Concert bookends

We started and ended the weekend with concerts. Friday I raced home and we had leftover pasta before heading over to Jammin’ Java to see Robbie Schaefer (from efo). He had a good set, played some new songs, but most notably brought Daniel Brindley (from Brindley Brothers/Luke Brindley Band) up for a number of songs to play keys. That added a nice texture, hopefully he might come out to some of Robbie’s solo dates in the spring. We watched two episodes of Tell Me You Love Me, the new HBO show, when we got home, and it was pretty good – relationship troubles mixed with nudity.

Saturday was pretty lazy for me, watched some TV, read comics, grilled ribs. I did start assembling an eBay auction that I finished Sunday morning, after I took Illa for a long stroll. I watched the first half of the game as I cooked fajitas, then listened to the end of it on the radio in the car (dang it), as we headed in to the city to catch Genesis at the Verizon Center. I’d timed it precisely as they’d gone on the previous three shows at 8:20, and that worked… not at all, as there was some kind of power problem, and they were delayed by 30 minutes (we dubbed it the beer vendor conspiracy, as half the crowd immediately filed out). Happily, that was the low point, the concert went off without a hitch.

The show was an interesting mix of progressive songs from the ’70s (mostly in medleys) and their pop hits from the ’80s. I had seen the setlist and was mostly prepared, though I don’t think Jill was. I really like “Ripples”, from A Trick of the Tail, as far as older songs go, and I think our favorite of the pop era was “Follow You, Follow Me”. Jill was not aware before recently when I listened to a lot of Genesis that I can replicate Phil Collins’ eerie laugh from “Mama”, and I found out I can make her crack up by doing it, so I didn’t miss my chance during the concert. I wouldn’t have minded also hearing “That’s All”, “No Reply At All”, “Illegal Alien” or “Misunderstanding”, but it was a good show.