Weekend recap
Saturday
The first annual (I hope) Canaan Worship Ministry Workshop seemed to go fairly smoothly. There are some very talented musicians at Canaan - it's nice as the organizer to have the freedom to just give a small set of guidelines to the workshop leaders and have them run with it from there. I taught the intermediate guitar workshop and attended the vocals workshop, taught by Debbie. Learned some good new exercises for expanding vocal range, then she had us each sing a phrase solo and acapella to the class. While it was kinda intimidating at first, I think we had more fun with it after we relaxed some. She pointed out to me that I have a tendency to short-breath my phrases, so I've noticed that the last few days while singing along to CDs in the car (we all do it, right?) that I've been consciously practicing my breathing.
Cal 34, USC 31. 'Nuff said. Go Bears! Maybe the Niners need to hire Tedford. Er... I didn't just say that... Tedford should stay and build Cal into a perennial powerhouse. Yeah, that's it.
The Switchfoot concert exceeded my expectations. Went with about 15 people to The Pound SF and waited in line at about 6:45 pm. It's a relatively small room with a small bar right off one of the piers, that usually caters to smaller independent bands. Amusingly, this evening the bar wouldn't be getting much business - from our observation, probably at least 75% of the patronage was under 21, marked by prominent "MINOR" stamps placed on the back of their hands at the door. Overall, it was quite hot, with no AC available, and people packed into every available inch. There was a group of rather rude folks who pushed their way to the front by leaning on the people in front of them, then when people shied away from the body contact, steadily moved forward. Guess there are always a few...
Opening band #1 was doing its second show ever, and the lead singer/songwriter/guitarist was noticeably nervous. Very little crowd interaction aside from announcing the name of the next song, and a quick "Thankyousomuch" after finishing each one. The sound mix was pretty bad, we couldn't make out the lyrics, and the drummer was rather unsubtle, banging on cymbals almost constantly. Still, there was some promise there... maybe after some seasoning and a better sound tech, they'll have the chance to make more of an impact.
Opening band #2 (named "Blue" I believe) came on next, and in my opinion was more entertaining. Their frontman was a dead ringer for a taller, skinnier Wolverine (Hugh Jackman from X-Men), and apparently they had one song on the Spiderman soundtrack. They clearly had some more experience in the live setting, not taking themselves too seriously on stage, and having fun interacting with the crowd. Unfortunately, they informed us that the lead singer had laryngitis, and while that afforded them an amusing opportunity to bring up a roadie to help sing a song with the band, they exited the stage after only 4 decent songs. I wouldn't mind seeing them live at some point in the future when they're at 100 percent.
Finally, at 10:15 pm (after 3.5 hrs of standing), the San Diego quartet took the stage and brought the house down. The show was plain fun - you could clearly see that even at a relatively young age, they were already seasoned and talented pros. The addition of Jerome Fontamillas (keyboardist/guitarist/programming) to the original trio of Jon Foreman (lead vocals, lead guitar, songwriting), Tim Foreman (bass, backup vocals), and Chad Butler (drums) added a lot of variety to their live show. There were plenty of fun sound effects and piano fills punctuating the tasty guitar licks and challenging, thoughtful lyrics about the meaning and purpose that the band is known for. They brought on an additional guitarist to help free up Jon to occasionally put down the guitar and climb into the crowd, with plenty of singalongs, shoutbacks, handwaving, clapping, etc. They performed almost all of the songs off their recent critically-acclaimed CD, The Beautiful Letdown, with a few select songs from previous albums. I enjoyed Jon's introductions to songs as well, as he kept them relatively short, but came straight to the point about his worldview that we were meant for more than simply settling for the promises of this world, and we should continue to seek. "The Loser" and "Gone" were fun, "Ammunition", "Meant to Live", and "You Already Take Me There" rocked, and they closed on an almost worshipful note with their anthems "The Beautiful Letdown" and "I Dare You To Move". All in all, a great time. I'll definitely be going to see them again the next time they're in town.
Setlist (as best as I remember it): The Beautiful Letdown (intro), This Is Your Life, Ammunition, Loser, Learning to Breathe, Only Hope, 24, On Fire, You Already Take Me There, New Way To Be Human, Adding to the Noise, Gone, Meant To Live, (encore) The Beautiful Letdown, Dare You To Move
Sunday
After church and consistory meeting, dropped by Andrew N's surprise bday dinner and then headed to the Chius' for the eagerly-anticipated Alias season premiere. Sometimes, it was more amusing observing the TV watchers than the show itself. In the show itself... well, let's just say that they're a long way away from the original premise of the show. We'll just have to see where exactly the writers are going since it's rather odd right now. Oh, it was also hilarious to hear the vitriol being aimed Vaughn's way. Poor Vaughn.
Random
- Since we shipped last week, this week all of us at the company have the option of going home at a normal hour! I'm stoked. I'll be able to make men's group for the first time since May, and will take every opportunity to have dinner with the family this week. Kinda funny what you learn to appreciate after just a few months of committing such a large portion of your life to one area. More reflections later.
- I'm even more excited about the Jars/Caedmon's concert in November now that I've found that Steven Delopoulos (mentioned in this space a few weeks ago) will be opening for them. Nov. 8 can't get here soon enough.
Will try to do some more writing this week. Go Giants!
