First off, it’s summertime so this is the perfect time to enjoy Lostprophets. Their music usually involves the summer and how much fun they were when you were younger. The days of playing outside and going to camp are over but the heat remains. Did I say remains? I mean doubles! It’s been insanely hot and humid lately, to the point where the kids on my street have to stay inside. It’s unsafe for everyone and makes being outside a chore. Hopefully the fall will be the remedy! I even took this from my car after about 20 minutes of driving, so it’s not that ridiculous immediate reading after hours sitting in the sun.
106!
It’s about this time I like to break out a Top Gear clip. This one is from a few years ago but I always find it hysterical. Here the trio plays a game called Car Sauna.
For those bad at conversion, here’s the temps in Fahrenheit:
- 37.8 (°C) = 100 (°F)
- 53.0 (°C) = 127.4 (°F)
- 59.7 (°C) = 138.2 (°F)
- 61.9 (°C) = 143.4 (°F)
Over the last few weeks there was a bit of a lull with the heat, thankfully the weekend of the A Perfect Circle concert which happened to be outdoors at Penn’s Landing. Since Maynard is amazing I didn’t have any trouble finding people to go with. It started with just Eric but Rishav and Seth joined in. On the bright and sunny day it was probably in the high 80′s but the humidity was incredibly high. We arrived an hour before the show and there was a line from the entrance all the way to Dave & Busters. Quick decision there, so we went into D&B for some food and drinks. Seth led us through and around back to the dock-side bar. We hung out there and chowed down until we started to hear the opening band play. Even after the equivalent of a happy hour there was still a solid line but we had no choice. Once we got in we found this all-female asian rock band on stage- and while their music made my brain hurt, they had great stage presence.
After the opener they played broadway-like music while they set up for APC. It was definitely unconventional which was a sign of things to come. I had looked up the recent APC concerts because I was curious what kind of music they’d play. The reviews I saw were very hit or miss since APC hadn’t released an album since 2004. They were playing music mainly from that last album, Emotive. The rest of the music seemed to be covers, some pretty diverse. It also said Maynard hung around the back of the stage with no spotlight and just did his thing. It bordered on “impressive” and “boring” depending on the song. I was prepared for the concert we were about to see however most of the audience wasn’t.
A Perfect Circle
The set list did turn out to be incredibly strange by most standards but spot on from what I read. They played a few, not many, of their biggest hits and alternated between fast, slow and smooth songs. Right before one song Maynard talked about how now is usually when they leave the stage, we clap and then they come back. He said instead they’re just going to keep playing, and so they did. And at the very end they played their new song, a slow ballad-like tune. And then the lights came on. People were confused, was that it? No encore? I knew it was over but I think many didn’t understand Maynard earlier. Those who need things spelled out were angry but I was content. Was the music selection out there? Sure but what do you expect, it’s Maynard and he does whatever he wants. And that’s why I enjoy him. Here’s the set list, judge for yourself:
- Annihilation
- Imagine (John Lennon cover)
- Weak and Powerless
- Rose
- What’s Going On (Marvin Gaye cover)
- People Are People (Depeche Mode cover)
- The Outsider
- (What’s So Funny ’bout) Peace, Love and Understanding? (Elvis Costello cover)
- When the Levee Breaks (Led Zeppelin cover)
- The Noose
- 3 Libras (All Main Courses Mix)
- Gravity
- Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie (ABBA cover)
- Magdalena
- Passive
- Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums
- Fiddle and the Drum (Joni Mitchell cover)
- By and Down
Then came an invite from Squeaks (Jason), who suggested we all come over and party at his place. And so it was. Steph, Mike, Colleen, Brad and I made the trip to Squeak’s awesome apartment.
Meteor Zombies!
We had pizza, played drinking games, watched Shaun of the Dead and had many ridiculous conversations. The best topic involved movies with zombies and what caused them, mainly between Mike and myself:
“You ever see the zombie movie with the slugs?”
“Night of the Creeps? Or maybe Slither?”
“Yeah, Slither. Which was the one where the toxic waste spills and seeps into the ground?”
“Night of the Living Dead”
“What about the meteor one?”
(Before I could answer, that’s when everyone else chimed in.)
“A meteor causing zombies? That’s not possible!”, “How would a meteor cause zombies? That doesn’t make sense!”
Obviously alien slugs and toxic waste are plausible, but don’t ever mention meteors!
Tired Meteor Zombies
P.S. The meteor movie is called “Lifeforce” and it’s amazing, directed by Tobe Hooper. Plus they use the score for many NFL promos.
Lifeforce
Just like Angry Birds, I resisted getting pulled into the game but soon was obsessed. The most recent game is Words With Friends which I’m still playing daily. Every now and then you make a crazy move that gets you an obscene amount of points. I took a screen shot of my most recent one, my record high move so far:
Words With Friends
Just a few weeks after Squeak’s place was the Phillies-Pirates game that we planned months ago. At that point Pittsburgh was awful but they had since improved greatly. The day was a beautiful one with a 7pm start time we planned to tailgate. We had a parking pass so we drove close to the exit where there was nobody around yet. We set up Ladder Ball and started our fun. Squeak’s friends joined Brad, Colleen and I for a fun afternoon in the sun.
Brad and Squeak
The game itself was great, the Phillies had their way with Pittsburgh for the second night in a row. Our seats were first row of the second level so the view was perfect. The sun went down and the evening cooled off for a grew time- unless you were Brad and Squeak…
Phillies vs Pirates
Last but not least, probably my favorite live performance of all time. It’s Queens of the Stone Age performing Misfit Love on the Henry Rollins show. I could watch this every day.
Oh, and a little fun leftover from Squeak’s place. We checked to see if Shaun of the Dead was on OnDemand, and then someone typed this in:
Whoops
