I Am My Father's Son

My father died almost 2 weeks ago (on June 21).  The following is a tribute to him that I read at memorial events over the past weekend (wake-keeping and funeral).

---

I Am My Father’s Son

I am my father's son.  Too often we hear of kids who say that they never want to be like their mother or father when they grow up.  This has never been the case for me - I have always admired my dad.  This is not to say that I’ve always wanted to be exactly like him; we grew up in too different of times and environments for that to be the case.  But as I have grown older it has become increasingly apparent to me how much he has shaped my worldview and the trajectory of my life

All of my big life decisions have been made after consultation with my dad, whether he knew it or not. A friend pointed this out to me after I graduated college, and it still rings true today.  Starting with college...he came up with the list of schools that I applied to, took me to visit a few of them, and helped me decide what to major in.  He was a key part of my post-graduation plans, and helped me decide to take the job in St. Louis instead of immediately beginning graduate school.

While I was in college he and I had a couple of long discussions where he impressed upon me the importance of owning a house that I can call home.  When I began working I chose to live in my parents’ house for a few years in order to save up for my own house, as well as help my mom while my dad was in Kuwait.  It was one of the greatest joys of my life when I surprised both of my parents after contracting my house.

Pa was never one for debt if it was avoidable.  He would only spend the money that he had, even when he was making an expensive purchase like a new car.  So, of course, when it came time for me to buy a car, I had to pay in cash just like him.

Despite his many successes in life, he was not one to be extravagant or boastful.  He was simply concerned with taking care of his family and providing them the best life possible.  I have come to appreciate this more in recent years as I see the results of his sacrifices.  In the last few years he often expressed how proud he was of me and my brothers, which always filled me with great emotion.  While I’m sure he did this as well while I was younger, at the time I was naively focused on the moments of sternness.  Although effusive affection was not in his nature due to his upbringing, my mom and I would agree that by the end he had become a veritable softie in comparison to when I was a child.

As I move on to further big life decisions, I will miss having my chief advisor and role model.  My dad married my mom when he was 38 years old, so I guess that gives me 3 years to find a wife if I want to be just like him.  But when that time comes I won’t be able to call mom and dad to get advice or share the news.  It will have to be just mom.  And as much as that hurts, it will be alright because I have the best mom in the world.  And one last thing that my dad and I shared is a great love for her.

An Evening With Sigur Rós @ Peabody Opera House (6/5/2017)

Much like their show in Seattle last September, this was a two-part set with no opener.  The show was scheduled for 8 PM, but the band came on around 8:20.  They played for about an hour, took a 15-20 minute intermission, and then played for a little under another hour.


The stage setup was the same as last time I saw them, but the setlist was different this time.  I preferred the second half once again, but the first half was a little more up-tempo this time than last.  Sæglópur was once again a highlight, but a bunch of my favorite songs by them were again left out.

I feel like this show was a bit more to my preference this time than last, but the rating I have in mind for this show was the same as for the last one.

Rating: 4.5/5

Explosions in the Sky @ The Pageant (4/28/2017)

I was late to the show due to some family stuff that came up, and am not even sure how much of Explosions in the Sky I missed; needless to day, I also missed the opener.  I enjoyed the hour or so (maybe more than that, actually) that I did catch.  I especially liked a couple of their older tunes that they played (I don't like their newer stuff as much), and the crowd seemed to agree.  I'm impressed by how cleanly these guys play live, even for the tunes that I didn't like as much.  They also had a couple of pretty cool rows of articulating lights on the floor at the front and back of the stage - similar to what A Perfect Circle had (so I guess it may be the rage these days).  If I were to give a rating, it would probably be in the low 4 range (out of 5), but I don't feel justified in doing so since I missed a chunk of their performance.

A Perfect Circle @ Chaifetz Arena (4/20/2017)

I missed the opener (not even sure who it was), but the guy next to me indicated that I should be glad that I missed them.  I arrived right as A Perfect Circle took the stage, so my timing could not have been better.  As expected, the band performed for the most part without any spotlights on themselves; Maynard, especially, was pretty much in the dark for the entire show.  They did have cool light effects in their stage setup, though.

