Funny Yet Sad

Thursday was a good day - The HOchieS received presento-pyos from Bughie J.  Yummy Christmas breads and brownie greatness that I have not eaten in probably 2 years or so.  Someone's securing their place off the Grievance List, I see.  Heh.

Beetchie came to visit and we gave her her pyos (she's rockin' her special shirt)!

Then there was the debacle called Alex and Clownie.

This being the last bar night of 2009, we decided to have drinks together and wings on our own.  We now know that we do not have an oven at the work place but a warming tray that goes up to 180 degrees but that doesn't help us get crispy wings, now does it?!

With a bottle of champagne, microwaved wings and great company - we talked life and laughed lots.  It was a fun while with some of my favourite peoples but as we sat there around the table at the canteen, I could not help but hope our good times will last throughout next year and for many years to come.

Memorable Quotes of the Evening:

Beetchie: All the gifts were thoughtful, but this one is the most!

Happy Thanksgiving, All!

More to come...

And here it is:

Thanksgiving Week has been a whirlwind of goo'd times.

We made new friends (Hardy Har, Daw and Shar), shared lots of good food and plenty of laughs.
The menu was similar to what we usually feast upon for this time of year but was it ever so and always GREAT.

1. Turkey with the best stuffin eva'
2. Pork Leg
3. Collard Greens
4. Sweet Potato Souffle
5. Green Beans
6. Saffron Rice
7. Corn pudding
8. Olive bread
9. Ham
10. Homemade bread
11. Flan
12. Blackout cake from Homestyle Bakery, complete with turkey.  Not Cake Wreck worthy though.

Roast, Turkey!!!!!

In the days leading up to the feasting, TD5 was quite busy! Not only did he, Momma HO, Papa HO, Luuuuuissss and H1 go to see South Pacific on Friday, but then he went to see West Side Story on Tuesday after stuffing his gut with Pongsri.  The friends LOVED it and I joined in because I wanted to see Frass, who was supposed to come up today but rejected us! Where were you, Frass?! Are you shopping online?! You forgot us didn't you!!!!!!??!!!!!

Today TD5 and co. went to Woodbury for some Black Friday dealies at 7:30 a.m.  I saw lots of bags come into the house, so I guess the shopping was a success.

I, on the other hand, with H1 shopped online today.  It was from Amazon, of course and we made out like bandits...perhaps, too well.  Ack, money spent and gone.  Blargh.

Gen' Frien' gave sent me the most awesome packages!!!!!

Oooooooo, exciting, yeah? No, not Pom Pom and the gang from Homestar Runner but what's behind them! Thanks so much, Gen' Frien'!

I'm wondering what I should be doing now but TD5 has me watching Cherry Blossoms.  He likes to traumatize me, that one.  All the time.

Movie Nights:

Thanskgiving Night: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure; Rambo III

Friday Night: Labyrinth; Wolverine (I watched White Collar and Burn Notice with TD5)

Memorable Conversations of the Weekend:

::While watching Rambo III::

Hardy Har: You know, you remember that movie Cliffhanger? I saw that and after I did, I went rock climbing without any gear or anything.  A tall rock, eh?! Then about a year later, I found out that itwas all filmed on a stage! I did mine for real without equipment!!!  I could have died! All because of that movie!

H1: Look! Do you remember this?! Pear soap!
TD5: What? The only soap I know is Life Buoy. 
H1: And you had to put it in your mouth as punishment, right?
TD5: Yeah.  And the blue one.
Or 2: I remember that! Gross!
TD5: Yeah, my cousin and I ate that.  A whole bar each.  We had to be rushed to the hospital.
Or 2: What the hell did you do that for?!
TD5: Well, we were pretending we were at a restaurant.
Or 2: And you ordered the soap?

And thus 'ends' another Thanksgiving at the HOchieS' but as we all know, it doesn't stop there until the turkey soup has been made.

Christmas is up next and already the madness has begun.  This was probably the most impressive package delivery I've ever received...

Passed The Point of Delirium

Ah, Green Day.

Finally!

Finally, you can be scratched off a list I just made up, of bands I never saw and should try to if given the chance, even if your current tour album sucks an ass.

Lately, I have been hearing a whole lot of bashing of this band. I don't know when Green Day became considered overrated or became the tail end of hate but then again, I also did not know when Green Day became so "family friendly".

Despite the rampant ill-speaking, I'm convinced that those people just haven't seen Green Day and need to get over their hangups about kids attending their concerts. Sure it weirded me out too to discover kids as young as 6 where there, as well as people as old as 50 something but who cares?!

Green Day put on one of the best shows I've seen.

They had energy to burn, and played for a solid 3 hours with fun crowd interaction and so much personality.

They've come quite the long way from 1994 when I first took notice and you can see the boys have aged some but they're still crazy as ever, more seasoned and awesome enough to put on a huge production show at MSG (definitely one of the biggest I've been to - and perhaps even TOO huge for MSG's 'tiny' space).



The Green Day @ Madison Square Garden 7/28/2009 Set List:

1. Song of the Century
2. 21st Century Breakdown
3. Know Your Enemy
4. Murder City
5. East Jesus Nowhere
6. Holiday
7. Static Age
8. Before the Lobotomy
9. Are We the Waiting
10. St. Jimmy
11. Boulevard of Broken Dreams
12. A Quick One While He's Away (The Who)
13. Hitchin a Ride
14. Welcome to Paradise
15. Stop, Drop, and Roll/ Eye of the Tiger
16. FOD
17. When I Come Around
18. Going to Pasalacqua
19. Stuart And The Ave./ Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?
20. Iron Man riff
21. Brain Stew
22. Jaded
23. Knowledge
24. Basket Case
25. She
26. King For a Day
27. Shout/ Earth Angel (The Penguins)/ Christie Road
/ I'll Be There
28. 21 Guns
29. American Eulogy

30. American Idiot
31. Jesus of Suburbia
32. Minority
33. Macy's Day Parade
34. Tell Me When It's Time to Say I Love You (AI b-side)
35. Good Riddance

Are you seeing this? 35 friggin' songs! They played forever! And they played non-stop, only leaving the stage once, although they cleverly disguised their breaks by creating make shift bands and inviting peeps to come up on stage.

The Low-Lamps:

1. That girl who got invited up to sing "Dearly Beloved". OMG, her voice was awful. It should have been me up there! I could have winged it a little bit better. Maybe. Not to mention her ass was in our faces. Ugh, gross. But I did laugh when Billie Joe held his head because she was so awful. That was just damned classic.

2. Billie Joe's constant "Ay ooh"s. There were too many Billie Joe. Too many! You were trying to keep us awake and pumped but there was no need. We already were even coming down to the hour 3, we were still not restless.

3. The two idiots in front of us. That one idiot who thought it was okay to mosh into a kid even though he was not in a mosh pit. What the hell was his problem? I hate stupids. And the fact that he had piercings when he was such a jerk and obviously not a rocker, per say, just made me even angrier.

4. The girl of the two idiots who managed to retrieve her slipper. That was unfortunate. Beetchie and I were really hoping she lost it forever under the bleacher set up.

5. Why didn't we get Franz Ferdinand as the support act? It's not that Kaiser Chiefs were by any means horrid but I'm not a huge fan and would have much preferred FF.

6. That strange song Green Day performed that no one knew and weren't really receptive too. That was just awful.

7. Mike gave a bass to the make-shift bassist. WTF! That should have been me! That kid was really loving himself too on stage. What a brave, obnoxious little ass he was.

8. "21 Guns". I really don't like that song and I don't know why it's so damned popular.

The Highlights:

1. The many Green Day antics. They blessed Trevor, this little kid who they totally effed with and misdirected on stage numerous times. They put together a make-shift band, and kicked many people off their stage with a solid swift boot to the asses.

2. When Billie Joe brought up his make-shift guitarist to the stage and proceeded to plant a kiss on her, that was freakin' hilarious, even more so due to the fact that she was desperately trying to get away from him. Ahahahahahaha.

