Saw three really great bands tonight. Dan Mangan was headlining at the Vogue and his backing band are also in a band called The Crackling, who were cool to watch. Bah, having a tough time finding words to describe. Am tired. Anyhow, The Crackling is fronted by Dan’s drummer and Dan actually hopped on drums for them during one song.

The Burning Hell went on next. They’re from Ontario and are fronted by this quirky dude who plays ukulele. Again, hard to describe so I’ll steal words from their website: “The essence of The Burning Hell is music to dance to while laughing about death, music you can sing along to while smiling out of the side of your mouth, knowing that while the end may be near, the bar is still open.”

Sharon is a big fan of Dan Mangan, who is a local artist. He’s sold out 2 nights at the Vogue so he’s popular but not someone I’ve listened to. I’ll have to check some more out because his music is really good! He knows how to build a song into a small explosion and then bring it back down to a soft acoustic tune.

I’m very tired so I’m quitting writing this now.

I was just talking to Sharon about Google’s autocomplete feature since the most frequent search term that hits my site is “darrenthetiger.com” (17 visits in the last 30 days). Sharon was thinking maybe autocomplete was bringing it up so we tried it. When we hit “darrenthe” we got this:

Saw The Trews acoustic show at the Vogue tonight. Didn’t realize they wrote a pile of hit songs. Sharon’s a big fan and this was her 7th show or something. Band rocked, even though they were acoustic. Stuck in some covers in the middle of a couple of songs. My favorite was their cover of Led Zeppelin’s When the Levee Breaks. They did 2 sets, the first with the regular band and the second with the Tim Chaisson, who opened the show, and a couple of other players. The second set was more diverse since they had Tim on the fiddle and this big bearded dude on accordion. Enjoyed both sets!

Last weekend’s band (I say this because we seem to be going to a show every week) was the Paper Lions and Bend Sinister. I forget the name of the headliner, but we were there to see the Paper Lions who’ve put out a new EP that’s destined to become one of my most listened to this fall. Bend Sinister is a local band who sound a little like Supertramp, but way, way better. I don’t like Supertramp but these guys were fantastic. I got their new EP as well and it’s been played heavily ever since. Paper Lions were great to see again (they had previously opened for the Electric Six show we saw earlier this year) too.

What was fun about the Paper Lions show was it was the last stop on the tour for the 3 bands so they were all hopping on stage with one another while the crowd got pretty wild. It was at the university bar so there was more people having a good time than you see at most Vancouver shows.

And now, I sleep.

I’m in the home stretch of my last batch of concert tickets. Friday Sharon and I went to the Commodore to see gypsy-punk band Gogol Bordello rock out. This was probably the most high-energy show I’ve seen all year! Eugene Hutz, the band leader, was entertaining as always and their new MC, Pedro Erazo, kept things at a furious pace too.

Next Friday we’re going to go see the Paper Lions, a really cool band from PEI. Then Dan Mangan is coming to the Vogue on Nov 11. Finally I’m getting to see Nick Cave when he comes to the Commodore with Grinderman on Nov 26.

Last night Sharon, her roommate Michelle and I found ourselves at the Comedy Mix to see Debra DiGiovanni give us her take on sex, relationships, and Justin Beiber. Incredibly funny! She’s awesome!

Today was incredibly exciting — I baked muffins and then I cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom. There is never a quiet moment in the house of Darren. haha.

Moving into the backlog of things I want to share from the past month, there were a couple of fantastic shows in Sept/Oct. First off was The Flaming Lips! They have been one of my all-time favorite live bands ever since I saw them play the Plaza of Nations on their Yoshimi tour many years ago. The September show was my sixth Lips experience and it was one of the best yet.

The show started as it always does, with Wayne (the singer and bandleader) rolling across the crowd in a clear, giant inflatable ball. You can see his hampster ball walk on youtube if you’re curious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4frLhgF0YQ4.

From there the band played a bunch of new material from the Embryonic album. I never got into the album too much but it all sounds great live! Wayne had a bunch of new tricks for this show. My favorite: some dude came out dressed in a bear costume and hoisted Wayne up on his shoulders where the two of them rocked out for an entire song. Then there was the outrageous amount of confetti blasted over the crowd by the enormous confetti cannons on stage.

