It's Rodrigo Y Gabriela Time!

It was a big week for ol' Jaybird. After kid duty Saturday night I did up Primus on Sunday and then my special lady and I hit up the RodGab show on Monday night. We had seen this duo a couple years ago at the Flynn and they are great. They play a classical Spanish guitar type music if it was all banged up and raging to Metallica. I really dig it. Compared to the last show, they seemed much more confident and just rocked it out. The crowd was very much into it and to my surprise, even though the demographic was much older and more genteel than the Primus show... the crowd was much more raucous and interactive. The group reciprocated by taking requests and running through a tight set of new and old favorites.

They had an opener who was some tall blond Norwegian hippy that mentioned he was from Norway 694 times. That said he was fine and when they brought him out for an encore of Spirit's song Nature's Way, it was really good. 2 thumbs up, if they come around again check out RodGab.

For a quick bite we hit up the new wine bar next to the Trat... I don't remember the name and it does not show up on Google maps so they f*d up. No mention of it on the Trat website either even though same owners. Anyway, it may be hard to find but the vibe is pretty cool in the little hole in the wall. They serve up an App menu with a few large dishes and solid cocktails. As with every other Italian joint in town they featured an aged Negroni. It was good. For chow we had nicely seasoned beef carpachio, tasty fire roasted artichoke hearts, and the always excellent grilled mozzarella wrapped in Prosciutto. There is not much in the way of veggies on the menu but if you are down w/ slightly oily meat and cheese (which I usually am) it is worth a look. There was only one full time staffer who got a little overwhelmed by the pre-concert crush but he was nice and did his best. 1 1/4 thumbs up. It is worth a run if you have some time and want a drink and some conversation.

Happy Halloween.

Jay About Primus doing Wonka!

So last night I met up w/ some buddies to check out Primus at the Flynn Theater. We had heard that they were doing a set of Willy Wonka tunes. I would start by saying I am a huge fan of both Primus and the original Willy Wonka film. It was an odd venue in the theater though as it is staffed by old people who are used to Cuban/Norwegian fusion camber flute music and who very much frown on movement in the venue. Primus is pretty intense and often sees a pretty aggressive movement from the crowd. The one Primus concert I have seen that I did not enjoy was purely due to a shitty venue, Memorial Auditorium, which sucks bad. Well after some pretty solid wings and a couple of beers at RJ's we prepared for battle. It was a mob scene of dudes in their 30s. Needless to say it was tough to get a beer. Once inside the venue we got to our seats and settled in.

Primus steamed through a great set of classics. Nice energy, tight playing, and what you come to see and expect. Intermission was a train wreck. The Flynn was not prepared for a mostly male, fired up crowd and the beer line was ridiculous. It was slow and archaic. By the time I finally got a beer the band was back at it so I had to chug it and get back in. The second set itself was insane. The set was done like the chocolate room complete with a couple huge mushrooms. My one bone to pick was that the shrooms in the movie are flat and these ones looked more like a couple spotted dicks. How weird was the Wonka set? Well, the lights and audio visual set up featured scenes from the movie distorted and teased out in a pretty mind bending way. The music was dark and haunting. And for the Oompa Loompa songs the two things above came out and silently bobbed up and down in a disconcerting way.  I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. The xylophone player and the cello player were both very good.

The encore was 2 great oldies that packed a ton of power. I particularly enjoyed Here Come the Bastards... though the Monkey face video was freaky as shit.

2 thumbs up. I like it a little weird w/ Primus and they delivered.

Oh Montreal... You got me again!

So my wife and I were moments from heading north to hang with friends in Montreal when she says, "Don't forget the passports.". Right, good call... wait, shit... mine just expired!  F***!!! I had known about the trip and my expired passport but had not put the two together. I always view Canada as VT North but I guess that is not the case. Anyway, there are all sorts of contradictory rules about crossing the border so we gathered up all of my documents pertaining to being alive and headed out. My wife was pretty mad at me the whole ride up but kept it together. At the border the guy basically intimated that I am a moron (true) and let us through. Jackpot!  The new interstate 35 is a nice ride, it saved about 25 minutes but felt like a much faster easier route into the city.

