The Wombats…guy’s rockin’ the Robert Smith hair The Dø…the girl can really sing but I’m not a big fan of the material.

Sigur Rós:

svefn-g-englar
sæglópur
við spilum endalaust
hoppípolla/með blóðnasir
inní mér syngur vitleysingur
hafsól
gobbledigook
popplagið

(I take this on trust from sigur-ros.co.uk as I suck with SR song names). Excellent set, well played.

Radiohead:

1. 15 Step
2. Airbag
3. There There
4. All I Need
5. Where I End and You Begin
6. A Wolf at the Door
7. Nude
8. Pyramid Song
9. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
10. Climbing Up the Walls
11. The Gloaming
12. Faust Arp
13. No Surprises
14. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
15. Reckoner
16. Exit Music (for a film)
17. Bodysnatchers

1st Encore:
18. Cymbal Rush
19. Videotape
20. Paranoid Android
21. Dollars and Cents
22. Idioteque

2nd Encore:
23. House of Cards
24. The National Anthem
25. Street Spirit (Fade Out)

Following a day of sightseeing in Lille. Excellent day!

I’ve been raped by a moneychanger. I thought CAD 1.62 for 1 euro was bad when I dropped Scott off at the airport. I thought CAD 1.74 for 1 euro was theft when I was leaving for Europe. I thought .68 at Schipol was incomprehensible so I didn’t even go there.

Today I paid CAD 1.86. There was no commission as my amount was large enough to qualify for “today’s special” and when I said ECHT! that’s a horrible rate! to the man, he said the US dollar was dragging ours down. I said we have NOTHING to do with that dollar, we’re rock fucking solid. He said don’t change small amounts, the fees will add up. I said DUDE THAT WASN’T A SMALL AMOUNT FOR ME. He said try living with euros all the time. Well but I don’t earn euros, I only earn dollars. And I suck for not buying a whack of euros a week ago, I’m thinking that the “July holiday season” has created an artificial shift in the rate.

OUCH.

FUCK YOU, MONEYCHANGERS!

So yeah back to the all-Currywürst-all-the-time in Berlin plan, babies. But that’s OK, I love teh Currywürst.

In other news, I went to the gallery where Stanley Donwood’s stuff is being exhibited before the moneychanging incident, and while the cheapest prints were already sold (the only ones I might have talked myself into buying), I did buy the book. And the artist was there, too, although I didn’t talk to him. I had seen him in the café across the canal from the gallery earlier and thought “Is that Stanley?” but I’m not one of those OCD Radiohead people (no, really, stop laughing: I’m not) and I really wasn’t sure what he looked like.

There are minotaurs there, kids, and there were some OKC-era prints, and I was sorely tempted, but in light of the later money reality check, it’s really just as well.

So I have the catalog of the exhibit (OKC and Kid A and Eraser and In Rainbows stuff; I don’t know that there was any HTTT stuff?) and I got an overpriced t-shirt (YOU USED TO BE ALRIGHT/WHAT HA_PPENED? or some variation on that typography, too lazy to look) (well it’s going to be available for the same number of dollars, but not until August, I am a SUCKER) and that’s the extent of my Radiohead buying for this album. I must insist.

But it’s all good.

Oh and when I was wandering the arty quarter there, I stopped in to this one place that was showing Alan Macdonald stuff. I’m not in that loop so I’ve never heard of the guy, but WOW, he does these neat mashup things with double-take sorts of images in classic styles (Rembrandt or Goya influenced, e.g.) and then words from pop songs, um one was from The Doors’ The End; another was The Sounds of Silence; the really cool one in the window that sucked me in I can’t remember. Perhaps a New Order song? While I suppose they might pall in time, seriously, if I had cash I would have grabbed a couple of them, most were already marked sold and I thought they were a bargain. I would love to be able to support an artist like that.

I’m in Amsterdam, saw first Radiohead gig of five this summer last night, may possibly survive jetlag, and promise to write more later, and possibly even post some pictures

Right now I’m off to a couple of museums and maybe a canal boat cruise, while the sun shines.

Still kinda sleep-deprived. But had a nice, if brief, visit with my Main Distractor.

Also some overwhelming sadness, with the loss of a dear friend’s child, who was taken from us all too soon.

Because of this, feeling happy feels insensitive in a way, but I can’t help it: we have a tentative ETA of August 1, not counting intermediate visits. I can scarcely contain myself.

Oh and he won’t have to travel here to see Radiohead in August, and we’re going to see Nick Cave in Seattle in September

When I tagged my previous post “up all night,” I was speaking figuratively.

Little did I know that the onsale wouldn’t happen until 06:15 or something, at which point I’d already dozed off briefly a few times, and awoken in terror that I’d missed something. So there I was with my desktop connected to a wonky DSL connection, liable to crap out at any moment, and my wonky laptop connected to my neighbours’ wireless cable, which they were kind enough to share with me.

