Thank you, Little Steven

For giving the ultimate Xmas gift this season - the gift of a legendary, full-blown rock concert.

On Sunday night, despite being sick, I dragged myself to the Black Cat club in DC and saw Little Steven's Underground Garage Show tour which included The Charms, The Chesterfield Kings, Supersuckers and the New York Dolls!!!! (oh yeah, and go-go dancers as eye-candy for the boyz)

I can die a happy woman because I snagged a prime front row spot and got to see them in all their rock glory. I even got Sylvain's guitar pick!!!

Okay, first off - The Charms were great. This was my first time seeing them. Their female lead singer has amazing stage prescence. You just can't take your eyes off her.

The Chesterfield Kings - holy CRAP! Their lead singer is nuts! He was swinging his mic stand around, almost clocking people in the front row. He hung from the pipes on the ceiling, he jumped into the audience and stood on the bar. They did a GREAT set. I even got to shake crazy lead singer's hand.

The Supersuckers - holy SHITE! They blew me away. Mike has seen them once before and as soon as they were done with their too-short set, I turned around and said -"why didn't you drag me to that two hour show you went to???" This was my first time seeing them too. I had no idea what to expect, but they gave me a balls-out rocking set. I knew several of their songs since Mike plays them alot. And I loved how they covered Thin Lizzy's "Cowboy Song". THEN, their lead guitarist took my beer bottle and played a slide guitar solo with it - AHHHH!!! That was freaking awesome!!!! I am a total convert now and want to see a full-blown show by them today...as in yesterday.

Then the Dolls came on. What can you say? They are legends. I was thisclose to David Johansen. Holy crap. Syl came up and put his guitar in my face, so I got to "play" it. He even threw his pick in my eye. Sammi Yaffa and Steve Conti are great additions to the line-up. They did all the classics like "Personality Crisis", "Jetboy", "Trash", etc. *sigh*

Yeah, I gotta say that when I walked into that club, I was feeling pretty crappy due to my cold. But when I walked out, I was walking on air with my ears ringing, smelling like smoke, and happy as shite.

oh yeah it rocked.

Mike & I kicked off this week by traveling to Philly to see The Living End. OMG, they were freaking fantastic!! Chris Cheney, the lead guitarist, is incredible and I will rate him right up there with guitar greats like Chet Atkins, Brian Setzer, SRV. We managed to film a clip of him doing his guitar solo at the Philly show. If you listen carefully, you will hear all kinds of styles in there - country, rock, blues - it's all in there! Plus, he plays slide guitar with a full beer bottle and then proceeds to down the beer, and pour the rest of the contents on the audience in the front row - ROCK.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_Rk9jcMLdU

Here's another small clip of them performing their song "All Town Down."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAKSsJbVwvU

We saw them the following night here in DC. They did basically the same setlist, but it was still a great show.

Coming up on Sunday night is the New York Dolls, The Romantics and a bunch of other artists as part of the Little Steven Underground Garage show. I can't wait.

I wish we could do this all the time - travel to see our favorite bands in concert - BUT I guess we got to work and pay the bills, eh?

Hope everyone had a good Turkey Day. Mine started with a 5K "Turkey Trot" in the rain - ugh. But at least I did it and finished! This was followed by a feast at one of my friend's house. Of course, we watched the Cowboys as they beat the pants off of Tampa Bay - whoot! (Yay for Romo for throwing 5 TD passes in one game. And yeah to Barber for scoring 2 TD's. I'm playing him in my Fantasty Football league)

We still felt like beached whales today so didn't do much. We DID go shopping. It was nuts. Then we watched the DaVinci Code from Netflix. That was a long-ass movie. Nothing more to say about it. It was - eh.

Man, if I were in San Antonio right now, I would SO be at the Spurs/Mavericks game. Well, next year is not far away...

Let the madness begin...