3. Tre Cool slapped that make shift drummer in the back of the head for trying to fancy up the drumbeat too much. That was not the only slap he got - there was also some tapping of drumsticks on his head. Greatness.

4. Having Beetchie there. This was her first MSG show and her first time seeing Green Day as well. And despite being persecuted for wanting to see them, we both agree that eff everyone else - Green Day were amazing! Also, I know she's been going through a rough time of it lately with dastardly school things that unfortunately is affecting everyone and giving her much stress, but I'm glad she got to go out for a bit to do something she really wanted to do.

5. The stage show. Their production and stage set up was fantastic. The lights, the videos, every time a new song was played, there was a new set up for that, the colours, the sound and the pyrotechnics! When the flames went up, I could feel the heat from where we were. We had decent seats too (Section 10, Row L, seats 5 & 6), so we could see it all! Amazing.





6. Tre Cool - still funny and nuts as ever.





7. Billie Joe - mooning us still after all these years, and still having the greatest time laughing at himself and others.





8. Mike Dirnt - I went through love for all members of GD starting with Tre, then loving Billie and these days and for the past few years, loving Mike the most. It's the bassist stance I love most but he's got the true rocker as well. The hair, the sideburns, the sad eyebrows, the tattoos, the sleeveless shirts and did I mention the bassist stance? When he came out with the pink ears and pink tail for "King For a Day", I was swooning. It was so cute! Awww, I'm only sorry I didn't get a picture because my camera went kaput on the battery life. At least I got him in full bassist stance under the skull-infused disco ball.



Best Performances of the Evening:

1. "King for a Day". That was probably the number 1 highlight for me. All of a sudden they were all dressed up in costumes - Mike with his pink ears and pink tail, Billie Joe with a pink feather boa, that other guitarist in a pirate's hat, the saxophone player in something and Tre in something else I can't quite remember. They had so much fun playing that song and then into Shout. Everything was nuts at that point and it made me love how great a time they were having on stage and doing what they do best: putting on a hectic, crazy fun show where they could do whatever they wanted, and truly enjoy life.

2. "Jesus of Suburbia". Ah yes, I really wanted them to play all 9 glorious minutes of this and would have been sorely disappointed had they not being that they've been playing it almost every show this tour, if not all. Save when that girl messed up "Dearly Beloved", it was as awesome as I expected it to be.

3. "Welcome to Paradise".

4. "F.O.D." I think I was the only one who screamed "YEAH!" when Billie Joe asked if they should play this. I love that damned song.

Just a few notes on Kaiser Chiefs, as I said before, they weren't horrible but it was a bit annoying I could not understand a thing Ricky Wilson was singing thanks to poor sound and while never a fan of this band, they weren't horrible plus they played "Everyday I Love You Less and Less" which is a song I actually like, so that was cool of them.



The Kaiser Chiefs at Madison Square Garden 7/28/2009 Set List:

1. Never Miss a Beat
2. Everyday I Love You Less and Less
3. Ruby
4. Can't Say What I Mean
5. I Predict A Riot
6. You Want History
7. Take My Temperature
8. Oh My God

And now for some Record Keeping:

Those Who Attended GD with Or 2 -

Beetchie

Currently listening to: "Once Around The Block" by Badly Drawn Boy.

Fuckin' Up The Lyrics with The Last Shadow Puppets

I ordered the tickets to see The Last Shadow Puppets back in July and I was super excited at the time to be seeing the boys Miles and Alex, after really loving their album The Age of the Understatement.

Yesterday, however, I was so damned cranky that I almost did not go.

Everything just seemed to be going wrong and if not for the price per ticket, I would have bailed, even if it meant giving up a chance to see my cutie Alex and my cool Miles.

Thank goodness I stayed because they were even more incredible than I thought they'd be.

Having a 16 piece orchestra will do that for you and the sound at small venue of the Grand Ballroom just filled it and was absolutely amazing.



The Lowlamps:

1. Those damned privileged children. They were complaining about 'wanting weekends' when they only work 2 days out of the week. They also had the nerve to say, "My friends lost their jobs but I just got a job. They're jobs out there." I am thankful that X kneed and elbowed a few of them for being stupid assholes.

2. The lighting at that damned place. Just like the Hammerstein downstairs, I still have yet to take a great picture of Alex.

3. My camera. I love Little Latin O. for its years of service, but in a setting like that, it tends to fail me and I get annoyed when people managed to smuggle in their D40s or had better slim point & shoots and just take damned good pictures! GRRRR!

4. H1 not being able to be there too, especially during Arctic Monkey/The Rascals like moments.

5. Miles Kane's dressing up like a Gallagher. I know X was happy but I avoided eye contact with her when I saw Miles come out with his aviators, leather jacket and very British looking face. Oh Miles. Did you HAVE to work against me?!



6. My Mistakes Were Made For You. Alex didn't do a very good job singing this song. It's probably the best song on the album and he was effed it. Thanks A., Thanks.

7. Our initially poor attitudes. X and I were so damned cranky, we almost left. It's not our fault though because those bastards started half an hour later than they were supposed to and the Roadies just stood around pretending to do work.

8. The Roadies. There was this neanderthal that scared the crap out of X and myself. He looked like he would kick our asses.



9. The opening act, Stephen Fretwell. The one thing we hated about him was the lyrics he wrote that actually made sense. He sang two songs that were normal and we were damned bored. He needs to stick to what he knows, which is the bizarre and... chickens?

The Highlights:

1. The opening act, Stephen Fretwell. Okay, he was funny but his chicken in the supermarket lyrics, tree roots and by tree roots he means himself, and other nonsensical lyrics were damned confusing making X and I marvel at being able to witness what just waking up can do to a singer. He had a good voice and a sense of humour but the performance made us laugh the whole way through until the last 2 songs mentioned.

The video's sideways but uh, what's he going on about?



Hilarious.

2. The 16 piece orchestra. Those effers took long to setup and fiddle with their violins but they did a good job.

3. Miles Kane. I was hesitant at first when I first heard that Alex and Miles were going to form a band and write songs with influences of Scott Walker and David Bowie. I was skeptical it took them 2 weeks in a bed bug ridden villa in France to write the album and then I was skeptical when the video for The Age of the Understatement premiered. Then I decided to give it more time to simmer because lyrically it was to be expected from Alex that it'd be awesomely mature and well-written. And then I thought... Miles is 'firm friends' with Alex, so he must be a brilliant boy as well.

So after buying this album, I respected Miles and thought he was cool enough to have a crush on another Brit. Then, I bought The Rascals' album, "Rascalize" and I knew it was really okay to have a crush on Miles. It was rock, 60s, 'hard' and fun and Miles carried it brilliantly.

Last night was no different and I'm glad I got to see him perform and would totally see him for The Rascals if they ever came to NYC. He was awesome, he smiled for photographers and looked at crazy Cherries warily. I didn't enjoy that he didn't look at me but he was distracted by those asshole children who were acting a damned mess, even if I was standing right in front of him. I can't blame him.



7. My Moment with Alex Turner. I had another one with him - my third in a year and half. X and I were standing on Miles' side, but from where I stood I got a clear shot of Alex and he of me. During "Calm Like You" (one of my favourite songs), he sang the first half to me. Yep. He stared straight at me and sang. I sang it back to him and smiled.
Now, there are probably various reasons why he did this.

a. He was probably thinking, "oh, there's Suga'Face".
b. He was probably thinking, "oh, there's Suga'Face but where's her Sister Suga'Face?"
c. He was probably thinking, "oh, there's that...girl, who...I think I see everytime I'm in NYC...is she stalking me?"
d. He was probably thinking, "oh, that girl reminds me of my gf (BITCH! - okay, that's my own insert and probably not his)..."

