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Wednesday, September 30, 2009
u2 tomorrow night
greetings from grand rapids, michigan. here to see a client, then a hop over to virgina, short drive to charlottesville, and then we're seeing u2. should be a great show, even if the the early reviews of the 360 tour are mixed, and the new album is good (but not great). but i measure every new album to achtung baby, which is totally unfair.
we're there to celebrate mcgruber's birthday, including a top chef-style dinner. should be a blast. i am making my scrambled egg surprise.
great week coming up. on board the flight to nashville. six cities culminating with seeing u2 (for the fourth time) with the cheese and mcgruber in charlottesville.
great set list--this is from the giants stadium show the other night:
great time in yellowstone and grand teton. tons of pics to share--hang tight.
for now, some highlights from yellowstone. tomorrow, grand teton.
at the beginning of the bike & hike, when i was still having fun (basically, the first ten minutes)
dr. wintermute in front of the morning glory pool
the waterfall was notable mainly because it meant we were halfway done
not sleeping, just resting my lids
our room was actually about fifty feet from old faithful
i think this guy wandered off the set of the 'one' video shoot
we saw this one right off the side of the road in hayden valley. they shed their antlers annually, and the boy scouts collect them and auction them off for charity
we stayed at the old faithful inn, a historic and rustic lodge. dr. w took a tour with old mother hubbard (pictured here in the lobby) while i took a nap. apparently it was an excellent tour.
don't tell ted turner, but there are bison freaking everywhere here
overlooking artist's point. if i had painted this, i would go home and tell congress about it too. thomas moran's painting of this spot is credited with convincing congress to establish the first national park in 1872. and the government has been on a mission for socialism ever since.
fantastic show at merriweather last night. a fantastic night for an outdoor concert, as fall is just setting in (low 60s in the evening). the last time we were here (for rem), we had lawn seats. it was nice to be under the pavilion. we actually had pretty good seats--row k (with row a being front row), far stage left.
dr. w and i killed some beer in the parking lot before hand, and found a stand that sold falafel pita, to our pleasant surprise. we also sprung for a pair of concert t-shirts. the whole night reeked of unabashed 80s love. the t-shirt that dr. w bought looks like it came straight from a wham! video.
opening act wolfmother was awesome. they manged to mix sabbath, zeppelin, and the doors with the stage presence of jack white. i only knew their singles, but they rocked a nice five song set.
the killers dove right into the 80s. it was kind of cool to watch the family next to us: a mom about ten years older than i am, there with her three kids, all rocking tightly hemmed skinny jeans and long killers t-shirts. i wondered whether they were being consciously retro. dr. w pointed out that that when we wore bell bottoms in high school, we knew they were 70s throwback. myself, i wore my jean jacket (not acid washed; gotta keep it age appropriate) last night as my homage to my more childhood.
the killers are delightfully even more new wave in concert than they are on their albums. brandon flowers owned the stage in his skinny black jeans and increasingly-iconic black jean jacket with furry fringe shoulders (they look like bison shoulders to me).
great set list. for once, instead of furiously scribbling the songs or typing on my blackberry, i just tried to enjoy the show (while video taping) and let setlist.fm capture it for me.
they played the hits and then some. 'for reasons unknown' was the song that i knew the least that i liked the best. and covering joy division's 'shadowplay' was a great homage to their roots. i have to admit, i love seeing the set list ahead of time; on the othe hand, it takes away some of the surprise and the anticipation. when we saw rem i didn't look up the set list ahead of time, and i kept saying that i would be happy if they played 'the finest worksong.' then when when they opened with it, it was almost too good to be true.anyway, set list and pics below. still working on being able to upload video.