The band haven't had a new release in many years, so most of the songs were ones that I knew from back in the day.  They did play a couple that I wasn't familiar with, though - not sure what release they came from.  One that I kinda knew, but had forgotten, was "Counting Bodies Like Sheep To The Rhythm Of The War Drums", which is a variation of "Pet" - it was a cool surprise for me.  They also played a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine", which I wasn't particularly fond of, but whatevs.

I'll also note a mild annoyance that had nothing to do with the band - a group of girls sitting directly in front of me decided to stand and dance for most of the show.  When I'm in the seats I prefer being able to sit and enjoy the show (especially since I had tired legs from a soccer game just before).  I was in no mood to stand on this day (partially due to being tired, and also not wanting to force those behind me to make the same decision), and so had to try to watch things "through" the girls.  Perhaps thankfully, this is one band where you wouldn't see too much of their on-stage performance anyway.  I was also annoyed by the number of times I had to stand up to let people pass by during the show; who goes out and gets multiple beers (or whatever they were doing) while the band is playing?!?  Again, it's unfair to pin these annoyances on the band, but the circumstances certainly didn't help my enjoyment of the show.

Without any significant new music in a while, it's tough to give the band that high of marks anyway.  I would also have preferred to be seeing Maynard's main band (Tool) in concert, and am eagerly awaiting release of their new album.

Rating: 4.1/5

Radiohead @ Key Arena (4/8/2017)

The concert experience didn't get off to the best start for Galen and me.  We took our time getting to Key Arena because he wanted to avoid the rush and I had no interest in seeing Dudu Tassa again.  Unfortunately, by the time we got into the arena at about 8:35, Radiohead were in the middle of their first song.  Things didn't get better when we were turned away at the entrance to the general admission floor section for not having the necessary wristbands - we were supposed to have received them when they admitted us into the building upon swiping the credit card used to purchase the tickets.  We hustled back to the nearest entrance, only to find out that the organizers had pretty much run out of wristbands in the whole building (and there were a few other audience members waiting in the same situation as us).  After a few minutes of Galen (mostly calmly) reprimanding and complaining to them, they were able to rustle up a couple of wristbands for the two of us (though I'm not sure what happened to the others who were also waiting).  We made it down to the floor in the middle of the third song.  I wasn't too bothered by the ordeal because the first three songs were the same three that they had been playing to start off each show on this leg of the tour, including in Atlanta.

I ended up liking this show a tiny bit more than the one last week, because of setlist selection.  Two of my all time favorites, "Reckoner" and "Morning Bell", made an appearance this time around, as did the wonderful "15 Step", "Let Down", and "Lotus Flower".  Another notable inclusion was the B-Side "These Are My Twisted Words", which was completely unexpected.  This setlist was lighter on songs from The Bends, with only "Fake Plastic Trees" making it for the third encore (which I guess is a thing they do now - they've done three encores each show of this leg of the tour).  The band had a bit of technical difficulty during "The Gloaming" (a couple of false starts, and an off-tempo sequencer / drum machine), but Thom seemed to be able to eventually shrug it off after initially being upset.  And during "No Surprises" they made an extended pause after the line "They don't speak for us" to let the crowd voice their discontent with the current US presidential administration.

Overall, another great show.  I still wish they would have switched out a couple of the new songs for others that I prefer on the album (hence the slight deduction), but I once again can't complain.

You can find the setlist here.

Rating: 4.8/5

Radiohead @ Philips Arena (4/1/2017)

So, the opener for this show (in Atlanta) was quite unusual.  It was a band called Dudu Tassa & the Kuwaitis - a Jewish/Arabic project that played supposed re-imaginings of legacy songs from Kuwait and Baghdad.  I can't say that I was exactly feeling it, but they only played for 30 minutes so I can't complain too much.  I can't imagine these guys getting this kind of exposure if this Radiohead collaboration hadn't happened.

