I got the opportunity to see Beck last night at the Uptown Theater.   I personally consider Beck to be one of the true musical geniuses of my generation along with Thom York of Radiohead so I was giddy.  My first time seeing him live was a couple of years ago at George Washington University in Virginia.  The show took place in the arena where the basketball team plays, and they cut half of the place in half and had Beck and his band play to the other half.  It was quite possibly the worst venue I’ve ever seen a band perform.  It also didn’t help that Beck only played for a little over an hour, oftentimes only playing fragments of songs before switching to another.  I was anxious to see if Beck could totally redeem himself in a much better environment here in KC.

The opening band was MGMT, a band who has experienced an insane amount of success as a new, upcoming band.  They drew the largest non-headlining crowd at Lollapalooza this year (and it was apparently like that at ACL this weekend, as well), and their debut album is pretty darn great.  I had heard that they are a disappointing live band.  I thought that this would mean that they didn’t sound very good, but I actually thought they sounded very close to their recorded material.  What was disappointing was that they decided to play their weird, space-rock jam song in the middle of their set which completed changed the mood from all-out energy to boredom.  They also ended their set with their biggest song but, instead of bringing their set to a climax, all but a couple band members left the stage, and the singer and another guy just karaoked to a recorded version of the song.  I don’t understand why they would think that’d be a good way to end their set, but it just didn’t work.  I like the band a lot, but I hope they figure out how to become a better live act.

Beck walked on stage with his band around 9:20 and opened with, “Loser”, the hit that made him a household name.  The crowd went nuts.  Even though the video is a little too close, here’s a video clip I took of Beck playing “Loser” (click here).  It took me a little while to get over the fact that I was standing just 15 feet back from Beck.  Geeky, I know, but it’s true.

His set drew largely on his upbeat, pop-oriented hits from his three most recent albums.  Sadly, only one song off of Mutations (”Golden Age”), Sea Change (”Lost Cause”), or Midnight Vultures (”Nicotine & Gravy”) was played.  His slower, folkier numbers would have stuck out too much from his set, though, as it was clear that Beck wanted to rock and have a party. Here’s a video clip I took of Beck playing “Nausea” (click here). The crowd responded, as well, and I have never seen an entire audience at the Uptown dance and sing along like I did last night.  I looked back and even the balcony was on their feet boogieing.

One of my two favorite parts of the night was during “Black Tambourine”.  They called out a fan from the crowd to play tambourine (yes, a black one), and he danced around while they played it.  The band even let him do a tambourine solo prompted by Beck.  My other favorite part was when the band stood at the front of the stage and played a remix of “Hell Yes” on different machines.  One guy had a drum machine he’d hit was a mallet and Beck had a contraption that looked like an iPhone that made record scratching noises when he rubbed it.  It was awesome.

Beck & company put on a pretty great show.  It was night and day compared to that disappointing show I saw last time around.  He’s really one of the greats.

This is my third attempt at writing this post so I’m hoping third time is a charm.  My mom was supposed to come into town this past weekend but, due to a crazy case of shingles, her plans were put on hold.  In preparation of her coming, I purchased two tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld.  Luckily, one of my friends who recently moved here is as big of a Seinfeld geek as I and, within minutes of sending out an email, enthusiastically replied to reserve the spare ticket.

There were two shows that Jerry performed on Friday night, and our tickets were for the later one at 9:30.  This gave us time to swing by the Plaza beforehand to grab a bite, have a drink, and check out the art among the mobs of people.  I personally love the Plaza Art Fair, but I was pretty frustrating with the parking situation.  For some reason, I’ve never had a problem parking in the past.  This time, however, I drove around for 45 minutes looking for a spot.  It was worth it, though, as I rewarded myself with a steak sandwich and Boulevard Wheat while checking out the great (and insanely priced) art.

We left around 8:40 to head downtown for the show and were greeted with the sight of Jerry Seinfeld on the sign in front of the recently-renovated Midland Theater.

I’d been anxious to check out the inside of the Midland Theater since hearing they were going to reopen the place.  I had seen pictures online and was impressed.   In person, though, the theater is even more impressive.  It is definitely one of the nicest looking venues I’ve seen.

After an opening comedian who did his thing for about 15-20 minutes, Jerry came running out onto the stage.  From then on out, the guy killed it.

It sounds cheesy admitting this, but I was kind of in a state of awe for the first five minutes he was on stage.  I mean, it was Jerry Seinfeld, for crying out loud!  His routine covered a variety of topics ranging from cell phone use to parental fashion to ebay.  I really wish there was a way to have purchased a live recording of the show afterwards because the material was pretty great.

