2009 Davie Awards

This year's annual Davie Awards ended being such a source of frustration, I was about to just scrap them entirely.  Every year I run into the same problem:  since I have to watch, listen, play, and read everything on this list on my own time and with my own money, I always reach a point around the end of the year where I'm cramming to fit everything in before I publish the awards.  This inevitably means the awards are pushed back at least into late January, and I still end up missing things that in all likelihood would make the list (for example, the critically acclaimed film Crazy Heart).  This year things ended up getting so delayed that I thought long and hard about just abandoning the awards all together. 

In the end, I decided I might as well just post what I have and been done with it.  I did spend a significant amount of time getting everything together, so it seems a waste to throw everything away.  Instead, I've decided to go ahead and just post what I have now in mid-February, when it's far too late for anyone to still care about last year (as if anyone cared about these awards before they were over a month late).

Favorite Album

1. Dinosaur Jr. - Farm:  This marks their second masterpiece since the band reformed with the original lineup in the mid-2000s, proving that their new material might be their best yet.
2. The Horrors - Primary Colours
3. A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
4.  The Flaming Lips - Embryonic: This albums sees the Flaming Lips channeling early psydeclic-era Pink Floyd.  Not a bad combination. 
5. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest 
6. Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures: I'm worried I might be ranking this too high just because I want it to be this good (at one point I had this ranked as high as 2nd). With Dave Grohl, Josh Homme, and John Paul Jones, the end result isn't quite equal to the some of it's parts, but still a solid rock album.
7. Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
8. Royksopp - Junior: This record is just plain fun.
9. Sonic Youth - The Eternal
10. Built to Spill - There Is No Enemy
11. Soulsavers - Broken: Another great collaboration with singer Mark Lanegan.
12. Atlas Sound - Logos
13. Meat Puppets - Sewn Together
14. Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
15. The Dead Weather - Horehound:  Another year, another enjoyable release from Jack White.
16. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion:  I bought into the hype about this record at first, but in reality it’s two or three really good songs, with lots of mediocre filler. Not bad, but extremely overrated (though not nearly as overrated as that awful Dirty Projectors album).  Although now I wonder if I'm punishing it too severely by pushing it so far down on the list, but lately I can't listen to the whole album without getting bored.
17. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz
18. Deerhunter - Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP
19. Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs
20. The Field - Yesterday and Today:  Best techno/electronica album I've heard in awhile.

Honorable Mention:  The xx - xx; HEALTH - GET COLOR; Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Beware; White Rabbits - It's Frightening

Favorite Live Album

1. Nirvana - Live at Reading - The DVD version of this album is essential.
2. Tom Waits - Glitter and Doom Live
3. Bonny Billy and the Picket Line - Happytown Comedown
4. Leonard Cohen - Live in London / Leonard Cohen - Live at the Isle of Wight
5. Neil Young - Dreaming Man: Live '92

Favorite Box Set

1. The Beatles Stereo Box Set
2. Neil Young Archive

Favorite Movie

1. The Hurt Locker - One of the best--and least political--war movies I've ever seen.
2. Up in the Air
3. Food, Inc. - Probably the most important movie of the year.  If you only see one, make it this documentary.
4. Ponyo on the Cliff By the Sea - H. Miyazki strikes again with another fantastic anime epic.  The lack of nomination for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award is criminal.
5. (500) Days of Summer
6. Zombieland - Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson are hilarious together in this movie, and it features one of the best surprise cameos, ever.
7. Up
8. A Serious Man - The second under-the-radar black comedy by the Coen Brothers since the phenomenal No Country For Old Men.
9. District 9
10. The Cove
11. Avatar - I have a feeling I’m going to look back in a couple years and see that all the praise for Avatar was greatly exaggerated. It was an unbelievable experience in theater to see thr film in I-Max 3D, but the whole thing was so overwhelming, and I believe repeated viewings on DVD will expose a lot more flaws.  I've already been dropping it down this the list the more I've thought about it.
12. Moon - Sam Rockwell turns in two of my favorite performances of the year
13. Inglourious Basterds
14. Anvil! The Story of Anvil - Like a real-life version of This is Spinal Tap, but with a heart.  Another movie the deserved an Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Documentary.
15. Adventureland - This movie was criminally misrepresented in the trailers to look like a raunchy teen comedy.
16. The Road - Loved the book, but the movie was something of a let down in comparison.  Still moving, but it felt like the studio chopped it up to make it more palatable for the mainstream.
17. Fantastic Mr. Fox
18. The Damned United
19. It Might Get Loud
20. Public Enemies - Not sure why this movie only got mixed critical reviews.