On Friday night I went up to Annapolis, MD to go see INXS play at the U.S. Naval Academy. It was a VERY strange venue. Later on, we found out from the band that they had to sign an agreement that specifically said that they couldn't drink, smoke or swear onstage or else they wouldn't get paid! To show how strict these rules were, JD couldn't even sing the word "hell" during the song "The Devil Inside". Now..don't you think that's just a bit extreme? Come on, this is 2006 and not 1966 during the Ed Sullivan or Steve Allen show days when they censored Elvis by not showing the lower half of his body or when the Stones had to change their lyrics to "Let's Spend Some TIME Together". Geez! Oh and we couldn't bring signs with us. Yeah, those could be construed as dangerous weapons. I suppose I could kill someone with a piece of cardboard that says "we love you".
So yeah, it was a bit oppressive. But everyone respected the rules and we all still had a great time. So since INXS couldn't do the song "Taste It" (that's when JD performs mock oral sex on his mic stand), they pulled out a cover and did "Folsom Prison Blues". So that was pretty sweet.

So this concert kicked off a string of shows for me this week. I am off of work and tomorrow I head to Philly to see The Living End show #1. Then on Tuesday night I see their second show in DC. Then on Saturday I'll be seeing this great new band called The Hold Steady. Then the next night I see the New York Dolls and The Romantics.

In case I don't have a chance, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Here's a pic of me and two of my galpals before the drinks REALLY started flowing on Friday night.

Why do clucking chickens crack me up?

So on Saturday I FINALLY saw the Borat movie. Man, there were some jokes there that had me gasping in shock. And the man-on-man wrestling scene was PAINFUL to watch. (I think I threw up in my mouth a bit). But holy SMOKES when the chicken popped out of his suitcase on the NYC subway, and then Borat throws down his bag later in the movie and the chicken clucks - it cracked me UP! I was laughing for hours.
I don't know why I am so easily amused by that since I was actually a little scared of chickens while I was little. One of my neighbors back in Texas actually had a chicken in her backyard. I went to go pet it and it pecked the hell out of my hand and arm - bitch!!

So, speaking of poultry, next Thursday is Thanksgiving here in the US and A. I'll be dining at a dear friend's house with her friends and possibly my cousin (come on, Amy!) But before the big feast, I will be running a 5K on Thanksgiving morning. This will give me clearance to not feel as guilty eating that slice of pumpkin pie and then sitting on the couch like Al Bundy watching the Cowboys play.

Next week is going to be smoking. It starts off this Friday with a retro show - INXS! We just found out that our seats were upgraded to 5th row so now I'm on the hunt for a "sparkly" outfit so we all can be seen from the stage.

Then I took next Mon and Tue off to go see The Living End! On Monday night they are in Philly, so Mike & I are heading up there for the show. Then the next night they are here in DC at the Black Cat, and we're going to that too. We just LOVE this band so much. And we are trying to see them as much as possible since after this tour, they won't be in the U.S. for a while since they want to stay in their home country of Australia and take a break. I will miss them! Here is a little clip of one of their live shows so you can get a flavor. It's amazing that they produce such a full sound and they're only a three-piece band! This song, "Wake Up", is very cool. In the chorus he sings "suicidal education, it got sold to a generation, wake up to the manipulation, wake up to the situation..." This could have easily applied to SO many things in our society here in the U.S. (Hopefully things will start getting better with the result of the recent elections).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q_il_FrQbc



Then the Sunday after Thanksgiving, it's getting back to the bare roots of rock & roll with the New York Dolls, baby!!! They'll be performing as part of Little Steven's Underground Garage thing so we'll also be seeing The Romantics and Chesterfield Kings - whoo!

So yeah, I got a busy schedule. But it's all for the love of rock & roll. I wouldn't change a thing.

Yay! I will be in Texas for Xmas! Although it's a short visit - and the LAST one where I have to actually fly home for the holidays (WHOO). I arrive at midnight on Dec. 23 and then fly back on Dec. 26. My mom is pissed but I keep reminding her that I WOULD like to be with hubby for at least one holiday (I was in TX last year for both Xmas and NYE without him -bad!) And the fact that after June 2007, I will never have to fly back to TX since I will already be living there