I’m not one to spend a lot of money on tickets for shows, but I’m happy to say that it was worth every penny.  In fact, my friend and I turned to each other about 15 minutes into his routine and commented that, if he walked off right then, we’d still feel we got our money’s worth.  After he was finished, he returned on stage to do a Q&A with the crowd.  This part proved just how quick-witted the guy is as he would respond with jokes without skipping a beat.  It was definitely an evening to remember.

It’s really frustrating when you have a ton of stuff to write about but just don’t have the time to do it.  I’ve been meaning to post a recap of last weekend all week, and now it’s already the NEXT weekend.  Craziness.

Last Saturday was a significant one for anyone with Iowa ties as Iowa State took on Iowa in football.  I went over to my buddy Andrew’s place to watch the game with friends.  The game was pretty ugly (it was tied 3-3 at halftime), and my Cyclones lost which was depressing.  I’m not used to seeing that happen very often as “we” had won 5 of the last 7 going into the game.  Granted, ISU is in a rebuilding phase with a coach just in his 2nd year of trying to create his own program, but it’s still a tough one to swallow.

After the game, we headed out to Arrowhead to watch the Wizards take on the LA Galaxy (or “David Beckham’s team” as it’s more commonly referred to).  I’d never been to a Wizards game before but was fortunate to have received discounted tickets through Andrew’s work.  Our seats were just 11 rows up on about the 30 yard line.  It was cool being so close to the action and to see arguably the most famous athlete in the world.  I really don’t know how many soccer games I’ll go to after this one because I personally just don’t get all that excited about soccer.  To me, soccer is kind of like watching Saturday Night Live a couple years ago — you sit through 90 minutes only to be entertained mildly for a total of one minute.  It was still a really good time, though.

A long time ago, I signed up for the email list for the Majestic comedy club on Zona Rosa, and they occasionally send me emails for free tickets to shows.  One of those shows happened to be on Sunday night to see Chris Porter, a comedian from KC who placed 3rd on the most recent season of “Last Comic Standing”.  The dude was pretty darn funny, I’m not gonna lie.  I hope he ends up making it big someday.  I’m going to try to make it out to the comedy club more often because it’s great entertainment and really not too expensive.

Tonight (yes, the following weekend of what I just posted about) I’m heading to the Plaza Art Fair for a little bit before heading downtown to see Mr. Jerry Seinfeld.  I am beyond pumped to see the guy.  I’ll post a recap at the end of the weekend.

I went with some friends last night to see The Republic Tigers play a free show at Kansas City Live! in the Power and Light District.  The Republic Tigers are a local band who have been gaining some national attention as of late and even landed a spot on Letterman a few months ago.

This was the first show I’d seen in the Power and Light District so I was curious to see how the setup would be.  Of course, being that they’re a local band, I figured the crowd wouldn’t exactly be packed like for other shows (especially considering it was a little chilly and rainy out), but I was impressed with how well the area lended itself to a live setting.  The only gripe that I have is that they played the Yankees/Rays game on the big screen behind the band the entire time they played.  I didn’t mind it so much because I was able to watch both at the same time.  I would imagine the band wasn’t all too pleased about the arrangement, though, and it probably took away from the experience.

I will admit that I probably like the band more than I normally would because they’re from KC.  They definitely sound even more like The Shins live than on record.  That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but their sound is a little more on the soft rock side of things.  I’m still rooting for them to hit the big time, though.  You can never have too many local bands do that.  Sadly, their biggest breakthrough moments have come from TV shows I’d be kind of embarassed about (The O.C., Gossip Girl, and Grey’s Anatomy).

I took a video of them while they played “Buildings and Mountains”, their most popular song.  You can view it here.

This past Labor Day weekend was pretty darn awesome.  Instead of bumming around Kansas City for the weekend, I opted to join the family up at our lake house in Lake Okoboji.  Since moving to Kansas City, I still try to make a point to make it up there at least once per summer, and it worked out that I was able to combine a work trip with it.

Being that it was late in the season, the weather was mild if not cool on the lake with fairly strong winds.  It wouldn’t take a Gary Lezak to know that it wasn’t exactly optimal lake weather, but it was still nice enough to relax and boat around.  I even got to test out our new tube which is more aerodynamic than the one we previously had.

On the second night I was there, my sister and I met up with the Lagneaux’s at a new bar on the lake called Bracco’s.  I’d heard a ton of great things about the place, and I can only imagine how fun it would be on a warm summer night.  The night we were there, however, was downright cold.  It was great to see Ryan, Sam, and Aaron, though, as it had been a long time since I’d had a chance to catch up with them.  In fact, it was the first I’d even seen them since recently becoming parents.

There was also a lot of family time that, when not taking place on the lake, included BBQing, board games, and cards.  My only regret of the weekend was that I didn’t take any pictures with the family.  Next year, I’ll remember to plan my trip up earlier in the summer.  It was a fantastic time nonetheless, and it make it even harder to return to work this week.