Honorable Mention:  In the Loop, Star Trek, Big Fan, Funny People, The Hangover, I Love You Man

Favorite Books

1. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
2. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller
3. The Power of Less by Leo Babauta
4. Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields

(yes, I read a lot more than four books last year, these are just the only ones published in 2009)

Video Games

1. Rock Band: The Beatles
2. Left 4 Dead 2
3. Plants vs. Zombies

Sadly I don't have much time to play games anymore, but these were my favorites from last year.

 And that, as they say, is that.  Come back next year, folks.  I might still be here.

Sunday Playlist - 6/21/09

This Week's Playlist: Nirvana - With no more concerts to dictate my playlists, I'm back to choosing the playlists myself. This week, one of my all-time favorite bands. Enjoy.

Songs:

Smells Like Teen Spirit
About A Girl
Come As You Are
Serve the Servants
Drain You
Sliver
Heart-Shaped Box
The Man Who Sold the World
Old Age
Pennyroyal Tea
Scentless Apprentice
Lake of Fire
Marigold
Lithium
Rape Me
Blew
Do Re Mi
Where Did You Sleep Last Night?
All Apologies

Sunday Playlist - 6/14/09

This Week's Playlist: Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - This week's playlist is once again influenced by a concert I'm going to see; I'll be heading down to the Southgate House this week to catch Ted Leo & the Pharmacists. I first saw the band last year when they opened for Against Me! at Bogart's, which was a great show by both bands. Looking forward to seeing them again, and the Southgate House is a much better venue than Bogarts (except for all the smoking, thanks Kentucky).

Songs:

Me and Mia
Counting Down the Hours
The Sons of Cain
Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?
Little Dawn
Dial Up
La Costa Brava
I'm a Ghost
My Vien Ilin (live)
Heart Problems
The Lost Brigade
The Angel's Share

As always, new playlist next week.

Sunday Playlist - 6/7/09

This week's playlist: Will Oldham aka Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - This week's playlist choice was again decided by a concert I'm going to as I'm seeing Bonnie 'Prince' Billy play this Thursday at the Southgate House. Oldham has become one of my favorite musicians over the last couple years. He's performed under a number of different names, with the most latest and most prolific being the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy moniker. Last year's Lie Down in the Light was one of my favorite albums from 2008. Looking forward to the show this week!

Songs:

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - A Minor Place
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Easy Does It
Palace Music - Work Hard/Play Hard
Matt Sweeney & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - My Home is the Sea
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Seedling
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - So Everyone
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Beware Your Only Friend
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Death To Everyone
Tweaker (featuring Will Oldham) - Happy Child
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I Am Goodbye
Soulsavers (featuring Will Oldham) - Through My Sails
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See a Darkness

Wave Goodbye - Nine Inch Nails Live in Noblesville, IN

A few friends and I went to Noblesville, Indiana last Saturday to catch Nine Inch Nails play one of the shows on their last tour for a very long time. NIN has been my favorite band for awhile, so I had mixed feelings about this possibly being the last time I would ever see Trent Reznor and co. perform live. Sadly I could only make it to one show on the tour, but at least I'd get to see them one more time.

The North American leg of NIN's Wave Goodbye tour was also dubbed the NIN|JA 2009 tour because NIN was co-headlining with Jane's Addiction (with Jane's Addiction playing last). Opening of both bands was Street Sweeper Social Club, the new Tom Morello project, and they did not disappoint. Singer Boots Riley comes across less angry, but just as socially conscious, as Rage Against the Machine singer Zach de la Rocha. Boots did well, but Morello was easily the star of their performance. The man puts on quite a show; if you ever have a chance to see him perform live I highly recommend it. SSSC played through a handful of original songs and a great cover of M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" before their set ended with the Jane's Addiction members crashing the stage with birthday cake to wish Morello a happy birthday.

One of the best parts of the show was the location of our seats. I knew were in the front-left section, on the inside aisle of row J. What I did not know is that row J was the fifth row from the stage. We had unbelievable seats, and since NIN was allowing nearly all cameras into the show, it meant I had the possibility to take some amazing pictures. These really are some of the best pictures I've ever done. The people in front of us were mostly a bunch of Jane's Addiction fans who thankfully got bored of NIN after a few songs and left their seats, giving us a mostly-unobstructed view of the stage. I couldn't believe our luck.

