DATAROCK

Last night, I went to my first concert in 4 years. Datarock, my favourite Norwegian electro-rock band, headlined in my neighborhood, at a joint called Nectar. Tickets were only 10 bucks - I had to be there! I went with my new Seattle friends Linda and Barry, as well as Linda's new roommates.

One of the opening bands was a local Seattle hip-hop group called Mad Rad. These guys were pretty wild! They are quite popular with the hipster crowds around Seattle, and I think there may have been more people watching their set than Datarock's. Anyway, these guys are also apparently assholes. They threw water on Datarock's equipment, which brought some tough roadies on to the stage yelling at them. Later they starting falling into some of their equipment, which brought some tough roadies and some very tough bouncers onto the stage. I think this eventually led to their set being cut early. One of Linda's roomates said that that is sort of "what they do", and have been banned from a number of clubs around town for such riotous behaviour. I later rubbed elbows with one of the rappers - literally, as he was wiping snot from his nose with his hands.

The second act was an eclectic little rock outfit that was pretty decent. I talked the lead singer while we were peeing. Nice guy.

Datarock was supposed to come on at 12:30, but they didn't come on till around 1:00. The club has a strict policy of no music past 2:00 (probably they get noise violations all the time), so Datarock didn't get to do their whole set, and it was kinda lame. They kept playing until the sound guy faded them out, and then kept playing until the sound guy started dismantling their equipment, and then finally stopped. But, after that I got to hug the lead singer! A nice, big, shirtless, sweaty, Norwegian hug. I was pumped. I also got 10 Datarock stickers. What shall I do with these? Suggestions welcome.

So, it was totally awesome to see Datarock live, and they definitely a cool live band. However, the sound quality really sucked (white noise with a little bass, but I'm not whether that's the sound guy's fault or theirs), and then the set was too short and awkwardly accomplished. So, it could have been way better, but it was pretty awesome nonetheless!

This afternoon I went for a big long walk around my neighborhood to take in all of the glorious Autumn beauty. Here is a nice photo:


After the walk I was dead tired, I watched M, a 1931 Fritz Lang film. It was really good - creepy in a really intelligent way. An excellent social commentary. Recommended!

Finally, tonight I completed Rex Ronan: Experimental Surgeon for the SNES. This is probably one of the top-ten worst games every produced, and probably also the rarest game in my video game collection. You play a doctorwho is sent inside the body of a cigarette company exec who is dying of cancer (and also every other health problem that comes from smoking). You are to save his life and rid him of his nicotine addiction. You start in his mouth and clean crap off his teeth, them moves down his lungs to destroy the cancer, then head to his heart to unblock an artery, and then finally head to his brain to remove his nicotine addiction. All the while, the cigarette company has sent in evil robots to try to kill you! An excellent concept, but a terrible game. Good times!