Willo O'Brien

The Hot, Hot Heat show lastnight was EPIC!!!!

Hai & I met Kristin, Jem, Sarah, and Rick in the lounge for pre-dinner & drinks. I was so psyched up for the show I could hardly contain it.

We skipped the opener’s opener and then went down for the French Kicks. I was really psyched to see them as I’ve had their latest CD for awhile now… but I have to say, they were pretty disappointing. The lead singer just came off really cocky – and their whole stage vibe wasn’t doin’ it for me at all. The few songs off the new CD that they played and I like, were OK, but still I was SO not into the vibe they had on stage – and overall it just isn’t music you feel like jammin to. (can someone tell him to stop that tongue licking the side of his mouth thing? it’s so not attractive!) So I give that a big ‘eh whatever’. The album is fine to listen to at home, but I wouldn’t go see them again.

Finally the moment had arrived… and we squeezed our booties up to the front as close as possible to prepare for HHH!!!! Rick and I were way up front – probably 4th row for most of the show – and soon joined by Kristin & Jem, too! We were surrounded by fans (all about 16 or 17. Boy, are we old or what?!) but as soon as the music started we were all one big cluster of raucous fans… dancing and singing and sweating and ROCKIN out to kick ass Hot, Hot Heat!!! Everyone was jumpin up & down so hard that the floor of the Fillmore was sinking under the pressure. I was sure it was going to break through taking all of us with it!

In the set, they played about 5 songs from their older record, Knock Knock Knock (all of which were soo excellent that I can’t wait to get the CD), and the rest were from Make Up the Breakdown. Every single person in the audience was beltin out the lyrics right along with em – it was awesome!!

Despite my cold, I was still down to party with the best of em lastnight. However, there were times while raging in the 4th row – dancing, singing & sweating my ass off – that I was a tad afraid I was either going to pass out or that all my sweating was actually due to a 104° fever. I have mad respect for the lead singer, Steve Bays for having the stamina to put his ALL into it & keep bangin out song after song with all his might. I was worn out just trying to keep up with him! The best was how rockstar he was when he shook his head and the sweat would just fly off his curly mop in all directions. Rock ON!! I can just imagine the man is beat after a show… but they showed no signs of it, as no doubt this is just one of many nights of hard core rock.

After closing their set with Bandages and having the audience go absolutely NUTS over it, it didn’t take them long to come back out & stoke us with 2 more songs on the encore. As always we could have used another hour of it all, but the set ended after that – leaving us all standing in awe, drenched in sweat with big smiles across our faces. No doubt SF showed them a warm welcome! I can’t wait to see them again.

Click here and here for more info on Hot, Hot Heat. And if they come to your town – whatever you do, don’t miss the show!!!

p.s. I’m feeling surprisingly good today – I think HHH HEALED ME!!

Does anyone need to set up a site w/ free hosting? I just signed up a new client on Doteasy, which means if I get two referrals, the $35 fee is waived. (read more about this here)

I’ve actually already gotten one – so I just need one more. So if you want to sign up with Doteasy for free hosting, please click here to sign up and when prompted for the site you’d like to give your referral credit to, please put: http://www.blackdiamondshuttle.com

Since I only need one more, maybe you could let me know you’re going to sign up & give me the referral – as once I have one more taken care of, I’d like referral credit to go to my friend who just signed up (giving blackdiamondshuttle it’s first credit).

Then if we get her 2, her transfer fee will be waived too! Quite a cool deal.

I know this can get confusing, especially if site hosting/transfering is foreign to you… but if you’re looking to set up a simple site to get yourself started – or you have a client that just needs really basic hosting to get started (and doesn’t want to spend $100+/year) than this is a great place to start. Lemme know if you have questions.

My new music buddy Rick & I are on the same f*in wavelength when it comes to amazingly L-A-M-E it is that a lot of our friends are missing this ROCKING Hot, Hot Heat/French Kicks show tomorrow night. Between the 2 of us, we’ve gotten some pretty lame excuses from our friends. Oh well, their loss cuz this show is gonna be OFF THE HOOK awesome.

So – the saddest part that neither of us thought we’d have to deal with, is that we have extra tickets. If you’re in the bay area and you don’t want to be inducted into the Lame Hall of Fame – AND you know whats good for you to not miss the most ROCKIN show of this year (IMHO) you should buy our tickets. You will NOT be dissapointed!!! It’s going to be SO AWESOME!!! (did I already say that? ok, I’ll stop, but seriously – don’t miss it.)

p.s. to friends who I know read this and you know it’s you I’m calling lame, please don’t be mad. I’m more saaaaaaad that my close dear friends who I know I would have a ROCKIN time with at this show and who LOVE HHH just as much as I do won’t be there to enjoy it with me. :( :( :(

i found this near my front gate when i got back from getting my morning coffee:

I’m definitely sick today. Full force cold, right here. I don’t mind it for the most part – I’ll nap a little today and then try to get to bed earlier tonite. But I need to cancel my camping trip for the weekend. That just wouldn’t help anything. Bummer though, I was really psyched to go camping just ONCE this year!!!!

