chumptastic dot org

on saturday night i finally got to catch a cuff the duke show. they’ve been here probably 7 or 8 times in the last year, and each time i’ve wanted to go but something’s always come up.

the good:

• it was at the grad club which is always a fun venue so long as the crowd isn’t made up of idiots
• the crowd wasn’t made up of idiots! i wasn’t annoyed at all for once! there were some pretty funny people there (for example, the 4 foot tall dancing machine – if by “machine” i mean “very very broken machine”), but that just added to the fun.
• cuff the duke were solid, as i would expect them to be after having played a million live shows this year. alt.country woo!
• they had a vibraphone! who DOESN’T like vibraphones? (note that i got the name correct this time, in part thanks to alan, and in part because cuff the duke pointed out that it was a vibraphone – “but i’m not quite sure how it’s different from a xylophone…”)
• although i didn’t really give them my full attention, radical dudez weren’t half bad. they’ve played a bunch of shows over the last couple years too, so i guess they SHOULD have improved. cuff the duke made a pretty funny comment essentially complimenting the dudez: “there are a LOT of jam bands at universities in ontario, so we were kind of nervous when we heard a band called ‘the radical dudez’ were opening for us…uh…no offense…but they were really good”. funny.

the bad:

• it was another fucking rock crew show, which meant 3 bands. now, i wouldn’t mind so much if it was 3 bands i cared about, but most rock crew shows i’ve been at this year followed this pattern: the headliners + some band they’re touring with (who usually suck but i can’t really complain about that) + some local band. examples: cuff the duke + kate maki + radical dudez, the dears + pilate + betablokka, weakerthans + carnations + fembots (yeah, i know they’re not local, but still). i wasn’t too upset about having to wait forever for CTD this time, because i had good company and a hockey game to half watch while waiting, but rock crew, if you’re reading this, stop being idiots.
• i only knew 4 songs from the CTD set, ’cause they were trying out new material. i don’t know if this should really be in the “bad” list ’cause it was good stuff…but i’m disappointed i didn’t get to hear antisocial. they might’ve played it during they’re encore, but we ditched before then.

anyway, the good clearly outweighed the bad. fun is fun.