I've now seen Nine Inch Nails in concert six times, but this was easily the best performance of the bunch. If this is indeed the last NIN tour ever, then Trent Reznor is going out guns-blazing. Instead of playing a greatest-hits type set list to appeal to the more casual fans or people there to see Jane's Addiction, NIN played through a blistering set of deep cuts and rare songs. "I Do Not Want This," "Mr. Self-Destruct," and "Physical" were loud, raw, and angry. "Metal" was a huge highlight, as was the instrumental version of "The Downward Spiral"--I never would have picked either of those for good live songs and they were fantastic. The "Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)" remix was cool to see and "The Fragile" was incredible.

The weather turned crazy a few songs into NIN's set, with pouring rain, thunder and lightning, and even tornado warning sirens. Apparently the sirens were going off during most of "Metal", but I was so close to the stage I couldn't hear anything else. We didn't even realize it was raining until I felt a mist blowing on me, and turned around to see the poor suckers on the lawn getting drenched. Kudos to those who stuck it out (and there were many).

New drummer Ilan Rubin had some big shoes to fill by taking over for Josh Freese and he was more than up to the task. Ilan absolutely destroyed every song. The biggest highlight for him was a pummeling finish to "Wish"; I've seen that song six times, and this was easily the best performance of it. In fact, all the old songs seemed fresh and energetic. "The Hand That Feeds" and "Head Like a Hole"--while way too overplayed on the radio--are still the perfect one-two punch for closing NIN shows. The energy during both those songs was unbelievable. Even "Survivalism" was great, and I'd really grown tired of seeing that one live.

Without a doubt, the perfect way to close the show was with "Hurt". Encores have been rare for this tour, so I really thought the show was over after "Head Like a Hole". However, Trent had made several comments about how great the audience was, and he rewarded the fans by returning for an encore. Once again, this was one of the best performances of "Hurt" I've seen. It was moving and emotional, and it was a song that got everyone involved. The one thing I wish I'd been able to take a picture of was when I turned around during "Hurt" and saw the entire amphitheater lit up in a sea of lighters and cell phones. It was an incredible sight. Then the song ended and we got one final wave goodbye.

I was not at all pleased that Jane's would be the last band performing each night--I'm not a big Jane's Addiction fan--but I thought they were entertaining to watch. They are certainly skilled musicians, although singer Perry Farrell feels the need to make the dumbest comments in between songs ("I sing with my balls!" Yes, he actually said that) and guitarist Dave Navarro can't perform unless he's strutting around shirtless, striking iconic rock-star poses every five seconds. I didn't mind watching them, but I ended up leaving after five songs because everyone I was with hated them. In the end I'm glad we left early because a section of I-74 was closed on the way home, and our trip took much longer than it should have.

I've already uploaded some of my pictures, and there are even more that I'd like to post on this blog, but I don't want to get too carried away. What I'd like to ask you to do is please go view them all on my flickr page (shameless plug, I know). These are really some of the best photos I've ever taken and I'm very proud of them. I don't say this to pat myself on the back--a lot of it was pure luck, and I had to ask the advice of two friends to see what settings to use--but I couldn't have asked for better results. There are few things that make me happier than the combination of an amazing concert and some awesome photos.


Set:

Home
1,000,000
Discipline
March Of The Pigs
Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)
Metal
Meet Your Master
Head Down
I Do Not Want This
Gave Up
The Fragile
The Downward Spiral
Wish
Survivalism
Mr. Self-Destruct
Physical (You're So)
The Good Soldier
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole

(encore)
Hurt

Street Sweeper Social Club

Jane's Addiction

A Million Miles Away

I Would Keep Myself

Sunday Playlist - 5/30/09 - Saturday Edition

This week's playlist: Nine Inch Nails. Part two of my Nine Inch Nails playlist that I started last week. I'm posting the playlist a day early today, because I'm going to see NIN play in Indianpolis tonight, and I wanted to get the rest of the playlist up first.

Songs:

Pinion
Somewhat Damaged
The Beginning of the End
March of the Pigs (live)
Something I Can Never Have
Into the Void
The Perfect Drug
A Warm Place
Eraser
We're in This Together
Wish (live)
Echoplex (live at rehearsals)
Ghosts 28
Piggy
The Fragile
Ghosts 31 (live)
Only
The Great Below
The Hand That Feeds/Head Like a Hole (live)
The Day the World Went Away
Hurt (live)

New playlist next week!

