Clif Bar Commerical

Eddie Vedder Solo Tour

A couple weeks ago, I had a friend attend the Eddie Vedder solo tour concert in Nashville, Tennessee at the Ryman Auditorium. He was a pretty big Pearl Jam fan in high school. I can still remember him wearing out the Ten album on tape in his Honda CRX. There was a 2 to 3 month period where "Black" was on a looped repeat, and that was it. Even from an obviously biased fan, I knew that he would be able to give an honest, objective evaluation of the performance. He reported back that is it was an unbelievable show. Now, he was seeing it at the Ryman Auditorium, probably the second greatest acoustics venues in the world next to the Mormon Tabernacle. That factor, as well, might have slanted his glowing reviews, but, none the less, I took a gamble.

I got on eBay 4 days before the concert to be held on 6/23 in Atlanta at the new Cobb Energy Centre and started to bid. I lucked out and got two tickets for a grand total of $34. The face value on each ticket was $75. We planned our trip and headed up to Atlanta after work last Tuesday for the show. The Cobb Energy Centre is very nice, and it should be at a $145 million price tag. It is also the new home of the Atlanta Ballet and Atlanta Opera. We were in the center section of the upper, Grand Tier. The seating layout looked to be patron-friendly for a venue that size.

We missed most of the opening act, Liam Finn, with the drive up and grabbing dinner beforehand. We got to our seats not long before Eddie went on stage. He opened up with several cover songs before settling into Pearl Jam classics and Into the Wild Soundtrack songs. He was in a very good mood and bantering back and forth with the crowd in dialogue. He was encouraging the crowd to sing along, always getting roars when the house lights would flash on. Most of the second set was sung with Liam Finn giving accompaniment on the guitar and vocals. At the end of the second set, I can only describe what he did with the song "Arc" was ART (search it on YouTube). Finally, he came back out with Liam and Eliza-Jane Barnes for a hard-hitting version of "Hard Sun." Here is the set list from the evening. It was one of the better concerts I've been to in a long time.

Set1:
Walking the Cow (Daniel Johnston cover)
Trouble (Cat Stevens cover)
Brain Damage (Pink Floyd cover)/Sometimes
I Am Mine
Dead Man
Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town
I Am a Patriot (Steve Van Zandt cover)
Far Behind
No Ceiling
Guaranteed
Rise
Growin' Up (Bruce Springsteen cover)
Picture in a Frame (Tom Waits cover)
Driftin'
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away (Beatles cover)
Let My Love Open the Door (The Who cover)
Lukin
Porch

Set 2:
Soon Forget
Society (w/Liam Finn)
Throw Your Arms Around Me (Hunters & Collectors cover w/Liam Finn)
The Golden State (w/Eliza-Jane Barnes)
Believe You Me (Bad Radio cover)/Wishlist
Forever Young (Bob Dylan cover)
Arc

Encore:
Hard Sun (w/Liam Finn & Eliza-Jane Barnes)

photos from www.cobbenergycentre.com

As I was sitting in my job site trailer getting pounded by some Forrest Gump-type rain, I had ominous visions of a wet sloppy race this weekend for the Ft. Benning Reverse Sprint Triathlon. This rain was so loud that I could not hear people on the phone. It was only when I pulled up the weekend weather that a calm came over me with what I saw.

8 am

66°F
Partly Cloudy

Runner Dies After Finishing Half-Marathon

On Saturday, a 25-year old runner collapsed shortly after finishing the Country Music Half-Marathon that I was at. He had finished the race around 2:16, only a couple minutes after a friend of mine that saw his collapse. From her account, he collapsed and medical workers jumped in quick to do what they could, performing rescue CPR before taking him off in an awaiting ambulance. He would later die at Nashville General Hospital that day.

The saddest part of this story is that he was a military veteran. Army Staff Sargent Benjamin Pigman from Hamilton, Montana had served 4 tours of duty in Afghanistan and 1 tour of duty in Iraq. He was a decorated veteran with several commendations and medals for his service. The medical director of the Country Music Marathon called it a "sudden cardiac event" and said that it was not contributed to the record heat on race day. It might be the case that it wasn't heat stroke or heat exhaustion, but indirectly, the heat could bring on over-exertion and stresses to the heart. My heart goes out to his family. It is terrible to see a life cut short before it even really begins.

Photo from www.wgnsradio.com

Minute Maid Commercial

This had me laughing out loud and rewinding to watch again.

What Happened to Ben Harper?

Over the years, I have given Ben Harper plenty of my money and time. I was first introduced to him in the mid-90's when I started going to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and have been following him around periodically since. I have followed him through each new album and venture, from picking up the Innocent Criminals to the Blinds Boys of Alabama and now this new phase with the Relentless 7.

Each album created a new persona for Ben Harper, but it was still uniquely him. This new album and band seem far more removed from those previous standards. From articles that I have read about the direction he is heading, he wanted to turn towards a more stripped down rock 'n roll feel, although there are elements of that scattered throughout his previous records from Welcome to the Cruel World to Both Sides of the Gun. This new album lacks the soul and biting lyrical phrasing that made him appealing to large groups of diverse fans.

My wife and I are both graduates of Auburn University and have since moved back to that area. We found out that Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 were going to be performing a free concert for the students of the university. I did not give it much credence, but my wife was insistent that we go. She had seen him once a few years ago and instantly connected with his music. She knew very little of his song library at the time but was hooked from the first couple songs. I had already previewed the new album and kinda knew what it was going to be like, but I wanted my wife to be happy. So, we got student ID's and tickets from our nanny and her fiancee and headed to Beard Eaves.

They played songs only off the new albums with very little typical Ben Harper flair. It was only in the encore that the crowd that was left in the Coliseum really got into his cover of "Under Pressure." The Relentless 7 looked like a cookie-cutter house band, with their standard issue jeans, button up oxford shirts, and shaggy hair. They all looked like Bill Heder, from SNL, clones. They were not in sync, came in at wrong time, and had odd, almost corny, solos. The drummer spend more time bouncing up and down on his stool and throwing drum sticks up in the air than he did connecting with the guitarist, bassist and Ben. I felt like Ben still had something to prove to himself that he could take a mediocre band, at best, pull them under his wing, and build them (and this album) into something there are not.........good. That would be the motivation behind not playing any relatively known Ben Harper songs. It just feel short of the mark, and I was not the only one to notice. I made sure to veil my ho-hum sentiment until my wife spoke out first, and she confirmed it. No connection.

There was a limit of 8000 FREE tickets available. On the day of the event, our nanny went to pickup our ticket and it was around number 4500. I don't think there were that many that showed up, and I would guess that were only 2500 there for the encore. I am sticking by Ben Harper, but I am ready to sweep this itch that he had under the rug.

Photo from musicremedy.com and graphics from thescenestar.typepad.com