It was actually a really sweet moment and I could do nothing but sing and smile at him because he was extra cute last night, which leads me to believe it was choice "D", which makes me cranky but I botched it anyway when I messed up a lyric and he caught it. He turned away after that. Ha. He did look at me again during "Standing Next to Me" but that was brief. He probably remembered I messed up the first time... Curses! And so that was 'fuckin' up the lyrics with TLSP' Part I.

8. Alex Turner. It's good to see he's getting cuter as years go by because I was a little worried for him for a while there. However, he's looking a lot less hooliganish and well, that's just not right.



9. Miles and Alex. Their banter was cute. Alex smiled a lot with his BFF and they were quite happy with each other. It's the kind of happy you'd probably see if you were to hang out with them while they talked about bullshit, which they did a lot of last night. Poor Miles, unlike Alex's fun day in NYC, Miles was feeling under the weather.



10. Separate and Ever Deadly - 'fuckin' up the lyrics' with TLSP Part II. Yeah, when Miles had to sing his verse, I totally heard him stumble and begin late. As I was about to point this out to him and well, to X, really. Miles stopped the orchestra so he could do it over. "Wait! I fucked it up! I started late! Fucked it up!!!! I want to do it again because it's good!" And so he did and it was good.

Ah, funny effs.

The Last Shadow Puppets Set List 10/30/2008 @ the Grand Ballroom NYC:

In My Room
The Age of the Understatement
Calm Like You
Black Plant
Gas Dance
Only the Truth
Separate and Ever Deadly
My Little Red Book
Standing Next To Me
Hang the Cyst
I Want You (She's So Heavy) (The Beatles cover)
In The Heat of the Morning (David Bowie cover)
I Don't Like You Anymore
My Mistakes Were Made For You
The Chamber
The Time Has Come Again
Meeting Place

Best performances of the evening: "Calm Like You", "Only the Truth", "Separate and Ever Deadly", "Hang the Cyst", "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"

So What Exactly Happened to the Crabs?

Their brethren were YouTubed to determine the best method of destruction and cleaning.  Having the visual aid was most welcome and helpful.

So to remember what we did for future reference:

1.  We shocked them in some ice water which stunned them so as to not be harmed by their gundys

2.  We laid them out on their backs so their bellies showed and speared under the mouths

3.  The tops were removed and they were then cut in half.

Harsh, I know. We felt sorry for the little crabs.

After being frozen over night, Momma HOchie prepared Sunday Lunch. Oh yes. Thank you crabs, for providing a wonderful addition to the callalloo along with the pigtails, with a lovely side of macaroni pie, rice and some awesome-assed stewed chicken. Yum.



The bottom line, is that the crabs went INTO my mouth.

Currently listening to: "Grab the Mic" by Mindless Self Indulgence, followed by "Time of Judgment" by Nobuo Uematsu, from the Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack.

August 1st - 4th

The world has not yet ended even though I was of the camp "the world will end once that atom smasher is turned on!". Considering that I am unsure if it has even been turned on yet will probably have you believing that I did not really think a Black Hole would form and sucks us all down. That may be partially true but only because the Discovery Channel told me that Operation Impending Doom III was set to begin in 2012, so that's the date I'm going by really. The Discovery Channel never lies! That's probably how long it'd take that Black Hole to form anyway...

In the meanwhile, the HOchieS have been enjoying the company of Hochie favourites - Beetchie & Alex, with Frass and MC tagging along. Heh.

On Friday, we went to see The Dark Knight. It was quite a good movie and as Batman should be but it made me sad to see Heath. It's not as if I loved Heath when he was still with us but I didn't dislike him either. Seeing him with all his finite lines and creep behaviour just makes it all the more tragic.
Other than that, Gary Oldman was fantastic but not as fantastic as Frass and I keeping an eye on MC and Alex to ensure they were not sleeping (as both are notorious for such things) and sure enough, within the first five minutes MC had fallen asleep.
And it was during a bank robbery! What the eff.

After getting out of the theatre early with a date of 5 PM for dinner, SOME people were starvin' and needed to get food earlier. Since we were to meet Beetchie for dinner, we decided to go to Applebee's for some mini-burgers, wings and drinks.

This was followed by Pongsri which as always was a fun time with good eats had by all. I had about a million quotes to add to this but can't remember any of it. We're such messes.

Saturday proved rather crazy. I almost made Frass hate me for life (which I'm sure he does already but maybe had this gone the way it could have, he would hate on me with intent to destroy). I did not have my phone on me, so I missed his call telling me that he was on the 11.45 train. I only got that message at 1.40, which means he would have been waiting at the train station for an hour for us to pick him up. It turns out rain saved my ass by falling so hard and fierce that it flooded the tracks and he was delayed for an hour extra. So while my ass was saved, his was napping on the train. All in all, it worked out for all parties involved.

Beetchie and Sufi showed up an hour after the potential debacle with a box full of baos and a bag full of crabs with gundys not secure. Well, those crabs were rather entertaining especially the one that was super fiesty:



We rocked the Rock Band, had patties, jerk chicken with rice and peas and chatted. Oh yeah, and there was a huge fight over some molten lava cake between Sufi and Beetchie that I tried to stay away from but it was near impossible since the fight spilled over right into Sunday afternoon.

As a treat for the Oxymorons, The Oxtails completed the World Tour and are now in the Hall of Fame. We went in lookin' like whores being mostly unclothed and ended up purchasing threads for the Apocalyptic "future" and ummm, feathers. I now have a jellyfish microphone and Beetchie has a gas mask. I think she may have been trying to tell me something but I ignore her.

Monday morning saw the eating of dim sum with Beetchie, a pepper flake that got stuck in my throat and a long uneventful day at work after that. Ah well.

Now I'm back to how my August months usually are - boring.

I hate August.

Currently listening to: "Spiralling" by Keane. Uhhh, okay, I was SO not expecting this bad '70s + '80s Sound AT ALL. Wow. and "The Escapist" by The Streets. If this song is any indication of what the new The Streets album is like, I might have to take Mike Skinner's advice and push things forward by getting someone else's album; and "Midna's Desperate Hour" by Koji Kondo and Toru Minegishi, from the Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess Original Soundtrack. This game was damned nightmarish!

Action Figures

Memorable Conversation of the Day:

Beetchie: If you were an action figure, what would you be packaged with?
Or 2: Toys. I'd have throwing toy action and a sarcasm face, that you could change to
Beetchie: ahhaha
Or 2: And you?
Beetchie: I said I would have coffee, a novel, wasabi and my suave charm
Or 2: Ha. That sounds right.
Beetchie: heh heh. Oh and my cell phone.
Or 2: mine is less interesting but I do like that you could change my face though
Beetchie: Yeah that's a good option. You'd need a "meh" face as well
Or 2: true. I guess I'd have two interchangeables. Hmm, and maybe some plaid lounge pants
Beetchie: hahaha, nintendo wii controller
Or 2: concert tickets. Yeah, a wii mote in one hand, a ps3 in the other. Gaming systems of every kind "sans XBox". You know this is going on the blog right? oo! and a pig. That's just too many accessories. Maybe there could be a pig on my shirt or something to represent or a strip of bacon
Beetchie: a pig?? No no, a strip of bacon would be more appropriate
Or 2: I got it!
Beetchie: eh eh?
Or 2: My t-shirt would have a strip of bacon and the url to the blog
Beetchie: omfg
Or 2: "I Bacon and I Blog"
Beetchie: urk.
Or 2: What. it's true
Beetchie: blacon?
Or 2: I Bacon and I Blog and the back could read "Blacon". Yes
Beetchie: hahaha. What kind of shirt would I wear? hm. "I make girls cry". hahaha
Or 2: Ahahaha
Or 2: We have to be linked. You know how some action figures in a set interact with each other?
Beetchie: oh yeah. hm. I could carry a bag of bacon strips for sabi
Or 2: hmmm. We could have part of an explosion each in our kits... "now with more misadventures"
Beetchie: no no. I know! You can carry an empty plate and I can be carrying the piece of bacon I just stole from you. hahaha
Or 2: ... and my "bitch, I go kill you" face? oh wait, how could I forget...I'd have to have my bag full of pins and my camera. oh and a changeable leg with a bruise on it.
Beetchie: a changeable leg? for wha?
Or 2: for everytime i trip
Beetchie: hahaha. I need a hoodie as well.
Or 2: that's right. I guess it could all go in my bag - the ipod, headphones, camera, psp, ds. My action figure is a h.a.m
Beetchie: haha. Your action figure is gonna need to come with a "house" set like barbie's dream house
Or 2: I'll be sure to make my hands carney. Yeah, you're gonna have to buy accessories separately, much like I had to. That shit ain't cheap. I may be but not my accessories
Beetchie: hahah. true true. I'd be the more popular figure, b/c I'm good to go right out of the package
Or 2: Yeah. You could probably get me and my accesories on amazon for cheaper. oh yeah, and i'd have to have an amazon credit card accessory. bwahahaha. Ah, i love my card.