Flaming Lips shows always have so many things going on that it’s hard to take it all in. With confetti, oversized balloons, costumed people dancing onstage, and the giant screen projecting psychedelic video while the band plays, it can be overwhelming. I love this band. I hope they come back soon.

Saw Superchunk, a 90′s band who’s members are responsible for founding Merge Records, home of bands such as Arcade Fire. Awesome show! Sharon and I parked ourselves up front after the opening band finished. It was at the Biltmore and since that place is so small and the stage is so low it felt like we were seeing them play in someone’s basement. The band even commented about it.

Mac (the singer) and Laura (the bassist) were bouncing around the whole time. Drummer was incredible. Reminded me of seeing Dave Grohl at Richards back in the day when he was touring with Queens of the Stone Age. At the end Mac and the drummer, John, traded places mid-song and jumped into a jam of Black Flag’s My War which is one of my all-time favorite songs. Then John led the band through a Misfits cover to close out the main set. Two encores later and we were ecstatic to have seen a band I never thought I’d get the chance to see live.

I haven’t been writing here as much the past few months. Work’s kept me pretty busy and I’ve felt like life’s been a little too hectic for me. So I’ve slowed down the pace a bit. In fact I probably won’t be going to many more shows past the ones I already have tickets too.

Time for sleep!

Sharon and I spent the weekend with a pack of friends at the Dinner Rock forestry campsite near Lund, which is the last town on highway 101 that runs north through Powell River. On Friday we both left work early to make sure we caught the 5:50 ferry out of Horseshoe Bay. It was a quick run north with only a brief stop at Sechelt to watch the sunset from the beach. Once we got over on the second ferry we were ravenously hungry and hopped into a small cafe in Powell River. We had expected a cheap little diner place but instead discovered a gem of a restaurant tucked inside the Courthouse Inn. The owner was tidying up after the dinner rush but said she could put together a coconut tandoori soup with salmon, which we gratefully chowed down. So delicious!

Reilly, Miranda, Josh and Shan had already pulled in that afternoon and had set up camp already. When we arrived we sat back, had a beer, and toasted up cheese smokies on the fire. The best part about camping in the offseason is there are rarely any fire restrictions.

Everyone slept in on Saturday and after a hearty breakfast we went to Lund to explore the village. There’s an amazing little bakery up there and I discovered the best blackberry cinnamon buns I’ve ever had! Sharon and I headed in to Powell River to explore while the rest of the gang chilled out at the campsite. We had dinner, a couple of beers and turned in as the rain began to come down. This morning Sharon and I woke up before everyone else and decided to sneak off to catch the 11:20 ferry and get back into town a bit early. I didn’t really have the ambition to hang around in the rain all morning and the next ferry wasn’t until 3:20 this afternoon. Now I’m on the ferry enjoying a cup of herbal tea with Sharon while we watch the scenery pass by. Looking forward to a hot shower when I get home!

This trip felt a little short and I could have easily used another day or two to explore the area and eat more cinnamon buns. I’ve been busy lately and haven’t seen as much of my friends as I’d like and would have enjoyed spending a little more time camping with everyone. Still, I’m glad we’re on the ferry now and enjoying being warm and dry.

[Update] 3:30pm – We stopped at the Gumboot Cafe in Roberts Creek for lunch. Delicious! They make organic food and it’s outrageously tasty. When we showed up at Langdale to catch the ferry we discovered it’s overloaded so we got bumped to the 4:50pm sailing. Doh! Next time we’re heading for the ferry I’m going to check the loads first so we plan appropriately. Fortunately I’ve tethered up my iPhone to the Macbook and we’re downloading a copy of the film One Week from iTunes so that we can watch it while we’re waiting.

Last night I saw one of my most anticipated shows this year: the 90′s band Pavement got together for a one-off reunion tour and brought Quasi along as their opener for their west coast dates. Quasi’s new album is one of the best I’ve heard and is definitely my favorite album this year (I’m not the only one who thinks so — read what Carrie Brownstein had to say about it). They didn’t come to Vancouver on their tour and I had debated going down to Portland to see them but they hooked up as the openers for Pavement, making a trip to Portland unnecessary.

I dragged everyone in early to see Quasi and they were fantastic! The new songs sounded great with loads of guitar. Sam blew a string early in the set and changed it while Janet and Joanna segued the song into a pounding guitar and bass solo.  There’s a reason I never, ever miss a show with Janet Weiss on drums. She’s incredible to watch.

