Auditeers:

Last night the renowned Ray Paul and I sauntered off to the North Coast of 
America (lakeside in Buffalo) to see Crowded House play for he ridiculously 
exorbitant price of $10. They put on an incredible show; played a lot from 
the brand new album (Intriguer) and just about every song from the career 
arc that I wanted to hear (if a glaring exception, perhaps "Mean To Me"). 
Funny how you take for granted that a band has so many great songs and then 
you still catch yourself saying "oh yeah...and THAT one!". The band might be 
tighter than ever, usually a 4-piece (Mark Hart is amazing - I swear he 
played nine instruments) although a fifth guy popped in on occasion as well 
(probably the guitar tech...or an unemployed Tim?). Not a huge crowd but a 
higher sing-along percentage than normal; these were fans.

There was a local solo artist whose name I missed, nothing memorable sans a 
cover of "Soulshine", but the real opener was (I am not making up this name) 
Lawrence Arabia. The first song was poor in an indie-jamband pretentious 
kind of way but then the rest of the set was phenomenal. The red gym shorts 
were a little off-putting but the band isn't. They're from Christchurch so 
take advantage if you can see them on this tour!

http://www.myspace.com/lawrencearabia

And last but far from least...I got to hear several tracks from the brand 
new Grip Weeds album Strange Change Machine on the way home and it sounds 
incredible (literally - the performances, production and engineering might 
be the best they're ever done). The full album is *24* tracks but if they 
are as good as the half I heard this will be a challenger for the 2010 
lists.

Was looking forward to seeing The Deadstring Brothers today but they 
cancelled, so there's the yin to last night's yang.

cheers
b