Dungen at Lee's Palace on October 11 2005 review

Wow. That was a fun show... even with the majority of the lyrics being in Swedish.
And no, the lead singer's stage poise was not in the least bit influenced by Robert Plant. Not all. Not more than 85% anyway.

If Dungen is coming to a venue near you, and you have a penchant for vaguely poppy, at times psych rock... then you don't want to see them. You need to.

Ted Leo + Pharmacists at the Mod Club September 29

Damn...

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists are excellent live. Right from the get-go they rocked out, opening the set with "Little Dawn" at about 40 bpm faster than the album cut.
The rock didn't stop. The slowest anything was played was album speed, but that didn't happen that often.
I don't think I have ever seen such flawless timing on stage in my life - this band plays really tight and they were all doing their own sound on the fly.
Personal favourite moments from the show: "Where have all the Rude Boys gone?" and "Ballad of the Sin Eater".
These are some of the "hardest working dudes in show business" (thanks Acker). Check them out if at all possible.

Black Mountain et al. Lee's Palace October 1 2005

Three bands from Vancouver... and thanks to some thieves in New York, only one set of instruments.

First up: Ladyhawk. Rocking guitar and drums in a Neil Young-esque alt-country style.
Overall impression: very enjoyable, they do what they do well. I'd see them again.

Second up: Blood Meridian (using Ladyhawk's gear).
Overall impression: while I had heard some buzz about this band, and I did enjoy them I would rank them slightly behind Ladyhawk in terms of what I enjoyed more. Check them out, because they rock.

The headliner: Black Mountain (again using Ladyhawk's gear).
Overall impression: damn... Their first Toronto show back in late March/early April was good. This time, just off a tour with Coldplay (hey, more power to them) and on the road with some fellow musicians from Vancouver it was incredible.
They have their live act down. It was so good as to be ridiculous. The last encore featured every member from every band on the bill grabbing whatever instrument they could get their hands on, grabbing any piece of spare stage real estate - to the extent that the drummer from Ladyhawk had a couple of drums in front of him as he sat on the steps at stage left. I really can't say enough good shit about Black Mountain right now, so I'll cut myself off. See them when you can.

Random recipe blogging

Lunch on the fly 20051012

Cod
Cooked rice
Misc fish/seafood
Seafood stock (or water and stock mix)
Vinho d'alho
Olive oil
Salt
Balck pepper
Basil
Oregano
Bay leaf


Preheat a skillet on medium-high heat and add oil.
Once oil has become heated add cod to skillet.
Add vinho d'alho to taste.
Cook fish on one side and flip.
About halfway through cooking the second side add stock or water and appropriate measure of stock mix. Stir.
Add basil, oregano and bay leaf.
Add pepper and salt to taste.
Allow to come to gentle boil.
Add rice.
Add any additional fish or seafood.
Add additional stock as required.
Allow stock to slowly reduce, the goal is to infuse the rice with the flavours of the other ingredients while poaching the cod and any other fish in the mix.

Once stock mixture has almost completely reduced and fish is poached serve in a bowl.

Disfrutad.

Gig-itty, gig-itty!

Ah, I need to get a picture of Quagmire for that...

Long weekend coming up, looking forward to starting a new engagement (12-15 weeks) on client site come Tuesday.

Until then, wine, turkey, family, friends and wine.

Happy Thanksgiving.