Thursday, July 30, 2009

Two Bowls and a Band

I had a brief evening in the studio last night during which time I threw these two bowls, and slipped them. I also glazed one piece, and cleaned up my mess. Like I said, a brief evening, but useful nonetheless.

I'm excited (hopeful) to get a solid 3-4 hour block of studio time in sometime this weekend, as I feel like it's been a while since I had a good weekend day. More, I'm excited to not have any planned travel in the foreseeable future. Like, any time in the next 4 months. Which is great, given that we've spent almost every weekend in the last two months in the car. Which is generally fine, but it gets old real fast. Which is one of the many reasons I'm not sure I can ever go full-time at this pottery gig, but that's another story. The story I wanted to tell today is what we did last weekend, which was this:

The real reason why we drove across 4 states was to attend our little nephew's first birthday party. And he is a cutie. But, we also had the chance to see Switchfoot headlining a club show between tour dates supporting Blue October. And it was, in a word, amazing.

I've been following Switchfoot now for ten years. And they have got to be one of the best bands out there working their butts off day in and day out to produce solid, meaningful music and put on a good show night after night. They're one of those bands that I tend to forget just how much I like them, until I listen again. Or I see them in concert. And then they rock my face off. And I'm falling in love all over again.

It's been a few years since I've seen them (five. five years.) and they put on a wonderful show at People's Court in downtown Des Moines. It was crowded, hot, sweaty, and absolutely amazing. In addition to playing a healthy number of old favorites (although nothing from their first two albums), we got to hear a few new cuts from their upcoming album, Hello, Hurricane. For which I am waiting with bated breath.

So, I recommend giving Switchfoot a listen, as well as checking out (frontman) Jon Foreman's solo projects and sideband, Fiction Family. I'm pretty sure between those three options there's something for everyone. For those interested, here's a performance of one of the new songs at their own charity surf contest, the Switchfoot Bro-Am. This is "Mess of Me," from Hello, Hurricane.

The only problem, of course, with going to a show like this, and then watching a video like this, is that it makes me want to move to San Diego, join a band, and spend my days on the beach, and my nights rocking out.

Oh well. You can't win 'em all.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great to get your comment on my blog. I think I'd have loved the show had I not be to so many other great Switchfoot shows. I do hope they return soon as the headlining band.

Funny to see you are a potter. My dad is a potter and while I appreciate the art (probably more than most), I do not like clay. It's too messy. As a baby my dad would let me crawl around his studio and would throw clay in my way when he didn't want me to be somewhere and I'd turn around.