The Twisted Logic Tour

Friday of last week I decided that I'd like to attend the Coldplay show at Arco on Monday, Jan 30th. I didn't really care about good seats, as I just wanted to hear them in concert. One of the things everyone always mentions about this band is how much they sound like U2 as this review points out (geez, look at the title of the review), and that may be part of the reason their music appeals to me. When we picked up our tickets at will call last night the lady said they had just released lower level seats, and that we could upgrade our tickets if we'd like to. So for an extra $50, instead of sitting in the nosebleeds off to the side of the stage we sat 8 rows from the stage in the center.
Fiona Apple was the opener, and she was pretty good. Although instead of getting the crowd up for Coldplay she kinda lulled everyone into a mellow mood. She seems like she'd be a great fit in a smaller theater, and not a cavernous arena. I kind of always thought of her as a little bit psychotic, but after having seen her show I'd change that opinion to full on lunatic. She is a very emotional performer, to say the least.
Coldplay didn't take the stage until 9:30, and only played for 90 minutes. For the prices they charge they could have at least gone to 2 hours, and given Ms. Apple 30 minutes instead of the 50 minutes she did have. Overall the show was excellent. Chris Martin is a very charismatic performer who really knows how to work the crowd (I'll give him one more album until he develops the full on Bono complex), and their guitarist appears to have graduated from The EDGE University of guitar playing with flying colors. I guess if you're going to crib from as band, U2 isn't a bad pick.

I blame my parents

When I was 5 one of my favorite things to do was listen to records on the stereo through headphones. I listened to two records in particular: John Denver's Back Home Again (featuring Thank God I'm a Country Boy and Grandma's Feather Bed, which made me always want pancakes), and Neil Diamond's I'm Glad You're Here With Me Tonight which featured my favorite song at the time, Desire'e. Listening to that song now makes me wonder if my parents even checked lyrics. Of course when I was five I had no idea what "Well I became a man At the hands of a girl Almost twice my age" actually referred to. I just thought it was catchy. So there you go: I enjoyed (and still do) John Denver and Neil Diamond. All this to say that I recently bought Neil's 12 Songs CD the other night, and it is quite good. For someone who is the consummate showman, this is a very restrained album. I think Rick Reuben will do for Neil Diamond's career what he did for Johnny Cash: create a late career renaissance.

The Historian

I just finished this book last night. I'm not sure it lives up to the hype that Amazon and other readers have placed on it. I think you could sum up the thesis statement for this novel as "Dracula digs books." At 638 pages it gets very long winded in places. The author is a good writer, but I think I'd settle for a little more conciseness in her prose. I do think you'll see this in a movie theater fairly soon