Alice in Chains @ The Moore 5/16/06

If you ever lived in Seattle during the 90s, wore tattered jeans and too-big flannel shirts, or thought even momentarily about growing your hair to headbang length, you probably should have been at this show.

First of all: Free tickets!
Second of all: Alice in Chains!
Third of all: The Moore!

Special guests included Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), Duff McWhatshisface (GnR), Sunglasses Guy (Queensryche) and Ann Wilson (Heart). Singing lead was a friend of Jerry Cantrell's from a no-name hardcore band who did an ab-fab vocal impersonation of late-great ODer Layne Staley.

Awesome.

The Books @ HUB 4/21/06

P:ano
Apparently one half of Architecture in Helsinki learned how to play the other half's instruments, stopped taking their happy pills, and (as K-Tel pointed out) hired Jens Lekman to sing. In the words of a younger and cuter Soundgarden, LAME!

The Books
Arguably the best part of the show--which, keep in mind, I thoroughly enjoyed--was the projected footage that the band had cobbled together from thrift store video gems. Think vignetted clips of the Mormon founders removing and replacing their hats for the entire length of a song, or (though this doesn't hold with the found art theme) 40-50 increasignly sexual anagrams of the word "meditation." Hooray for wordplay! After the show, we accidentally barged backstage and managed to say a very embarrassed hello.

Audience
Whoa, hey, it's only been a couple of years and already I've forgotten all about college kids. Been a while since I've seen that many attractive yet uninteresting hipsters in one place. Highlights include the Make-Out Twins, Overenthusiastic Laugh Man, and Sleeping Afro Boy.

Deschutes Brewery - Cascade Ale

Okay, so I am taking a sip right . . now . . and I can tell you next to nothing about how it tastes. There's a very brief sensation of, I don't know, maltiness? at first, which quickly vanishes on the tongue before I can swallow--a disappearing act not dissimilar to that of Pop Rocks. The ad copy claims a "light-hearted cirtus finish," but all I'm left with is a slight dryness, as if my mouth has been coated with a fine, absorbant powder.

Last night I drank four of these, and came away with no distinct impression other than that I was getting mildly drunk while watching King Kong. Overall, a thoroughly middling beer.

Rating: 5/10

Lagunitas GnarlyWine '06

Seeing as I'm madly love with this stuff, it's a shame Lagunitas only makes it available a few months out of the year. Snatch up some bottles while spring lasts!

I'm no barleywine expert, but GnarlyWine meets what few expectations I have: not quite beer (though it is carbonated), not quite wine (though its alcohol content is up around 10%), and quite tasty-delicious. I find it consistently impossible not to finish a (1 pint 6 oz) bottle, driving- and speech-impairment be damned.

Rating: 8.5/10