We stayed at the Hotel 10 on Sherbrooke. They make a point of telling you how loud the rooms are. Like they really make a point about it. We got one apparently as far from the club as we could. It was a nice room. Spacious, comfortable, clean. The bar/club on the other hand... We took a walk before dinner and then settled in for a cocktail. The bartender dismissed the drink menu and told my wife he could make her whatever he was the guy. He could make sweet drinks, something with cookie dough, cake batter, something sweet? No, how about a negroni. Well, they had just run out of Campari and bitter drinks are really hard. He wasn't sure they had anything comperable. I saw 5 bottles that could have made similar drinks. F*ing idiot. My lady had a Prosecco and I had a whiskey, can't f**** those up. We stopped at Benelux to meet the LBsquared contingent for a happt birthday beer before dinner. We were not cool enough for good service. We did have a good table by the window and the place had nice energy. Kind of hipster divey. They served up craft beers which after a trip back there after dinner we discovered you had to navigate around to separate the wheat from the chaffe. I did have a pretty decent saison and a good pale ale (it was really cold).

Next stop was dinner at Laurie Rapheal. I started with nice cold gin martini. So far so good. Next up the boys at the table fired up the "Hunter's Tasting Menu", featuring new menu items the chef was working out. The amuse bouche was a pulled venison if I remember correctly. Maybe the best thing we had, it was pretty solid. Next up were some high concept soups. Ours featured caviar, cucumber, and urchin with a creamy urchin broth poured over it. It was good. Could have been a little warmer but nice flavor and the urchin was really quite good (I am not always a lover). I will point out here that although it seemed like 48 people were "working" service was very slow. Our bread girl looked like she was on suicide watch. It was fun to try and determine if we were going to be charged by the slice as she was coming around quite often (we were not). The main course was a duck breast. It was tender and flavorful, It was a pretty solid dish. Desert was a chocolate mousse that was fine, nothing special. The whole dinner was fun for the company and a tasting menu is always kind of enjoyable. Overall the high concept high $$ scene demands something special and while this dinner was good it did not reach anywhere near special so I would only recommend LR with reservations and full disclosure. That said if you are looking for something a little spiffy check it out. They did not have Fernet Branca which would be a theme for the evening.

Back to the Benelux then the Hotel 10 bar. I ordered a Fernet Branca. Even though I could see the bottle on the bar the waitress was confused. Then the bartender was confused. It was like I was ordering unicorn tears?! I finally got my fernet and was satisfied. Still, it was a fun scene and we had some laughs.  The best part of the evening was when we retired to our room for a round of Alchemist Crushers. The Crusher is the higher octane relative of the Heady Topper. A Topper is already a giant F* you so the Crusher was an Oh Boy, Here We Go!  I liked it. Quite a bit. Needless to say, I trashed the mayor, we figured out the future political career for LB and talked and joked about a bunch of other nonsense before my lady shut us down at 3:30AM! Pretty solid right?

Sunday morning we found an Argentinian brunch spot near Old Montreal, L'Atelier d'Argentine. It was a cool space a really pretty good. Solid hangover fare. I rocked a ham and cheese grilled in duck fat and sauteed spinach. Yeah, I can't really breathe this week, and I may have a heart attack at any time. We also had some delicious tostados and donut holes (beignets). We wandered around town then tried to exit the city. The main bridge south was closed. I followed the detour signs which in typical Canadian style led in a circle to nowhere. They literally led in a circle around town with no exit to the other bridges. GPS and some sleuthing finally got us back on 35 after 45 minutes of hell.

Another disapproving head shake but otherwise smooth border crossing and we were home. It was a fun weekend and felt like a nice little oasis in the baby week. Go Canada!

