Festivus (for the rest of us)

Summer approaches, and that means summer music festivals. I’ve got several options to choose from this year. I can stay nearby for the return of the Monolith Music Festival at Red Rocks (which was a great success, for me anyway, in its inaugural year but has yet to announce a lineup for this year) or the new, well-intentioned but somewhat mish-mash Mile High Music Festival at DSG Park. If I feel like traveling (which seems likely, since Radiohead has decided not to play a solo show anywhere within 1,000 miles of Denver), there’s the pretty spectacular lineup of this year’s Lollapalooza in Chi-town.

But as fun as festivals are, they also have their drawbacks. Weather (hot or wet), overpriced food and beverages, and general music fatigue from watching 30 or 40 bands over 2 or 3 days can sometimes make festivals a trying experience, not to mention the high prices promotoers can charge for gathering so many artists in one place. So to avoid all that, I decided that this year, I’m flipping the script and putting together a summer music festival the way I want it. To start, I’ve worked with different concert promoters to spread the bands out so that this is truly a “summer” festival. None of this BS 3-day nonsense. This puppy lasts four months (from May to September). By spacing the artists out this way, I avoid music overload, but get the privilege of paying the ridiculous food and beer prices on multiple occasions, not to mention getting to see a good number of the more disgusting bathrooms in the Mile High City. Plus, as an added benefit, this setup lets me give Ticketmaster a lot more of my money. And trust me, there’s nothing I enjoy more than paying an extra 50% on top of the ticket price in “convenience fees,” “venue fees,” “sales tax,” and whatever other bullshit those greedy bastards have come up with so that their fat fucking pig of a CEO doesn’t miss out on his $12 million bonus check this year.

Aaaaaanyway... I’ll be announcing more acts as they come along, but so far, I’m pretty excited about my lineup. (Confirmed means I have tickets, unconfirmed means I’m still debating.)

April 28: The Raconteurs @ The Fillmore Auditorium (I’m considering this a pre-festival warmup show—Unconfirmed)
May 2: Elbow @ The Bluebird Theater (Confirmed)
May 16: Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s @ The Larimer Lounge (C)
May 20: Sea Wolf @ The Bluebird (U)
May 29: The Kooks @ The Ogden (U
June 2: The Roots @ The Fillmore (U)
June 3: R.E.M./Modest Mouse/The National @ Red Rocks (C)
June 5: Rush @ Red Rocks (U)
June 14: Drive-By Truckers @ Westword Music Showcase (U)
June 21: Robert Plant & Alison Krauss @ Red Rocks (U)
July 21/22: The Police/Elvis Costello @ Red Rocks (U)

So far, so good. Rock ’n’ roll will never die. It just gets more expensive.

Solid As A Rock

Rush at Red Rocks. At this stage in their career, most bands are either long-retired or playing greatest hits shows in Branson. Rush is one of those rare groups who have managed to continue to record decent new music—nothing earth-shattering, but certainly not embarrassing in terms of their legacy—while still managing to play enough hits to please their fans. Having long ago moved beyond the necessity of an opening band, Rush hit the stage right at 8:00 and played two sets totalling more than 3 hours. The set list was evenly split between the well-known crowd pleasers (Tom Sawyer, Freewill), the new stuff (I don’t know any song names, but it doesn’t really matter as they all sound the same anyway), and most enjoyably for me, some really deep tracks that they dug out for the hardcores (A Passage to Bangkok, Witch Hunt, 4 of the 6 tracks from Permanent Waves). Unfortunately, as great a venue as Red Rocks is, last night the wind was blowing hard and playing havoc with the PA system, but despite some dodgy sound, the show was entertaining, and the people-watching was fantastic (think tons of drunken redneck metal fans mixed with a thousand dorky guys in their 40s air-drumming along with Neil Peart’s solo). It wasn’t the best show I’ve ever seen, but for a bunch of guys getting closer to 60 than they’d probably care to admit, it rocked pretty hard.

Limelight
Digital Man
Entre Nous
Mission
Freewill
The Main Monkey Business
The Larger Bowl
Secret Touch
Circumstances
Between The Wheels
Dreamline

Intermission

Far Cry
Workin' Them Angels
Armor And Sword
Spindrift
The Way The Wind Blows
Subdivisions
Natural Science
Witch Hunt
Malignant Narcissism > Drum Solo
Hope
Summertime Blues
The Spirit Of Radio
Tom Sawyer

Encore
One Little Victory
A Passage to Bangkok
YYZ

The Random Factor

My life is finally back in the neighborhood of normal, so I've had some time this weekend to relax and reclaim my apartment from the dust and mold and piles of laundry. But despite my insanely busy week, I've been like a squirrel preparing for winter, gathering little nuts of randomness to share.

One of the sites I make a point to look at everyday is The Daily Monkey, a quirky collection of monkey-related photos and writings run by Brian Biggs, an illustrator I've worked with in the past. The monkeys haven't exactly been "daily" lately (Brian seems to be in the same boat as me), but the last post turned me on to this amazing set of photographs by a New Jersey photographer named Jason King. If there's one thing the internet has proved, it's that there's an incredible amount of undiscovered creative talent out there in the world, and it's nice that the internet has provided a place to see the work these people are creating. Of course, the internet has also proved that there's no end to what people will collect and fetishize, but that's a discussion for another time.

