A New Addition

We’re thrilled to have welcomed a addition, Tess Jean Halberg!  Everyone is happy, healthy, and home.

“Does Henry know what’s going on?” was a pretty popular question leading up to the arrival.  While he was quick to answer that “sister” was what was in mumma’s belly, I wasn’t so sure he could possibly really know what that meant.  Turns out I should have given him a bit more credit as he was quickly able to connect the dots upon meeting her.

After a day or two of basically leaving her to her own business – spurred by seeing cousin Claire holding Tess on her lap – Henry got really excited about being around her.  Now she gets tickled when she’s crying and has had a couple of pacifiers gently (<– yeah, right) placed in her mouth.

The dogs are doing well and have begrudgingly accepted their demotions from the #4/5 ranks down to #5/6.  It doesn’t hurt that they are completely warn out from a couple exercise-filled days at my parents, followed by a lack of restful sleep at night.

Thanks to everyone who’s dropped us a kind word in email/SMS/Facebook/Twitter.  We’re hoping you all get to meet her very soon!

David Gray

He’s high on my Best of the 00s list.  His most recent album, “Draw The Line”, was on my Best of 2009.  And he put on a great show last weekend at the Riverside.

David Gray has an incredible ability to replicate the sound – and more importantly for his vocal style – the intensity of his studio recordings, for live shows.  How he manages to bring that sort of energy on a consistent basis is really impressive.  I mean, seriously — this is live?  Listen without your eyes on the video and you’d swear it’s an engineered studio recording.

… and if you’re a David Gray fan, I’d highly recommend checking out another video in that series –  an interview on KGSR-Austin.  Sounds like another album is on the way very soon here… and there’s a clue as to why “that wacky drummer”  isn’t around anymore.

Here’s a great video from PabstRiverside, from the show we were at:

Rock.

I’ve been to a couple great shows lately that I haven’t had a chance to properly write-up.

One was a very laidback/intimate show featuring some great bands for the Muzzle Of Bees 5-Year Anniversary.  It’s hands down my favorite music blog (local or not) – you really should be following it.  On top of the great bands they brought to town, it was great to meet the sites founder, Ryan Matteson.

The other was one of the first “country” shows that I’ve been to.  Justin Townes Earle put on a great show a few weeks back that my buddy Fox came to town for.  Joe Pug made for a great opener and we got a killer fish fry at Toby’s beforehand (<– check out that site and tell me that fry isn’t going to be incredible).  Awesome night.

Finally, we get to last night’s show.  It had been a long time since I’d been to a live show with the word “punk” in the description – too long.  but Ted Leo & The Pharmacists had the prescription to cure my slow music ills (<– groan).  Loud, fast, no messin’ around, just can’t hold still – really great stuff.

You can hear the new disc on their MySpace page.  You should definitely check it out.

Goings On

Why hello there.  Just thought I’d check back in.

We’re getting very close to the big day, all of the sudden!  Henry generally seems to have some idea that there’s a baby on the way – and that it currently resides in mumma’s tummy – although, I can’t really imagine how he could possibly comprehend it.

In the meantime, we continue to play choo-choos every waking hour.

We had a chance to hang out with Mike & Claire when we picked up Henry at Nana & Bapa’s house this morning.  Both kids took some rides on the rocking horse – it’s the same one that my Mom and her siblings grew up with, so it’s sorta a rite of passage in the family.

Look Ma! No Hands!

Claire has started receiving weekly visits from the toothfairy!

I’ve been to a few good shows so far this year and Monnie and I are really looking forward to seeing David Gray again next weekend with Mike, Sheila, Rob & Emily!   and, of course, stay tuned for the big news coming ahead!