Sunday Playlist - 5/24/09

This week's playlist: Nine Inch Nails. I'm seeing NIN this coming Saturday, so I've decided to do a two-part Nine Inch Nails playlist for this week and next. Part one is below. Enjoy.

Songs:

1,ooo,ooo (live)
Terrible Lie (live)
Last
The Frail
The Wretched
Ruiner
All the Love in the World
God Given
Ghosts 14
Even Deeper
Closer
Gave Up
Head Down (live)
Burn (live)
The Good Soldier
Reptile
Just Like You Imagined
The Big Come Down (live)
The Great Destroyer (Modwheelmood remix)
The Becoming
Head Like a Hole (live)

Sunday Playlist - 5/17/09

This week's playlist: Depeche Mode. As always, playlists are only up one week. New playlist next week.

Songs:

Wrong
Enjoy the Silence
Personal Jesus
John the Revelator
Barrel of a Gun
Halo
A Question of Time
Lilian
World in My Eyes
Policy of Truth
Walking in My Shoes
Never Let Me Down Again

Sunday Playlist - 5/10/09

This week's playlist: Radiohead. Check it out and remember that each playlist is only up a week and then replaced with the new one.

Songs:

Idioteque
Myxomatosis
Creep
Fake Plastic Trees
Karma Police
The National Anthem
House of Cards
No Surprises
Gagging Order
Life in a Glass House
Paranoid Android
There There
All I Need
How to Disappear Completely

Sunday Playlist - 5/3/09

I'm starting a new feature where I'll be attempting to put up a new playlist every Sunday over on my Blip.fm page.* This week I'm starting it off with one of my all-time favorite singers: the great Mark Lanegan. I highly recommend checking him out.

Songs:

Mark Lanegan - One Way Street
Screaming Trees - Nearly Lost You
Mark Lanegan - Ugly Sunday
Mark Lanegan - Methamphetamine Blues
Mark Lanegan - Hit the City
Queens of the Stone Age - In the Fade
Queens of the Stone Age - Song for the Dead
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Deus Ibi Est
Soulsavers - Revival
Soulsavers - Paper Money
The Gutter Twins - Idle Hands
Queens of the Stone Age - Lullaby
Soulsavers - No Expectations



*Blip's setup sadly will only let you have one playlist at a time, so each week I'll be deleting last week's playlist and replacing it with the new one.

The 2008 Davie Awards

We are now a month into 2009, and I still haven't gotten around to posting the annual Davie Awards for 2008. I wanted to write up some good summaries for everything, but I've put that off for so long that I decided just to throw the lists online and be done with it.


Favorite Album

1. Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
2. The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia
3. Boris - Smile
4. Mogwai - The Hawk is Howling
5. Portishead - Third
6. Eagles of Death Metal - Heart On
7. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
8. Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV
9. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Lie Down in the Light
10. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
11. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
12. Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - Sunday at Devil Dirt
13. Sigur Rós - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
14. Beck - Modern Guilt
15. TV on the Radio - Dear Science

Honorable Mention: Earth - The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull; Lindstrøm - Where You Go I Go Too; Brian Eno & David Byrne - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today; Squarepusher - Just a Souvenir; Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul; Deerhunter - Microcastle; Kings of Leon - Only By the Night

Favorite Concert:
Nine Inch Nails in Cleveland, OH

Runners-up: Nine Inch Nails in Lexington, KY; Radiohead in Indianapolis, IN;
NIN in Columbus, OH; The Gutter Twins in Newport, KY.

Favorite Movie

1. The Wrestler
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. WALL-E
4. The Dark Knight
5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
6. Taken
   
7. Frost/Nixon
8. Kung-Fu Panda
9. Defiance
10. Gran Torino

Honorable Mention: In Bruges, Burn After Reading, Revolutionary Road, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Pineapple Express, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Iron Man, Bank Job

Favorite TV Show
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Runners-up: Top Gear, The Office, South Park

Favorite Game
Left 4 Dead

Runners-up: Rock Band 2, STALKER: Clear Sky, Peggle 2: Peggle Nights, Civilization IV: Colonization

the great gig in the sky

Richard Wright, keyboardist and a founding member of Pink Floyd, died Monday after a battle with cancer. He was 65.

say it ain't so

Weezer should go down as one of the most underachieving bands of the past twenty years--maybe of all time. I can think of few other bands off the top of my head right now that showed so much promise with their first couple albums, only to ruin it with a slew of mediocre releases. The band's self-titled debut album (often known as The Blue Album) was a masterpiece, and their sophomore follow-up Pinkterton came close to replicating that success. But when Pinkerton failed to receive a warm reception from most fans, frontman Rivers Cuomo put the band on the shelf for a few years.

