dirtyDogStink

Culture '08

Wednesday, December 31 2008

2008 was a very fun and diverse year for Whitney & I. In fact, I have never attended this many uniquely interesting and entertaining events....

• Chris Cornell (@ The Paramount) - Technically this was in October '07, but it was such a damn good concert it needs to be mentioned.  He played for almost 3 hours and covered Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, Audioslave and his solo stuff.  It was an awesome moment when he brought his two young children on stage [wearing ear protection of course] for one of the songs.
• Late September Dogs (@ The Central) -  A local band that kicks a whole lotta ass!
• Silent Movie Mondays (@ The Paramount) - Watching the original b&w, silent version of When the Clouds Roll By (1919) featuring Douglas Fairbanks with a live organist in the beautiful Paramount was a wonderful experience.
• Cirque du Soleil's Corteo (@ Marymoor Park) - Unbelievable!  This was my first time seeing Cirque and I was absolutely floored. If you haven't seen one you owe it to yourself to do so.
• Foo Fighters (@ Key Arena) - These guys are one of my all-time favorite bands and they didn't disappoint, in fact they rocked the house.  Dave Grohl was hilarious with lots of stories and jokes sprinkled throughout the night. There were too many cool moments to recount, but here's one of the best:
  • We were in section 104 which is in the lower level at the opposite end of the floor from the stage [good seats, but pretty far from the stage].  There was a long runway shooting out from the stage that Grohl would run out on every now and then.  About 45 minutes in to the show a small circular stage was lowered from the ceiling to rest at the end of the runway and Grohl walked out to stand there alone...40 feet directly in front of us!  The rest of the band soon joined him and we had front row seats to a 45 minute acoustic performance! 
  • Here's a funny part while they were on the small stage in front of us:
    • Dave: [pointing at the sections directly in front of him] You guys thought you had shitty seats, didn't you?
    • Dave: [pointing back at the people in front of the main stage] Now they have the shitty seats.
• Jack Johnson (@ Gorge Ampitheater) - A mellow, enjoyable concert.
• Bumbershoot (@ Seattle Center) - Read about it at Bumbershoot '08.  We already bought our 3-day passes for next year.
• Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey's Circus (@ Comcast Arena) - The Peanut's first time at a circus and she loved it.  She still talks about it every now and then...especially the elephant poop [and boy do they!].
• The Phantom of the Opera (@ The Paramount) - A beautifully orchestrated performance with outstanding music and production quality.  Seeing it in the Paramount, a gorgeous venue, was a bonus.
• The Raconteurs (@ WaMu Theater) - Whitney introduced me to this group and they've become another of my favorites.  We were only 40 feet from the stage and although there wasn't much interaction with the crowd [just the obligatory 'hello seattle'] the music was sweet.
• The Three Musketeers (@ Seattle Repertory Theatre) - We had great seats and the tweaked storyline [D'Artagnan's little sister tagging along] was a nice treat. Those damn prop guns were loud though! :)
• Ron White (@ The Moore Theater) - Funny as hell.  My only complaint was that he was taping the show and the camera arms sometimes got in the way of our view.
• Robin Williams (@ The Paramount) - Fuckin hilarious!  He went at 70 MPH for 2 hours straight...attacking G.W., describing the committee that designed genitalia, impersonating Seattle homeless, passive aggressive behavior in the PNW and damn near anything else you can think of.  Far and away the funniest 2 hours of my life...my throat was sore [from laughing] for at least a day.

All in all, the past year has been my most diverse and enjoyable for entertainment.  Looking over this list has caused me to reminisce about several of the memories...all wonderful reasons for continuing the trend in '09.

Happy New Year!

~tod