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Ok, everything I got is online now.  I got video for a total of 9 of the 25 songs they played; however, the end of All I Need is chopped because my memory card filled.  I really wish I would have got Thom’s screwup and attempt at Faust Arp/Tell Me Why but I wasn’t recording at the time.

Basically, Thom screwed up the lyrics and bailed on the song, half-assedly covered “Tell Me Why” by Neil Young to the laughter of the audience (he didn’t know the words) at which point Phil came out and threw some money down as if Thom were a street performer.  Thom and Johnny tried again and screwed up again, Thom yelled “Fuck” and stopped playing again, only to start again from where he screwed up and finish the song.  It was really funny.  The band was in good spirits for sure.  In Limbo was also badass because Nigel came out and played tambourine.  It was a fantastic show.

I am posing the set list below with song names in yellow I have video for.  They are all on youtube and embeded here.  Make sure and check out the videos in high quality mode on youtube so you can hear everything in stereo and see everything more clearly.  The actual video I shot is at a pretty decent resolution and youtube doesn’t do it justice; however, I don’t have the bandwidth to post 9 500MB files.  Anyway, the show kicked ass.  It was the best show I have ever been to.  I hope you enjoy the pictures and video.

Here is a slideshow of the pictures I took.  If you want to see bigger versions of them go here.

1. 15 Step
   
2. Reckoner
3. Optimistic
4. There There
   
5. All I Need
   
6. Pyramid Song
7. Talk Show Host
8. The National Anthem
9. The Gloaming
10. Videotape
11. Lucky
12. Faust Arp
13. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
14. Climbing Up The Walls
    
15. Dollars and Cents
16. Nude
17. Bodysnatchers
18. How to Disappear Completely (Encore 1)
19. Arpeggi/Weird Fishes (Encore 1)
20. Idioteque (Encore 1)
    
21. In Limbo (Encore 1)
22. Street Spirit (Encore 1)
    
23. You And Whose Army? (Encore 2)
    
24. No Surprises (Encore 2)
    
25. Everything In Its Right Place (Encore 2)
    

I went to a Ryan Adams show in Salem last night. I shot some video and took a handful of photos before my battery died. The show was incredible. They are all great musicians/singers and as a musician I was awed by their skill at not only playing their instruments and singing, but also at managing a pretty demanding crowd. It was awesome.

I’m working on getting video up. I got some footage of the band dicking around with the crowd and I got all of The Sun Also Sets. I’ll bolt it on to the end of this post when I get it.

For every day of the trip Heather and I sat down and took notes on what had happened during the day. I had originally intended to type it all up right when I got home; however, we all know how those kinds of plans usually work out. So here I am a month later writing things up. The days go backwards so you’ll need to read the posts from the bottom to the top if you want to read it chronologically. I have 3 of the 7 days written and more coming.

Day3

Heather and I woke up at 4am to drive to Coba. When we left, the bellhop asked where we were going. When we told him he got our room number. It seemed ominous at the time but it all ended up okay. For the first hour on the road I was incredibly paranoid about getting pulled over. We were the only tourists that appeared to be out and about and I felt very out-of-place. I followed the speed limit to the number. I was actually the only person in Mexico that obeyed the speed limit from what I could tell. We drove about 40 minutes on the highway before we encountered the first of what would be many jarring obstacles.

In Mexico they like to take standard things that we have in America and use them slightly differently. One of the most jarring items used is the speed bump. Mexicans put them everywhere, regardless of traffic speed or road application. Some have a sign, some don’t. Some are painted, some blend in with the road. It keeps you on your toes. The first time you hit one going 70km/h though you don’t forget it. We hit the first one we came in contact with so hard it hurt my back. It was insane. I started following other cars so I could see when it was going to happen. Heather and I later developed a theory that explained the old roads and random speed bumps. I will go into that later.

We arrived in Coba at about 8am. We were the third car in the lot. We rented bikes and rode halfway to Nohoch Mul before I had to turn around and get a bike that didn’t have two flat tires. My leg muscles were burning and Heather was just coasting along. Once I got a bike that didn’t suck we were able to ride back to Nohock Mul and climb it. There was a Guatamalan family there just before us and they were as tired as we were. Being on a ruin that sticks out above the jungle is difficult to describe. I took a lot of pictures which you can check out here. Coba is fairly remote and is a relatively new find as far as Mexian ruins go. Most of it is un-excavated and there are parts of it that you really could get into trouble in the jungle if you wandered too far. You can still feel ghosts in Coba. If you get there at 8am or so and get a bike you can get through it in about 2 hours and be leaving when all the tour groups show up. We didn’t hire a guide although in hindsight I wish we had. Either do your homework before you go or hire a guide, otherwise you’ll have no idea what you’re looking at. The animals are noisier in the morning and the place has a mood to it earlier in the morning. Once all the tour groups show up though it’s not as fun. When they show up you can head to a cenote or go find some food or something.

