I had the opportunity to catch Arcade Fire again this past Friday at the Starlight Theater here in Kansas City.  As if the chance to see Arcade Fire isn’t enough, LCD Soundsystem opened for them to really sweeten the deal.  I wasn’t expected to be as excited as I was after having just saw them at Austin City Limits about a month ago but I really was.

LCD Soundsystem took the stage to kick things off, and I immediately noticed that they are considerably better at night with their own lighting than when I saw them at ACL in the middle of the day.  It’s pretty amazing how big of a difference it makes.  I found myself liking them quite a bit and was impressed with how much energy they put into their songs even though I found most of the music to be a tad repetitive.

Different members of Arcade Fire came out to rock out with them throughout their set which was really cool, too. By the time they were finished with their energetic set everyone in the group I was with commented that they felt they got their money worth just with LCD Soundsystem alone. 

This was my fourth time seeing Arcade Fire live and third time just this year (ACL ‘05, the Chicago Theater this summer, and ACL ‘07), and as much as I was blown away by them before, I think think this time around might have been my favorite.  We were able to somehow score wristbands to get really close to the band (about ten people back) which may have had something to do with it.  They started off with “Black Mirror” and leaned heavily on material from their new album for the first half of the show.  I’ve found that, as much as I like their new album, the songs from their first are far superior live.  It’s hard to make a statement like that because that’s basically me saying something is really awesome compared to something that’s extra awesome.

I also think I would like to date either one of the violin players in the band.  They are obviously talented, but they really get into the music and are kind of cute, too.  I’d take either one, though.  I’m not picky.

There’s really not a whole lot more to add that I haven’t written about before on here other than that I decided that there are two bands out there right now that deserve the title of being the best live band on the planet right now.  One would be My Morning Jacket and the other is easily Arcade Fire.  By the end of the show, everyone that I went with said they thought the show could be the best they’ve ever seen.  I may have to agree with them.

On a negative note, I was pretty shocked that the venue wasn’t even close to being sold out.  When you see a show so good you (okay, I) tend to wish that everyone would be there to witness it.  Instead, the back 1/3 of the 8,000 seat theater remained pretty vacant through the remainder of the show.  Considering all of the hubbub around the Hannah Montana ticket scandal at the Sprint Center, it was disheartening to know that only half as many people showed up for such an amazing night of music as will pack the Sprint Center to see a kids pop singer from the Disney Channel. 

I guess it’s their loss, though.  I took of video of Arcade Fire playing “Rebellion (Lies)” and I think it does a somewhat decent job of showing how great the show was.

I had the pleasure of seeing Devendra Banhart play last night in Boston.  I became a big fan of his after his last release, Cripple Crow, and will admit I had absolutely no idea what to expect of his live show.  I didn’t know if it was going to be mellow, if he’d sit the whole time, if he’d come across shy, etc.  The only thing I really knew was that the guy is credited for being one of the founders of the genre “freak folk”, is a big hippy (Google pictures of the guy and you’ll see what I mean), and is definitely a weirdo (for example, my favorite song on his new album is a song about how he wants to be reincarnated into a sea horse). He also happens to be an immensely talented songwriter.  Little did I know, I was going to be treated to one fantastic evening of music courtesy of Mr. Banhart and his band.

The band walked out a little after nine o’clock with several members looking like lost gypsies.  Devendra played the first few songs sitting down while wearing his hair wrapped up, and the first half hour was spent playing some of their mellow songs.

While the mellower songs are the the reason I never really got into his early work, I would surprised at how great they sounded live.  It became very apparent that he is surrounded by some very skillful musicians, and they added a much richer quality to his songs. 

Soon, though, Devendra and his band eased their way into some of his more upbeat numbers.  He also allowed himself to let his hair down a little, so to speak.

Once they broke into the eight minute-long “Sea Horse”, the show completely took off.  Last night happened to be the night their new album was released so many people weren’t familiar with songs from it.  It didn’t really matter, though, because the crowd really got into it.  Before taking a quick break, Devendra talked to the crowd and asked if anyone had any songs they’d like to play.  A few people shouted out that they did, and he asked a girl to come on stage and sing while they went backstage.  The girl actually sounded really good, and she said she was going to create a Myspace page with her recorded music (I don’t remember the name of it).  It was cool to see someone get a chance to shine, and it was also cool of Devendra to hand over the spotlight a little.