Radiohead did not disappoint.  They started off with the same 4 songs as the show before - 3 from A Moon Shaped Pool and then "Airbag".  After that they switched it up (as they always do - never playing the same setlist twice) with a good mix of songs from all the albums since The Bends.  AMSP got the most representation, as expected, with 6 songs; unfortunately, only one of my top 3 from that album, "Burn the Witch", made the list - at least they played the best one.

They also played the back-to-back-to-back trio of "Myxomatosis", "Idioteque", and "The Gloaming", during each of which Thom got to roam around and showcase his dance moves.  An audience member commented after that show that he seemed to have been in a good mood, and I would agree.  A pleasant surprise at the end was a third encore (they typically do 2), during which they played "Karma Police".

Overall, I can't have too many complaints about the show.  I feel that they play (and sing) a few of the songs a little too loose (e.g., "Bloom", and most of the '90s era hits), but I think I'm in a minority in that opinion.  And I obviously would have traded out a few of the songs for my favorites, but I'll take what I can get with this band.  I'm hoping for "Decks Dark" and "Identikit" when I see them again in Seattle in a week.

The setlist can be found here.

Rating: 4.7/5

A brief summary of my current philosophical worldview

I've been putting this post off for many months, but I think it's time that I finally wrote it.  The idea behind this entry, and hopefully future entries, is to capture a snapshot of my current philosophical thoughts about the world so that in the future I may periodically reflect upon how my beliefs have changed.  This post will probably be shorter than a baseline exposition ought to be, but I'm too lazy to put in the time and mental energy required for a comprehensive treatment.

On the topic that I would loosely describe as metaphysics, I can make a couple of clear statements about my beliefs.  I fall firmly in the naturalist camp, in that I believe that the natural world is the only one that exists - i.e., there are no supernatural or spiritual entities.  It obviously follows, then, that I am an atheist.  If pressed, I might make agnostic noises about how I don't think we can truly know if anything exists outside the natural universe, but in casual conversation the operative position is the lack of a belief in supernatural entities.

One consequence of my naturalist view is that I am a determinist - i.e., I believe that the future is determined by the past.  However, when it comes to free will, I don't know whether to describe my position as a hard determinist (who would basically say that free will does not exist because events are deterministic) or a compatibilist (who would say that a belief in free will is compatible with determinism).  I feel like both positions are plausible, and that in some ways hard determinists and compatibilists are talking past each other.  I think it is useful to talk of free will in a common sense in reference to choices that are not externally forced (i.e., freedom of action), but I don't think choices can in a deep sense be otherwise than has been determined by prior events.

In the field of ethics, I would consider myself some flavor of utilitarian, despite probably being a moral non-realist.  My moral non-realist position is that moral properties are mind-dependent - there are no moral facts that exist independent of minds (e.g., in the way that facts of physics or chemistry exist independent of minds).  That being said, I find the basic principles of utilitarianism (the best actions maximize the well-being of sentient entities) most convincing in relation to the minds that do exist.  I have a hard time pinning myself down to a subcategory of utilitarianism, but I think it's sufficient to say that my views lie somewhere in there.  This viewpoint has manifested itself in my vegetarian diet and my support of the effective altruism movement.

I have far less figured out when it comes to political philosophy.  I generally subscribe to John Stuart Mill's Harm Principle (the actions of individuals should only be limited to prevent harm to other individuals), but I have a hard time definitively saying much more than that.
Another area that I find interesting but don't have much to say about is the philosophy of mind.  Since I believe that our minds emerge from a purely physical system that is the brain, I think that artificial general intelligence is in principle possible.  However, at this point I will not make any claims about how likely we are to achieve such a thing.

Top albums of 2016

I was discussing my shortlist for favorite albums of 2016 last week with my friend Tom Musick when I made an offhand comment about only having listened to one-thousandth (i.e., 1/1000) of the music out there.  This was intended to demonstrate that, in addition to music tastes being highly subjective, my exposure level to new music is vanishingly small, especially for someone who kind of tries to keep up.

