished. So after watching their first song Joe and me took off to the main stage to get a good spot for Rage.

Manu Chao had recently taken the stage and was putting on a charged performance. Joe and me made our way as close in as possible during this set, however were still a ways back. We didn’t want to start pushing our way forward while Manu Chao was on stage, we wanted to wait for Rage for that. I think I would have probably enjoyed Manu Chao’s set a lot more if I understood Spanish, and wasn’t in complete shock that I was about to see Rage.

Bright and early at 7am we were all awake. Nothing like 40 degree heat to wake you up. After doing the normal morning duties we were resigned to hide under our makeshift shade blocker. We had strung up a tarp and a tent cover between our two tents. It was maybe 4 feet of the ground, so we all had to crouch to sit under it. Saturday saw the start of what would be endless games of Rummy. Or was we called it, Joe Rummy. Was a great way to pass the time.

Lester took off around Noon as there were some bands he wanted to see. Myself however, I just wanted to escape the heat a little while longer. I soon learned that by the showers someone was hosing people down. So Joe and Me made our ways over there to get a cool down. We also discovered that the hour and a half lineups to use the showers had now subsided so we each were able to cleanup slightly before the show. I will say this, nothing feels so good as a cold shower in 40 degree heat!

Anyway around 2:30pm we finally headed back to the venue. Here was my lineup for Day 2:

The Fratellis
The New Pornographers
Andrew Bird
The Arcade Fire
RHCP
Mike Realm
The Rapture

We started the day in the Mojave tent again, this time to the Fratellis. It appears like every day we would start the day with a new up and coming Indie band in this tent (with Tapes ‘n Tapes closing out Sunday). I really had no idea who the Fratellis were, until I heard them play, and was caught asking, “Hey aren’t these the guys from that ipod commercial?” Well moments later they played that song, after which they joked around, “So go out and buy some ipods, do it, for the ipod song!” Regardless of selling their song to Apple I really enjoyed their set, and was quite happy I was able to see them.

After their set we ran in Brian (aka poker Brian from the Pearl Jam Van days) and his friend Amy and Craig.

Next up we made our way to the New Pornographers who were playing the outdoor theater. We got pretty close in, partly due to the fantastic advice of Sandeep and Nico. The key was to go in from the side on the far right, which lets you slide right in at the front of the stage.

The New Pornographers put on a fantastic show. Carl Newman was in great form, cracking jokes all over the place. To start the show they had this backdrop which was their new album art. He starts the show by saying, “This is the cover of our new album, and today we are not going to play any songs from it!” Later at one point inbetween songs Carl recognizes a song from the mainstage (Travis was playing) and shouts out, “OHHH hey that’s Travis! Lets all sing along, it goes like this, ‘Why does it always rain on me? something something something seventeen!’”

At this point Carl gets the crowd to start singing these lyrics, including the something something something seventeen part. Too funny! Anyway Carl continued his antics, on stage, and Catherine got into it as well. At one point she had some frozen yogurt delivered to her, which Carl proceeded to make fun of. Then at another point as Carl is talking away he says, “… and I mean we are just trying to play a show here, just trying to play some music…” when Catherine chimes in, “but are we really?” which got the whole crowd laughing and clapping. Anyway the New Pornographers were a definite highlight for me on Saturday.

After The New Pornographers I headed out to one of the tents to checkout Andrew Bird. I had seen Andrew Bird play last fall in Vancouver, and it was one of the best shows I had seen last year, so I couldn’t miss this performance. Andrew Bird didn’t disappoint, however I was a little sad that there were so few people at his show. However it was to be expected as he was up against !!!, The Decemberists, and Kings of Leon. At least Brian checked out Andrew Bird, and really enjoyed the show.

After Andrew Birds set we hung out in the shade and listened to the end of the !!! set, then made our way to the main stage to catch The Arcade Fire. As expected there were loads of people at this show. They had a really cool stage setup with this oldschool looking TV screens setup behind them that display images of the band, and a neon bible at times. Their set was strong, and very intense. At one point Richard Parry was running all over the stage in somewhat of a destructive rampage drumming everything he could see. It was pretty fantastic.

So After The Arcade Fire I stuck around to watch a bit of the Chilli Peppers. I caught probably their first 6 or 7 songs before I decided I would head out to catch some LCD Soundsystem. However on my way over I saw the big screen in the Gobi tent, which had a clip from Office Space being remixed. I had to check this out, so I went into the tent to find Mike Realm destroying on the turn tables. It was so entertaining that I completely forgot about LCD Soundsystem and watched the rest of Relm’s set. If you ever get a chance to see this guy, do it, he is fantastic.