right after we arrived and got beers I ran into an old friend I hadn’t seen in about 6+ years. wild to see him, as the last time I saw him I had just gotten out of a relationship – weird. we went to preschool with eachother apparently. our parents knew eachother and then we reunited in ’97 when he was living down in san luis obispo.. it was WILD to see him. the first thing I thought was “what is he doing up here?!” when I said hello it took a while for him to register it was me (the whole short blond hair vs long brown hair now thing throws people off for a second). Once he did he FREAKED. His brother was there with him too, who the last I saw him he was so young and in high school.. now he’s all 22 and quite hot. :p

the show was AMAZING. my knowledge on radiohead paled a dull shade of off-white compared to Stig’s colossal erudition. he knew every single song’s name, what album it was on and usually what track # it is on the disc. oy! now that’s a fan!!! :) it was fun to hear him so psyched.

I was pretty mellow, having my cold & all – *achoo!* (I really did just sneeze as I typed this) but it was SOOO great to be at the show – surrounded by tons of fans. It’s quite the phenomina these big shows. It’s a whole different culture. I think I have gotten really spoiled by seeing all these AMAZING shows at the Fillmore, GAMH, Warfield, etc. Small venues kick ass. That’ll probably be the last time I go to Shoreline. I mean, it was worth it & fun and all – but oy is it an experience of population overload.

The garlic fries were really good though. Oh – and one of my favorite songs they played tonite was Wolf at the Door.

> random september photos posted (lots of kazoo for all you fans of mr. fuzzy pants!!!)

> i have a bit of a cold. *achooo!!* but that won’t stop me from seeing radiohead tomorrow night. oh no, you can’t stop me!!!

> a countdown to thursday night…

this thursday might possibly be one of the most exciting days of my life. if my excitement could be expressed through these words, it just might blow up your computer. i’m going to stop there, or it just might!! oh, and if you don’t know me and don’t know what I’m TOTALLY freaking out about and counting down the days and hours until that fateful beautiful moment I’ve been waiting for… look over to the left on the calendar and find out. thursday night is going to RAAAAWK!!!!!!!!

goodnight.

Heather is doing a cool new lil project called badge swap. here’s mine:

lemme know if you get it! :)

be sure to submit yours too!

I’m selling my office chair – wanna buy it?

Why am I selling it? Because I got an Aeron! woohoo!! For all the hours I sit at the computer, my ass deserves it!! :) (and no, I didn’t just fork out the fat wad of cash these things cost. I got a secret deal, shhh)

Kazoobie apparently doesn’t want me to sell it…

Lastnight I cleaned my house like craaaaaaazy!!! I’m so psyched cuz it’s soooo clean!! I finally organized the disaster of CD’s that were sprawled everywhere, too. It’s so nice to have everything all nice & neat! wahoo!!

Tonite is another Grill & Swill BBQ @ Jane’s. However, this is a special SXSW edition, so should be a lot of cool peeps there from “the community”. Too bad I feel like I’m coming down with a cold! So no beers for me, I’ll stick to the lemonade tonite.

Look at how CUTE these are!! Mint milanos are my favorite cookies – and how damn cute is it that now there’s a whole bunch of little baby milanos? I love it!!!

Yuuummmm!!!

(ok, sorry I started this lastnight but had to go to bed and am just finishing it up now)

Rainer Maria was excellent lastnight… I was SO THRILLED to finally see them live!!!!

The opener was listed as Denali – who I had heard of, but didn’t know anything about em, so when the first band came on we thought that’s who were were listening to the whole time, but turns out it was On The Speakers. They ROCKED! Cute lil’ indie-rock boys – awesome music, kick ass drummer – very, very fun. I’d go see them again in a second and I am psyched to get their CD. I made a mental note to be able to drum like that when/if I ever take drumming lessons.

Oh wow – I just was reading up about them & On the Speakers leadman, Ian Sefchick is from Creeper Lagoon! I never really listened to that band, but it’s good to know. (Indie-Rock Music Trivial Pursuit here I come)

Denali was just ok… I mean – very good, really – but between On the Speakers being so awesome & upbeat and my let down that Rainer Maria wasn’t going on next after all, I was a tad dissapointed. Don’t get me wrong though – the lead singer has a beautiful voice, really distinct… but Jane & I decided that’s what made every song sound too much the same. We both agreed it’d be GREAT to have on at home, but that until we knew the material, it was no fun live.

When Rainer Maria came on I was immediately out of my chair to rock – sooo happy!! I have been listening to them a ton since April (when I picked up bunch of their CD’s at Ameoba) and so it was really awesome to finally see them play live! Her voice is really powerful and she has a really strong stage presence. They closed with Ears Ring, which is most definitely my favorite song (watch the new video) and it was so on fire that I was dancing up a storm and beltin’ it with her the whole way. SOO KICK ASS!!!

I also made a mental note to be able to sing that song well, when/if I ever take singing lessons.