Weezer attempted to channel the success of their debut album when they finally returned, making it their second eponymous album and even using a similar album cover. What has come to be known as The Green Album is a good pop album, but it failed to reach the same level of excellence as the band's first two efforts.

Things got worse with the band's next two albums, Maladroit and Make Believe. Maladroit featured a more "metal" sound which resulted in a lot of dull tracks, although the album is not without its highlights ("Burndt Jam" and "Keep Fishin'" to name a couple). Make Believe was even more disappointing considering the album was made with Rick Rubin, one of the best producers in music. While "This Is Such a Pity" ranks up there as one of Weezer's best songs, the album also features "Beverly Hills," which might be the worst piece of garbage Cuomo has ever recorded. Aside from a couple decent tracks, the album was the band's weakest yet.

With their latest release, Weezer once again tried to mimic the success of their first album by self-titling their new record and using a similar cover, Weezer (The Red Album) is way off the mark from the band's early releases. It shows a slight improvement over Make Believe, but that may have more to do with the fact that the record doesn't have any songs as bad as "Beverly Hills" and "We Are All On Drugs" than that it features better songs. Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of stinkers here like the emo-sounding garbage like "Heart Songs" and the irritating "Everybody Get Dangerous," but they aren't the worst we've heard from Weezer. Cuomo can't be blamed for all the bad songs, as the tracks written by the other members of Weezer ("Thought I Knew," "Cold Dark World," and "Automatic") are equally awful. The album has a couple hits like the catchy singles "Pork and Beans" and "Troublemaker," but most of the other tracks are completely forgettable. The Red Album is ultimately another disappointing release from a band that we know can do--and has done--much, much better.

• 1994: Weezer (Blue Album) - 5 out of 5 Davies
• 1996: Pinkerton - 4 Davies
• 2001: Weezer (Green Album) - 3 1/2 Davies
• 2002: Maladroit - 2 1/2 Davies
• 2005: Make Believe - 2 Davies
• 2008: Weezer (Red Album) - 2 Davies

blind with my eyes wide open

I've been long overdue for an update, but things have been busy lately. I've been working a decent amount have been trying to get something worthwhile accomplished on my days off. The birthday went well, but I'm currently fighting off my second cold in the past two weeks.

Doug and I saw The Gutter Twins at the Southgate House in Newport last week. Great show. I finally got to see Mark Lanegan perform live, and the man did not disappoint. His vocals have always had an intimidating feel to them, an image that carries over to his live performances, as he stood on stage brooding all night with a death grip on the microphone stage. The man only said two sentences in between songs all night; one to introduce his counterpart Greg Dulli, and the other a threatening response to a heckler in the audience. Dulli, on the other hand, was the outgoing one of the pair. It was a hometown reunion for him--he is originally from Hamilton--and he seemed to enjoy being back in the tri-state. Dulli was hamming it up with the audience all night and continually talking to his mother and sister in the audience. The band played most of their debut album Saturnalia, along with some of Lanegan's solo tracks and a few from Dulli's Twilight Singers band. I thought they put on a great show, and this was hopefully the first of many good 2008 concerts (still hoping for more from Radiohead, NIN, and Tom Waits).

I'll leave you with a shot from the other day:

come on up to the house

A Tom Waits tour in 2008? Count me in. Tom Waits is probably in my top three bands/performers that I'd like to see live, and the fact that he rarely tours makes me even more determined to see him on this summer's tour. No dates have been announced yet, but I'd like to see him to badly that I will seriously pay for someone else's ticket in order to have company to a Tom Waits show. No dates have been announced yet; you can bet I'll be bringing this up again when they are.

---
Here's another edited photo from the ones I took yesterday:

Photos.

ghosts

After a couple weeks of cryptic messages via the Nine Inch Nails website, the announcement was made last night that the newest NIN record--a thirty-six track instrumental double album entitled Ghosts I-IV--was available now online, by way of a high-quality digital download, along with a number of different purchasing options for a physical product (ranging from $5 to $300). The music is copyrighted under a non-commercial Creative Commons license, meaning individuals are free to use the music for anything they want as long as there is no profit involved. So far the record sounds amazing; a combination of previous NIN efforts like The Fragile, Still, and Year Zero. Yet again Trent Reznor has proven himself to be the most innovative figure in the music industry.

