The Secret Machines

By time Friday rolled around, I was ready to get out of the house, even though I seriously lacked energy to accompany my motivation. The Secret Machines were playing at the Regency Center, and I've been meaning to check them out.

It was a buyers market outside the venue. I picked up a ticket and chatted with the entirely male crowd outside. I went inside and was surprised to see that the band had setup a circular stage in the middle of the floor. It was a rather impressive looking stage, going up at least 15 feet. The venue has a second level with seats which gave a really good vantage point. I was pretty wiped, the crowd wasn't of the hippie jam band variety, and it seemed like a lot effort to socialize with my fellow concert goers. So for the first time at a concert, I sat down and whipped out my gameboy. It was like a jr high fantasy come to life - playing Mario 3 until the concert started. I was happy.

The band came on and took control. They were great. I had barely heard any of their music, so everything was new to me. It was hard to describe - somewhere where hard rock met pink floyd. They are a trio. They were good singers, and the songs were really cohesive, very composed. All in all, they were rather bad ass. They clearly had many synthesized tracks playing along to flush out their songs. The drummer was fantastic. It felt like a arena show inside a ballroom. I will be picking up an album shortly via the interweb. I love the interweb.

The sound was surprisingly good since that venue is has horrid acoustics. Thay had speakers lined up all the way around the railing of the stage. The light show was rather epic. All the members faced in toward the center so you had to be on the opposite side of the stage to be facing them.





The whole show was about an hour and half, which was perfect for me. Home before midnight.

Saturday was spent outside in the gorgeous weather celebrating Lar's 30th birthday. I'm a big fan of the 30th birthday month. There was some wiffle ball. Many hours slipped by, accentuated by the occasional burger and tecate. I thought it was noteworthy that it was the first time I've seen my friend's dogs meet. A fabulous afternoon.

This morning we wandered through the park to see a couple friends run in the Nike Women's Marathon. As the women came streaming by it was like staring at the luggage conveyer belt at the airport - I felt like the ground was moving. As one woman flew by, we heard her exasperate into her cell phone: "For petes sake, I'm running a race right now!"

Humor.