So, you may have heard that Dan Brown, author of a little book called The Da Vinci Code, is getting sued by anyone and everyone who's ever written a single word relating to Jesus. It's gotten so bad, last week, King James filed suit against him. Hey-o! (Ba-dum-bum.) Anyway, one of those suits, filed in London by the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, was recently dismissed by the presiding magistrate, Justice Peter Smith. The interesting twist to this story, however, is that Smith included his very own code in his printed decision. Between this and the judge who handed down her decision in rap form in an Eminem defamation case in 2003, I can't help but think that judges who get cute with their decisions are really just publicity hounds with WAY too much time on their hands, and should really be spending more time earning their money the way they're supposed to.

Despite looking rather disinterested for most of the match, DC United tied with FC Dallas last night to extend their unbeaten streak to 5 matches. United's only goal came from midfielder Ben Olsen, who has continued to play well while anxiously awaiting the announcement of the US World Cup roster (which will be shown live on Tuesday's Sportscenter at 6pm Eastern). Best of luck to Ben, one of my favorite players (so much so that I own his jersey). He's definitely a bubble player for the US, but hopefully his strong recent play will be enough to earn him a trip to Germany. As for United, having seen all of their games this year, I have to say I don't think DC has played particularly well in any of them. There have been nice stretches and good individual performances, but barring last week's dismantling of the hapless New York Red Bulls, United haven't dominated anyone, but they still have yet to lose this season. That worries me a little bit. Something needs to happen to light a fire under their collective butts so that they don't think they can just coast through the season. At this point, they're looking a lot like the Chelsea of MLS: not pretty to watch and not looking like they're all that interested in the games, but still so good that no one can beat them. As an aside, I just wanted to mention that the Washington Post does a fabulous job with their United coverage (and soccer coverage in general). I'm continually impressed by their top-notch soccer writer, Steven Goff. Check out the profile of United's hybrid defender/midfielder, Josh Gros, that Goff wrote as a preview to this week's match. A lot of papers would just run a tiny preview box (if they bothered to cover MLS at all), so it's nice to see this type of effort and quality. As for Gros, he's an interesting character. If you can continually get under the skin of a classy World Cup winner like Youri Djorkaeff, you're doing something right. And check out that photo: Josh seems to be a tongue-chewer, just like me and MJ.

My friend CJ asked me to make her a mix of Rush songs, which turned out to be a very fun experience. It had been a long time since I had really dug deeply into my Rush collection, and it gave me a chance to renew my long love affair with the kings of geek-rock. It also exposed a few glaring gaps in my collection, which I quickly filled thanks to the iTunes store. As any good Rush fan knows, the band has gone through three pretty distinct phases. They are: 1974's Rush — 1978's Hemispheres; (1980's Permanent Waves acts as a bridge to the next phase) 1980's Moving Pictures — 1987's Hold Your Fire; and 1989's Presto — the present. The first phase introduces the band as a heavy rock trio who share a lot in common with Led Zeppelin: a high-voiced lead singer, a killer guitarist who favors Gibson guitars, a monster drummer, long songs exhibiting a love of Tolkien, and some very questionable fashion choices. 2112 is the high point of this phase. The second phase finds the band tightening up their sound (and song length) and introducing the synthesizer rather strongly into the mix, as well as Neil Peart swinging his lyrics away from swords and sorcery towards more futuristic science fiction. Moving Pictures is the peak album here, and is arguably the ultimate Rush album. And finally, in the third phase, the band largely ditches the synths, gets back to a more groove-oriented rock sound, and Peart's lyrics become more personal. This phase sees the band struggle (as all aging acts do) to stay relevant with their new music while trying to meet the fans' demands for their greatest hits in concert. For me, Counterparts is the album to own from this stretch, as it rocks harder than anything the band had done since Permanent Waves. Through their career, Rush have also put out six live albums. My personal favorite is Different Stages, but they're all fairly interchangeable. I prefer Different Stages because the mix is little more raw, which is something most Rush live albums are not. So what does this all mean? Well, to my and CJ's delight (and her husband's dismay) she got three discs, one for each era. And I discovered that digging through Rush's music to make a mix allowed me to rediscover my love for them, so I've decided maybe I should do the same for other bands I used to love but haven't listened to much of lately. Next on my list: Led Zeppelin.

I think I had some other stuff to talk about, but I can't remember. I'm in food coma now after a delicious omelet and cinnamon toast at Cafe Patachou. If you're ever in Indy and looking for a breakfast spot, don't miss this place. Yum.

IMAGES
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

SOUNDS
Permanent Waves, Rush
Signals, Rush
Power Windows, Rush
A Blessing and a Curse, Drive-By Truckers
Skeleton Jar, Youth Group
Mr. Beast, Mogwai
Nashville, Josh Rouse