Tuesday, June 10, 2008

O.A.R. live at DeepRockDrive



O.A.R. is playing at DeepRockDrive next week. If you're into the Dave Matthews Band you should check it out. There are definite similarities, in fact, they tour with DMB and will be playing together at the Gorge this September.

Also, check out this Sprout I made - what an amazing site for creating live web widgets. Amazingly simple and hugely powerful.

Thanks, Jeff, for making me build my first one. I'm hooked!

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Rush at The Gorge

Zach and I went to the Gorge Amphitheater last night to see Rush play. It was really fantastic! The location is really quite stunning with the Columbia River gorge as a backdrop to the stage and with no roof, there is very little echoing so the sound was really clear for a big concert.

Those guys still have it. They played for about three and half hours with a brief intermission and played a good blend of new songs and old songs. I've been a fan since the Permanent Waves album in 1980 and this is fourth time I've seen them live. They do a great job of recreating their complex songs live and the huge crowd was really into the show. Sure, we're a lot older than we used to be though it was fun to watch a new generation of people who are getting into Rush thanks to either overenthusiastic parents such as myself, or to the prominent position of Tom Sawyer on Rock Band.

If only I'd brought my big camera with me, I could've gotten some much better shots but they were pretty clear that professional cameras were not welcome. That said, the guy next to me had a 30D. Perhaps I should have just tried :)

If you're curious about what they played, the whole set list is on Wikipedia here. My one disappointment was that they don't seem to vary their setlist from night to night. With as much material as they have, it sure would be great to see a bunch of different songs at each show.