Dec 30, 2011

I met up with Jen in the morning to take a walk around Parvins and catch up in person before she headed back to London. We walked to a bench and sat there discussing our options for online employment and becoming authors.

After leaving the lake I went to Ryan's to head up to the rock climbing gym in Cherry Hill. We were there and hour before they opened, but the guy was there and he was nice enough to let us come in early and climb. We had the place to ourselves.

We did the bouldering section without harnesses. They are lower and have pads below. Even the easy paths were really hard. We spent an hour or so climbing around all the different walls. Some I couldn't do at all, but I was able to get up a few of them. I have a lot of work to do before I'm good at this it seems.

Tracy and I went up to Philly and checked on set times then headed to Manny Brown's for some drinks. I had a sour ale and tried a few others. The Lagunitas Sucks is an awesome holiday IPA. And a great name.

When it was show time we left the bar and headed back down to the TLA. This is the last time I'll see this name on the marquee. (maybe?)

mewithoutYou was great and fun. They played a lot of new songs that I don't know as well, but there were plenty of old ones mixed in. They played for a good long while.

Thursday began their last US show ever playing the same set list as the other night except they added in "Paris in Flames," which I actually said I really wish they had played before.

The rest of the set went as it did at Starland, but it was great to hear the songs one more time for their last show. I have seen them probably around thirty times over the last ten years and it has been amazing almost every time. The holidays won't seem the same without them playing a show.

It was a sad but amazing farewell show. I will remember the intensity of their live shows every time I listen to them turned up loud in the car.

Dec 26, 2011

Ryan and I did the gym early. There were more people there than we were used to later in the afternoon. We did back and arm exercises mostly. I went to Chili's with Kate to have lunch with her dad and brother later before he headed back to Florida.

Shannon and I headed up to Starland Ballroom and sat in the parking lot having our Golden Monkeys while we waited for the show to progress. We got up there earlier than we planned. Shannon was very emotional about this being her last Thursday show.

We went in and caught the end of mewithoutYou and then waited for Thursday to come on. They started with a new song, but the second was "For the Workforce, Drowning." I always love hearing that song live. It's so powerful.

They played a long, amazing set. The new songs were great and there was a great mix of older stuff. They were very thankful to everyone for coming out all these years to the holiday shows and everything else. They played "War All the Time," which made me very happy. They ended with a heartfelt message before playing "Stay True" (I cried a little) then their closing pair of "Jet Black New Year" and "Turnpike Divides."

The show was amazing and a nice ending, even though I have another show this week. Shannon really enjoyed their last show through tears though. I don't blame her. All good things must end.

Aug 13, 2010

I didn't have much to do in the early part of the day besides sit around and watch Dexter and then go to the gym. I did a varied set of exercises there and then it took me way too long to get home because of an accident.

Katie came over and we went to The Loving Hut on South Street for dinner. After much deliberation I got the chow mein and a smoothie. They were both really good. The chow mein was amazing, I'll be back for more.

Katie got the curry rice and veggies. I tried some and it was really good too. This was one of my possible choices but since I had it yesterday I decided to go with something else.

After eating we went to Market Street to Mac's Tavern. The only reason I went to that specific bar is because Rob McElhenney from It's Always Sunny owns the bar and I wanted to check it out. It was a really nice bar inside with no ties to the show except for the name. I was hoping for a door marked "Pirate."

While we were at the bar I presented Katie with the tickets I got her for her birthday for Mewithoutyou. She really wanted to go but I told her we weren't going there because I planned something else so she was surprised when I gave them to her.

The first band that played, Buried Beds, was really quite good. I would like to hear more of their music studio quality. They were out of CDs at their merch table. Murder by Death played second and I thought they were decent. I'd like to hear some of their recorded stuff as well.

Mewithoutyou came out to an excited crowd and played some old stuff in the beginning but quickly moved on to newer material and lots of it. I honestly haven't gotten into the new CD that much so I wasn't too excited about their set.

They threw some really good older songs in the mix and closed with an encore of a couple of my favorite songs. No matter what they put on a great live show and it was nice to see them on a big stage again where they could move around.

Yep.

Dec 26, 2009

I went to the gym with Ryan in the afternoon as one final day of ski preparation. After running and working out for a while we both went to Target to get our gifts for the the next night's party. It didn't take too long to pick out some gifts and get out of there.

A little later, Katie and I went to Johnny Brenda's in Philly to see Mewithoutyou. The place itself is really nice. It's a small tavern but spacious and quiet. I liked it.

There was one opener before Mewithoutyou came on. They all seemed happy to be playing a show together again and played a lot of great songs. They're so good.

Aaron joked around for a while and talked about his adventures of working as a substitute teacher now. They played a great encore and left everyone happy but still wanting more. I hope they continue the tradition of playing holiday shows from now on.

We went to Maoz after and met up with Nathan there since he just got done playing a show a few blocks away. We got a falafel that fell apart when it fell off its stand because there was a creepy girl staring us down from outside. You had to be there. Nathan got a giant cone of fries. That's a large. They only have two sizes.

It was a fun night overall and the show was great.