Wilco, The Show

and if you think that post-title is cliché, just wait until you hear what I have to say next:

• Their 28 (!!) song set was played with such an incredible amount of energy and passion that there really was only 1 song that I would say missed by any amount… I’ve been trying to remember which song this was… it was fairly early… it was quiet… and the girl behind me could be heard to say “ooh, it’s quiet – now we can talk!”.
• Jeff Tweedy’s playful and comfortable stage presence makes you feel at home. I think he’s off drugs… or on drugs… whichever would help — at any rate, both his musicianship and frontman duties are really top notch and I’ve never seen him better.
• Nels Cline was absolutely ridiculous. My thoughts on him remain: (1) that dude can play and (2) it would suck to have been his neighbor when he was perfecting how to get exactly the right amount of feedback out of that amp.  If you’re curious how good this guy is you just need to watch the other guys when he solos — they turn and watch him — literally.

pic via muzzleofbees.com (click for more, from Ed Oliver)

Ok, so now that we have those pieces of incredible insight (that you can’t find anywhere else!) out of the way…  This was the best Wilco show that I’ve been to.

Whoa, whoa, settle down.  I know that it couldn’t possibly have been as good as the show that you saw at [fill in name of smaller venue] in [fill in year when you were younger] but here’s the thing:  things have changed, man.  It’s a different band now and them’s just the facts.

This is a polished, Overture-center-playing band now.  Sure they still have their fair share of quirks (flexatone anyone?) but If you want to see that old “can you believe we get free beer just for playing” vibe again, I’m afraid you’re going to have to wait til their (headlining) gig at the 2030 Columbia County fair… of course, that doesn’t mean that every venue is going to have lids on the beers and 3/4 of the audience in their seats, but you see what I mean.

There is a reason that this particular show was so strong though, and I’m fairly convinced that Wilco knew about it coming in as well (hence the decision to stream this particular show to the universe).  They chose Overture Center because they learned something during the very first song that they played at the venue in 2007:  The sound of “The El” going overhead in Via Chicago is absolutely perfect.  This time around, they leveraged that knowledge of the acoustics masterfully.  The wall-of-sound approach isn’t always as obvious as it is in that moment in Via Chicago but they came back to it consistently and masterfully throughout the night.

I know you’re mad that they chose a decidedly un-rock venue, but the fact of the matter is: there are only so many venues where you can simultaneously play really loud and really clean.  and when you’ve got guys like Nels and Pat Sansone wailing back and forth – man, that’s just tough to pass up.

set list here

Will

We were down in Chicago last weekend to meet the newly arrived William Ryder Foster! It was great to meet the little guy and get to see Nate and Ericka (it had been way too long).

and since we were in the neighborhood… we made a trip over to the Shedd Aquarium. I had never been there (neither had Henry), so we had a great time taking it all in for the first time. There were many highlights, but this giant turtle perched on some uneven rocks, was right up there.

Dr.Dog

Fate was my 3rd favorite album in 2008, but I hadn’t been able to catch up with Dr.Dog live until last night at the High Noon Saloon — Luckily they didn’t let a little trouble on the road stop them from getting up here to Wisconsin for this sold out show.

The band wasn’t overly talkative on stage, instead playing a ton of great music — Many of the crowd favorites from Fate (listen on LaLa), while also giving some sneak peaks at Shame Shame (due in April).  I’m really looking forward to that new disc after hearing those tracks live last night – sounded like some really strong stuff and it’ll be interesting to see if they keep a similar overall recording vibe to Fate with the recording.  I’d have to imagine they’d stay in that vein after having that much success.

Here’s one of the new ones, played the night before we saw them in Milwaukee:

uploaded by dephot, found via Muzzle Of Bees

As with many bands these days that are depending on 2-3 levels of layered vocals – if they can execute ‘em live, it’s a great show, and if not… well… we didn’t have to worry about it: they pulled it off masterfully.  Toby Leaman and Scott McMicken have some serious chops as they alternate lead vocals on various songs and while I had assumed the two would be the primary source of backup vocals for each other, Frank McElroy actually fills that role quite often (and very well, I might add).   I suppose in hindsight, with the way those to have to completely commit to belting out those lead parts, they probably literally couldn’t sing every song every night.

Only complaint of the night: 1 song encore.  I’m not a huge encore fan anyway (just don’t really see the point of walking off the stage when everyone in the building knows you’re coming right back), but since you have to do it anyway… why not just save a couple songs for it.

… and no Dr.Dog post on this blog would be complete without a link to my alltime favorite Tiny Desk Concert