And later on:

Or 2: Beetchie and I were having this whole discussion about what we'd be packaged with if action figures were made of us.
H1: I'd have a cape of invisibility and a Sexy Body.

...Hence the reason I could not do a sketch of H1's Action Figure.

Currently listening to: "Head Down" by Nine Inch Nails.

Checklist

Out for five days, with today being the first day back at work. It's been five weeks since Chrissy Lee spent time with The HOchieS, with today being the first 'full' day without him.

What the eff.

We're not liking it at all.

Even the Pumps is sad.

It was fun and it all went by too quickly but I guess what they say is true - time flies when you're having fun.

Memories of Chrissy Lee shall be recorded on the blog because he likes that sort of thing. Heh.

In no particular order, here are the fun times shared!

1. Movies - He saw many, one for every week in the month of June or something like that. It began with his third viewing of "Iron Man" because he's crazy, not necessarily that Iron Man was fantastic, right Chrissy Lee? Followed by "Hulk", "Wanted" and "Wall DOT E", interpunct not included.

2. By special request from Chrissy Lee himself: Dyson Air Blade. Check.

3. Good Time Eats - Let's see,

Bourbon Chicken. Check.
IHOP. Check.
Sushi. Check. Not the kind he wanted necessarily. Check.
Starbucks Java Bits Frappacino. Check.
Dunkin Donuts French Vanilla Iced Coffee. Check.
H1's Iced Coffee. Half a check as it was ousted for Dunkin D. Tsk.
Dinosaur BBQ. Check. Note: Next time get the beef brisket.
Sapporo Tonkatsu. Check. Note: Next time get the beef short ribs.
Pongsri. Check.
White Castle sliders Meh for Or 2.
Ben & Jerry's "Everything But The...", "Chocolate Therapy", "Strawberry Shortcake", "Fossil Fuel", "Cookie Dough", "Cinnamon Cinnabun". Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. and Check.
Bluebunny Ice-cream "Banana Split Sundae", "Chocolate Brownie", "Cookie Dough".
Other Ice-Cream "Green Tea", "Ice Cream sandwich" and "Egg Custard". Yum and Yum. Check and Check. Fried Ice-Cream - sadly, no check.
Grandma's "Chocolate Pudding Pie", "Banana Split Whipped"
Sweet Melissa "Banana Caramel Cream"
KFC Chipotle Chicken and Snackers of all four varieties. Check.
McDonald's Breakfast, McDonald's, Wendy's. It's all there. Check.
Jamaican Beef Patties with and without cheese. When did that NOT happen? Check.
H1's deli meat sandwich. Check.
Papa HOchie's Stewed Pork. Check x 4 (enjoyed that much, methinks).
Lay's Salt & Vinegar Chips. Check. Mostly eaten by Or 2.
Popcorn Indiana Kettle Corn. Check.
Funnel Cake. Bleck. Check.
Uptown Street Hot Dog. Double Bleck. Check.

4. Places and Things!

The Museum of Natural History and the Plane'arium
The MOMA. Fun times even without an A cube. Har har.
Eck! The damned 5th Ave. A. store, yes. yes. The SoHo branch? Yeah Yeah, that one too. Lame.
Six Flags Great Adventure. Enjoyed with his BFF Fred. Heh, at least it wasn't me. =)
The Bronx Zoo: The Sky Safari (which by the way shut down with 40 people on it for over an hour today), The World of Darkness, Great Ape Escape (heehee, humour for H1) or rather, the Congo Exhibit, A Gift Shop, The Cafeteria, The Big Cat Exhibit, The Asian/Orient Express Exhibit (Orient Express? Har. Racist.).
Bunji's with A. Face and driving to the Hospital so that B. Cheeks could be born.
Next door for Drunkeness on the 4th of July. Grrr.
The City to bum!
Arguing with Or 2!

R.E.M.!

5. Games Played

Wii - "Wii Fit", "Mario Kart", "Mario Party 8", "Wii Zapper: Link's Crossbow Training", "Super Mario Galaxy", "Resident Evil 4", "Guitar Hero III", and "Wario Ware: Smooth Moves".

PS3 - "Rock Band". Hey, I only truly have one game we play on that, alright?! Chrissy Lee has proven that he can shred like nobody's buisness and sing like a pro! Okay, so maybe that's not entirely true but he had fun!

DS - "Professor Layton and the Curious Village".

6. TV and Movies on TV Watched

"Law & Order: SVU", "CSI: Miami" (which he watched on his own), "Back to the Future", "Burn Notice" (a new favourite!), "Bad Boys" (an attempt to anyway)and "Double Impact"... Almost every night.

Anything else, feel free to add to this blog but for now Chrissy Lee, start making a new list of things to do for your next visit!

Currently listening to: "Pity and Fear" by Death Cab For Cutie. This "Narrow Stairs" Album seems quite a departure for them. It's odd yet oddly entertaining.

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit...Hare, Hare, Hare

It's that time of the month again, where we wish good luck upon ourselves with the chant.

So here's to the month of May.

Hope it's a good one!

Currently listening to: Beetchie on skype.

Hiding in the Shadows, Barely Obscured by the Earth

The Moon made a spectacle of itself tonight.
We enjoyed watching it very much and won't get to see another like it until 2010 we're told.

We didn't see that asshole Saturn's rings.

A Camera Eye I may have, but I'm still working on the Telescope one.

Here's what the moon looked like last night:



And here's what my camera could muster tonight from the beginnings of the eclipse. I know you can't really see shit from this, but blame the camera, not the moon!



Such awesome power makes you almost forget that just a few hundred miles to the left, we're preparing to shoot down a rogue spy satellite.

How I worry about the spam...

In other news, here's to our 500th blog post!!!!!

Saturday and Sunday

The HOchieS had fun this weekend. We saw some snow, which incidentally is no fun for H1, we ate chinese food for breakfast and Budgie HOchie the Third and Angel came around for a visit.

What did we do together?

We played Rock Band and let me just tell you, Boobey Head and Boobey Face can sing.

Songs were mastered with the elusive five stars on the tracks that we love most but just couldn't quite nail including "Creep" by Radiohead, "Maps" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "The Hand That Feeds" by NIN and "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer.

Three stars were made on the ones we didn't know and five on the ones we didn't think we could ever make, such as "Run To The Hills" by Iron Maiden (who knew I'd get it on the first try?!) and some we were embarrassed by i.e "Dead on Arrival" by Fall Out Boy. Ugh.

All this happened because quote,

H1: You needed me. I am not only your Band Manager but I am also your muse.

Truly, H1. Truly.

Can't wait to get the entire band together. We're going to have so much fun. The Oxtails will conquer all!

Currently listening to: "No Myth" by Michael Penn. I could totally get five stars on this.

Must See Conan Before He Leaves For The West Coast

Reasons to love Conan O'Brien, Steve Colbert (I like him better than that other Steve!) and Jon Stewart:



They are brilliant.

