so close, so far

All the hullaballoo over Hurricane Rita has died down in Austin now that Louisiana has turned its storm magnet back on. Surely parts of the Texas coast will still suffer nature's wrath, but it looks increasingly unlikely that the interior of the state will get much more than some showers ... if that, even. Does that mean we get full refunds on the hastily-horded bottled water?

What a turnaround from Katrina. Instead of ignored warnings and delayed reactions, we have hyper-sensitivity and pre-emptive declarations of disaster from Governor Goodhair. Better safe than sorry, of course, and there's no telling what still might happen, but it's at least slightly amusing watching officials show everyone how well they learned the lessons of Katrina, only to be foiled by the fickelness of nature.

In a marginally related metaphor, Rachel ran by Chris Martin on the Town Lake trail tonight. If we have to leave town, it's some consolation to have a random brush with greatness (although X&Y brings it down to a brush with pretty-goodness) on our way out.

Happy ACL Fest everybody.

iWedding

Everybody's had their experience with a wedding or special event that is marred by a truly horrid band or DJ. For me, there was the bar mitzvah where the "band" (an older duo crooning a la Marty and Elayne from Swingers) drove me to drink, which led to an extended chat with the 19-year-old coat check girl that is often recalled at family gatherings. These embarrassing consequences are slowly being eliminated as more people replace DJ's with an iPod, pre-programmed with their own set list.

That's exactly what we did for our wedding six months ago. We weren't necessarily trying to low-ball the whole affair, but a band was way too pricey and we didn't want some up-with-people DJ jackass trying to "pump up" Grandma with Sir Mix-a-lot. I knew a handful of songs I wanted for dancing or ambience, and figured I could pound out a song list that would represent us and still entertain the crowd. The iPod was the perfect resource, and we only had to spend another $50 for a PA system. Genius!

Except, of course, it really wasn't that easy. Predictably, I waited until the last minute, programming the song list the day of the wedding. Some songs I had envisioned as "perfect" turned out to be too long, too harsh, too dumb, or (cruelly) not even available through iTunes. Then I not only had to figure out the perfect progression, but also how to force the iPod to play it in order. Finally, there was the moment of dread when we hit "play" and nothing came out of the PA; Larry quickly figured out that the iPod volume was too low, but not before a few bullets were sweat.

All of our struggles were vindicated when, in the middle of Wilco's "I'm the Man Who Loves You," the photographer ran by yelling "this is the coolest wedding, GREAT MUSIC!" Perhaps the only regret was picking "Tupelo Honey" as our opening dance number ... 7 minutes is way, WAY too long to make everyone sit around feigning enchantment.

son volt and the melody of quiet

Son Volt played at Stubb's last night. Two concerts in three nights is a feat I haven't accomplished for awhile, but I couldn't have asked for a better confluence of favorites than to have Jay Farrar's new band follow up Thursday night's Wee Fighters show.

Jay Farrar is an earnest, talented musician that I revere. At his best, he is the poet laureate for the common man, finding beauty and glory in the places most people ignore on their way to somewhere else. But there are times when Jay fails to temper sincerity with joy or enthusiasm, and his musical demeanor settles like a fog of somnolent folk depression. His solo performance at the 2003 ACL Festival seemed to herald the impending rain; an unfortunate yet appropriate coincidence.

Thankfully there was obvious enjoyment coming from the stage on Friday night, albeit in a subdued Farrar-esque celebration of his remarkable catalogue. The set list favored the new album, which translated into strong live performances, while offering a great selection of Son Volt and solo tunes. An Uncle Tupelo tune is always welcome, and the band ripped up the closer in tremendous fashion.
It might not have been the nuclear explosion of Dave Grohl screaming "Monkey Wrench," but it amply demonstrated that renewed energy is coursing through the reconfigured Son Volt v2.0.

6 String Belief (Okemah)
Who (Okemah)
Bandages & Scars (Okemah)
Atmosphere (Okemah)
Gramophone (Okemah)
Back Into Your World (Straightaways)
Joe Citizen Blues (Okemah/iTunes)
Medicine Hat (Wide Swing Tremolo)
Ipecac (Okemah)
Damn Shame (Sebastopol)
Loose String (Trace)
Chaos Streams (Okemah)
Live Free (Trace)
Picking Up the Signal (Straightaways)
Jet Pilot (Okemah)
Endless War (Okemah)
Route (Trace)
Straightface (Wide Swing Tremolo)
Caryatid Easy (Straightaways)
Driving the View (Wide Swing Tremolo)
Medication (Okemah)
World Waits For You (Okemah)
Tear Stained Eye (Trace)
Windfall (Trace)
Drown (Trace)
Afterglow 61 (Okemah)
[ENCORE]
Armagideon Time (Cover-Clash/Willie Williams)
Chickamauga (Anodyne)

[Original list courtesy of JayFarrar.net]