Heather and I saw a sign for a Cenote. We drove all the way out to it but we didn’t go swim because Heather didn’t want to. Later I found out she didn’t want to go because she didn’t know what one was. We spent many hours later on trying to find a good one to swim in. Afterwards we headed back towards Coba and found a little place that served lunch and had fresh homemade corn torillas. The food here was the first really good food that we had on the trip. After we ate we continued driving and saw a group of people starting to roast a freshly killed pig that I assume they killed in the jungle. I kind of wish we could have tried it because it likely would have been the most healthy pork I would have ever had.

After Coba we drove to Tulum. There are two different Tulums. One is a modern village, one is an ancient one. We were in the actual town. There were stray dogs everywhere and there were no streets that went directly to the ocean. This was a problem for us because we wanted to stay in Cabanas on the ocean. We were able to get some help from some guys at a hostel which we seriously considered staying at because the people were so cool; however, I can stay at a hostel anywhere. I can’t sleep in a Cabana next to the ocean anywhere. The guy who gave us directions had a big tattoo of Ganesha on his arm. Ganesha has a special meaning to me as I have a tendency to see him at the end of personally troubling times and the beginning of new better ones. It’s irrational, but when I see him it usually means things are about to get better for me so it makes me feel good. We made it down to a road that ran along the ocean and quickly found a place to stay.

It cost us $80 a night for a Cabana on the beach with running water and no electricity. It was sublime. It was far and away my favorite part of the trip. We just sat around and did nothing for the rest of the day. They had a restaurant nearby that had internet access, chill downtempo music, and good food. There was no one trying to sell anything there either. We set with the sun and slept to the sounds of the ocean. I really can’t imagine anything better.

 So after getting a few insane quotes for the installation of my home stereo, I decided that it was time that I quit being a wuss and just figured out how to do some stuff on my own.  I am not handy at all but I don’t want to spend a ton on mounting the stereo I already have.  I am moving all of the stereo equipment to a closet in my hallway and switching to an rf remote which will be able to control it from anywhere in the house.  I am also putting my speakers in the ceiling and will be mounting my tv to the wall.  Basically, I want the living room to be comfortable for conversation when people come over to hang out; but also functional for watching movies.  I want a living room that isn’t obviously built around the tv.  That means that I don’t want any visible stereo gear in my living room.  Anyway, None of it has been as difficult as I had thought it would be; and I am done with the hardest part which was snaking cables through the walls.  Unfortunately, while crawling around in the attic I found this:

My roof is leaking where the Chimney meets the shingles.  That sucks.  I got an excellent recommendation from a girl I work with for a roofing company though, and my father-in-law Patrick Morin is the CEO of it.  He’ll be stoked that he got a referral.  Anyway, time to call RoofLife.

Okay, I finally got the pictures from our trip up.  I wrote up some general commentary so you’ll have a vague idea of what you’re looking at for everything but Uxmal.  I will try to get to Uxmal tomorrow.  Once I get the pictures for Uxmal commented I will be writing a summary of our trip based on notes Heather and I took at the end of each day of the trip.  I will also be posting some really lame video if I can.  From there I just have to get some more of the music I want to get up on here and then I think this blog will be off to a pretty good start.   I feel bad for not posting more right now so I will leave you with an article that I read today and found interesting. You can read it here.

Also, I was discussing the microphone that Thom Yorke used on Radiohead’s New Years Eve show and found out that it is a electrovoice RE20.  They are broadcast mics for radio that are famous for allowing odd address angles, limiting the proximity effect, limiting off mic sounds, and having a fantastic pop filter.  In other words, it is the perfect mic for recording in a basement.  Apparently it has a radio voice flavor though so it isn’t great for everything; however, if you like the flavor it is a great mic.  I was surprised to find out that it is a dynamic mic and that Thom uses it pretty regularly while recording and not just for online shows.  It makes sense because he moves a lot when he sings and he mouths the mic.  It’s just cool to me because it is a relatively cheap mic.    Anyway…