After Mike Relm I made my way to the Sahara tent, to finish the day with The Rapture. I had heard they put on a great live show, which they completely lived up to. They had a DJ spinning trance/house music while they setup their stage. As The Rapture were about ready to start the DJ left his last record playing. The band then mixed their song with the track that was playing, almost as if they were spinning in a new record, except they were doing it with instruments. It was wild. They then proceeded to rock my world, and even had me kicking out some dance moves. How can you not move to the Rapture? Anyway it was a fantastic end to a really great day 2 at Coachella. As I walked back to my tent Tiesto was playing on the main stage and I didn’t even stop to take a look. My day was full and fantastic, no need to see some DJ on a big stage.

Here are the shows that I checked out on the Friday of Coachella:

Tokyo Police Club
Of Montreal
Arctic Monkeys
Peaches
Jarvis Cocker
Interpol
Sonic Youth
DJ Shadow

A few notes about the day. It all started with the Canadian group Tokyo Police Club. They put on a solid performance, and really got me excited for the weekend.

Next up was Of Montreal. I hadn’t listened to the new album yet, so I didn’t recognize almost any of the songs they played. I also didn’t realize how fruity this band was. I still find their music decent, and their stage antics entertaining, but yeah pretty fruity.

After Of Montreal I went and checked out the Arctic Monkeys. They stole the show last year at Sasquatch, and did a good job here at Coachella.

I had intended to see Jesus and Mary Chain after this, however I realized I really wasn’t a big fan, and was more in the mood for some cheap entertainment, so I made my way to check out Peaches! She was pretty much what I had expected her set to be like. What was great though was that her over offensiveness had left loads of people who had no idea who Peaches was fleeing the outdoor theater meaning me and Joe were able to weasel our way pretty close to the front of the stage by the time her set was over. Our plan was to then checkout Jarvis Cocker, who each of us knew nothing about.

Jarvis Cocker had great stage presence, and worked the crowd pretty well, however his music did absolutely nothing for me. By about his 5th song I was ready to head out, but wasn’t sure if Joe was into him or not so I thought I would give him one more song. Well it turns out Joe and me were on the same wavelength because by the end of the 5th song he looks at me and says, “Dude lets get out of here!”

So we headed back to the main stage to catch Interpol. Their set was nothing to write home about, and nothing too inspiring.

After Interpol we headed back to the outdoor theater to catch Sonic Youth. Since Sonic Youth opened for Pearl Jam last tour, I had seen them a good number of times live. However I really enjoyed their sets last year, and this year was no different. With what appeared to be the end of their set they faded off into distortion filled noise. As they are walking off the stage someone says something to Thurston. A minute later the band is back on the stage, and Thurston is telling the crowd, “Nobody tells me anything, I guess we are going to play another song for you…” as they kick into their last song of the evening.

Most people in our group were going to checkout Bjork to close out the Friday, but I was going to have none of that. I finished off my night at the outdoor tent to see DJ Shadow close out the night. It took him a while to get his equipment all setup, but as soon as he did he started right into it. His stage setup consisted of 4 elevated turntables, and a couple microphones. Looked pretty wild to be honest. I stuck it out for as long as I could but eventually I was too tired to watch anymore and started heading out toward the campground. As I did, DJ Shadow started to play my favorite show of his, Organ Donor. So I gave that a listen before breaking out. On my way out I picked up an Emek poster of the event which was a cheap $20. (this turned out to be a mistake by the merch booth as the next day the price was at $60.)

We all met back up at the tent, and compared notes on the day. Friday was the weakest of the 3 days, while Saturday appeared to be the most jammed pack. So we all headed to bed soon after in hopes of gaining a few hours sleep for Saturday.

The day of the Modest Mouse show started for me at 4am, dragging myself to the passport office in Richmond so that I could sit in line for 4 hours in order to get my passport processed. More on this when I discuss how Coachella has become my Achilles’ heel. Anyway so after the passport line I had to work, which took me right up until showtime. This long winded opening effectively is trying to let you know I was a bit tired!

I wasn’t planning on going to this show after I missed out on getting GA seats, but then they moved it to the PNE Forum, which is all GA giving me the in. Now a few things about the Forum. The sound in the forum is not great, and to add insult to injury the sound guys for MM must suck as they there was loads of feedback from Isaac Brock’s mic. Another problem I have with the PNE Forum is that it is the fact it IS entirely GA. I know this is the reason I actually got to go, but having 3000 GA fans on a floor that probably is meant for far less than that means a constant struggle for holding your ground in the crowd, and angling for the best vantage point to see the stage.

