Snow Patrol

I went to the Snow Patrol at Key Arena last night with Suor.

The first opening act was Silversun Pickups. I'd never heard of them, but I think I recognized the last song they played from somewhere (probably KEXP). Their music had a rather uniform "loud" sound and I didn't find it all that interesting.

Ok Go was the second opening act. The commentary by their singer as well as their videoes were entertaining, but the music was perhaps not so memorable.

Snow Patrol put on a good show. I don't have either of their albums (just a couple songs off iTunes), so I didn't recognize a lot of what they played, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. "Run" was well done; it's one of my favourite songs.

Vacation

I'm back from my (second) great European adventure. I started with a visit to my cousin Michael and his girlfriend Katie in London then travelled around Zealand/Øresund in Denmark and Sweden (i.e. Copenhagen). Afterward I went on the Berlin to Budapest Contiki tour (that also included intermediate stops in Prague and Vienna).

It was a lot of travelling (14 towns and cities in 8 countries, 6 airports, 6 train stations, 2 boats, well over 100 km of walking, and far too many buses, subways, and taxis to count), but I had a great time and so many unforgettable experiences - an English picnic in Hampstead Heath, sailing a Viking ship across a fjord, visiting the Tivoli amusement park, World Cup parties in Berlin, enjoying plum wine with friends in an open-air cafe on Prague's Old Town Square, cruising down the Vltava River, riding the famous Prater ferris wheel, and relaxing in the Gellért Thermal Baths.

I'm always willing to try new food and drinks, especially while travelling - salmon carpaccio (oops, I thought it was going to be cooked!) smoked eel smørrebrød (interesting...and I learned that the point and pick method of choosing food can yield some unexpected choices!), a giant pork knuckle with a 1 litre beer mug in Berlin (this meal can only be described as 'massive'), Sacher Torte chocolate cake at the Sacher Hotel in Vienna (very yummy), and a shot of absinthe ("Prost" to the 'green fairy'). And of course, I would be remiss if I did not have a 'Danish' pastry (weinerbrød) in Denmark!

I visited a lot of churches including Vor Frue Kirke with Thorvaldsen's beautiful marble statues of Jesus and the twelve Apostles, the ornate Berliner Dom, the singular Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächniskirche (the shattered bell tower is all the survived World War II), the beautifully rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche, and St. Vitus in Prague Castle.

Of course, I also stopped at museums (e.g. HMS Belfast on the Thames, the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, and the famous Pergamon in Berlin), as well as palaces and castles (e.g. Kronborg Slot, Christiansborg, Prague Castle, the giant Schönbrunn (summer) and Hofburg (winter) palaces in Vienna).

The sights - Charles Bridge, the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag, Fernsehturm TV tower, etc. - and history - a walking tour through Berlin (e.g. Checkpoint Charlie, Bebelplatz book burning commemoration, etc.) as well as the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and the Berlin Wall, etc. - were also numerous.

With all that, somehow I also made it to three concerts! - The Red Hot Chili Peppers in Prague (awesome), a classical music concert in Vienna, Pink in Heroes' Square in Budapest.

Lastly, I should mention all the wonderful people I met - the friendly and polite Danes as well as all the great people and new friends from the tour.

I'll post pictures (with stories) once I have time to sort through all the photographs that I took.

Coldplay

I went to the Coldplay concert last night.

I left work early and I went with Suor to Roti, an Indian restuarant, in LQA for dinner. I had the chicken saag, which was pretty good, but spicy. They were kind of slow bringing us the bill after we were done, which was a little funny, but we had some time to kill, so it wasn't too bad. Then we walked to Key Arena (via Easy Street Records) to meet Nabeel.

The opening act was Fiona Apple. She was okay, but not very memorable. Perhaps that's because I don't really her music that well. (I only recognized one song). I should also say that she seemed a bit eccentric and fidgety (like she has ADHD or something).