The band returned to play “Long Haired Child”.  I took a video of it:

They played a little longer with a continued set of his upbeat songs.  They said goodnight only to return moments later.  This time, Mr. Banhart was shirtless.

They ended up closing the set with “I Feel Just Like a Child”, a song that most everyone had been asking him to play all night.  I took a video of it, and you can see just how into it the crowd was.:

It was a great way to end a fantastic show.  He is one of those few artists I will make a point of seeing every time he’s in town. 

This weekend ended up being a pretty eventful one.  On Friday, the plan was to go with some friends down to the Plaza Art Fair for a little bit before going over to my friend Courtney’s going away party.  I went to the art fair for the first time last year and had a lot of fun eating a steak sandwich from Capitol Grill, drinking a Boulevard Wheat, and looking at all of the art for sale.  Of course, I wouldn’t spend so much on 99% of the stuff that’s down there, but it’s still fun to look at everything.  Anyway, we got there, polished off a sandwich, and the skies completely opened up.  Within minutes, we were completely soaked trying to find a cab to take us to the going away party.  We had to huddle under the awning by Baja 600 to call a cab (imagine that, no cabs at all around the plaza for a change), and we had to run to the other end of the plaza to find one driving by.  By the time my friend Josh and I got in the cab we looked like we had just jumped into a lake with our clothes on and also failed to view one piece of art.

We showed up at the party to mingle with some mutual friends and say our pseudo-goodbyes to Courtney who is moving away to Denver in a couple of weeks. 

The party was a fun time and everyone seemed to really get along even though not everyone knew each other.  Of course, some of that could be attributed to the bonding that took place during some heated Guitar Hero battles in one of the rooms.  I hadn’t played it much so I was afraid I’d be a little rusty.  Luckily, my faux chops came back to me fairly quick, and I was able to rock people’s faces off in no time.  As you can see by the picture below, my competition may have had to rock hair, but my rock face was very indicative of my fret work.

The funny thing about the party is that a lot of people there were coworkers of Courtney’s.  She worked at an advertising agency in a creative department so they all had inside jokes.  One of the things they all loved was Courtney’s new jacket that she just got.  Apparently it has to do with colors and the numbers are actually the color of the coat.  I don’t get it, but everyone there was freaking out at how awesome it was.  I found it to be pretty amusing.

On Saturday, I went to a friend’s house to watch a live stream of the Iowa State/Toledo game on the internet.  After seeing my alma mater beat Iowa last week, I was somewhat optimistic that they could beat a team that, under most circumstances, would be the far inferior team.  After having a considerably comfortable lead in the 4th quarter, my Cyclones found a way to lose it.  It’s going to be a long season.

My friend Josh had four free tickets he was given by his boss to the Chiefs game for Sunday.  Even though the Chiefs are pretty bad this year (like my Cyclones), I jumped at the chance to go with some friends to the game.  Anytime you can go see a pro football game in shorts without having spend a dime I’m pretty happy.  

The weather was perfect if not a little on the hot side.  We had to wait a ridiculously long time to get into the stadium, and I hope that is one thing that is changed with the stadium alterations.  While waiting, we missed seeing the planes fly by but apparently they let off a ton of balloons the spilled out the stadium.  It was pretty cool seeing them flow out.

The seats that we ended up with were pretty amazing.  I’m not exactly the most connected guy here in KC so I have always had to buy seats in the upper deck for games.  These seats, though, were right on the 50 yard line in the middle ring — pretty much perfect seats.  Of course, our seats also happened to be across from Neil Smith’s retired name on the ring.  It made me wistful of the magical time we shared together.