---
I've been trying to keep my expectations low for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but the new trailer actually looks promising. Normally that would be good news, but it's probably just getting my hopes up so they can be let down when Shia LaBeouf ruins the movie. Either way, I know The Dark Knight and WALL-E will make up for it.

keep on playing our favorite song

What should have been a short Saturday night trip to Columbus to see Queens of the Stone Age turned into a crazy weekend adventure for Daniel and I. Upon arriving in Columbus about half an hour before the doors opened, the parking lot attendant asked us what we were there for that night. When he informed him, he told us that show has been postponed, to which Daniel responded "You're joking, right?" He was not. It turned out that the show was to be delayed until Sunday night due to "illness." Needless to say, we were not too thrilled to hear this.

We quickly decided that we weren't going to let this trip go to waste and just go home, and since I knew Austin was in nearby Circleville for the annual Pumpkin Show, I decided to give him a call. After confirming that we could spend the night at Jon Brown's house there, we set off for Circleville. The problem was that the timing of our departure had us passing right down the center of Columbus at the same time that the Ohio State football game was ending, meaning that the streets were packed. What should have been a forty-five minute drive was doubled by all the traffic. It was nice to hang out with Austin, Dan Ebert, CJ, and Jon, but we were hardly in a mood to enjoy the Pumpkin Show after all the driving and the uncertainty over the concert's status. Jon's parents were very gracious in letting us stay over, and while the attic we slept in was actually fairly comfortable, I can't say I got much sleep that night.

Daniel and I headed back into Columbus on Sunday morning, but not before we had a brief scare leaving Circleville: when I got in my car, I realized that the headlights were still switched on from the previous night. The strange thing was that the headlights weren't visibly on from the outside and the car started just fine (I wonder if locking the car with my key chain remote turned the lights off, but I really don't know).

Not having eaten that morning, we decided to drive back into Columbus and eat there. Once again the trip was no where near as simple as it should have been. When we got back into town we discovered that there was a marathon being staged exactly where we needed to be. The entire downtown area that we were trying to get to was one huge cluster of traffic jams, cops poorly directing said traffic, and very slow runners. After spending over an hour literally going in circles around the same five-mile radius of town trying to get to the parking lot for the show, we finally found a way there. Once again, what should have been a simple trip ended up taking over two long, hungry hours.

Having finally parked, and after learning that the status of the show was still up in the air for the night, we decided to finally get something to eat. It just so happened that the cursed marathon would continue to haunt us, as the area we were in was serving as the finish line for the race, and thus was inundated with a flood of runners and their families. [On a side note, can someone tell me why runners wrap themselves in sheets of reflective tinfoil-looking stuff after they finish?] Nevertheless, we waded through the horde to the nearest restaurant, which was inexplicably closed at one o'clock on a Sunday. As was the next one. And the next. And the next (lousy Chipotle). Finally we found some German beer garden to collapse in (which actually turned out to be pretty good). We returned to the concert venue again, where they finally gave us confirmation that the band was on their way in. To make an already too long story a little shorter, we killed the next five or six hours walking around Columbus, exploring their children's museum, and watching football.

Since I'm getting tired of being so long-winded, and I need to catch up on some more lost sleep, I'll cut to the chase: in the end, the concert was still worth the hassle. It turned out to be a very good, solid show. We arrived in line early, and actually ended up in the front row on the left side (actually, Daniel was in the front on the rail and I was right behind him). I'm not sure what Josh Homme's "illness" was, but he seemed just fine. The band played a fantastic set. Even the two opening bands were pretty entertaining. They apologized for the delay and played a slightly longer set. The pit got a little rough, and there were some very annoying people in it, but nothing bad enough to detract from the overall experience. I wish I hadn't been so worn out by the time it started, but there was nothing to do about that. This was also the first concert I've worn earplugs at, and I think it is something I will continue to do. After it ended, we managed to make it home somehow, completely exhausted, smelly, dirty, and hungry. It felt great to get out of the same clothes I'd been wearing for two days, remove my contacts for the first time since Saturday morning, shower, and sleep. It was a very bizarre weekend, but we were treated to a great show.

(set)
Burn the Witch
Misfit Love
In My Head
Into The Hollow
Run Pig Run
Leg of Lamb
Little Sister
Battery Acid
In the Fade
Turning on the Screw
Make It Wit Chu
Sick Sick Sick
Do It Again
Avon
Mexicola
3s & 7s
Go With the Flow
(encore)
You Can't Quit Me, Baby
No One Knows
Infinity
No One Knows (reprise)
Song For the Dead