Another Road Trip!

Pittsburgh

For my birthday earlier this month, my husband surprised me with tickets to The Black Keys concert in Pittsburgh this April. I now have another road trip and concert to look forward to! We will be bringing some friends along for this one.

I had an amazing time when I saw this band in Toronto last year. I’m really looking forward to sharing this experience with friends and checking out another new city.

I’m spoiled.

Road Trip!

Road Trip

My husband and I won the chance to purchase fan club tickets to the Pearl Jam concert in Chicago this summer. We did not win for the show closer to home in London Ontario, but we are super excited to have tickets for the Chicago show. Can’t wait to check out the city on the way to the concert!

Pearl Jam Coming to Canada this Summer!

<insert happy dance here>

Today Pearl Jam announced two North American concerts this July, one in London Ontario and the other in Chicago. They also mentioned a US tour this fall with details to be announced later. Other known shows include 3 in South America this spring.

The London show has a seating capacity of around 10,000 people. It’s going to be extra challenging to beat scalpers to these tickets, but they go on sale for the public on February 9, 2013.

My husband entered us into the raffle to win a chance to buy fan club tickets using his trusty Ten Club membership. We’ll find out if we won next week. You may not hear from me until then, I’m not sure how well I can type with my fingers crossed…

¡Tre!

Green_Day_Tre_coverI purchased the third album in Green Day’s trilogy, ¡Tré! a few weeks ago and since then I’ve listened to the songs 4-5 times each. The verdict: I wouldn’t go out of my way to skip any songs, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to any particular song either. Overall, the album is pretty good. I found myself absently tapping my foot along to most of the songs, but none really grabbed me.

Since I don’t have any favourite songs, I will list my favourite sections of this album:

  1. 99 Revolutions – the chorus, especially the one that drops all instruments but the drums at 2:30
  2. 8th Avenue Serenade – the first 13 seconds
  3. X-Kid – the first 35 seconds

Some of the lyrics are jarring for me. The following examples all stuck out during my commute when I was not paying any special attention to the lyrics:

  1. The worst offender is “I lost my head, I even looked under the bed” from Missing You. Seriously? This sounds like it came straight out of a learn-to-read book from grade school.
  2. Although the song Drama Queen is one of the more recognizable songs on the album, I’m not a fan of the line “Everyone’s drama queen is old enough to bleed now”. I don’t want to be offended by it, but I am.
  3. And lastly the line “Like a lifelong daisy chain” in the song A Little Boy Named Train just seems out of place on a Green Day album. It conjures the image of a crown of delicate flowers instead of the more genre appropriate bleeding heart grenade from the cover of their earlier album American Idiot.

I should mention that the track The Forgotten was part of the Twilight movie soundtrack for Breaking Dawn Part 2. I find it kind of boring. I also want to add that that I’d like to hear Dirty Rotten Bastards in concert. This track has the spirit of an Irish drinking tune, but doesn’t quite hit the mark for me. It might work better with a crowd singing along.

I still like the first album in the trilogy best, but I rank ¡Tré! second place.

For my comments on the first two albums in the trilogy see this post.

Walk off the Earth – Part 2

I fought against writing this post for over a week. I feel like I haven’t written enough posts on this blog to justify duplicating topics already, but I just can’t stop watching this band on You Tube. These guys are like audio-visual crack. I was even inspired to spend $$$ on them.
This awesome t-shirt is on it’s way to me as I write this.

Wote Shirt
Link to Walk off the Earth on You Tube.
(Sorry I am too lazy to link each song.)
Link to my first Walk off the Earth post.

(For anyone having trouble finding it almost directly below this post)


Original Songs

  • Red Hands – I didn’t mention this one earlier but it is a solid song with yet another amazing video. Check out the unedited version afterwards to see just how much effort these guys put into it.
  • Gang of Rhythm – I can’t hold still when I listen to this song. I especially like the section at the beginning where they introduce each instrument (@ 0:44 – 1:18).

Covers

  • Reckoning Song (One Day) – This is one of those songs that can get firmly stuck in your head for days. The video features an intriguing trio of Sarahs and Giannis jumping, clapping and headbanging for your viewing pleasure.
  • I Knew You Were Trouble – I’m not a huge Taylor Swift fan but this cover is a real auditory treat. Don’t let the simple video fool you. This is the band’s newest video at the moment and it’s already getting a lot of attention from the likes of Perez Hilton, CBC and The Toronto Star.