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Nickelback & Trapt
Wanda and I saw Nickelback and Trapt at the Resch Center last night. I bought her the tickets for Christmas. It was a good show and we didn’t have to drive far to get there. Trapt didn’t sound quite as good as they do on their albums, although it was still a good performance. Nickelback put on a great show, as always. The drummer, Daniel Adair, did an awesome solo midway through the performance.
This was our first time to the Resch. The facilities are nice, and we had a pretty good view of the stage. However, their process of funneling people in the building was retarded. It was cold outside and I didn’t wear a jacket (ehh, I thought bringing a jacket into the concert would suck). Since we had pre-paid tickets and specific seats, I thought we’d be able to waltz right in and sit in our seat. Not so. They made us wait outside for about a half an hour (we got there at 7:00, and the show was scheduled to start at 7:30). At about 7:30 we finally made it through the mob of about 10,000 people and into their tiny lobby to greet another mob trying to get through 2 tiny doors and through a pat down. I think we finally sat down at 8:00. Fortunately, the show started late (which I had expected). Perhaps this is just normal for concerts (although I would expect it more at a concert with general seating). I just think whomever designed their human processing procedure needs to consider taking an operations management course. It seemed chaotic. I kept hoping people would just start pushing their way in past security, but I guess we had too many old people in the crowd and I’m not one to start something.
On a side note, I guess Dave Chappelle was right. White people do love guitar music.
Walk the Line
Wanda and I recently saw the movie, Walk the Line, the story of Johnny Cash’s struggle to stardom. The movie was excellent, and I’m sure even those who aren’t fans of the music would find this movie entertaining. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon did phenomenal jobs, both singing and acting. I have no doubt this movie will win many awards.
AllOfMP3.com
I found a really sweet music service called AllOfMP3.com. They even give you a free download when you sign up. The cool part is that when you find a track you want to download, they let you select the format (MP3, WMA, OGG, MP4, and several lossless codecs like FLAC) as well as the bitrate to encode at! Once you purchase it, it encodes it online using your encoding settings and then puts it in your download locker when completed. So far, I’ve found most of the music I’ve been looking for (however, I usually like pop, hip-hop, and R&B, so no big surprise there). I really like that I can download a high quality file in the format of my choice without having to convert it. Oh, if you didn’t catch on yet, it’s DRM-free. 
American Idol Down to Three
Curses! My Idol favorite, Anthony Fedorov, was axed last night. Carry has a great voice, and probably should win, but her music isn’t my style. Fedorov has a great voice. There’s no way he should have been axed before Vonzell, and I liked him better than Bo Bice too.
I feel like I have less interest in watching the show now. I look forward to Anthony’s first album. Seacrest was right when he said Anthony is “a total class act.”
Looking back, I think my favorite moment in this season was Constantine’s rendition of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” That was great.
American Idol #4
I watched American Idol last night. Even though I usually ignore the early episodes where they taunt the tone-deaf, I thought last night’s was pretty good and most of the comments were well-deserved. What amazes me is some of the worst performers seem to be crushed when they learn they have no tallent at all. Have you ever listened to yourself sing?! It should be a good season, though.
Fantasia Wins Idol
Ok, so the whole world knows now that Fantasia won American Idol tonight. Sad, but true. Maybe she can play the voice of Simba in the next Lion King movie, since Jonathon Taylor Thomas grew up. Anyway, Diana was obviously my favorite, but I’m hoping she’ll pull a Clay Aiken and pump out some great albums. Go Diana! You got my vote.
Nickelback
We just got the Nickelback album Silver Side Up. It rocks. I highly recommend it.
Summer Jam
We went to Summer Jam on Sunday. A great time was had by all. The Calling and Nickelback put on the best shows. Ashanti sucked, but that was no surprise.
July 25th, 2002 
Entertainment & Media 
Tags: concert, eau claire, music, nickelback, summer jam, more... Powered by WordPress.