I became curious about the accuracy of that statement, and so decided to research it a minimal amount.  Based on the information here, there were about 75,000 albums released in the U.S. in 2011, which at the time was trending downward; let's leave aside the surprising fact that 60,000 of those sold less than 100 copies.  I don't know how album releases have trended in the last few years, nor do I know what the worldwide album release numbers might look like, nor what percentage of international releases I could have easy access to.  My guess is that I could reasonably potentially have listened to any of somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 albums in 2016.  An examination of the albums I listened to in 2016 shows that I listened to something like 71 albums that were released last year, which is on the order of one-thousandth of the estimated available released albums.  And 71 is not really that big a number...

Anyway, to the list...

1. Moderat - III
2. The Range - Potential
3. SBTRKT - SAVE YOURSELF
4. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
5. Anderson .Paak - Malibu
6. James Blake - The Colour In Anything
7. Tycho - Epoch
8. ANOHNI - HOPELESSNESS
9. Young Magic - Still Life
10. dvsn - SEPT 5TH

11. Phantogram - Three
12. Yeasayer - Amen & Goodbye
13. Young Thug - JEFFERY
14. School of Seven Bells - SVIIB
15. Mogwai - Atomic
16. MIA - AIM



Also, here's a shout-out to Fetty Wap's album "Fetty Wap", which would have made my list last year if I had listened to it beforehand.

A new travel challenge

My coworker Nick Dare told me about a friend of his who has resolved to have visited more countries than her age for the rest of her life.  I thought this was an interesting challenge, and that I am probably close to my age on both number of countries visited and number of states visited.  Having recently turned 35, that is my target for the next year or so.  Below is my current list of both countries and states.  For both, I am only counting places where I have spent a night and/or done some sort of activity besides transiting through.  I'm within striking distance in both categories, though I am far more likely to reach my age in states sooner than in countries - due to being closer, ease, and plans in the works.  I hope to conquer the challenge for states in the next year and maintain the lead in that category until I turn 50.  I'll need to pick up my game in terms of international travel.

#	Country	State
1	Argentina	Alaska
2	Australia	Arizona
3	Austria	California
4	Brazil	Colorado
5	Canada	Florida
6	Chile	Georgia
7	China	Hawaii
8	Czech Republic	Idaho
9	England	Illinois
10	Estonia	Indiana
11	Finland	Iowa
12	France	Kansas
13	Germany	Louisiana
14	Greece	Maryland
15	Italy	Massachusetts
16	Japan	Michigan
17	Kuwait	Missouri
18	Mexico	Montana
19	Netherlands	Nevada
20	New Zealand	New Jersey
21	Nigeria	New Mexico
22	Norway	New York
23	Paraguay?	Ohio
24	Peru	Oregon
25	Russia	Pennsylvania
26	Spain	South Dakota
27	Sweden	Tennessee
28	Switzerland	Texas
29	Turkey	Utah
30	Ukraine?	Virginia?
31	USA	Washington
32	--	Wisconsin
33	--	Wyoming

Sleigh Bells @ Neumos (11/19/2016)

I was expecting some hearing loss from this show, and I got what I expected. The show was an assault on the senses, both very loud and with lots of flashing lights (I didn't even bother trying to get many good photos, as they would not have come out due to all the strobes). Based on 2 listens to the new album that dropped the week before, I didn't like it very much. Hearing a few of the new songs live didn't do anything to change that - not that you can really make out much from their live performances if you don't already know the songs.

Rating: 4.0/5

What just happened?

November 2016 is shaping up to be pretty terrible.  First the Cubs win the World Series, and now Donald Trump has been elected president.  OK, that first one doesn't really matter that much (especially given how little I care about baseball these days), but let's pretend that it does.

Last week I broke my policy of not voting for people to cast a vote for Hillary Clinton for president; I even went through the "trouble" of casting an absentee ballot from Seattle, which actually ended up being not that much of a hassle.  I did this because I believe that Donald Trump is absolutely unqualified to be the president.  While I think that Hillary has her moral failings and sometimes displays poor judgment, I still respect her intellect.  This is not something that I can say about Trump - most of what he says is devoid of content when he is not being inflammatory.  In addition to his severe moral and intellectual shortcomings, the little that I can gather from his actual policy positions make them seem quite impractical.  I steer clear of the outright name-calling of Trump that you often see on the left (e.g., calling him a bigot, or comparing him to Hitler), but I also struggle mightily to find any redeeming qualities in him.  So I cast my vote as a vote against Trump, and not so much as a vote for Clinton.  It turned out not to matter at all in Missouri, or the country at large.