Even though it wasn’t the best game I’ve ever seen, the Chiefs found a way to pull it off despite Larry Johnson having a horrible rushing game.  It’s clear that our line really struggles.  I don’t think Larry had one hole to run through all game.  I’m also not a fan of Herm’s conservative play calling.  We counted during the game and found that every single first down was a running play.  Every single one.  One good thing, though, was seeing them work Tony Gonzales into the mix as well as the emergence of Bowe as our primary receiver.  That kid could be pretty special for the Chiefs.  I’m not sure I’ll make it to any other games this year, but I had a blast at this one.

The National

Of all of the bands I hadn’t seen before at the festival, I’d rank The National as the top band I was looking forward to seeing live.  They were also the band I was prepared the most to be disappointed by.  Their albums are a little more lo-fi and that coupled with Matt Berninger’s “different” voice, I was unsure about how that would translate live.  By the end of their first song, my reservations were completely laid to rest.  They rocked hard on the songs they were supposed to rock and sounded even more lush and amazing on the quieter songs than on record.  I was extremely impressed both at how they sounded as well as how clearly talented each musician is. 

I took a video of them playing “Abel” from their first album.  Here’s how it turned out:

Ziggy Marley

Ziggy was listed to play a 15 minute set at the Austin Kiddie Limits stage so we figured it’d be kind of fun to see one of Bob Marley’s countless number of offspring (if anyone knows I’d be curious to know what the actual number is) play for kids.  He ended up playing three songs with a few band members accompanying him.  The set was mellow, and he seemed really happy to be able to play for kids and their parents.  Luckily, our group was able to snag a seated spot two rows back so we were nice and close.

DeVotchKa

I’ve heard their latest album and decided to catch half of their set.  I hung back so I could sneak away easily, but the folks close to the stage seemed to be having a lot of fun.  Personally, I wasn’t all that impressed, though.  Most of their songs just sounded like a polka version of the Decemberists. 

Common

Common was a late addition to the bill due to the cancellation of Rodrigo y Gabriela.  While heading over to the stage to see him, I heard “Roscoe” by Midlake as well as a short song by Charlie Musslewhite on other stages.  I had seen Charlie play with Ben Harper a couple of years ago and he was a lot of fun.  Common, though, didn’t do it for me.  I know he’s a good rapper and all, but I’ve decided rap shows just aren’t good live unless you have a good band behind you (i.e. The Roots).  I’m glad I got to see him, though.

Bloc Party

I couldn’t believe how many Bloc Party fans there were out there.  These guys drew a massive crowd.  I remember seeing a little of them from another stage at ACL two years ago and thought they looked like they’d be good.  I realize that I might get punched for saying this, but I really can’t get into Bloc Party.  They were lively and the crowd was into them, but I don’t really get their style of music.  Just not really my thing, but again, I was glad to have seen them.  At one point, the lead singer ran out into the crowd while singing.  That was pretty cool.

My Morning Jacket

We skipped getting something to eat so we could wait at the same stage Bloc Party played.  This worked out really well because Regina Spektor was playing at another stage after them, and Wilco played during MMJ.  As much as I hate to pass on Wilco, I’m seeing them in KC in a few weeks so I figured I’d just wait.  Plus, My Morning Jacket may be one of the best, if not THE best, live band on the planet. 

This was my 5th time seeing them and I was still really giddy.  Their backdrop during Lollapalooza included images of candycanes and gumdrops.  This one was set to a tropical beach theme.  Prior to them coming out, they had two people walk around the stage dressed in beach gear using metal detectors.  Then the band came out looking like they were spending a day on the beach.  The drummer wore goggles, the bassist wore floatation devices around his arms, and Jim James wore a long blonde wig.  It’s awesome to see a band who rocks so hard have such a great sense of humor.

They opened with “Magheetah” which was amazing, and before long Andrew Bird joined them on stage.  While MMJ had a small orchestra during Lollapalooza, Mr. Bird was able to create a similar effect looping his violin.

After playing for a while, a handful of hula girls joined them on stage.  They stayed behind the band changing poses throughout the set while holding pineapples.  It was really impressive to see such a great band completely go all out for the show.  By the end of their set, everyone in our group said the best act of the festival was either Arcade Fire or My Morning Jacket.