And only the best song was used during that fight too.

Just Because

Currently: remembering the good times with Flight of the Conchords.

The Deed Is Done

The PS3 has been bought.

It's a very beautiful system, but as per usual, a very easily dirtied piece of hardware that enjoys being bathed in dust, cat hair, cat drool and fingerprints.

The graphics are "wow", even when not played on HD goodness but you can see injustice being done to its capabilities. A great TV will be needed to enjoy the maximum brilliance of this thing.

Finally, the real reason for this post is that Motorstorm is surprisingly fun. It may be sick and wrong that we laugh when those excruciating, painful crashes and burning occurs but you have to see it.

Score 1 for Beetchie who got broken in her race by her character being hit in the head by her own foot, then her heel hitting the cliff side as she was falling down.

Thanks for the good times this weekend, Beetchie and H1.

There are 18 days left until the gig.

Oh and H1, I am not an amateur!

Our Rock Band Band

So we're getting very excited by the prospects of our new PS3 and Rock Band. Beetchie has decided we should either name our band "Doubles" or "Roti Rock". Maybe "The Oxtails"? The name's open to discussion.

But more importantly right now, is how the line up's going to go down.

It's been decided for sure that MC should be the bassist because as we all know, black people always play bass guitar. Before you protest, MC, I've proof (I'm sorry about the Portuguese subtitles...):



The other members of the band are a toss up but we're thinking for now that I should be the lead singer because by Beetchie's logic,
1. my carney hands would automatically disqualify me for the bass and lead guitars and 2. My lack of co-ordination disqualifies me for the drums.

For the role of lead guitar, Beetchie will take on those duties, which leaves us with a vacancy for drummer.

We're thinking Frass. Why? We're not quite sure but I think I heard Beetchie say something about, "he'll have to be drummer because he'll not be able to survive..." or something to that effect.

However, there are no fears for you others, my frenemies.

There are other very important roles in this band.

And I quote from Beetchie, "X can be our band manager! She can be our Joe Simpson to our Jessica and Ashley! Our Rob to our Spinal Tap! I want to be Nigel! I called it!"

"I want to know what kind of ass band we're running!" - Or 2, and upon further thought, "Maybe X can be our fan girl".

"X can be our groupie." - Beetchie
"and H1 can be our manager." - Or 2
"Because she's cut throat, right?" - Beetchie

Yes, because H1 is hardcore but I was thinking to myself that I really didn't want a Soundgarden/Chris Cornell incident to go down but if I'm lead singer and she's band manager, that WON'T be happening. So we're safe on that end.

So, all -

band name suggestions welcome.

positions for the band, other than bass, are not yet set in stone.

Let's get this insanity started but don't forget, TD5 will be both our promoter and music critic, so we need to make this good!

"You Want Us To Play Until The Sun Comes Up?...That's Ridiculous!"

Yeah, we did actually. Ridiculous a concept? Never!

There are few bands I would go see more than once in support of the same tour/album. Well, okay, a 'few' would imply 3 but in fact, it's only 2. Need I say MUSE?

And the second, because inquiring minds would like to know, I'm certain of it:



Once again (like the tool I am re: last MUSE concert), I was debating not going to this. However, this time, it wasn't from trying to refrain from seeing a band for the 4th time of the same tour but I was wary of the venue as I'd never been to Central Park Summerstage and really didn't feel like moshing in one giant pit.

But thanks to an enthusiastic H1, we opted to go and for the second time this year, Arctic Monkeys have left me in pain of the fantastic kind.

You know the kind of pain you get the day after from jumping in the pit or moshing in the pit? That's a sign of a fun concert had and indeed this night was.

Charming, witty, playful, and downright bad-assed, the boys of AM played with such fury and created such frenzy in the crowd, that from the Ukkers who were in attendance to the New Yorkers, to the out-of-towners - it truly made the house into a circus, berserk as fuck.

We tend to see that as a perk though.

Look, excusing the poor, misguided and gross misuse of lyrics that I just had to toss in for it seemed fitting at the time (and who wants to go back and re-edit? It's 12.59 in the AM as I type this and I've work in less than 5 hours), the bottomline is that the show was goo'd times and I'm determined to go back next year if they return.

Also, Malahide Castle may not have come to fruition this year like I wanted it to but I'm determined to see them in the UK at some point.

And why not?

They are well worth it.

The Lowlamps/WTF Moments of the evening:

1. Voxtrot. That band left much to be desired. I was fairly excited to see The Coral and only found out hours before the show that they were no longer supporting AM.
The horrid vocalist coupled with equally horrid lyrics had me rolling my eyes and apologizing profusely to Beetchie and H1 for their "music". Like BYOP before them (AM really needs better support when they come to the U.S.), they perhaps had a bit of musical potential but thanks to a bad lead singer, it made for an unbearable set. Seriously, thinking back now I don't think I should have been apologizing. Voxtrot owes me one!

2. The lack of pit etiquette. H1, Sons and Beetchie were fighting off kids who were being assholes. A pit is fun but not when it's filled with peeps who don't know how to act right in there. Rude people plagued the place. And if there's one thing I do, it's avoid things like the plague. Alas, the abundance of assholery was too much to be rid of completely and I too, had my share of listening to little kids from one of the superpowers in the newly built Axis of Evil, NJ, go on about nothing because they refuse to shut the hell up.

3. WTF is up with AM and their poor lighting. I know they're very lowkey and don't care much for flashy brightness and all that, which is fine - they don't need it because their energy makes up for all else. It's not their fault I've a bit of a crap camera but their lighting does not help the situation any. So once again, I've no really fantastic pictures of the band. Another 'fuckity-fuck-fuck-fuck' moment? Present.

4. We'd rather not talk about it but not being able to meet the band makes for some sad HOchieS. One day, cuties.

5. The boys seemed to be a bit off in the beginning not that it made me have any less fun, nor did it really make them have any less fun. They seemed to be laughing and looking at each other with the "okay, let's get it together. har har har" look. Funny lads, funny. Don't fuck up my "Brianstorm" like that again! Ah, I keed.

6. *Warning: Sullied Blog Alert!

Once again, I did not hear "Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But..." and "Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured". Also really disappointing was that we didn't get to hear the ultra-sexy vocals on "505". We also didn't get "Plastictramp"! I can kind of understand the lack of the latter being that it's not released here yet but come now, boys. I've resigned myself to the fact that I will never hear "505" unless I go to the UK to see them and that I will never hear "Perhaps..." and "Red Light...".

Hmmm, there's never any chicken bones around when you need a bunch... H1 will come prepared the next time though. Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

7. The worst thing of the evening was the fact that everyone in our group was split up and H1 and I were separated. Separated! That trauma is never going down again.

The Highlights of the Evening:

1. Alex acknowledged me and smiled. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

2. The banter between the band and the audience including the singing that went down during most songs, most notably, "When The Sun Goes Down", as expected.

3. They began the show with a little "Matador" Intro! Great stuff that. For a moment, I had a flashback to Japan when I happily found a CD store and took a picture of "Favourite Worst Nightmare" over there. I know. I have the strangest, most random flashbacks sometimes (and an affinity for finding excuses to post pictures of my boys):





4. Matthew, once more, tore up the drums like nobody's buisness and hit them particulary hard during "The View From the Afternoon". The sound in that open space was quite fabulous. It was a great venue for them.

5. I'm always rather impressed by the voice distortion bit that Alex does on "If You Were There, Beware" and tonight it was even more spectacular. It was loud, haunting and piercing - exactly the way I think it's meant to be heard.

::sigh::

Thanks for the great times and I'll see you next year - Nick, Matthew, The Cookie and Alex.