Pavement was a lot of fun! With all their goofing around you’d never expect their music to sound as good as it does. The show was mostly a greatest hits thing with a few audience requests thrown in at the end. A few people in the front were yelling for their favorite songs and, after a brief discussion onstage, the band jumped into them near the end. Stephen Malkmus was the most fun and looked quite un-serious about the whole thing. He would casually hold his guitar in some strange position to start some of the songs, almost as though it was an afterthought instead of the lead instrument.

There’s an avalanche of great bands coming through in the next couple of months:

Sept 26 – Flaming Lips at the Malkin Bowl
Oct 5 – Surfer Blood at The Biltmore
Oct 12 – Holy F**k at the Rickshaw
Oct 13 – Superchunk at Venue
Oct 22 – Gogol Bordello at The Commodore
Nov 26 – Grinderman at The Commodore

I’ve been a little quiet in the past month as I focus on getting my place cleared out (I’ve managed to purge about 1/3 of my possessions and my condo looks WAY better as a result) and getting back into running and going to the gym regularly. There have been some recent adventures I’ve wanted to post and hopefully I’ll get them up soon.

This weekend Sharon and I are joining a pack of our friends in going to a wilderness campground just south of Lund. I’m very excited and also hoping that the weather doesn’t rain too much.

The last couple of months have  been ridiculously busy and stressful and I’ve made some recent changes to make sure I don’t wind up as some fat-ass stressed-out computer guy. First thing, and certainly the toughest, was I went on hiatus from our band. No plans on how long this will be for, or whether it’s permanent or not. I haven’t really had a sit down and heart to heart with my fabulous (and talented!) bandmates. It was a decision that had been brewing for a couple of weeks and I realized at our last rehearsal that my passion just wasn’t in it right now with everything else going on in my life.

It seems like life had become a treadmill that didn’t slow down and shelving my band commitments has helped slow it down. I’m still passionate about music and I want to get back into it, but I need things to simmer down first so I can properly put time into it.

The other big change (for me) is to disconnect from the online world. This weekend I went on a policy of checking email once a day, usually in the evening, and batching up all my email and reading in one timeboxed session. It’s easy to feel like you’re being busy when you’re twittering, facebooking and emailing constantly, but all you do is suck time which should be spent on more important things like chilling with friends or running amuck with my girlfriend.

So if you don’t see me on FB and Twitter or don’t hear back from my email in a timely fashion, that’s why. If something’s super-important and can’t wait (for example: DUDE – Guitar Wolf and Tegan and Sara are joining to form a new band!) then you can always text me.

Speaking of T&S, the new video for Northshore is pretty awesome.

Northshore – Official Tegan and Sara Music Video

Tegan and Sara | MySpace Music Videos

Sadly, there is no Guitar Wolf / Tegan and Sara band that I know of.

Our four day weekend last weekend was fantastic! I wrote a bunch while in Okanagan Falls before we headed on a meandering drive through Osoyoos and down the Hope-Princeton to get home later that evening. I’ve never done the drive all the way down to Osoyoos and we enjoyed it very much, especially with our stop at Oliver Twist Estate Winery. Tasty. Very tasty. I’ve now got a bottle of their Pinot Gris in the kitchen waiting for a tasty pasta meal to be served up.

Vernon was fun too. Sharon got a quick tour and we’ll have to go back to check it out some more. We didn’t even get up to Silver Star to see the gaudy cabins up there. But we did make a trip to the Grey Monk winery for lunch on their patio, which I believe is one of the best in the Okanagan. The wine’s tasty too!

Sharon also got to meet my Mom’s neighbors, who are really cool, and their large dog who has grown up since I last saw him.

He still thinks he’s small enough for your lap!

This past weekend started off with a few beers on Friday night after work. Saturday was a little slow going as a result but I was in good shape by the time we were due to see Theatre Under the Stars production of Singing In the Rain! Excellent show. So much fun! We’re going to have to see more theatre like that. It did threaten to rain on us but it only sprinkled at times.

Sunday I managed to clear up my place after a crazy few months. I’m making some changes so things don’t get so ridiculous for me anymore. More about that in my next post.