I took a video of them playing “Gideon” with Andrew Bird.  Here’s how it turned out:

The Decemberists

I’m a big fan of The Decemberists.  Some find their lyrics to be too odd and some find Colin Meloy’s voice to be to polarizing, but I think they’re a pretty great band who always puts on a good show.  This time was no exception as they played all of their best songs while Colin used his quick wit throughout.  We all noticed the Mr. Meloy seems to have put on a few pounds recently, too.  After seeing him run all over the place it’s hard to imagine how that could be the case.

Bob Dylan

I saw Bob Dylan six or seven years ago, and I can honestly say it was the worst live show I’ve ever seen.  I’ve heard people say that Bob can be really on some nights and really off on others so I was optimistic that I just caught him on an off night.  Little did I know, the show I saw him at back in the day very well could have been him on an on night.  He sounded awful.  The only way I could describe it would be to imagine putting a microphone up to a dying man on a respirator.  I wish I could say I’m exaggerating but I’m not.  He couldn’t complete a line without wheezing into the mic.  He opened with “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35″ and we started leaving before his second song was even completed.  It was amazing to see how many people were leaving so short into his set.  Everyone of them talked of how disappointing it was.

I go to concerts because I enjoy them and they generally make me happy.  I’ve never once left a show feeling depressed…until Bob.  Walked away from a living legend while hearing him sound so awful was really sad to me.  I don’t understand why he keeps playing.  If anything it tarnishes his legacy among my generation.  Very, very sad.

The worst part of all of it was that the guys I was with all had tickets to an aftershow to see The White Stripes play at Stubb’s BBQ during Bob Dylan’s set.  Now THAT would have been a way to close out a festival.  Meg White’s anxiety issues really screwed up our plans.  Instead, we just headed out to get some dinner and have some microbrews.  Depsite the festival ending on a down note, we still celebrated a great weekend.

Today was a great day of college football.  Matt and Sean decided to hang back to watch games while Colin, Andy, and I opted to hang out at the festival.  My Cyclones played the hated Hawkeyes that afternoon, and I wasn’t expecting much of us after going 0-2 against teams we should have easily beaten.  Luckily, Iowa is bad enough for ISU to beat them, and they ended up winning a close game on all field goals. 

In my opinion, the festival organizers could have done a better job with spreading out acts with similar styles of music better than they did.  As a result, Saturday afternoon was pretty light on acts I wanted to see.  Knowing what I know now, I probably would have rather gone somewhere to watch the ISU/Iowa game and to beat the heat.  It still allowed us the opportunity to catch some of the other sights during the festival that we’ve never bothering checking out in past years. Here’s the recap of bands I saw:

Dr. Dog

Had Dr. Dog not been a late addition to the lineup (literally just a couple of days before the festival began), I probably would have waited to go to the park until Andrew Bird was scheduled to perform later in the afternoon.  These guys completely rocked it, though, and I’m glad I was able to see them perform songs off of their great new album.  Colin and Andy both said they were impressed, as well.  You can tell they’re a band that has a lot of fun playing and has some real talent.

Dax Riggs

ACL doesn’t include any comedians in their festival lineups, but Dax Riggs definitely did his part in providing the three of us with nonstop laughter.  Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t intending to be humorous.  You can tell the guy takes himself really seriously and thinks he’s the moodier, darker second coming of Jim Morrison.  Each one of the songs he sang were about blood and/or death (examples include “Didn’t Know I Was Bleeding”, “Living is Suicide”, “Forgot I Was Alive”, “and “Wall of Death”), and they were accompanied by some really awful lyrics.  It seemed like each line he would sing we would laugh even harder.  His lyric that included, “the starlight in your blood”, became a phrase we used throughout the rest of the weekend.  Hilarious.

The Sippy Cups

I can’t think of a better thing to do after hearing a pretentious guy sing about death than to go to the Austin Kiddie Limits tent to lighten the mood.  There, we saw a band called The Sippy Cups play to an audience of kids.  If The Wiggles were a classic rock band, you’d basically have these guys.  It was fun watching the kids get into classic rock songs. 