Saturday
The first annual (I hope) Canaan Worship Ministry Workshop seemed to go fairly smoothly. There are some very talented musicians at Canaan - it's nice as the organizer to have the freedom to just give a small set of guidelines to the workshop leaders and have them run with it from there. I taught the intermediate guitar workshop and attended the vocals workshop, taught by Debbie. Learned some good new exercises for expanding vocal range, then she had us each sing a phrase solo and acapella to the class. While it was kinda intimidating at first, I think we had more fun with it after we relaxed some. She pointed out to me that I have a tendency to short-breath my phrases, so I've noticed that the last few days while singing along to CDs in the car (we all do it, right?) that I've been consciously practicing my breathing.
Cal 34, USC 31. 'Nuff said. Go Bears! Maybe the Niners need to hire Tedford. Er... I didn't just say that... Tedford should stay and build Cal into a perennial powerhouse. Yeah, that's it.
The Switchfoot concert exceeded my expectations. Went with about 15 people to The Pound SF and waited in line at about 6:45 pm. It's a relatively small room with a small bar right off one of the piers, that usually caters to smaller independent bands. Amusingly, this evening the bar wouldn't be getting much business - from our observation, probably at least 75% of the patronage was under 21, marked by prominent "MINOR" stamps placed on the back of their hands at the door. Overall, it was quite hot, with no AC available, and people packed into every available inch. There was a group of rather rude folks who pushed their way to the front by leaning on the people in front of them, then when people shied away from the body contact, steadily moved forward. Guess there are always a few...
Opening band #1 was doing its second show ever, and the lead singer/songwriter/guitarist was noticeably nervous. Very little crowd interaction aside from announcing the name of the next song, and a quick "Thankyousomuch" after finishing each one. The sound mix was pretty bad, we couldn't make out the lyrics, and the drummer was rather unsubtle, banging on cymbals almost constantly. Still, there was some promise there... maybe after some seasoning and a better sound tech, they'll have the chance to make more of an impact.
Opening band #2 (named "Blue" I believe) came on next, and in my opinion was more entertaining. Their frontman was a dead ringer for a taller, skinnier Wolverine (Hugh Jackman from X-Men), and apparently they had one song on the Spiderman soundtrack. They clearly had some more experience in the live setting, not taking themselves too seriously on stage, and having fun interacting with the crowd. Unfortunately, they informed us that the lead singer had laryngitis, and while that afforded them an amusing opportunity to bring up a roadie to help sing a song with the band, they exited the stage after only 4 decent songs. I wouldn't mind seeing them live at some point in the future when they're at 100 percent.
Finally, at 10:15 pm (after 3.5 hrs of standing), the San Diego quartet took the stage and brought the house down. The show was plain fun - you could clearly see that even at a relatively young age, they were already seasoned and talented pros. The addition of Jerome Fontamillas (keyboardist/guitarist/programming) to the original trio of Jon Foreman (lead vocals, lead guitar, songwriting), Tim Foreman (bass, backup vocals), and Chad Butler (drums) added a lot of variety to their live show. There were plenty of fun sound effects and piano fills punctuating the tasty guitar licks and challenging, thoughtful lyrics about the meaning and purpose that the band is known for. They brought on an additional guitarist to help free up Jon to occasionally put down the guitar and climb into the crowd, with plenty of singalongs, shoutbacks, handwaving, clapping, etc. They performed almost all of the songs off their recent critically-acclaimed CD, The Beautiful Letdown, with a few select songs from previous albums. I enjoyed Jon's introductions to songs as well, as he kept them relatively short, but came straight to the point about his worldview that we were meant for more than simply settling for the promises of this world, and we should continue to seek. "The Loser" and "Gone" were fun, "Ammunition", "Meant to Live", and "You Already Take Me There" rocked, and they closed on an almost worshipful note with their anthems "The Beautiful Letdown" and "I Dare You To Move". All in all, a great time. I'll definitely be going to see them again the next time they're in town.
Setlist (as best as I remember it): The Beautiful Letdown (intro), This Is Your Life, Ammunition, Loser, Learning to Breathe, Only Hope, 24, On Fire, You Already Take Me There, New Way To Be Human, Adding to the Noise, Gone, Meant To Live, (encore) The Beautiful Letdown, Dare You To Move
Sunday
After church and consistory meeting, dropped by Andrew N's surprise bday dinner and then headed to the Chius' for the eagerly-anticipated Alias season premiere. Sometimes, it was more amusing observing the TV watchers than the show itself. In the show itself... well, let's just say that they're a long way away from the original premise of the show. We'll just have to see where exactly the writers are going since it's rather odd right now. Oh, it was also hilarious to hear the vitriol being aimed Vaughn's way. Poor Vaughn.
Random
- Since we shipped last week, this week all of us at the company have the option of going home at a normal hour! I'm stoked. I'll be able to make men's group for the first time since May, and will take every opportunity to have dinner with the family this week. Kinda funny what you learn to appreciate after just a few months of committing such a large portion of your life to one area. More reflections later.
- I'm even more excited about the Jars/Caedmon's concert in November now that I've found that Steven Delopoulos (mentioned in this space a few weeks ago) will be opening for them. Nov. 8 can't get here soon enough.
Will try to do some more writing this week. Go Giants!
posted by Bob at
12:10 AM
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