Coldplay started out with Square One, Politik, and Yellow, for which big yellow ballons, containing gold sparkles, were dropped from the ceiling and used as beachballs by the audience in front of the stage. They played most of their new album, X&Y, (i.e. Speed of Sound, Talk, etc.) as well as their older songs that you would expect, such as The Scientist (my favourite Coldplay song), In My Place, Clocks (perhaps the best song of the evening), God Put A Smile Upon Your Face, and Trouble. (The only older song that comes to mind that they didn't play was A Rush of Blood to the Head). In the middle of the set, they had a brief "tribute to Johnny Cash" that were three songs (two Coldplay songs + Ring of Fire) that they played without any of the flashing lights, video, etc. Chris Martin didn't talk a whole lot, but did like bringing up the Superbowl and the Seattle Seahawks occasionally. The set seemed quick, but was probably about 70 minutes long, so I suppose that is compliment (i.e. time flies when you're having fun). They came out for a three-song encore, which ended with Fix You, another good song.

Turn Up The Sun

Oasis is one of my favourite bands. Last night I went to their "gig" in Everett.

Kasabian and Jet opened. Kasabian was okay, but not really exciting. I had been expecting a little better. I wasn't really sure if I would like Jet or not, but they rocked pretty good.

Oasis was fairly rocking and put on a good performance. They started with Turn Up The Sun and Hey Lyla from their new album, Don't Believe The Truth. In fact, most of the songs were from Don't Believe The Truth and they played nearly the entire album. (Let There Be Love was the only notable absence). Definitely Maybe received some converage with a rocking Bring It On Down, Cigarettes & Alcohol, and one of my favourites Live Forever. They also played the hits from (What's The Story) Morning Glory - Morning Glory, Wonderwall, Champagne Supernova, and Don't Look Back In Anger. When they took the stage, Fuckin' In The Bushes was played and they closed with a great cover of My Generation. Perhaps the only disappointing thing was they didn't play anything from Be Here Now, The Masterplan, Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, or Heathen Chemistry. All-in-all I had a good time though (even if the Everett Event Centre was freezing cold).

A Long Anticipated Weekend

It's been a long and tiring week. I'm glad that I have a long weekend to rest.

Last weekend I went camping at the Olympic National Park with Nabeel and Suor. On Saturday (after some creative exercises involving getting keys to get other keys to recover keys that were lock into someone's apartment), we took the ferry across Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island then drove to Port Angeles on the Olympic Pennisula. (There is a bridge between Bainbridge Island and the Olympic Pennisula). We hiked up Hurricane Ridge then camped at the Heart O' The Hills campground. The weather was okay, but a little cloudy. There were lots of deer at the top of Hurricane Ridge.

The next day, we went to Second Beach (after a short hike) on the Pacific Ocean. It's a pretty good spot for photos, but it was raining fairly heavily the whole time we were there. (Kind of like last time!). I haven't sorted through all my photos yet, but I'll try to post some later this weekend.

On Tuesday I went to a Lifehouse concert at El Corazón with Suor. The setting was very "intimate". (i.e. Small, crowded, hot, and sweaty). I only recognized a small subset of the songs. (I have their album No Name Face, but have not heard either of their other two albums...well that's a small lie, I've listened to their new album once). Overall the concert was good though. (The opening act was decent (for an opening act) too...but we never figured out who they were).

Since my last post about 30 Days was popular, I guess I'll comment about this week's show too. :-) A (Christian) guy from West Virgina goes to Dearborn, Michigan to spend a month living with Muslim family and observing all of their customs, including, wearing a traditional outfit when he left the airport in West Virgina that made him popular with the airport security. (One third of Dearborn's population is Muslim). It was an interesting story, probably the most interesting of the three episodes that they've shown so far. He struggled with his stereotypes (but was open-minded) and (understandably) had a lot of trouble trying to reconcile the Muslim lifestyle with his Christian beliefs (in particular going to a mosque to pray). Next week's episode sounds very similar in it's approach - a straight guy goes to San Francisco to become a roommate with an openly gay man.

Greatest Rock 'N Roll Band In The World

Last night I went to the U2 concert at Key Arena. It was awesome! Easily the best concert that I've been to. A good mix of rock, showmanship, and an enthusiastic crowd. They played a good portion of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb as well as a lot of their older material including New Year's Day, Pride, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Where The Streets Have No Name, One, The Fly, and Mysterious Ways.