Paolo Nutini

I didn’t know a whole lot about Paolo Nutini other than a song of his I hear on the radio from time to time.  The kid is really young (he’s apparently 19 or something) but I enjoyed his set.  It was good background music while we just hung out and chatted.  I ran into a couple of old friends during this set, too, so I was able to catch up easily.  The funny thing about when he performs is that, when he’s not playing guitar, he sings completely hunched over.  You’d think he’d stand up from time to time, but he remains hunchbacked the whole time.

Steve Earle

Colin really wanted to check out Steve Earle because of his legendary status.  He thought the guy would be good to see.  Sadly, Steve was just solo and without a backing band which made things get old in a hurry.  We stayed for just a couple of songs and left.

Andrew Bird

As I’ve written before, I happen to find Andrew Bird absolutely fascinating live.  The guy is incredibly talented, and to see him loop layers of guitar, singing, violin, and whistling on top of each other to create his songs is really impressive.  When he plays I find myself entranced.  He also rocked out a little more than when I saw him last which was good to see. 

I also took a video of him playing “Nervous Tic Motions” which is one of my favorite songs of his.  Here’s how it turned out:

Arctic Monkeys

I’ve heard mixed reviews of how the Arctic Monkeys are live so I’ll admit that I wasn’t expecting a ton out of these guys.  They completely brought their A-game, though, and really rocked it.  Their stage presence could use some work as they still seem a little shy about playing in front of people, but I never imagined them to sound as intense and rockin’ as they did.  Their set leaned heavily on their record-breaking first album instead of their most recent one, and the crowd loved it.  A very impressive set that left me a bigger fan of theirs as a result.

Our group also decided to take a picture during the set.  It’s a good thing digital pictures don’t come as scratch and sniff.

Arcade Fire

I first saw Arcade Fire two years ago at ACL on the very same stage they played on this year.  The only difference is that they played during the afternoon back then and have since advanced to share the headlining spot for Saturday night.  Just as before, they put on a mind-blowing performance.  I’m also seeing them in Kansas City in a couple of weeks, but it’s still fun to see them in a festival environment.  This was also the first time I realized, with how much I love their new album, Neon Bible, the live songs off their first album are much better live.  That’s not to take anything away from their new stuff, but the ones off of their debut are absolutely amazing. This was easily the highlight of the festival thus far.

I took of video of them playing “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out).  Here’s how it turned out:

Post-Festival

We learned that walking was much faster than waiting in line for a cab, and we saw several bands just playing for anyone that would listen outside of the festival grounds (have I mentioned how awesome Austin is?).  One group had a handful of people playing percussion on various instruments while others danced. 

We then went to a sportsbar to eat some appetizers and have some drinks before heading out to the bars on 6th St. Locals tell us that 6th Street is where the college kids hang out while 5th and 4th are more for young professionals.  Considering we were disgusting and wearing shorts, we opted to keep 6th St. as the place to be.  We ended up staying at a bar called “Friends” all night for three reasons: 1) it was one of the only bars that didn’t have a line, 2) they were playing some good mashups of hits from the past 20 years, and 3) my high school friend Amy was there.  We stayed boogying all night, and Amy and I acted like no time had passed.

Day 3 will be coming tomorrow…

My flight out of Baltimore left pretty early so I could make it to Austin in time for most of the acts during the first day.  I was lucky enough to find a direct flight so I didn’t have to deal with any layover drama.  While walking through the airport, I was instantly reminded of why Austin is such a great city.  They had televisions set up in the Southwest terminal and people were having Guitar Hero contests.  Amazing.

I met with with our group of guys at the hotel (sans Colin who wasn’t getting in from Portland until later), got a quick bite to eat at a Jimmy John’s, and hightailed it to the festival.  The weather was definitely hot with heat indexes coming close to 100 degrees each day.  We got our wristbands and made our way into the park to get the weekend underway.

Heartless Bastards

We got there around 2:00 which was halfway through their set.  This is the third time I’ve seen these guys this year, and their audience has grown by leaps and bounds each time.  As with Lollapalooza, most of the people I was with hadn’t heard of them before and were left very impressed by their sound.  Their singer has some amazing pipes, and it was a good way to kick things off.

