Favorite songs of 2009

Dan inspires me to keep my list going, even if it's not as well thought out as his. Here's a slew of songs I listened to a lot in 2009, in no particular order.

1. "Poor Boy" from Blind Pilot's 3 Rounds and a Sound.
2. "Bracket, WI" from Bon Iver on the Dark Was The Night compilation album.
3. "All My Friends" from Broken Social Scene's To Be You and Me.
4. "Banshee Beat" from Animal Collective's Feels.
5. "La Llorona" (The Crying Woman) from Beirut's March of the Zapotec.
6. "A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left" from Andrew Bird's Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs.
7. "Black River Killer" from Blitzen Trapper's Furr.
8. "I Wish I Was The Moon" from Neko Case's Blacklisted.
9. "Easier" from Grizzly Bear's Yellow House.
10. "Levelland" from James McMurtry's Where'd You Hide The Body.
11. "Just Breathe" from Pearl Jam's Backspacer.
12. "Rome" from Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.
13. "Fake Plastic Trees" from Radiohead's The Bends.
14. "You Really Gotta Hold On Me" from She & Him's Volume One.
15. "Family Tree" from TV on the Radio's Dear Science.
16. "Vincent O'Brien" from M. Ward's Transfiguration Of Vincent.
17. "Heart Skipped A Beat" from The xx's XX.

My annual concert fix

Each year, it seems like there's one big show somewhere in or around Portland that I just can't miss. (Funny, this didn't happen so often in Oklahoma...)
Last year, it was Pearl Jam playing a smallish theater show up the street from my office. This year, it's Wilco (pictured above) playing on the lawn at a brewpub minutes outside of town in the Gorge.

My 15-year wait for Pearl Jam was well worth it. And although I've waited only about 10 years to see Wilco, they have gone through damn near that many members in their history. Still, I can hardly wait.

"Being There" was my introduction to the band in the late '90s. It'll finally be nice to do just that - be there - tomorrow night.

And when we are, I hope to hear "Impossible Germany" from the new "Sky Blue Sky" album that's pictured below. It includes this lovely lyric, which always makes me think of our McPrince adventure in the Northwest and beyond, relying on only each other in whatever foreign lands we may encounter:

But this is what love is for
To be out of place
Gorgeous and alone
Face to face

Or you can just watch them perform it live at Bonnaroo earlier this year:

"I sing in the choir"

There's a review up at OregonLive (can't get a direct link to the story working), which raves about the 2-hour-35-minute set I was lucky enough to see last night. Here's the heart of it:

"The Pearl Jam that played before a sold-out, 2,800-capacity crowd at the Schnitz showed that they should be measured against rock's greatest acts. Certainly, the 25-song set list - teetering thrillingly from anthemic chart-toppers such as 'Even Flow' to the reflective sing-along 'Love Boat Captain' to the raucous yet compact anti-Iraq war rocker 'World Wide Suicide' - proved that, at this moment, Pearl Jam is as good as a live rock act gets."

My friend Jann and I have talked about the magic of the "live music experience." For lack of a better term, that's the point at which a great concert cleanses and floods your mind all at once and you're absorbed with the music, the moment and - if you're lucky - the mayhem.

Like the line in "Do The Evolution" says, "There's my church, I sing in the choir. Hallelujah. Hallelujah."

Well, last night's perforance rattled my chest. It probably damaged my hearing. It left me hoarse. It swept me back through all the thoughts and emotions sewn into songs I've known and loved for 15 years. And hooked me on this band all over again. It did everything a great show is supposed to do, and then some.

I'm no man of great faith. But there's something spiritual about nights like that. Because on such special occasions, we forget, if only for a few hours, all but that which unites us.

Hallelujah, indeed.

Well worth the 15-year wait

The essentials...

7.20.06, Pearl Jam @ the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, playing a benefit show for the Northwest Chapter of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America. David Cross and Sleater Kinney opened.

Thanks to Mike for the set list. And thanks again to Micah for turning up tickets to what is one of the best concerts I've ever seen.

Pre-set, Eddie Vedder solo: You've Got to Hide Your Love Away (The Beatles)

1st set: World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Brain Of J., Do The Evolution, Even Flow, Love Boat Captain, Low Light, Sad, Not For You/(Modern Girl by Sleater Kinney), Wishlist, Parachutes, Satan's Bed, Why Go, Blood/(Atomic Dog by George Clinton)

2nd set: Inside Job, Soon Forget, Happy Birthday To You Stone Gossard, Don't Gimme No Lip, Harvest Moon with guest Sleater Kinney (by Neil Young), Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted

Encore: All Along The Watchtower with guest guitarist Johnny Marr (by Bob Dylan), Rockin' in the Free World with guest musicians Sleater Kinney/Johnny Marr/ David Cross (by Neil Young)

2nd encore: Yellow Ledbetter/(Star Spangled Banner)

Mike McCready, the man of the night. He's coped with
Crohn's disease for years and he got the band to play this show.

Ed

All Along The Watchtower with guest guitarist Johnny Marr (far right).

Just rockin'

We were about 20 rows back, but I struggled to get super-sharp pics.
So I tried to watch for good light. This one came close.

Bathed in blue, Ed takes another sip from his bottle of red.
As Micah said, why can we do that at our jobs?
We know our creative output would rise exponentially.

Goodnight, Portland. Headed home, soon, to Seattle.

"There's my church, I sing in the choir
Hallelujah, hallelujah."
- Do The Evolution

More to come...

Pearl Jam

Finally.


I passed up free tickets to see Pearl Jam in December of 1991 in Norman. I think I had a lot of homework that night or something. Maybe a math test the next day. What a dumb kid I was.

Sean Pruitt, Heather McKinney and I used to listen to the Ten album -- via a Discman plugged into the cassette deck -- as he gave us lifts home after school in his hand-me-down burgandy minivan. We'd stop at Sonic on the way home for slushes, giving us more time to listen to the album and to dissect the hell that is high school. Ken Griffey Jr. was becoming a star in Seattle for my favorite baseball team, grunge was cool and I was just starting to think there might be life beyond Oklahoma.

In my warped little head, the Northwest was a great escape. Every teenager has one. This became mine. It was almost a mythical place that seemed unreachable, beyond my grasp, never to be seen or experienced but always there, on the horizon.

Now, nearly 15 years later, my flannel shirts are gone (OK, I might still have one or two in the back of the closet) but here I am living in the Northwest. I know it is, in many ways, the mythical place I made it out to be. After six years up here, there are still moments when I have to pinch myself. I've been to Seattle enough to know Portland suits me much better. And on Thursday night, if things hold together, it looks like I'll be seeing Eddie Vedder and his mates take the stage a few blocks from my office.

Seeing them in 1991, in Norman, at 14 would've been great. But seeing them in 2006, in Portland, at 29 will mean a lot more.