FROM BOWIE, TO BUNNIES TO BURNOUT

This was the long awaited weekend with the biggest residing project planned. The last big wall to be replaced was the one with all the electrical panels and poles attached to the side of the house. They turned the power off Friday at noon and I almost immediately began ripping the two service panels, the meter box and power pole off the house. I had to label everything meticulously if I had any chance of putting it all together again in the same exact way.

Saturday was spent ripping off the siding, measuring locations of every stud and then covering the wall with a protective, waterproof Tyvek sheeting. Sunday saw me reside the entire wall. I had a scare of as darkness was descending, believing I may have accidentely shot a nail into a wire bundle buried in the wall. Fortunately all was well. Monday was spent reassembling all the service panels, the meter box and power pole. A very heavy rain struck in the afternoon, bringing it all to a temporary halt, fearing I would run out of time. Tuesday I stuck around to watch the power company come out and turn the electricity back on, crossing my fingers there were no problems. Everything worked perfectly in the house! I was essentially done with the residing for the summer, the painting could wait another month while I now went out to play. Concert season is approaching!

96 hours without electricity and water. By Monday night I was filthy and exhausted. It was a pleasure to take a shower after four days of crawling behind a large hedge and working under a burning sun. The daily afternoon thunder showers stopped all work, but it was an opportunity to lay down and rest with eyes closed, waiting to resume work after the rain had passed by late afternoon.

Hands craft something new

In unknown territory

Hoping for the best

After ripping all the electrical off the wall by Friday night, I was feeling relieved that this long dreaded project had begun. So I was feeling relatively good and wanted to celebrate with music in the usual way: loud, with a cigar and tequila.

David Bowie started off the set with his July 13, 1983 show in Montreal, Canada. A flawless soundboard recording from finish to end. With 10 band members supporting him, David's sound was rich and well orchestrated. This show was performed 3 months after his Let's Dance studio album came out. Wikipedia correctly notes that it was during this time period that Bowie went from superstar to megastar. It goes on to note:

"Bowie scored his first truly commercial blockbuster with Let's Dance in 1983, a slick dance album co-produced by Chic's Nile Rodgers. The title track went to #1 in the United States and United Kingdom. The album also featured the singles "Modern Love" and "China Girl", the latter causing something of a stir due to its suggestive promotional video."

A long double CD got me dancing under the beautiful moonlight.

Looks down from the stars

Distant street once familiar

Peers into the past

The bellowing cows

Massed herd slowly moves as one

To the slaughter house

Hail the tank man!

Lonely act of defiance

Stares down the giant

Download it here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XF1NPQMF

Ever since day one

Always race against the clock

To the finish line

As is the usual pattern, next up was Echo & The Bunnymen's March 30, 1984 live show in Boston, MA. Another excellent recording and performance. One of the best Bunnymen shows I've listened to. I was really grooving to the beat by this point in the evening, having to make a trip back into the blackened house by flashlight in order to take an extra swig from the bottle (the Bowie show was really long!). A superb performance by all the band to an enthusiastic crowd shouting out their favorite songs they hope will be played next. I don't know what it is but the lull in the song Thorn of Crowns always seems to elicit some laughter in the crowd.

A beautiful, cool evening under the moon. I could not help but be drawn back to the house, waiting to get on with the task of finishing it as quickly as possible. Although I went to sleep late that night, I was up by 6:30 AM, had a quick breakfast and had the generator roaring by 7. I'm sure the neighbors loved that pattern for the next 3 days.

Chaos on the ground

Oblivious to it all

Moon rides its slow arc

Counting life's decades
Trees standing for centuries
Light shone for billions

Sees with his eyes closed

Its light shines later each night

Circles endlessly

Songs that elevate
His heart and soul are flying
Sees the gates of heaven

Carried far away

Holds onto something solid

Finding reality

Something precious lost
Deep emptiness in the soul
Life of loneliness

Pick it off here:

http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/dt/echo-and-the-bunnymen-concert/20050154-2088.html

FIREWORKS GOING OFF IN MY HEAD

Guess what I did on Friday and Saturday of this holiday weekend? Residing the house. That and only that. Well, except for the music, cigar and tequila Saturday night on the Fourth of July.

A very unusual beginning to the summer, almost daily thundershowers that bring heavy rain. The pattern repeats itself each day this weekend: partly cloudy in the morning, clouds build, blossom into full fledged thunderstorms and the downpour begins by mid to late afternoon. In years past there was always the danger of fireworks igniting brush or forest fires, but this year everything is so damp that one would find it very difficult to start a fire. A good year for the sale of fireworks.

Friday brought one of the heaviest rains I've seen in the 10 years living in this house. So much that the rain gutters flooded and the water came pouring straight off the roof. For the first time in 10 years the wind forced rain into to the house, drips falling off the wood paneled ceiling of the living room. It's entering the house through a section of siding I have yet to replace. The rain washed gully's through the gravel in the driveway. It was really intense to hear the heavy drumming on the roof.

The same pattern repeated itself on Saturday, Independence Day. Like clock work the storm built and dumped on us, lacking the wind and intensity of the previous day. But the storm was heavy enough to cause runoff to form a creek in the drainage running through our property. Frigid water that had fallen from thousands of feet, if not a few miles, above us in the thunderhead.