Pete Yorn

While walking to the other end of Zilker Park, I was reminded of how much easier it is to make it from one end of the festival to the other compared to Lollapalooza.  I’d guess it takes just half as long as it would in Grant Park to see other acts.  This, obviously, is a very good thing.  We also noticed another thing while working to see Pete Yorn.  Apparently a trailer had caught on fire outside festival grounds but had spread to a cluster of port-a-potties.  The black cloud was ridiculous.

I’ve never been a huge Pete Yorn fan but found his show to be pretty good.  They had four guitarists which I found to be a tad excessive, and we joked that Pete just had a couple of his friends join him onstage without plugging in.  They played a few songs from Pete’s first album that I recognized and even did a cover of “Young Folks” by Peter, Bjorn, and John.  He did so as a joke that he was afraid people bought his album instead of theirs (get it? Pete Yorn/Peter, Bjorn?).

Blonde Redhead

While walking over to the stage I saw a familiar person walking towards me.  I froze for a second as I tried to figure out if my mind was playing tricks on me.  The guy was blonde, tall, was wearing black glasses, and had on a black shirt (fitted, of course). He was being escorted by someone who worked for ACL, and it struck me that Britt Daniel himself was about to walk right by me.  I kind of freaked out inside because I’m a pretty big fan of his. The whole thing took place so fast, but I called out his name and he turned to look at me. I shook his hand and told him I was a big fan of his band (Spoon) and would be catching him later.  He seemed really nice, but I could tell he didn’t want to be recognized so I didn’t want to make a scene out of it.  Little did he know, I actually lied to him because I wasn’t going to catch his band later because a) Queens of the Stone Age was playing at that time and b) I’m seeing Spoon play in Lawrence on October 3rd anyway.  So yeah, my biggest thrill of the festival took place within hours of me being in Austin, and I carried it out by lying to his face.  Real smooth, Brad.

As for Blonde Redhead, I only saw a few songs of their set during Lollapalooza and was impressed with how they sounded live.  I wanted to see how they were for an entire set and opted to pass on seeing Peter, Bjorn, and John at another stage during this time slot.  The problem I was with a lot of post-rock bands is that there’s a lot of droning noise that gets repetitive.  That was the case at some points during their set but overall I found it to be pretty impressive.  I particularly enjoy the songs when the female sings.

LCD Soundsystem

I’m seeing these guys open for Arcade Fire in Kansas City in a couple of weeks and, while I have never been a big fan of the style of music they play, I heard that they put on a good show.  The guy behind LCD Soundsystem creates all of his songs on his computer but gets a group of musicians to play with him when they’re live.  I was kind of expecting a trendy-looking guy to walk out, but he looks like a total computer geek.  It was great.  I thought they were a lot of fun and am excited to see them again.

Queens of the Stone Age

These guys were one of a few bands I was really excited to finally see at ACL this year.  I’ve been a fan of theirs since college and was looking forward to how Josh Homme and company would tear up the stage.  Unfortunately, they played on my least favorite stage of the festival.  The stage always seems to have sound issues and that happened to be the case for the first half of their set.  What followed, though, was the most night-and-day performances of the festival.  By the end of their set, the sound was fixed and the sun was down enough to take full advantage of their stage lighting.  They really rocked it, and they were my favorite performance of the first day.

I also took a video of them playing “Little Sister” about halfway through their set.  Here’s what I captured:

The Killers

Both The Killers and Bjork were slated to close out the first day.  Being that I’m not a fan of either, I decided to split my time between the two acts.  The Killers had a really elaborate stage setup with pretty crazy lighting.  I thought the band sounded good, and Brandon Flowers is a pretty good little showman.  I just can’t get into their songs, though, for some reason.  Either way, it was still an entertaining show despite the fact that I was easily 8-10 years older than everyone around me.

