Two Concerts For The Price Of One!!
or trying to tidy up my backlog, so to speak

Okay, so I suck at time management. Since getting involved in this website thing of which I spoke here, spending the bulk of the week at the chiropractor's and generally trying to finish my 50,000 mile tune up on other bits of my body, I have been playing catch up with all other aspects of my life here in the blogosphere. Not that anyone has minded the radio silence.

I'm still entrenched in web work, my current project centering around editing a piece shot with Philip, the drummer which has turned into me trying to learn iMovie as a crash course. And by "crash", I mean full head-on collision of my rusty brain with the techno world. I'm wearing a figurative neck brace right now. I'm no dummy. I should be able to get this, right?

We'll see.

Anywho, I'm happy to report I've graduated to maintenance status in the land of Chiros, so I got that going for me at least.

That all windily said, I'm attempting to clean up my room of concert comings and goings before the next onslaught which starts tonight with a groovy Guster gig. Geo and I have been to so many great shows this year already with a long list of opportunities waiting in the wings including a possible double or triple shot of my main men, Old 97's.

Eeeeeeeeeee!!

So last week, The Decemberists rolled into town. Never having been to one of their shows before, I was looking forward to seeing what they'd cook up.

It was ... peculiar.

Not unentertaining, mind you, but peculiar. They're catalog is kind of all over the place and so was their show. They went from the REM-like pop of Calamity Song to epic Prog Rock of the Crane Wife 1-3 to some crazy, rambling operatic opus called The Bagman's Gambit featuring Sara Watkins on vocals to a more Country tune or two to a Carnie feeling ditty in which Colin Meloy took a stroll through the audience.



Local critic, Scott Mervis summed it up nicely in his review. "Judging by the albums alone, you might take him for an uppity, bookish character. You wouldn't expect him to come down from the stage during "The Chimbley Sweep," climb across the chairs and share someone's box of Sour Patch candy, throwing out pieces to the crowd. He also complimented our hospitality and "beautiful city" (he biked along the river in the afternoon) to the point where he apologized for "beating it into the ground."



I'm sorry I didn't record his journey from the beginning so you all could witness him catching Sour Patch Kids in his mouth. He ended the evening with the lovely June Hymn.



Am I glad I went. Yes. Would I go again. Meh. Not so sure. The songs I like are terrific, but the other stuff is too heavy in the jammy section for my taste. All in all, it was an interesting evening out with a friend...

Now compare that evening to the one last month with Canada's pleasantly pudgy, all-around nice guy, Ron Sexsmith**. First of all, he was playing at the uber fabulous Club Cafe. Sexsmith is a singer/songwriter who pens pop and country ballads (as well as some rockers) sung in his signature soothing voice. He's one of Geo's favorites. Sadly, Geo fell prey to the latest scourge plaguing his coworkers and was unable to join me that evening, but I recorded as much as possible without being too obnoxious. Okay. I was probably obnoxious. And stupid as it turns out.

At one point he asked for requests. Competing with others in the crowd, I yelled for our favorite, "Nothing Good". He perked up at my request and rejected the other losers, I mean patrons' suggestions to play mine, because, you know, I'm kind of a big deal. ;-)  I lunged for my camera, pressed record and...

NOTHING

I swear to God I pushed record. I was zooming in, panning and painfully restraining from singing along. Nothing. I was all excited to share this great live version as well as Ron's and my little exchange about me being special with Geo, but alas. I am a huge asshat.  Too bad because it was awesome. My friend, Sheila can back me up on that.

I did manage to get my head out of my ass long enough to record these beauties for my ever-lovin' Geo.







He IS adorably pudgy in his Canadian Western wear.
There are more videos from Ron Sexsmith on my ubiquitous YouTube Channel ri'chair.

That cleans up that mess, now on to the next show!!

**Side Note: The name "Sexsmith" sounds like he is a world renown expert on all things sex related. You'd expect him to be a drop-dead GORGEOUS, hunky love machine with rocking six-pack abs.