Random Pic(s) of the week

It just so happens that the random pictures from my camera roll this week are all concert pictures as well. They were next in line, so I figured this weekly blog feature would go in chronological order now.

As I go through my camera roll and delete pictures I don’t want/need any more, I should likely delete these, the quality is garbage. It’s not a secret that cameras on phones were terrible back in the day, so tolerate these, please.

October 18, 2008

This was the first time I saw Neil Young. I have seen him a number of times since, but because it was the first, I had to poorly capture it. It was also the first time, and only time, that I saw Death Cab For Cutie.

The only disappointing part of the night, if I remember correctly, there wasn’t any CSNY songs played. But he did wrap the night up with “A Day In The Life” by the Beatles.

October 30, 2008

October of 2008 was a busy month. Less than two weeks later we were treated to another amazing show at The Brandt Centre in Regina. I guess that depends who you ask. I do know a lot of people that weren’t fans of this show.

Lenny Kravitz came to town and put on a clinic of how to play guitar. The guy can shred, and he does what he wants. he plays the songs he wants to play and not necessarily what everyone wants to hear. I think that’s why people were disappointed with the show. You can’t forget the group of hired gins that he brought with him. They could all play!

July 8, 2009

Everyone has their favourite venue(s). I have a few in each city I’ve lived in. One of my favourite Regina venues is The Exchange. I don’t think many people would argue this one. There are many things I remember from this night, but seeing legendary Pixies front man Frank Black solo for the time will always be the highlight of the night. Actually, I think he went by Black Francis that night. He played songs from the Pixies, Frank Black and the Catholics, and solo Frank Black stuff.

August 9/10, 2009

This was the first time I traveled to a music festival. I got to Chicago the day before Lollapalooza started so I could eat some deep dish and check out the city. I have a lot of pictures from the weekend on my computer that I took with an actual camera, but only four on my phone.

These two are of Jane’s Addiction’s closing set for the festival. One of the many bands that I consider myself lucky to have seen live. I stayed in this spot most of the day, skipping a few sets from bands I wanted to see, but that also gave the opportunity to catch Lou Reed live.

Anyway, these pictures are okay considering the quality of the next two.

I did something during this set that I never do. I left to beat the crowd. With 80,000 or so people there, I figured it was a good idea if I wanted to get to an afterparty gig. I missed Jane’s Addiction playing “Jane Say,” one of my all time favourite songs to get to this afterparty. Joe Perry from Aerosmith joined them on stage for it. It was the same night Aerosmith was supposed to play in Regina at Taylor Field but that was the same summer that Steven Tyler fell off the stage at Sturgis.

So, what could be so special about this afterparty that could make me leave without seeing “Jane Says” live?

It’s a very well known fact that I’m a big fan of Foo Fighters and Dave Grohl. It just so happened that he was playing the legendary Metro Theatre in Wrigleyville with a new band of his called Them Crooked Vultures. Earlier in 2009, Dave, Josh Homme, and John Paul Jones announced this super group. All we had heard from the band was their first single “New Fang” and the album wasn’t out until November. This happened to be their live debut and I had tickets.

Security was super tight that night and they barely let my friend Andrea and I in because they thought our Saskatchewan ID’s were fake. Luckily another security guard knew where we were from and proceeded to make fun of his co-worker. There were signs all over saying “ABSOLUTELY NO PICTURES OR VIDEOS.” I was super hesitant to take my phone out to grab any so, considering how quickly I took this and the quality of the camera, you’re just going to have to take my word that this is what these pictures are. I still have the shirt, wrist band, and one of Dave’s drum sticks from it. I don’t think I’ve ever shared these before, but considering it’s been almost 15 years, now seems like the time to do it.