Regardless of all these issues I have with the Forum and the MM sound crew the show itself was fantastic. A really solid set with lots of energy from the band. The highlight of the night was at the end of the first set where they went into this monster jam on the songs Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes, Lucky Me Again, and Doin’ The Cockroach which was all somewhat blended together into what seemed like one huge jam. Brook was really intense, and the band had a very heavy feel going on.

The show was ended with an extended version of Spitting Venom which had another monster jam in it. Not to mention a trumpet solo! Hurray for trumpet solos. Isaac also during this song flung his guitar around by the strap until it finally went flying off backstage. He retreated back there for a good few minutes while the band jammed out. Then he came out guitar pressed up against his face while he was screaming lyrics into his guitar pickups. It was pretty cool actually, gave that “guitar is talking” feel.

So yes another good show I attended. The new songs translated well live, and the crowd was good. Sound could have been better, but what can you do?

Went and saw the Shins on Monday at the Commodore. Viva Voce a husband/wife duo opened the show. They had a very classic rock feel. The husband on drums loved to do these little “hey!”’s throughout their songs. They had some pretty solid jam session in their songs, where the wife would wail on her guitar pretty good. I actually quite enjoyed their set. It was fun, and they were entertaining.

The Shins were up next. They started off by playing a bunch of songs from their new album, before kicking back into a few songs from their other albums. Before the show Lester said to me that the only complaint out of Seattle from the previous nights show was that the Shins were kind of … boring. I can kind of see it seeing that the Shins don’t do a whole lot on the stage, however I think the whole fact you are there is to hear their music live. So in my opinion they are very enjoyable. Their songs sound excellent live, and when they play some of their older ones, you get more than half the crowd singing along.

Anyway I had fun, another good show in the books. Not sure what is up next, March looks pretty dry. Maybe will checkout Do Make Say Think, and/or Red Sparrowes.

Went and saw Gomez co-headline with Ben Kweller at the Commodore last night. I actually hadn’t heard any Kweller stuff before this night so I really didn’t know what to expect. Kweller played first, to a very energetic crowd. I really enjoyed his set. He has some really fun pop songs and works the crowd quite well. I really loved his cover of Roger Miller’s Chug-A-Lug!

Gomez came on after Kweller. I hadn’t seen Gomez live yet apart from the last song they played at Sasquatch. I had chosen to Architecture in Helsinki instead of Gomez, and was a little sad that I had to miss them then. Again this fall I had the chance to go see them, however I chose to goto the New Pornographers show instead. So it was a bit of a long time coming. Anyway they put on a really great set. Lots of big jam sessions. My favorite song of the night was Howe We Operate, which came out really amazing live. Not to mention it was probably a 10+ minute rendition of the song. While I like all three vocalists of Gomez, I must say that I really enjoy the songs from Ben Ottewell. There is something about that his voice that is just so powerful and personal. Little disappointed they didn’t play Get Miles, but other than that a great set.

All in all another great night of music. Really glad I got to catch Ben Kweller set, as it was a lot of fun. Next up the Shins on Monday.

So this week has been somewhat of a blur. It started Saturday going out for a friends birthday party, where I stayed up way too late. Sunday I played a hockey game. Monday/Tuesday I was attending the Vancouver PHP Conference. Tuesday right after the conference I had to drive straight out to a hockey game. After the game I had to cruise back to town in time to get to the Commodore to see Neko Case play.

So needless to say I was a little bit tired/worn out by the time I finally got into the Fabulous Commodore. Despite all this it was great to be inside the venue and to just relax, and enjoy an evening of great music. Neko Case played a very enjoyable set. She has such a powerful voice, I wonder if people outside the venue could hear her. Anyway it was a fun show. I hope that one day I can see her play with the Pornographers.

As my first concert of the year I went and saw Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton on Thursday despite still fighting off this flu I have. The Brooklyn trio Tall Firs open the show. They had a pretty unique sound, and their set got consistently better the longer they played.