Arctic Monkeys @ Central Park Summerstage 09/05/2007 Set List:

Matador (intro)
This House is a Circus
Brianstorm
Still Take You Home
Dancing Shoes
From the Ritz to the Rubble
Fake Tales of San Francisco
Balaclava
Old Yellow Bricks
I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor
Flourescent Adolescent
Teddy Picker (let's have a game on the Teddy Picker!)
Intro + D is for Dangerous
Mardy Bum
Do Me A Favour
If You Were There, Beware
The View From The Afternoon
Leave Before The Lights Come On
When The Sun Goes Down
A Certain Romance

Hopefully this time, TD5 will be able to come with. Maybe March in London...?

Quote(s) and Memorable Conversation(s) of the evening:

"Everytime I sing this song, the microphone tends to go to the side so I have to sing like this (with my head sideways). It's fate. But I guess there are worse things than that fate, huh?" - lead singer of Voxtrot.
"Yeah, having to listen to you, for instance..." - Or 2.

"A little more on the bass and piano, please?" - lead singer of Voxtrot.
"How about a little less, like none. Also, who do you think you are making all these demands?!" - Or 2.

"We are having technical difficulties, folks." - lead singer of Voxtrot.
"Thank goodness! Maybe they'll have to end their set NOW!" - Or 2.
::music starts playing::
"Goddamn it!" - Or 2.

"Ummm, I smell Christian." - Beetchie, on Voxtrot.

"We're a band from Texas..." - lead singer of Voxtrot.
"Ooooohhhhh, that explains EVERYTHING." - Beetchie and Or 2.

Okay, so it seems we really wailed on this band. Ah well. They can't all be greatness support like Illinois (who are deserving of their own tour!!!!).

"I guess we can't get lucky twice in one year. Illinois was a rarity." - Or 2
"::raised eyebrow:: Yeah." - Beetchie

Currently listening to: Some Kenna including "Man Fading", "Sunday After You" and "Out of Control" by Kenna. Hmmm, I'm disappointed in that new song. Hopefully the rest of the album will be amazing like the first. I still maintain that "New Sacred Cow" was the best $9.99 purchase I made, not to be confused with my best $11.00 purchase made: my now pin-ified jacket.

P.S. That was also quite clever of you, Alex. We know there's no song by that name. At least, not one of yours. So really, how DID we expect you to play 'until the sun comes up'? Thanks for making the lot of us seem ridiculous!

Quite. clever. Indeed...

"Declare This An Emergency, Come On and Spread A Sense of Urgency and Pull Us Through. And This Is The End Of The World"

Words escape me.

I cannot even begin to properly wrap my little mind around what happened last night.

I've seen them four times now.

I know every word, and I know almost every variation of each song including all the tiny falsetto additions made by that beautiful voice.

I know almost all the edgy guitar riffs, and the goddamned moments when the finger is in the air.

I know the grandiose poses and the exact moments when they're going to come, even down to the sliding across the stage floor.

I know whatever song will be played next based on the spoken often vague introductions given by my joker Dom.

And still, I stumbled out of Madison Square Garden last night, stealing the pressure and the pain on my legs for standing for hours, muttering in disbelief the words "oh my god".

That's the most I could muster from my dry throat and spinning head.

"Oh. My. God."

And still there's not much more I can add to that, honestly.

MUSE at Madison Square Garden were nothing short of fuckin' amazing!!!!!!

WTF Moments of the Night (in no particular order because they're all pretty damned hellish) - The Lowlamps:

1. To think I actually debated not attending this concert. WTF is wrong with me?

2. The bass during Cold War Kids' performance almost killed us. H1 and I felt severely nauseous, in the words of Bughie J. "aww, nothing like getting your equilibrium thrown off by mega bass...". That is the trauma I made us endure just so I could be front and left.

3. Cold War Kids did not play "Passing The Hat", nor did they play "Electioneering". I would have tossed chicken bones had the guitarist not been so goddamned hilarious. Also, a few days ago CWK gave a shout out to my boys.

Seriously though, I'm really peeved they didn't play "Passing the Hat". That is some serious WTF'ckness.

4. Fourth Time's The Charm? I think not. MUSE, once again, did not play "Muscle Museum". They seriously hate on me sometimes. Alas, I tossed no chicken bones. How could I when I was mesmerized by the money shot? You know I'd never toss bones at my man Matt, anyway.

5. I didn't get to meet my boys (Matt, Dom and Chris) but assholes who hung out at Krock did. I hate those assholes! =,( When will my day come?
And why did that kid who got a free signed poster of MUSE's fold it up into tiny, tiny pieces? WTF was his problem?! Yeah, I understand it's not AS cool unless you get it signed yourself but for bullshart's sake, no need to massacre it!!!!

6. Hearing Klaxons' "Magick" made me super cranky because it just reminded me of how those stupids turned down WS leaving me to miss out the good times that never were. I can't let that go.

7. Matt sounded a little off to me at times. Just a little but it wasn't horrid. He never is. Paul Banks, he is not. Ahhaha, sorry Paul. Also, Matt was probably trying to deal with the bad karma on stage from the night before when that goddamned Beyonce played and bad mojo'd the place.

8. The sour-faced girl who gave H1 a hard time, as well as the drunk that pushed her while she was dancing. No worries, they were asking to get cut and did.

9. The poorly dressed "super" friends. They were horrid and not even really worth talking about. For good measure, I will also toss in that stupid, rich Asian kid who we saw at Arctic Monkeys. Yep, sure enough, that spoilt bitch was there last night as well.

10. Okay, WTF. Matt was nice to the megaphone and didn't toss it. He did toss confetti though in that classy way he does sometimes. But no tossed megaphone leaves a sad me.

11. H1 pointed it out and she's right - Dominic didn't seem too happy last night and that made me sad. He didn't seem as chipper as he usually is. Maybe Matt pissed him off at Krock? I keed. They were having some good banter! =(

I guess he still smiled some though... what a cutie.

12. Matt. WTF. Why the hell would you wear almost the same damned outfit you wore at WS to this show? You disappoint me. I mean, you were still hot but geez. I've seen it before! Curses...

The Goo'd Times of the Evening - The Highlights:

1. A free MUSE shirt? Yeah. Totally. Special thanks to S. for that.

2. All the rejected Sum 41 stickers littering 33rd Street.

3. Being one of the hated kids in the pit. And THEN, being one of the really hated kids in the pit that made it to the front (and left!).

4. Cold War Kids.

While this band was not an ideal opener for MUSE, they were still really good in their own right. They're not going be opening acts for very long at the rate they're going.
I didn't catch all the songs they played (due to the fact they played a bunch of songs I did not know), so their set list will be incomplete but here's what I could remember in a very rough order -

The Cold War Kids at Madison Square Garden Set List (08/06/2007):

Robbers (great, great, great song!)
*new song (?)
We Used To Vacation
*new song (?)
Hang Me Up To Dry (curse you H1, you got it as number 5. Curse you)
Hospital Beds (and curse on me for getting this damned song as number 6. Still, it's good live)
Saint John
*new song (?)
Quiet, Please! (this song was not the greatest thing to end with but it was still a good song. I liked it)

As a side note, I'm happy to say I was the only nerd who knew anything by this band. That really doesn't make ME a nerd though. Those peeps at the Garden didn't know what they were missing.

5. "Knights of Cydonia" was played first. It's good they got it out of the way so I didn't have to hear that bs in my head as I was leaving one of the greatest concerts.

6. Dominic Howard owns. I've never seen him hit the drums that hard (up close) and the version of "Apocalypse Please" played at Madison Square Garden last night was so fuckin' fantastic that it makes me cry. It makes me cry because I recorded the entire thing only to discover after that the bass totally distorted my recording and I cannot find a version close to this one anywhere. I want that motherfuckin' song and I want it now. I want it now. (wow, two MUSE cookies in one blog post - I'm on a roll, this time. I feel my luck will change - ahaha, and one Radiohead. Nice.)

7. Being front and left was even better for me the second time around. I had H1 ( who actually has now proclaimed and I quote, "I love Muse") with me and we were right in front of Matt (even though she was worried that she couldn't handle his hideous face. She likes to keed and rile me up, is what). It was better this time than at Hammerstein because MUSE could put on the show the way they wanted to on a bigger stage. And Matt was beautiful...

