Sweller than Swell

Alright so I kinda wrote this from the bottom up and it's going a bit crazy. I'll tell you that just when I thought Friday night's Swell Season/Iron and Wine show in San Diego was amazing (and it was!), the LA version at the Greek ROCKED MY SOCKS. Seriously. Here's a review. I'll spoil it and tell you that besides being an all around incredible show and having them singing everything I wanted and falling madly in love with their new stuff and covering not only Van Morrison but Neil Young, Glen brought out 80-year old Richard Sherman. He's the guy responsible for a lot of Disney music you know and love. He was spry and fun and led the sold out crowd in a Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious singalong. Super surreal. And definitely an "only in LA do these kinds of things happen" moment. (Fast forward to when we got home and there had been a Mary Poppins skit on SNL. Fuhreaky.)

Here are a couple of songs from the San Diego show I found on youtube. They're of better audio quality than the ones I found online from the LA show...The first is a heartbreaker from the movie. The second is one of Mar's new ones.



I LOVE the repetitive part at the end of that new one..."every now and then on my mind" and then just "on my mind." BEAUTIFUL. I can't wait for the next cd. Seriously. OMG.

What the heck, here's more from that show...



here's another new song that i super liked (again better recorded audio than what whoever taping it at the greek got).



I'm not sure why I'm sitting here at work instead of following them around Europe right now. If I think about it for any length of time I'll be on the next Aer Lingus flight out.

They're in Paris on November 5...anyone??? Nevermind...they're playing a church in Limerick Thanksgiving weekend...that seems tailormade for an Irish jaunt, no?!? I'm seriously on Orbitz weighing my options, folks. I don't mess around. I think I have usable frequent flier miles. This is getting exciting.

I haven't even mentioned the Liz Phair Troubadour show which was also super crazy great. It was vintage. It was rocking. It was intimate, and again, she sang everything I would have written down on a list for her to play. She played Exile in Guyville all the way through and ended with Supernova and Polyester Bride. Thank you. I never dreamt a wkend chock full of concerts (one requiring a 5+ hour roundtrip drive for a 2 hour show) could so easily live up to the hype. It did.

PS That whole bailout thing went well, huh Wall Street? Guess it doesn't always pay to have the government in your pockets. Now you know how the rest of us feel.

Alright I have to get to work (on buying these tix to Ireland WHAT!) But seriously, I've only got a 4 day work week and then it's off to the StL to see Bev Hills Chihuahua and pick some pumpkins with the kiddos. Awesome.