**Apologies for the timing with the shootings in Ottawa. Seriously, WTF is wrong with people? Randomly spraying bullets as part of your Jihad? What is your little war against, common sense and decency?

Bill Hader is Just OK.

For some reason the legend of Bill Hader has grown to epic proportions in the last year or so. He must have an excellent publicist? I like the skits Hader has done. He is funny in the unfunny Californians sketch. That one he does w/ Seth McFarlane and the puppet id excellent. He was around for a decade so clearly he had some skills and more than a few moments. Howard Stern often goes over the top w/ guests but he called Hader a top 10 all time if not even top 5. Hader made the final 4 in a Grantland poll. People in NYC jizz over that stupid Stephon skit the same way they do about that dumb show Girls. Hader is not a top 10. Or a top 20. He was not the best cast member during his own run. The Bill Hader argument is like the HOF argument for Jack Morris. Sure he had a couple great moments but his stats only look good because he was around so long. Hey, longevity is a real skill in the entertainment biz, or any business really but it should not overwhelm talent and the singular efforts that made you rewatch a skit over and over. Just off the cuff; Eddie Murphy, Will Farrell, Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Chris Farley, Mike Meyers, pretty much all of that first cast w/ Chevy, Aykroyd, Belushi, and Gilda Radner. In his own time... Kristen Wiig owned that show. She was easily the best of that generation and certainly a top ten all time candidate. Andy Samberg was not a big feature player but he changed the way we view the show. Those digital shorts were the highlight of every week. Keenan Thompson, Will Forte, and Jason Sudeikis were all consistently as funny or more so. Molly Shannon had some really memorable characters. Adam Sandler and Jimmy Fallon were must watch in their short times on the show.

All I am saying is that while Hader was great and an important part of the show he was never the reason you tuned in. In the years I was watching "live", those people were; Dana Carvey, then Hartman, then Sandler/Farley, Farrell, and Wiig. Everyone else was just filling the space around the edges.

BTW, know what is less fun than wrangling 2 tired sick kids to daycare? Nothing. There is nothing.

Jay About the King Street Deli

The King Street Deli has been open for a while now but I had been reluctant to go in. The location borders on dicey and you certainly can meet some interesting people on their stoops there but that was not the reason. I like a little spice in my food and a down home sandwich holds solid appeal. The real issue is a coworker told me the sandwiches were small and overpriced. I already have plenty of those options in the rotation (less 1 w/ the recent Guild Meat Market closing). So what brought me back around? Trusted sources at supper club got me in the mix. So this week I wandered over to give it a whirl. The place was not crowded (maybe 1 other person waiting) as I had gone early-ish. It is a a neighborhood deli/market no doubt. They have an array of necessities like PB&J, jello, paper towels, coffee filters, cheap chips. It is actually probably more useful on a regular basis than the Brick Store in Charlotte. There were a few sandwich choices but I went with the Royal Italian. You can tell a lot about a sandwich place from the Italian they produce. It was a long wait. Really long. I spent some time perusing the beer cooler which had anything from 4-Loko (thought those were illegal?) to a nice selection of upscale IPAs. It was an interesting and pretty solid fridge. I noticed several cases of Bud Ice tallboys next to the cooler which seemed a little odd. Until the slightly older petite woman came in and took down 3. It was 11:30AM. Strong to very strong start to the day. Wednesday. My sandwich finally was ready. It was pretty large and had a nice ratio of meat. Price was reasonable for the size. They did a nice job dressing it so the oil and vinegar was present but not greasy. The meat was fresh and pretty good. Veggies seemed pretty fresh. The bread was not outstanding but ok. Overall it was a pretty good sandy much in the spirit of The Pine Street Deli or a slightly up market version of the old Mad Hatter. I'd give it 1 1/4 thumbs up. It is close and I will go back.

I am not that sorry Guild Meat Market going away... great maple donut, but the sandwiches were really expensive and only ok. If I am going to pay up I prefer Mirabelle's or Stacks.

I watched this video above the other day and really liked it.