Breaking up the February blahs

So I hit up some shows yesterday. It had occurred to me recently that I used to attend concerts a lot (in my younger years!) and hadn't been to one in ages. I'd been looking into what's local and stumbled upon the second annual Hillside Inside festival held in Guelph. Despite not having anyone to go with (well, I could have tried harder to find someone, I guess), I bought a ticket Friday night and went Saturday afternoon. It was a good event. Great music. Just kinda chillin' like for most of the day, checking out the acts, wandering around. Laughing to myself at just how hippy Guelph is. It was nice to just take in live, good music. Even Guelph's local talent The Magic were a good listen.

It was nice how you could go at will to the floor level and so I did for two of the better/bigger shows: Bedouin Soundclash and Sam Roberts Band. Sweet. The BS show was kind of a flashback to my days of "rude boys" "skanking" at the shows. (Here's a photo of me in those days.) Yes, once upon a time I guess I would have fit in quite well with the hippy crowd, as you can see, but I kinda felt out of it yesterday. No matter though--totally dug the music. I was rather enthralled by the bass of Bedouin Soundclash. I played the bass at church this morning and well, I need to practice.

The Sam Roberts show was by far the best though. Best energy (although by then, I was getting quite tired from the day)--don't know how the drummer could endure. They played all of their songs that I really like and the musicianship, especially with their 5-10 minute instrumental ending of fabulous rockness, excellent! Somewhere in the midst of that show I noticed a girl I recognized from high school (there seems to be Collingwood people everywhere) and afterward talked with her and her brother--the first people I'd actually had a conversation with all evening! That was nice.

So yeah, live music stuff. My latest thing to bring cheer to the blahs.

Here is a video of That 1 Guy, who with his magic pipe only, plays quite the show. You gotta see it to get it. Actually, I did see him and I even went up after to look closer at the contraption and I still don't get it. But it was cool.