I was looking forward to the end of this election cycle, as I was tired of all the hubbub about these two unsatisfactory candidates.  Unfortunately, the result of the election has been even more unsatisfying, and there will be even more groaning about the winner for at least the next four years.  Even worse, I am adding to this groaning in an attempt to process what has just happened.  What follows will likely not even be very coherent; I'm just trying to capture some thoughts and questions that I have had over the last day.

My mood as I stayed up late (until after 2 AM ET) to follow the election returns progressed from worried to disbelief to stunned.  The election had not yet been called in Trump's favor when I tried to go to sleep, but it seemed imminent.  I couldn't fall asleep because there were too many thoughts running through my mind; those thoughts inspired this blog post.  I eventually caught a couple of hours of sleep, but I'm not even sure if it was before or after seeing the final call.  The couple of hours attempting to sleep before having to get up in the morning were not very restful, either.

As deeply disappointed as I am with the result, though, there is a not-so-small part of me that wants to laugh at all the people (myself included) who dismissed the prospect of a Trump presidency.  In some ways I think that they/we were out of touch with the motivations of an apparently significant portion of the population.

I'm also laughing at the electoral college system, where the election of the president only seems to really depend on a small fraction of the states.  Based on the latest data, it looks like Clinton will win the popular vote by a small margin but lose the electoral vote fairly handily.  I'm not sure what to think about that, but something doesn't seem right.  Regardless, the system is the system, and the rules were all known going in.

It should be obvious that I don't understand why so many people support Trump.  I am genuinely curious to find out why, though.  How much has to do with party lines?  How much of a factor is a growing distaste for political correctness and/or a desire to shake up the political system that doesn't seem to be working?  How much is an anti-globalization reaction?  How much is a reaction to radical Islam and/or the Middle East refugee crisis?  How much does racism play in this?  How much does gender and sexism play?  How much is related to an opponent with flaws of her own?  How much relates to Trump's actual policy stances?

I'm also left wondering what the impact of a Trump presidency can actually be, though some might argue it is more a symptom of underlying problems than a cause for future ones.  Can he really screw things up that badly, or is there a system in place that will prevent that from happening?  On the other hand, is it possible that Trump can actually be a good president?  Is there some good that can come out of all this for our society as a whole?

Despite my anguish, I must admit that it is certainly more interesting to live through such remarkable events than not. 

Yeasayer w/ Lydia Ainsworth @ The Ready Room (11/5/2016)

The Yeasayer portion of this show was certainly better than their opening performance a couple of weeks ago. And overall the show was worth taking an "unplanned" home trip for. Interestingly, I got a chance to personally interact with both acts after each of their performances.

For this tour as an opener, Lydia is traveling pretty light. She has a laptop (a MacBook Pro, obvy) to play the backing track while she sings and sometimes plays keyboard. It wasn't fancy, but I thought it was still a solid performance. About half of the songs were new, and the others were off her debut album. After her performance she set up camp at the merchandise table, so I went over to ask if a new album was on the way - she said that it should drop in February (yay!). She was pleased to hear that her being the opening act was the deciding factor in me flying home for the show, and gave me an appreciative hug. I thought she was a pleasant young lady - she represents Toronto (and Canadians) well.

The main act didn't disappoint either. They were energetic, as usual, and I think they appreciated the energy that the crowd brought (especially on a few of their most popular songs). I was actually a little worried about the size of the crowd when Lydia was on, but it filled out pretty nicely for Yeasayer (though I don't think it quite sold out the 750 capacity). Once again, they played a nice mix of old and new. For stage decoration they had some lighted cutouts that were similar to the cover art on the latest album (Amen & Goodbye). The rest of the light show was also pretty solid, especially for a relatively indie act at a relatively small venue; I couldn't tell how much of that gear belonged to the venue and how much they brought. As for my interaction with the band... I came across the guitarist and bassist rounding the corner of the building after leaving the venue - I gave them a thumbs up and a "well done", and they thanked me, wished me a good night, and gave me a pat on the back. I'll take it.