Both wonky items were wonky, but stellar performers compared to waste, which waited until the eastern seaboard was at work, and the western seaboard who’d slept all night, was up with its coffee, to push the magic button. The site was freezing and pissing about and moaning and I didn’t manage, in spite of diligent application, to get through to a shopping cart even once. Luckily, I have some good friends out there in Radioheadland, and one of them was able to get through and kind enough to buy tickets for me and get them shipped to me when I paypalled him the money. Yay Radiohead friends! they’re the best.

Someone posted on atease that Ed O’Brien said something to the effect of “Don’t bother staying up all night, we want everyone to have a chance, not just radical fans.” I don’t know if it’s accurate or true, but it kind of annoyed me.

Gee, Ed, don’t you think there should be some benefit to being the kind of “radical fan” who is willing to stay up all night? I think all of the “radical fans” I have met over the years have been the kind of people who will help a brother or sister out, sell tickets on to total strangers for face value, hold a place in line, let near-strangers crash on the couch or the floor, share a ride…in short, really good people, who don’t ask any more than a chance to buy tickets from waste rather than from scalpers. And the middle-of-the-night sales did a surprisingly good job of allowing that to happen, from what I’ve observed over the past five years. So why don’t you guys rethink that a little for the next onsale?

My language in this regard has tempered greatly in the past 24 hours.

So I am chatting with people on two continents in three countries who are waiting for the Radiohead presale.

Strength in numbers, and the ability to feel slightly less weird about willfully depriving oneself of sleep in order to get…better concert tickets.

Just slightly.

Wish I’d dared to take a nap earlier, tomorrow is going to SUCK. With luck I actually will get some sleep a little later on.

The west coast and other dates of the second leg of the Summer 2008 tour have been announced (this morning, and I didn’t think to post this until now, bad me, that’s what comes of being so bloody distracted; but I hope you’re not relying on me for up-to-the-minute Radiohead news!). Onsales sometime Wednesday through waste and Saturday through ticketbastard.

The utterly fabulous part of this is that the August 19 date at Thunderbird Stadium here is very close to my birthday, and fingers are crossed that my main distractor will be swooping into town to make me swoon. Sweet!

Meantime, please cross your several fingers that my run of luck on waste continues and I am able to get tickets.

*dances*

€75 per day (€165 for all but I won’t be going to all).

Friday so far includes Neil Young (cool) Moby (decent show, seen him before), The Verve (not my thing), Babyshambles (NMT), Digitalism (noncommittal), and Duffy (no idea).

Not worth €75 for me.

Saturday is more my thing: Radiohead, Sigur Rós, Ben Harper (meh), Kings of Leon (meh), Editors (aight), and a whack of people I can’t be arsed to switch windows to look up and type.

Perhaps I’ll stop in Brugge or Brussels on Friday on my way down from the ‘Dam.

Tickets are onsale Saturday 0900 Continental time. I have to remember to stay up late :p

***

Realized that I am going to see Sigur Ros AND Radiohead two days in a row. Whoa!

to my number one fan.

*waves* *blows kiss* *growls*

Rock Werchter are supposed to be selling tickets on Saturday.  And yet, they haven’t announced which bands are playing which days, or how much tickets will be. This is T minus 24 hours or less, really…it’s already tomorrow in Europa.

Perhaps there’s some special pre-sale email list I’m not on.

I’m assuming that Werchter won’t sell out as fast as Radiohead’s US dates though.

Well, not really, I guess. I’m just tired and sleeping a lot. Weather’s been nice. Serbia and Kosovo situation is alarming to say the least. Obama won the “Democrats Abroad” primary which is pretty cool. Tonight, another debate. Oh, after Jenn’s show, I hope (Project X, 19:30 on CBC; they have a bona fide website now).

Radiohead is playing not one, but two nights at that Coachella East show, what’s it called. Maybe I’ll win the lottery…haven’t been to NYC in AGES. Actually, I was thinking that the kind of commentary I tend to make on the road would be perfectly natural in NYC, and people wouldn’t get all affronted there either. I should get a FUCK YOU I’M FROM NYC bumper sticker or something.

I’m exceedingly cranky about the lack of formalization of the Werchter lineup. YES I AM A BRAT.

Five weeks until a bunch of non-strangers whom I’ve never met will converge upon Vancouver for a William Gibson-oriented meetup. Plans are in progress for a tour of Spook Country locations, a Ministry show, cake…what else do you need for a fun weekend? perhaps karaoke; I heard of a place with rooms for rent for not too much money. I have to go there though and see if the book’s any good. Otherwise maybe the hobo-oke from the Vespa rally. At least the drinks are cheap, and it’s close by some of the less-salubrious Gibson locations.