everything's not lost.

back from munich! back from a great concert! i’ve seen state radio live.

and what to say, it was every bit exciting as i had hoped for. chetro, chuck and mike pulled of quite an energetic show at a great location: the 59to1 where i have been before for the athlete concert. only this time - even better - it was smoke free (new law in germany)! the setlist included mostly songs from their new album “year of the crow“. trying to get a setlist as i can’t seem to remember the songs of the new album that well. at least i know that they didn’t play “unfortunates” from the new album, which is my favorite. i remember for sure: fall of the american empire, omar bay, wicker plane, cia, guantanamo, gang of thieves, fight no more. and some more. from the other stuff, they played state inspector, black cab motorcade, camilo, mr. larkin (YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!), right me up, waitress, man in the hall, people to people, rushian and even a song from dispatch: time served. so great!

but. no “diner song“. kwentin sad.

what was pretty amazing is that i didn’t expect them to rock that place so hard. i knew it wouldn’t be the same as listening to the CD since i know the Dispatch dvd and other live videos and know that they always like to improvise and change things. it was a blast!

it’s probably the same thing when seeing Monta live - the music is harder than when you hear the tracks on CD.

state radio were supported by “ghost of tom joad” (springsteen and rage against the machine, anyone?) from germany. they were ok as a support, also highly energetic but as richard put it “replaceable”.

so to sum it up:

taken two days off of work:         pricy

state radio ticket + shipping:     20 EUR

train klagenfurt-munich:           29 EUR

train munich-klagenfurt:           37 EUR

all you can eat brunch:            19 EUR

state radio t-shirt:               15 EUR

poster of the wrong band:           1 EUR

_________________________________________

after all:               totally worth it.

seeing Chad Stokes live was worth the trip, since he’s like an indepentend music legend already. plus, i have an autograph on the concert ticket. i’m gonna put this in a frame!

what can i say - i’m a fanboy! :)

update: full setlist, powered by patchmusic.info:

01. Fight No More Forever
02. Black Cab Motorcade
03. The Waitress
04. Guantanamo
05. Gang Of Thieves
06. People to People
07. CIA
08. State Inspector
09. As With Gladness
10. Wicker Plane
11. Mr. Larkin
12. Right Me Up
13. Time Served
14. Camilo
15. Rushian
16. Democracy in Kind encore
17. Man in the Hall encore

last.fm just made my day:

http://www.last.fm/music/Barry+Louis+Polisar

Barry Louis Polisar is an author and songwriter who writes children’s music and numerous children’s books, poems and stories.
He has written songs for Sesame Street and The Weekly Reader, has starred in an Emmy Award-winning television show for children and has been featured regularly on The Learning Channel. (…)

first song of the Juno soundtrack “Barry Louis Polisar - All I Want is You” and these are the tags, that last.fm users submitted:

• blacker than the blackest black times infinity
• brutal death metal
• drops wet cement on unsuspecting crippled children

just great haha :)

if this title won’t add more entries to my “funny google search results that link to my page”-list then i don’t know what will.

the slut concert yesterday was great fun, the set list was awesome and a very good mix of all the great music they made in the years! i really enjoyed it and the PPC Graz is a cool location for concerts. a bit small, but it fit perfectly.

i didn’t have my cam with me, because i didn’t think it would be allowed, but there were one or two people with a DSLR running around.. and a few people with smaller pocket cameras so I gave my new mobile phone (SE K800i) a try.. epic fail :) but better than nothing :)

28.02. - slut, graz
20.03. - state radio, munich
14.04. - coheed & cambria, vienna
15.04. - ignite, vienna
04.05. - tito & tarantula, graz
07.05. - kettcar, vienna

yay.

edit: had to update -> completely forgot kettcar in vienna
edi2: another update, ignite in vienna

4 days of travel behind me, time for a short recap!

thursday. munich.

my trip started not as promising as i wanted it to start. after starting my car in the morning, my GPS device wouldn’t start, but instead, the warning sound indicating that i left my lights on started - only thing was, the engine was running. so i got myself a new fuse for the GPS device and headed to the ÖAMTC (automobile club) to have a short look. he dismantled a relay and told me that now it won’t beep any more, but i still would have to do something about it. good enough for me, 3.5 hours of beeping would have made me go crazy. with all that delay and snow and rain in salzburg, my trip got delayed quite a bit and i couldn’t make it in time to meet up with Kojote aka Nils who i know from back in the tutorials.de days. too bad, but another time, i promise!

instead, i directly teamed up with Nicole who i know from another german community (Supertopic>Spotleid) since a long time. we walked around a bit in the center of munich and visited tollwood where i had a Hot Mojito - with that much rum that i had to drink coke the rest of the night :D

but the main reason why i went to munich was the Athlete concert. the 59:1 was a small location, but perfect for concerts, nice stage, good sound. only thing that really, really sucked was the slow and way-blocking wardrobe, but i’ll forgive them. the concert itself was great, although i constantly think about how awesome The Weakerthans concert in london was and that nothing could come close to that for quite some time. also, because there were so many people smoking and chatting during the concert, which i find especially rude.

photo (c) by Catherine McCann, CC-licence

i took a few photos in the pedestrian but not more than 5 to 10.

friday. innsbruck.

on friday i left for innsbruck to attend the company christmas party. my co-workers from villach have made a business trip out of it and met with some customers in innsbruck, but it was my day off so i headed for the hotel and took a long, hot shower. after a while, the rest of the co-workers from various company locations showed up and we all took a ride with the new Hungerburgbahn and had some mulled wine on top of the mountain with a nice view down to Innsbruck. well, we would have had a nice view, if it wasn’t that foggy. and damn cold. (-14°C, 2200m altitude difference as far as i have been told). after a few glasses we finally went some place warm were the party took place. i had a great time with my co-workers and colleagues from other places that i don’t see that often. it was my third company christmas after about 28 months of working for the company and so far i was always looking forward to that day. hope to get some photos sometime.

saturday. salzburg.

after breakfast on saturday with most of the people from the night before i drove to salzburg to meet an ex-co-worker from my company who became a close friend. unfortunately he is located in salzburg which means i don’t get to see him that often. good thing there’s always ICQ and MSN.

but my first stop was to ikea where i looked around a bit and stumbled upon something very cool. Kopparberg Pear Cider. which is kind of like my favourite drink at the Claddagh in Klagenfurt and the O’Malleys in Salzburg. the only downside is that the version you can buy at ikea is the non-alcoholic one. it still tastes like the real deal. yummy cider without getting drunk. wohoo. plus: no bad conscience if you’re drinking it home alone.

in the evening, we took a walk around salzburg city for another mulled wine - by treml who is famous for his punch as i’ve been told - and to find something where we could eat - my friend was stupid enough not to reserve a seat at Maredo, although i told him to, but we found another nice restaurent.

two “real” (=alcoholic) pear ciders at O’Malleys later we called it a day, because i was still a bit tired and exhausted from the night before.

today, sunday, morning i snuck out of the house, let my friend keep on sleeping and drove home. end of story.