Rating: 4.4/5

M83 w/ Yeasayer @ WaMu Theater (10/25/2016)

I was just about as excited for Yeasayer as M83 for this show, but their performances were (understandably) not in the same league. I arrived late for Yeasayer - I think because I had the start time wrong in my calendar. I'm not sure how many songs they played before I got there, but I did get to see them perform at least 7 or 8. As the opener, the sound wasn't quite as punchy, and the lights weren't terribly exciting. Something also seemed a little off in terms of matching the depth of their songs to the studio versions (e.g., their closer "I Am Chemistry", which is my favorite off the new record). I'm chalking it up to being the opener, and hoping that their headlining show in 11 days will be better.


On the other hand, M83 mostly exceeded my expectations. I've been a fan of theirs/his for a while, but not so much of the new album this year (appropriately, I think, entitled Junk). However, a few of the new songs came off better than I expected live - I might have to give the album another chance. They did play plenty of older material (though not many "deep tracks"), including a few of my favorites. "Outro", the last track off Hurry Up, We're Dreaming was a great closer to the main set. The light show was also pretty intense, which was another plus. There were a few minuses, though, including a couple of the new songs that didn't resonate. And I wish they hadn't played a shortened version of "Coleurs".

Lastly...WaMu Theater is a weird, cavernous venue for a concert.

Rating: 4.4/5

Purity Ring @ Showbox SoDo (10/17/2016)

It's kinda hard to rationalize how a group with a fairly limited performance aspect to their music (he basically pushes play and bangs on some lights in the back, while she wanders around the stage singing and popping some pretty solid moves) can earn a higher score than artists who perform "real" instruments, but...you can't deny that they play catchy song after catchy song (even with a sophomore album that I perceive to be a bit weaker than their first). The stage set-up and lighting was pretty interesting as well. Of note: they still don't do encores. Also of note: I witnessed my first instance of someone using a tablet to take pictures/videos at a concert.

I'm glad the show was very enjoyable - my night could certainly use a pick-me-up.

Rating: 4.5/5

James Blake @ The Moore Theatre (10/12/2016)

I arrived a little late the show, but I'm guessing (based on the time) that I caught the end of James Blake's first song. He performs as a three-piece, with a drummer and another guy on guitar/keyboards - I wasn't sure what to expect since the music is solely in his name.

More stuff that I didn't expect included some pretty heavy songs, or sequences within songs. One particularly bumping song was an unofficial dance remix. He also amped up portions of some songs, including an outro or two. They brought some pretty good lighting gear, including some strobes, and the sequencing matched the music really well. There were (obviously) some slower songs played as well, including a live-looped "Measurements" to close out the show. At one point James suggested that the crowd stand up, but then proceeded to play four slow songs in a row; thankfully (for my old bones), most people only stood for the first of those. 

The highlight of the show for me was probably "Retrograde". It is one of his most popular songs (as far as I can tell), but I never got into it that much. Something about the live rendition just totally worked, though, so I'm now a fan of the song.

Rating: 4.3/5

Phantogram w/ The Range @ The Paramount Theatre (10/7/2016)

I only learned a week or two before the show that The Range was going to open up for Phantogram, and I was excited to see him again. His album Potential is likely to make my top 10 for this year. Phantogram's latest album Three also dropped the day of the show. I tried to get a listen in beforehand earlier in the day, but I was only able to get a distracted partial listen.

The Range's set was kinda disappointing, though I'm not sure that I should have expected more, especially as an opening act. There's a limit to the entertainment value of his (suspected fake) knob twiddling, lip syncing, and DJ dancing. He also didn't have any of the visuals that he did for his earlier Seattle show as an opener. The music was alright, but the sound mix could have been better.