8.

...isn't he, though? Ah, "the money shot" as H1 says. Hahaha. Note though that this confirms for me finally, that Matt has an ass not an assback like MC.
It is a known fact that I do not like looking at asses and I really hate it when various animals insist on showing theirs to me but Matt, he can do that anytime.

Man, I feel like I sullied myself and the blog.

Sorry, H1.

9. We got GREAT shots of MUSE being that we were so damned close. (You know, as good as my camera would allow it. ::sigh:: I might have to give him up sometimes but I'll never diss the good times little LO has given me.) I even did the nice thing this time and took a really good picture of Chris.

10. The crowd. I was quite pleased by the crowd reaction. It was so much better than at Wembley Stadium, we felt. They didn't even NEED to be told to light up their mobiles for "Soldier's Poem". Maybe that's what made Dom miffed...we messed up his usual duties of telling us to get them out! Dom, we're just making your job easier because we love you guys.

11. The new jamming sessions the band brought out. They were all cool and funky. I almost screamed at them to play "Man of Mystery" like an ass though.

12. MUSE

They're just on here because they need to be. I cannot stress just how absolutely stellar their performance was. The entire show was a goddamned highlight and one of the best concerts we've ever been to.

Y&M&M@MSG = GT!!!!

The MUSE at Madison Square Garden Set List (08/06/2007):

Knights of Cydonia
Map of the Problematique + Maggie's Farm Riff (RATM)
Hysteria
Supermassive Black Hole
City of Delusion
Butterflies and Hurricanes + new riff (jamming session)
Hoodoo
piano interlude + Apocalypse Please
Feeling Good
Sunburn
riff (but not "Man of Mystery") + Time is Running Out + Ashamed outro
Starlight
Invincible
New Born
Plug In Baby

Encore:

Soldier's Poem
Unintended (stating they had never played this in the US before. Ooo, we're special. Too bad I already got it at WS)
riff + Stockholm Syndrome
Take a Bow

I think I have to add some WTF moments to this...

...13. I just remembered I really wanted H1 to hear "Assassins (Grand Omega Bosses Edit)" and they didn't play it. Damn it! That shit is awesome live.

14. Why is it we seemed to have gotten the same set list as Wembley Stadium on 06/17/2007? I don't want to be associated with that because it was the day that that stupid ass mcr debacle went down! Ha, ah well. I didn't miss anything really then. Nice. Feels like I was at WS twice then, yeah? That's right bitches! I got your set list including "Apocalypse Please", with a better crowd AND a good opening act! In your faces, assholes!

Oh boys, this might be it for a while. I doubt I'll make it to Vegoose. Come back soon with the fantastic new material I know you will create and I'll be there to support at the concerts in the front to the left.

To my beloved MUSE,







Thanks for making my 2006-2007 concert year from August to August fantastic.

And helping destroy the ill memories that was Matisyahu.

Much Love and cooddles in the kitchen,

Or 2

Quotes of the evening:

"Hey, you guys like Sum 41?" - girl from Sum 41 street team
"No, but I AM a fan of Avril Lavigne!" - Or 2 sarcastically, to our concert buddies for the evening.

As an Indian couple walk by,

H1- "Why Indian people like to think they are the bomb?"
Or 2, shaking head in disgust - "I don't know"
Pause
H1 - "Well, sometimes they are... an actual bomb."
Or 2, quietly - "Yeah, yeah"

"Matt's... really skinny. You can smoke them girly arms." - H1

Currently listening to: "Take a Bow", then "Host" and finally "Agitated" by MUSE.

Eff Glasgow! It's All About Illinois!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a HOchieS first - an opening act at a small venue in our now not-so-short concert history gets its own blog post.

Despite constant bitchin' that support bands are unnecessary for small venue concerts, I actually enjoy seeing them because I like to see what's under my radar that I should be all up ons.

Concert after concert of horrendous acts (other than the Cloud Room who were decent) had my faith wavering. How could it not after the monstrosity that was Mr. Lif & BYOP? Those two alone should have deterred me from going to any concert, period.

Finally, a band came along and dispelled the HOchie curse of long hours of standing around amongst assholes just to get a good spot in front.

The void was filled by them partially (there were two support bands and the second one was mostly ass so I still had to stand for a while in agony) with music that was not only good but in my opinion, their performance was even better than the headliner.



They were not without their fair share of 'WTF" moments, but overall, the band Illinois was phenomenal.

It's rare for me to enjoy a show to near max without knowing lyrics to songs but that was not the case here. I knew not much about them (but had previewed a little before I went and was slightly interested) and certainly not enough to know lyrics or what they even looked like.

The show was very well put together, played, fun, unexpected, danceable, rock-worthy enough for a headbanging session, crowd interaction was there and good crowd feedback kept it fresh.

That's a true testament. If your band can keep it fantastic even if the crowd doesn't know the material but you make them walk away talking about the greatness that is you, then that's saying a lot.

We actually were greeted by them when we entered the hall. There were a bunch of guys on the stage, setting up their own equipment in true "opening band" form.

They set up. Then they left.

Okay. So what now?

We waited around some more, and listened to some really bad music filler set.

Then, in came the boys from Pennsylvania. Yes. Not Illinois but Pennsylvania. They're slightly clever like that...I guess.

The first thing we noticed was one of the members was using a signed guitar. We don't know who signed it (maybe the Fratellis?) but then I realized my attention should have actually been focused on the lead singer.



The man had a banjo.

The banjo playing filtered in nicely with their set. It wasn't very distinguishable at first and he soon traded off for a guitar and later on a keyboard.

And then in came that banjo again.

And suddenly...



...Banjos are no longer Deliverance creepy.

Okay, who am I kidding. Deliverance has ruined banjos for everyone. But still...I am willing to shove that memory to the back of my head and replace it by the excellent use of a banjo as brought to me by Illinois.

WTF Moments of the Night:

1. The "dancing" put on by the lead. It just should not have been done but ah, it's really funny seeing white boys trying to dance sometimes. I thoroughly enjoyed it even though I was cringing. It was an Elaine moment or something.
(This is not true of Alex Turner though. He may not 'dance' out in full but his head bopping is very cute. No one should speak ill of our little genius boy.)

2. So they may not lyrical geniuses at all times but not a lot of people are (unless again, you're Alex Turner and you were born, not only a clown hooligan but a brilliant one at that!). Not everyone can be a genius but no worries, they had music and style to cover up that bullsheet.

3. I'm not quite sure where the guitarist put his cigarette during the show but it was like magic. One moment it was there, and the next it was not. He probably put it in his guitar strings but I didn't see it. The man was a magician!

4. The guys were drinking some lame ass beer that upset Beetchie (coors, was it?). But then they graduated to heiniken which redeemed them some in her eyes, I think.

5. WTF was that telephone? It was cool. It seemed to be some kind of voice-altering synthesizer dealie. I liked it plenty. I want one too. Do you think E-bay or Amazon would have one?



So, I'm now on a hunt for clips of their live performances because they translate well live but not as good on their EP. I can live with that though and I'm determined to see them again in concert. I hope next time it'll be for their own headlining show because these guys from Bucks County truly deserve it. I'm waiting for them to break out. I'd hate to see them fade into nothingness and/or not grow musically. They've got serious potential.

Don't disappoint me, guys!

And thanks for putting on a fantastic show and salvaging the night.







Here's to Chris Archibald, Martin Hoeger, Andrew Lee and JohnPaul Kuyper.

Currently listening to: "Nosebleed" by Illinois.

How Are You Doing, Wembley? It Looks Like You're Having Fun, We Are!" - Dom

Y & M & M @ WS:

We came to London with a purpose and that was to be a part of history.

My boys, after a very long career of ups and down, four studio albums and acquiring the title of being one of the best live acts around, have made it.