Emily Haines’s set was pretty much what I had expected. She played the album from front to back, with not too much talking. She was highlighted most of the time mainly by the video screen behind her and her piano, while the scaled back version of Soft Skeleton (3 members versus the troop that played at the Sil Vous Play show) was largely in the dark blue lights. The songs translated well live, and sounded very close to the album versions. Todor Kobakov did a great job of recreating the sounds of the strings and the horns from the album. This show didn’t blow me away, or rock my socks off; it was more a chilled out relaxed show, which was highly enjoyable. Having the Commodore seated worked, and was appreciated by me (I don’t think I would have been able to stand for the entire show). Having it at the Commodore however meant there were quite a few people whispering, and a lot of clanking noises coming from the bars. Emily mention this a few times during the show, and right before her last song (cover of Niel Young’s Expecting to Fly) told us that, “This is your last chance to shut the fuck up.” She then went on to question why you would talk when you paid to see the show, to experience her music. The cover sounded great and was a nice close to the show.

All in all a good show. Don’t be expecting the hard fast rocking of Metric though, this show is completely soft and relaxing.

Wednesday night I went to the postponed Dears show at Richards and Richards. My friend Lester has had a lot of good to say about the Dears live show, and basically told me that I had to go to this show. So you can imagine I had some high expectations going into this show. Were they met? Absolutely.

I cannot for the life of me figure out how The Dears are still playing a venue the size of Richards, however I won’t complain. Their sound at times was huge, and enveloping, creating a mood all to itself in the small venue. I am a big fan of No Cities Left so those songs rocked me the hardest. However the new songs from Gang of Losers really sounded good live, much better than how they sound on the album. I somewhat wish they had the vocals turned up a little higher at times, as some of the songs where a bit hard to hear. The bass on the other hand was completely pounding. Some highlights for me were:

The crowd singing along the end of We Can Have It “It won’t ever be what we want…”

The killer backup vocals by Valerie and Natalia.

The ending of Never Destroy Us when they are all screaming.

Death or Life We Want You. “Nobody wants you but we want you…”

Postcard From Purgatory. What an epic song this is live. From the start stop riffs, to the anthemic start, the massive feedback, the clarinet in the middle to the all out explosion of music to finish the song. Wow.

So yes The Dears put on one hell of a show. Probably one of the best shows I have seen at Richards on Richards.

The Bloodlines from Saskatoon did a solid job opening the show. Very energetic and entertaining. Maygen Kardash on keyboards is a huge crowd tease, totally giving the crowd flirtatious looks. You can tell she and guitarist/singer SJ are brothers, they share a very similar face. At the end of the show SJ brought a girl from the crowd on stage. She was rather ripped and fell as she tried to climb up. When she did get up she danced around on stage like she was at a nightclub. I was sure she was going to knock over Paul the other guitarist and singer. She did however manage to kick the mic out of the kick drum, and occasionally get tangled in the guitar leads. A pretty funny site to see.

So last Monday I was getting ready to head to bed, but decided to check My Yahoo for any new news stories. I found an interesting article on the CBC Radio 3 blog and proceeded to read it. If you have ever been to their site you will know that when you get to the page a music play starts streaming tracks. Usually I have other music playing already and turn it off right away, but since I was on my way to bed I had already shut down my music and decided to let it play out. The track playing was a track by Raising the Fawn that immediately caught my attention. I loved it, it was like a mix of post-rock with indie and a whole bunch of experimentation. So the next day I got a couple of their albums and checked their tour dates, and low and behold they were playing Thursday night. Now Thursday night I was already somewhat planning on seeing Wil and Shaun Verrault play and also heard that Kytami was doing a gig that night too, so their was no shortage of good shows going on. However Lester and myself decided to take a chance and check out these two Canadian bands we had never seen live before.

Well I can honestly say I made the right choice last night, the show was really excellent. The first band Mico wasn’t anything too special, however they did make a big pile of instruments at the end of their show very reminiscent of Trail of the Dead. In-Flight Safety however was very fantastic. This group out of Halifax with their dreamy songs really impressed me, and put in a really solid closing 3 songs.

Raising the Fawn was last up, and before they started playing they had some serious issues with the sound. Really brutal feedback out of the speakers and such. Eventually they got it somewhat together (the keyboard didn’t work) and closed out the show. They put on a solid set as well, playing some really epic live sounding tracks like Carbon Paper and Until It Starts Again. They didn’t appear to have a setlist, and just seemed to make it up as they went along. The drummer was great to watch, as he had some really funny mannerisms and hit pretty damn hard. My only complaint of their set was that it seemed a bit short, but that could be that I was just really into it.

It really amazing me lately just how many good musicians there are out there. Just in Canada alone we have so many (like the 2 bands tonight), and it is sad to see that so little people know about these musicians. It was a bit of a shame seeing the place only about a quarter full for these excellent musicians.