Phantogram didn't disappoint. They played a good mix of songs from their brand new album as well as their earlier two. They also had some good visual effects, including projections on both a front see-through screen and a backdrop. Brad commented, and I agree, that they are good at ending songs at the appropriate time - I can only think of one song with any sort of extended jam and even that one was quite short. Many of their songs are good for getting the body moving, while some others are good for rocking out. Overall, I was quite satisfied.

Rating: 4.4/5

Foals @ The Paramount Theatre (9/23/2016)

With this being my third event at The Paramount in four nights (Sigur Rós, Neil DeGrasse Tyson), I feel like I live at the place this week...

Sitting for a Foals show is an interesting experience, as they put on a pretty energetic performance. It's a little tougher to tap into that energy from a seat in the mezzanine. Don't get me wrong, though - (being an "old man") I generally prefer sitting to standing.

The light show matches the kind of energy that the band, especially Yannis, puts into the show. To expand on that a bit, most of the band is generally not jumping all around constantly, but they're still going at it. Yannis definitely moves around more than the others (twirls, hops, etc), and ventures out into the crowd (sometimes crowd-surfing) at least once a show. The light show for this tour is heavy on strobe effects, especially when the band is going hard.


My main complaint about the show is that they apparently don't like playing my favorite songs by them. I tend to prefer their "mathier" stuff, but they seem to mostly like to rock out. That's fine, too, but I would like it if they played more than one from my top five.

Rating: 4.4/5

An Evening With Sigur Rós @ The Paramount Theatre (9/20/2016)

As an "an evening with" show, there was no opener. Galen, Erin, and I arrived a couple of minutes after the 8:30 beginning. The show came in two parts, each lasting about an hour, with a 20 minute intermission.

The first part was slower, softer, and had more songs that I didn't recognize/recall - I didn't do much "prep" for the show besides listen to my two favorite albums of theirs (Takk... and Kveikur). The second part was more dynamic - which is my preference for their stuff - and had a couple of my jams, including Sæglópur. Somewhat unfortunately, though, I would estimate that they only played 3 or 4 of my top 10 favorite songs by them. The setlist also seemed to span the entirety of their catalog.


As was expected based on the Twitter chatter, their stage set-up was pretty amazing. They had lights or light strips on just about everything. They also had two big screens displaying stuff - one really big one all the way in the back, and another not-as-big partially see-through one that moved up/down and could serve as either a backdrop or a facade. Of course, the screens don't really add much unless they are displaying something cool or interesting, and they had plenty of that. For at least half of the songs I really wanted to take a picture to capture the feel of the chosen light/graphics scheme, but I didn't want to be "that guy" who was only snapping pics and not enjoying the show.


A random observation: there was no on-stage banter at all - they just performed the song. I'm not sure if it's for artistic reasons or because they're not native English speakers (though I know that Jónsi speaks at least decent English). They did do a double bow for the standing ovation at the end, though.

Rating: 4.5/5

Bloc Party @ Neptune Theatre (9/17/2016)

More random thoughts...

Showtime was a relatively late 9 PM. Kasey and I arrived a little after the opening act got on. Bloc Party started a little before 10:15. They played two half sets, though the first "half" was longer than the second. I thought that the second "half" was going to be an encore, not that the break was an intermission. They did end up coming out for a one song encore after the second "half".

They played a lot of older material, which I think the audience (myself included) was happy with. I guess they realize that the new stuff is not as strong, or at least not as appreciated.

Kele seemed more stacked (physically) than I recalled - I remember him as being fairly skinny.

Overall, the show was a little better than I expected. I hadn't listened to any of their stuff recently to reacquaint myself with it. But a lot of it sprung back when they played it.

Rating: 4.2/5

We Are Scientists @ The Crocodile (7/9/2016)

Some random thoughts...

The show went pretty late. I arrived around 9:30 and still saw all of the second opener (The Palms). It was after midnight when I left after We Are Scientists' main set.

Keith, the guitarist/singer for We Are Scientists, is quite talented.

The on-stage banter was almost as good as the music. And there was seemingly almost as much of it.

This show resulted in some hearing loss for me.

Rating: 3.6/5