They finally made it to a venue that could actually house and do justice to their sound and energy.

Wembley Stadium


photo source: www.NME.com

+



photo source: www.NME.com

MUSE

=

Fucking Beautiful.



photo source: www.muse.mu

From their stage entrance (and everything in between including huge, searching-the-night-and-the-crowd satellites; thousands of lights; brilliant stage set up; giant crowd-surfing balloons filled with confetti we've come to know and love; and acrobats) to their farewell, everything MUSE did was phenomenal. Sure it seemed a little cheesey sometimes and always over the top but MUSE are incapable of doing anything on a small scale.

All other concerts of theirs before this (that I've been to) have paled in comparison simply because like I said, nothing could contain their greatness and it'd finally take a newly built Wembley Stadium to even begin doing it proper. And even then, Wembley needed two nights to pack it all in. I'm fairly certain those boys could sell out many more nights @ 75,000 + people per show had they added them.

As Matt said, they were finally ready for this.

The eerie anticipation was dispelled by confetti raining down on WS as MUSE came up from the center of it, masked by a confusion of white for just a moment until those red, green and grey clothes became visible to us.

The cat walk was a little lengthy but at the end of it, the boys took their instruments and began belting out KofC.

They kept the excitement going strong with the real greatness for us starting up with the "R&B" track Dom liked to call it.

"R&B?", H1 questioned.

"It's Supermassive!", I screamed and sure enough, they did not disappoint. The dancing robots filled the screens and my favourite stripper song started blasting from Dom's kit, Chris' bass and Matt's guitar.

Yeah, I know. R&B. Forgive Dom. He's a joker.

The song that sold them for H1 (you know, she dislikes MUSE for the most part but I think she's now been converted some, to the point she's considering going to see them at MSG in August) was their performance of "Map of the Problematique".

It was indeed well worth standing there for the 5 hours before MUSE took the stage. That already killer track (possibly one of MUSE's greatest) took on a whole new life. TD5, it was at this point that I started cursing you under my breath every 2 seconds as opposed to the 50 minutes intervals I was doing before.

Matt, being a lover of the Rage Against the Machine, metted out some good ol' Tom Morello riffs. They were so well done and they were songs that aren't as well-known RATM pieces that H1 has now taken to calling my boy an elitist. It's true. I really hope that what Matt has said is true and that a Rage/Muse show will go down. It better be in NY though but something tells me it's going to be Cali. and I'm going to be really pissed off.

I could rant about all the other tracks during the first part but here are the highlights and lowlamps -

H1 got "City of Delusion" and I got "Butterflies and Hurricanes". Stop laughing H1. Stop laughing. I like B&H.

The megaphone got tossed again! Ahaha. That slays me everytime.

Sunburn! Do you hear me?! Sunburn! "From our very first album, our very first song." Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. The boys do love me...

...but not so much when they dedicated "Starlight" to the fans as they hoped that they could see them in the back. Okay, I'll admit it. I was clapping and singing right along. It's kind of hard not to.

Once again, they tried to get me to tear and have a meltdown. "Citizen Erased" was played but then those bitches went straight into Hoodoo. Two of my personal tear jerker songs in a row?! They were trying to kill me!

And oo, we got that new MUSE track that came out while I was in England. It's one of the funkiest things I've heard in a while... You know, in the 3 weeks I stopped listening to Arctic Monkeys. It was well played in concert though. Well. Played.

Encore 1 began as an acoustic set with the thousands of fans willingly holding up their lit mobiles in unity at Dom's request.

I finally got to hear "Blackout" and it was then the floating acrobats drifted among the thousands of people in the pit. Again, Matt was trying to make me cry but succeeded in not doing so because H1 and I were confused by the acrobats.

It was a good thing that happened too because "Unintended" had me really cheesed out.

The lowlamp - "Plug In Baby". The opening riff is always great but um, yeah. I still dislike that song for the most part. I know. I'm a MUSE fan that slightly dislikes "Plug In Baby". Stop judging me, you assholes.

They like to tease me, my boys. Well, not really. I knew they'd be back but oh my god I didn't expect what came next...

...Encore 2 began with one of my favourite damned songs ever. It's probably the song I really fell in love with Matthew for and while most ::cough:: H1 ::cough:: may find his falsetto sometimes grating, "Micro Cuts" just wins it for me. There's something about destroying the puppet strings to my soul that does it for me. I love my Banshee.

Before we knew it, the night was almost done. Well, that's not entirely true. I actually couldn't believe after that extra long performance of "Stockholm Syndrome" that they were actually doing to do another song but once "Take A Bow" came on, we knew for sure that was it.

I saw my man bow and 3 minutes later it was over. Just like that, we were filing out of the stadium with his words ringing harsh in my heart "see you tomorrow!". No Matt. I wasn't going to but you had to rub it in, yeah?

::sigh::

It's alright. I'll be all over you, Dom and Chris on August 6th for probably the last time at a concert until you grace us with your next new collection of songs.

The Brilliant 06/16/2007 MUSE, the first artists to sell out (the new) WEMBLEY "FUCKING" STADIUM Set List:

1. Knights of Cydonia
2. Hysteria
3. Supermassive Blackhole
4. Map of the Problematique ~ Maggie's Farm riff (RATM)
5. City of Delusion
6. Butterflies and Hurricanes
7. Citizen Erased
8. Hoodoo
9. Feeling Good
10. piano interlude + Sunburn
11. Invincible
12. Starlight
13. Time is Running Out
14. Man of Mystery
15. New Born + Microphone Fiend riff (RATM) + Ashamed outro

Encore 1:

16. Soldier's Poem (acoustic guitar)
17. Unintended
18. Blackout
19. Plug In Baby

Encore 2:

20. Micro Cuts
21. riff + Stockholm Syndrome + riff
22. Take A Bow

Finally, (and whoever actually had the patience to read through this which I'm sure is not a lot of you, indulge me one last swoon) I must say that one of the most memorable moments of the night for me was seeing the smiles on their faces. Those little smiles beamed of relief, pure excitement and the feelings of being on top of the world.

And seeing those smiles made me genuinely, and happily content and had me beaming back in adoration.

This is what I consider my most expensive concert considering transportation costs but oh was it worth it.

I've no regrets.

*This is the blog in photos, since I'm sure none of you got through any of this though I didn't expect you to. But you know, who am I kidding? I'm posting these pics for myself! Har Har!:

Confetti filled fun-time entrance!



photo source: www.NME.com

Walking the Catwalk. They're too cute and it's just hilarious to me:



photo source: www.NME.com

"Look! Look! He's strutting!" - H1
"Yeah. Because he can." - Or 2



photo source: www.NME.com

One of my own pics. My lot's not very good because even though I think we had fairly decent seats, it was still far back as all heck but notice... A little obscene there, yeah Matt baby?



The traditional HOchie blog post would include the following -

The WTF Moments of the Night

1. Alright. Again, no fookin' "Muscle Museum". But AT LEAST, I finally got some justice and would consider our set list better than Sunday's. Thank goodness. I mean, I would have liked to hear "Apocalypse Please" but it's okay that those bastards at Sunday's show got it.

2. I finally get to hear "Blackout" and right when the most beautifully sung portion of the song comes on, Matt's fookin' mic. gives out for the 6 seconds I need it most! WTF!!!!!

3. I've seen Matt wear better outfits. By the way Frass, he did a costume change. But anyway, back to the better outfits. It is thus far, their biggest gig and he comes out in this red suit? Granted I still found it very hot especially the silk lining and the red shoes but come now, the 'cape' at the arena was better lookin'. And then out came the white pants... ah, who am I kidding. I loved it but only on Matt! This is not an invitation for the rest of you to start going about in my line of vision all white pant-ed!

Currently listening to: "Space Dementia" by MUSE. A song I'm still waiting to hear in concert. Here's hoping for it at Y&M&M@MSG!!!!