I’ve been a long time fan of Imogen Heap, as in, I had iMegaphone on cassette tape back in 1998 and my old friend Ryan Obermeyer did the art work for Speak For Yourself. When I heard that she had chosen the Granada as the venue for her Dallas performance I had an internal SQUEEEEE! Think flaming gay man with flailing arms excited running down a hallway excited. But as most know me, I am a calm natured in real life and not so ready to start fires with my gayness, so I kept my cool but with a big smile.

The Show

I unexpectedly managed to get in during the sound check for Immi. When I say unexpected, I mean I didn’t realize she’d be doing sound check so late. She literally left the stage minutes before people entered the venue.

My good friend Eva and I sat and watched as Immi tested various equipment and songs in her non-stage clothes and her simple hair up in a bun do. It was one of those “damn this job is so awesome” moments.

Then in a unbelievably packed to the hilt Granada Theater I watched Back Ted-n-Ted and Tim Exile play with what I like to call “toys” on stage, working their craft to the delight of the crowd.

When Imogen hit the stage she did as I expected, wonderful. She’s got a charmed presence on stage that is endearing to fans of her music. Her tinkering with the equipment, song restarts and mumbling to herself into an open mic during the show never felt like a disappointment, it just added charm to the show.

She played nearly an equal amount from both of her mainstream albums and nothing from iMegaphone. One of my favorite songs from Eclipse, Bad Body Double was presented as almost more of a rap version than the album’s version. With Buffi Jacobs of Polyphonic Spree Immi performed another favorite, Aha! which I have always thought of as very much like a Tim Burton/Danny Elfman composed song with Imogen Heap doing vocals. Come to think of it, even the tree and lighting for the tour almost seems like early Tim Burton (but a little more feminine).

During Hide and Seek and Just For Now Imogen “played the crowd like an instrument” # which admittedly sent chills through me as I heard the perfectly synchronized voices of the people below rise up and meet with Imogen’s vocals. It was one of those moments I live for when seeing an artist perform live.

Behind the Granada I waited in the cold along with many other fans to get an autograph and a photo with Imogen. While it was chilly, it was worth the wait. She’s just as pleasant in person as she is on the stage. She even got the group of fans to sing Happy Birthday to a girl named NayNay which I’m sure made for one super happy fan and a wonderful birthday present!

The techie in me took the time to put together an RSS feed of links to postings all over the web about the show using Yahoo Pipes and Imogen’s ingenious idea to use hashtags/tags for every show on the tour. You can click here to view it. Also embedded below are some photos and videos I took. Enjoy!

Imogen Heap at Granada Theater youtube playlist

Top 5 Albums of 2008
I pulled these from my play counts compiled by my Last.fm & Zune.net accounts.

Gnarls Barkley – The Odd Couple
Santogold – Santogold
Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping
IAMX – The Alternative
Dead Confederate – Wrecking Ball

Mixtape from http://favtape.com/got80s/top 5 08

Top 5 Movies

The Dark Knight – The last, and a great performance by Heath Ledger, can’t say the same for Christian Bale.
Milk – Great look into GLBT history, Harvey Milk is our MLK.
Wall-E – Simply the MOST stunning Sci-Fi film ever.
Kung Fu Panda- Another out of left field, really funny movie that appeals to adults and children alike.
Hancock – Surprisingly funny, refreshing to finally see Will Smith be a dick.

Top 5 Fun Movies

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay – A must see for those who saw the first, or if you are a current or former pot head.
Wanted – No holds barred action film with the same director that did Night Watch / Day Watch.
Step Brothers- had me ROFLOL in the first 5 mins and for the rest of the film.
House Bunny – Seriously, it will make you laugh.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall - Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars), and Russell Brand, who was actually funny in this movie, unlike his appearance on MTV.

Top 5 Software / Tools

Twitter - After having an account for 7 months before I actually started using it, I’ve finally figured out how to use it and now I’m hooked. my account

Launchy - I don’t need icons anymore thanks to this free piece of software.

Digsby - I ditched the bug laden IM program Pidgin for this all in one piece of add free software and now I’m loving it.

Firefox 3 – If you are still using Internet Explorer on your home computer you are an idiot. ( I understand if you can’t use it on your work computer) If you need to be educated on why Firefox is awesome watch this video.
Google Reader – Forget actually visiting sites to see new content, make your own “newspaper” with Google Reader & the RSS feeds from the sites you visit, you’ll get addicted.

Top 5 (nah, just 2) Concerts

Both of these concerts were visually stunning, they will stick in my mind as some of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

Nine Inch Nails – Lights in The Sky Tour

Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping Tour

Top 5 TV Shows

Little Britian USA – The UK version is just as funny.

The I.T. Crowd – UK is on season 3, but you can catch it on IFC currently showing season 2.

Dexter - I promise, you will be cheering on a serial killer by the time you finish your first episode ( you can rent the first 2 seasons, season 3 just finished airing)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - This show is a little over the top with drama, but the visuals are great for a TV series, plus it’s available to watch in full on Hulu.com

Chuck – Currently on season 2 (you can watch on Hulu.com ), rent season 1. It’s consistently funny and well written.

Until next year, toodles..

Concerts, as you know, per my pasts posts, I’ve been to quite a few shows and seen a lot of bands this year. I promised myself that I’d just do Austin City Limits. Well, that just didn’t happen. Here’s my top 5 concerts.