All this rain has turned the landscape a vibrant green. The trees are very healthy looking. The grass needs to be mowed again. The weeds are loving it.

All this rain is interrupting my ability to get in a full day of work before sunset. With heavy downpours like what we had these last two days, there's no way to continue working afterwards because everything is soaked. Progress slows.

But the storms passed by sunset, allowing all the planned fireworks displays to proceed without interruption. My wife and son disappeared without my knowing it, having gone down to Parker to see the show. I'm not into professionally done shows. I'd much rather dig out my big box of fireworks and put on my own show, something forbidden in years past due to fire danger.

I step outside and am surprised at the sound of explosions all around, both near and far. Like a war zone, a firefight happening nearby. Around 9 PM I drove out to my party spot out on the prairie, far away from homes to crank up the music on the truck stereo. Bursting fireworks lit up the sky over Denver, star bursts of colored light, spheres of red, green, yellow and white. A brilliant moon overhead. I brought some fireworks of my own to play with once solidly inebriated.

Nirvana kicked off the nights show, performing live at Nakano-Sunplaza, in Tokyo, Japan on February 19, 1992. Excellent recording of some of their best work. I noticed that Kurt Cobain's voice was a bit rough from the beginning. Turns out that he was experiencing a bit of the flu. This is what he says to his audience:

"So about two days ago I got sick. I got this really bad cold, you know, like a flu, an illness, whatever. And uh, the doctor gave me this stuff to drink and I think its Chinese herbs, and it has cow sperm in it and its got, like, lizard penis scrapings. And uh, I still feel really sick but it makes me feel good to know I've been drinking cow seaman."

Lord of the darkness

Alone in the firmament

No one dares approach

Self absorbed millions

Their two dimensional lives

Their world is still flat

A world that burning

It's everyman for themselves

Drinking the Kool-Aid

Download it here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VJ5JIT2Y

Next up was Van Halen, appearing live at the Selland Arena in Fresno, CA on September 22, 1978, the warm-up band for Black Sabbath. At this early stage in their career they were becoming seasoned musicians, having been on the road performing almost continuously since March of that same year, including a tour overseas to Europe and Japan. Dave is perfecting his routine. Eddie burns down the house with those fingers. A good recording of their show on their home turf in California. I have another recording of the same show, but which includes Black Sabbath that follows Van Halen. I'd love to see the contrast in their live performances.

By the time I was done it was close to midnight. The fireworks were largely done, the only bursts of light being shot locally from homes on the surrounding prairie.

FROM THE STUDIO TO SYDNEY

Short work week due to the holiday weekend. With a three day weekend before me, I have grand visions of getting much accomplished on the house, bringing me closer to being done by mid July. However, this Thursday night brings rain, cutting down the time I can get a head start on the days ahead.

Thursday night becomes my Friday night, a night to party in celebration of the American Independence! Yeah, right. Drove out to the spot on the prairie where I can rely on the truck stereo to provide the sound. It was a nice change from the headphone routine I was doing these last few weekends.

I was originally was going to play Nirvana but switched to the punk rock band Green Day at the last minute. And instead of a bootleg concert, I went for their fifth studio album, Nimrod, which was released on October 14, 1997. One of my favorite albums of theirs with some classic songs that continue to get played in their more recent appearances on stage.

According to Wikipedia: Nimrod was "an experimental deviation from the band's standard pop-punk brand of music. It provided a variety of music, from pop-punk, surf rock, and ska, to an acoustic ballad. Nimrod entered the charts at number 10. The success of "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" won the band an MTV Video Award for Best Alternative Video for the song's video, which depicted people undergoing major changes in their lives while Billie Joe Armstrong strummed his acoustic guitar.

Billie Joe in an interview in Guitar Legends magazine, May 2005:

"At the time I wrote Good Riddance, I was breaking up with a girl that was moving to Ecuador, and I was trying to be as understanding about it as I could. I wrote the song as kind of a bon voyage. I was trying not to be bitter, but I think it came out a little bit bitter anyway... I thought that calling the song "Time of Your Life" was just a little too level-headed for me, so I had to come up with something different"

Stars hid by dark clouds

Face and scalp feel the cool wet

Steady rain falling

Fast cars rushing by

Live our solitary lives

Hides in the darkness

So rare and precious

Alone with its sudden loss

Heart that's been stolen

Next up was Echo & The Bunnymen, their live show on November 11, 1981 in Sydney, Australia. The original version I had did not sound that good, Ian's voice being very distant and the overall mix being very muddy. I remixed it to pull Ian forward and lend some clarity to the entire show, the result being that much of the bass end being lost. Hence the need for the truck with the ability to bring back some of that lost sound.

This particular show happened a half year after the release of their second album, Heaven Up Here. Chris Adams writes:

"1981 burdened the Bunnymen with the toughest touring schedule of their career. Over the course of 169 days, the band played 113 shows. By the end of the year, they had slogged through two major UK and US tours, one European jaunt, and a stop-off in Australia and New Zealand. This breakneck pace gelled the band as a live unit."

Feeling aches and pains

A dark figure approaching

The old man's coming

Download it here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PVPYUFYG