Author Archives: Nik Bronder

Iowa Irish Fest.

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This weekend Julie and I made our maiden journey into Iowa for the Mayberry – Fredrick Wedding in Waterloo.  It just so happens that this weekend was Iowa Irish Fest.  We spent the afternoon checking out the Highland Games’ caber toss.  The caber toss consists of men picking up a telephone pole and flipping it completely in the air while trying to make it land straight.  It’s something that is best seen in person as you can imagine.

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Side Notes:
*The rest of my photographs are on Flickr.
** I’m seriously pondering buying a kilt.
*** The top photograph is of the man who was in charge of the caber toss competition.  Yes, he’s carrying a giant hammer just in case.

The Vic Theater: Soundgarden.

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Yesterday afternoon I was able to get tickets Soundgarden’s show at The Vic Theater through their last minute online sale. I managed to figure out the URL for the actual ticket page instead of using the url shortener the band posted via twitter earlier in the day. I believe this is the only way I manged to actually get tickets.

Opening band for @soundgarden, the name escapes me. In other words: the view from my seat.IMG_0024.JPGIMG_0026.JPGIMG_0017.JPG

I’ve never seen Soundgarden before (I’ve seen Chirs Cornell solo back in 2000 at the Newport Music Hall in Columbus and I’ve seen Audioslave a couple of times) so when the Lollapalooza lineup was announced I was in just for Soundgarden. Then The Vic Theater show was announced and that became the objective.

The line to get into the Vic was wrapped around the block due to the ‘paperless ticket’ system but the line moved smoothly once the doors opened. Dom and I managed to get seats in the front row of the balcony towards the left side of the stage. Seats because we are old men. Seats for Soundgarden.

The show was about as intense as you would imagine. The bass player, Ben Shepard, looked like he was going to kick some one’s ass. It was awesome.

The setlist:
01. Searching With My Good Eye Closed
02. Spoonman
03. Gun
04. Rusty Cage
05. Let Me Drown
06. Jesus Christ Pose
07. Flower
08. Outshined
09. Fell On Black Days
10. Ugly Truth
11. Get On The Snake
12. Burden In My Hand
13. Pretty Noose
14. Head Down
15. Face Pollution
16. Superunknown
17. Black Hole Sun
18. Mailmain
19. Slaves And Bulldozers
Encore:
20. 4th Of July
21. Blow Up The Outside
22. Like Suicide

Side Notes:
*Here are some links to reviews of the show with a couple of videos:  Blabbermouth.net and MTV.
** All of my photographs were taken with my iPhone due to the last minute nature of the whole event.

Lincoln Hall: Tapes ‘N Tapes

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The other night I met with some friends to see Tapes N’ Tapes at Lincoln Hall. This was my second time at the venue and probably the third time I’ve see the band. I think all the other times were in some kind of festival atmosphere.

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The show was good, they played a bunch of new songs that are from their new album that hasn’t been released yet. The sound at Lincoln Hall is great since it’s one of the only modern places I’ve ever been that was actually designed for rock and roll.

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Side Notes:
*Whoever runs the smoke machine needs to calm down. It was unreal how many times the smoke machine would just randomly go off for no reason at all. You have a new clean venue, there’s no reason to add that ‘smoky grime feel’. It got really annoying by the end.
** Other posts with Tapes ‘N Tapes:  Tapes ‘N Tapes at the Metro, Lollapalooza 2007 – Day 2, and the 2006 Siren Music Festival.