We went to the show last night -- specifically to see The Mad Caddies but also got to see three other bands. Each was quite unique which was kewl.

Opening was The Flipsides. They were a local (to San Francisco) group. They were decent -- better then many opening bands I've seen -- but you could kinda tell they were still "green under the gills". Their drummer was quite amazing though... one of the better drummers I've seen. He was relaxed and always seemed to have extra time. In Piano we were tought that in big jumps on the keyboard, you move your hands fast so that you have time to make sure you moved to the correct spot. I was reminded of this while watching their drummer.

Next up was the Real McKenzies. They are (in their own words) "modern-day celtic bards" from Vancouver, BC. They were a blast -- they all wore kilts (several of 'em without anything underneath their kilts) -- had a bagpipe player -- and spoke with a scottish accent (at least their lead singer did). I have to say that bagpipes in a punkish type band was very fitting. As Missy put it, they were like the Pogues on speed. Quite a fun group to watch (even if they were a weeeee bit wasted by the time they left the stage).

The third group to take the stage was Rise Against. Now, since this is my overview, the following is my own opinion. I could have done without this band. The lead singer never sang in tune and simply screamed most of the time. They broke 4 mics in the process of their 30 minute set -- do you have any idea how hard it is to break mics they use in those types of shows? However on the other side of that was the fact that the hardcore punkers in the crowd really seemed to enjoy them. So who knows -- they might have been good -- I really was counting the minutes until they got off the stage so that the headliners could come on stage.

The headliners of the show were, of course, the Mad Caddies. It was a blast getting to see them perform -- 2 horns (trumpet and trombone), guitar, bass, drums, and a singer. They put on a great show! Playing songs from all of their albums (including the soon to be released album), there weren't any songs that I wanted to hear that they didn't play. From "Preppy Girl" to "All American Badass". Hey -- they even mentioned the fact that they were from Solvang!! Hah!

After the show I picked up a couple shirts and then waited around to see Sascha, their guitarist. He, along with Carter (who is no longer with the band) attended the same middle school I went to -- we were in a class of 8 who graduated from the 8th grade together. He was pretty far gone but he's interested in arranging some music in the 30's/40's style with like a lead singer and three backup singers. I had mentioned that I've done some similar arranging before so he had several questions. He took us backstage (a first for me!! Being backstage at a fairly decent-sized show like that at least) and asked a couple questions. He kept getting interupted though and eventually we lost him in the crowd as they were leaving. Ah well -- thats what email is for!!

So -- a fun show overall -- I highly recommend catching the Fat Wreck Chords 2003 Tour if it comes to your city -- if nothing else then to see the Mad Caddies and to see the Real McKenzies!

I took some pictures at the show, as well as some short videos. I'll post 'em later today once I get some free time to clean up the images

--B--

I thought I was sore yesterday. Man was I wrong! Today I am sore.

I tried some new climbing problems on Monday. They were on the slab wall and not rated that hard -- but they had some very awkward moves on them. Like 5 holds and then you are at the top type problems. 5 holds to go 25+ feet. But it was only a 5.10c...

It was just mantle up, match feet & hands, mantle up, match feet & hands, mantle up, and get your feet right below your hands that you then had to balance on -- anywase, the manteling just totally wrecked my arms. There were another two problems that had simular problems -- a 5.10d which I got up and another 5.10c which I also got up (I never got up the one with only 5 holds). My legs are pretty beat too -- but that was a combination of climbing/biking big hills.

So today I am sore -- they always say that it takes a couple days for it to really hit and they sure weren't kidding!

On the funness side of things today, Missy and I are going to see The Mad Caddies. They are a ska/punk band. Why are we going to such an odd band for our typical musical tastes? Well not only is their music pretty damn fun to listen to, but I went to school with two of the founding members of the band -- and I know four of 'em. Plus anyone who writes songs about the cops in Solvang or not wanting to be in Goleta -- well you have to be familiar with the area but it's where I grew up!! As they put it, "puttin' SEX in sextet", check out their preview for their latest album, Just One More

So -- we're heading down to San Francisco tonight to go see them perform at Slims.
Maybe I'll go climb tomorrow and work out the kinks I've gotten!
w00p
--B--

Well -- for about two and a half weeks, THE server (also known as SQ-WEB01 which hosts squeeek.com, trombone.org, and a couple other domains) was receiving bad sector reports in the Windows Event Log. It was typically three or four messages a day, but it seemed to be growing.

So I ordered a new HD (a bigger HD with an 8mb cache) and decided to go ahead and take care of it today.

I took the system offline around 1:30 and after some initial upchucks (I was using Ghost to copy the HD and it wanted the existing drive to be in perfect condition with no files on bad sectors -- so I had to get Windows to run a media-level checkdisk) it got under way. It was down for about 2 hours even though I had the new hd up and working in about 30 minutes. I wanted to run offline defrags, install some updated software/services, etc.

The system was up and down during this time so my apologies if you were trying to access something that was on this system!! In a week or so I will be taking it down once more to install a new tape backup unit. Hopefully this will be a real quick reboot or two.

But this was to save me time in the long run. Imagine if the HD had completely failed!!
Time to go climbing soon.
Yay!

--B--