I also took a video of them playing “Somebody Told Me”.  Here’s how it turned out:

Bjork

I’ve always thought Bjork was a complete weirdo, and her live show pretty much hammered home that thought.  I can’t seem to find any melody in any of her songs which is why I’ve never been much of a fan.  The production of her songs is amazing, though, and the stage setup was pretty elaborate.  She reminded me of a little kid the way she would move and dance on stage.  I can’t say I turned into a fan by seeing her, but I’m definitely glad that I witnessed her spectacle of a show.

Once again the Austin City Limits Festival was a ton of fun.  I will post a recap this week of the weekend.  For now, I really need to rest.  Not only am I tired, but I seem to have developed either a cold or some crazy allergy issues.   My nose is running and I have a sore throat — definitely not good considering I have a sales presentation in the morning. 

I’m about to hop on a plane from Baltimore to Austin to attend the Austin City Limits Festival for the third time in three years.  In twelve hours I’ll be getting my face rocked off by Queens of the Stone Age.  Even though The White Stripes canceled, rendering my way-high-in-demand White Stripes aftershow ticket for Sunday completely useless, I’m still pretty darn pumped for it.  I’ll resume blogging next week with a recap, as usual, of the festival.

I really haven’t done a whole lot of relaxing here in DC this week.  In fact, the earliest I’ve made it back to my hotel so far is 9:45 at night.  I’ve been busy hanging out with friends which has also including seeing some sights in and around the city.  I ate dinner last night with a friend of mine at Sequoia, a restaurant located right on the Potomac River across from the Kennedy Center and the infamous Watergate buildings. Apparently the place has somewhat of a reputation to catering to the tourist crowd, but I didn’t really get that vibe at all. It was my second time eating at the place and both the view and the food are pretty great.  The restaurant is located just off of nearby Georgetown, and I took some time after dinner driving around the neighborhoods.  I’ve never been a huge fan of DC compared to other east coast cities, but I found the area to be really cool and full of character.

I spent some time downtown today for work and was also able to pass by some sights.  I drive by the area relatively frequently but haven’t taken many pictures.  The day was perfect — in the upper 70s, sunny, and with a cool breeze — so I figured I should take a couple.  It was interesting to see tents still up from 9/11 memorial ceremonies as well as the added security around the area. 

I also went out to eat with my buddy Bronk in Annapolis tonight.  I have only been to Annapolis once for a very brief visit, and Bronk wanted to show me around the city a little.  I couldn’t get over what a cool city Annapolis is.  I guess I had the impression the city would consist solely of families and Navy men.  Instead, the place was crawling with young professionals (including quite a few attractive females) and adults.  The streets and buildings have a great historic feel to them, as well. 

We both at at a restaurant called McGarvey’s (the building on the left with the green and gold sign), and I think I may have had the best crab cakes I’ve yet to taste there.  We also had some pretty amazing crab dip beforehand in addition to tasting a pint of their own Aviator Lager.  As you can tell by the pictures, the area has a very historic vibe.

There are two things I would look for in a city when considering if I were to move there: 1) professional sports and 2) a good live music scene.  Most large cities around the country have both, but I would put Annapolis up there along with Austin, TX for my favorite cities that don’t have professional sports. It’s a very cool place.

I am in absolute shock about the news of Kansas City’s Greg Beck (aka Death’s Door) passing away. I didn’t really know the guy much at all, and I find that sad in and of itself.  I’ve read his blog for several years and found myself laughing both about his outlook on life as well as his ability to consistently string together expletives in a way that most people use the word “the” and “and”.  Up until recently, I would always use Samuel L. Jackson’s voice in my head as I read his posts which made it even funnier to me for obvious reasons.

I had the opportunity the meet Greg a month or two ago at a bar.  I shook his hand and told him my name.  I received a confused look back from him.  I then told him my blog name and I saw a light bulb go off in his head.  I’m not sure if he regularly read this blog, but I am listed on his blogroll so he must have read it at least a couple of times.  The encounter didn’t last long as I spent most of my time with another group of people, but I observed two things about the man: 1) I don’t believe the man swore once which was very surprising and 2) he seemed like an incredibly kind and sincere man.  He said goodbye and left, and I remember thinking that I really wished I would have spent more time talking with him.  Next time, I thought.  Next time.  Talk about a lesson learned.