1. ACL – Ghostland Observatory, Bjork, Regina Spektor, Muse.

2. Rufus Wainwright & Neko Case

3. Rilo Kiley

4. The Black Angels

5. TOOL

This year has to be the year that too many bands released too many good albums. It was hard to choose, but my number one is my number one because it was just that good. The marketing, the websites, the CD it’s self, the go fuck the music industry attitude of the lead singer just made it that much better.

1. Nine Inch Nails – Year Zero

2. Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

3. Tori Amos – American Doll Posse

4. Amy Winehouse – Back to Black

5. Beirut – The Flying Club Cup

As I said, there has been a whole lot of really really good music released this year. My favorite new discoveries this year are bands that I found via various podcasts and word of mouth.

1. The Black Angels

2. Rilo Kiley

3. Yeasayer

4. Animal Collective

5. Band of Horses

If I’ve kept you here. Then now onto non music top 5′s.

Movies

1. The Bourne Ultimatum

2. Transformers

3. Knocked Up

4. Superbad

5. Hot Fuzz

Mentioned time and time again, I listen to and watch video podcasts like TV shows. I actually spend more of my time listening and watching them then regular radio & tv broadcasts. So here are my top five Podcast & Vidcasts this year.

1. Wait Wait!! Don’t Tell Me – http://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/

2. Feast of Fools – http://www.feastoffools.net

3. Dan Savage – Savage cast NSFW

4. SModcast – Kevin Smith’s Podcast – http://quickstopentertainment.com/smodcast/

5. Midwest Teen Sex Show NSFW Videocast

Due to the nature of my job and my school and side jobs, I do a lot of web surfing. I have to thank the all mighty master Google for creating and updating Google Reader to where I can use it. I honestly can surf 10x faster and find stuff that really interest me via RSS feeds, rather than actually reading everything and going to the sites.

Here are my top 5 website discoveries

1. ColourLovers – Lovers of color and mixtures – http://www.colourlovers.com/

2. PSDTuts – Photoshop Tutorials – http://psdtuts.com/

3. Explosm.net / Cyanide and Happiness – http://www.explosm.net/comics/

4. Hypem.com – The Hype Machine <– Firefox + Download Helper = Free Mp3′s

5. Design is Kinky – About all designs, real world and digital.

There could be many many more 5′s in this list. But for now, this will do. Let me know what you think by commenting.

I’m glad to say that I didn’t miss the opening band called Grand Ole Party.

They were quite fun and worth seeing. One rarity for me occurred for me, I actually bought a cd from an opening band! The band reminded me a lot of The Gossip with their catchy drum beats and female lead singer. (I included a video of them from another live appearance below).

The second band wasn’t a hit with me. They were called “The Bird and the Bee” and aside from technical difficulties, they just sucked. I mean really really sucked.

Like opening band sucked, like trapped in an elevator listening to bad muzak versions of 90′s grunge music bad.

I can only assume they were put in the middle because the lead singer of Grand Ole Party was used for backing vocals for Rilo Kiley.

Now after being tortured by the sucktastic band that was up last we were privy to what had to be the longest setup ever for a band. I, along with the rest of the crowd surrounding me seriously were tired of the constant checking by the sound guy who btw really needed to re-evaluate the skinny pants. Not that he didn’t fit in them, it was that he just had no ass.

See more here

So finally, after all of that.. Rilo Kiley entered the stage to a very very enthusiastic crowd and just ripped right into “It’s a Hit”. Every last person in the crowd knew the lyrics! I felt like such a poser or something. I just got into them about 2 months ago and just sorta knew the songs but didn’t know them. They played from about 10:40 till around 12:15. Thankfully they played all of my favorite songs and for almost every major song the crowd sang along, which could have been annoying but it made the evening more fun.

Grand Ole Party Stuff

Thankfully this year they got a night time slot and were able to show off with some spectacular stage lights…

I was up towards the camera rigging and the lights were constantly blinding my camera so my shots weren’t great. I was dancing anyways because the beats were so infectious.

This performance is kind of calm compared to live shows..but you can see the energy he has in studio…it’s only say 10x’s that when he’s got the crowd he had at ACL.

Here’s a link to a 2 videos of Bjork & some photos are below…

Video 1

Video 2

Link to photoset on flickr for ACL 2007. 

Wondering what they sound like live? Click here 

Sunday, November 04, 2007, 8:00 pm CST at  The Granada Theater $15 plus service fees (like 2 bucks)

16 Days..that’s all that’s left of my glorious summer!!!!

After that, it’s back to the grindstone of drive to work/ drive to workout/ drive to school/ drive home. My days will start @ 5 am and end around 11 pm. I rarely say it out loud but Texas Fucking Sucks! Nothing is actually close to each other, no decent public transportation exist, causing me to spend upwards of 2 hours or more a day on the road.

Oh well, at least Austin City Limits is coming up in September. I get to have a few days off from work and enjoy some great music. My big problem with that right now is that there are 2 days where bands are playing at the same time causing me to really have to debate who I want to see. I mean how can I choose between Arcade Fire & The White Stripes??? Both are phenomenal artists and both are said to be amazing to see live.

And speaking of concerts, next up on my schedule is Rufus Wainwright and Neko Case August 10th. Smashing Pumpkins in November..Tori Amos after that..It’s a busy concert year for me!

Well it’s about time I get back to my insanely busy job. Here’s Rufus Wainwright singing My Phone’s on Vibrate For You….