Streetlight Manifesto and Reel Big Fish played in celebration of RBF’s new album at the Roseland Ballroom in NYC last night. I haven’t been to Roseland since 311 and Jimmie’s chicken shack played there back in 2000. It seemed a lot larger back then.

The opening act was Tip the Van. We didn’t make it in time to see their performance and were totally kicking ourselves after seeing 1/2 of the band get on stage and perform “She Has a Girlfriend Now” with Reel Big Fish. Tip the Van is an absolute must-see when they are back in the area.

I’ve never been all that in to Streetlight Manifesto, but that’s completely changed since last night. I had no idea they were as good as they are. I guess they’re just one of those bands I needed to see live. The sound in Roseland completely sucks, but their performance was still incredible. The four guys on the horns, especially their trumpet player, were great and always gave each other the chance to shine. I honestly don’t think I’ve seen musicians up on stage having as much fun as those guys were having last night. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any clips of their performance.

Reel Big Fish’s performance was awesome. There was so much energy in the room; everyone was dancing and having a good time. There was the occasional shoe or something being thrown around but hey, that’s the pool tax. If you’re gonna swim in the pool, there’s a price to pay. I’m just happy there weren’t any pants flying in the air or banannas being peeled like at the Aquabats show back in November!

They played a good mix of old songs and some of the covers off of their new album.

You can check out a bunch of additional videos on my Youtube channel.

Reel Big Fish closed the show with two great songs; Sell Out and a cover of A-Ha’s Take on Me. The only part of the night I regret is not being able to get further in to the crowd during RBF’s performance. Having spent the past 3 weeks in a knee brace, I figured I’d try not to do anything stupid and keep it off for a while.

All in all, this was one of the best concerts I’ve been to in the past couple of years. The crowd was huge, the music was great, and the overall vibe in the place was positive. I really hope that all of this is a sign of a resurgence of Ska. New Reel Big Fish album, The Aquabats are working on a new release, the Ska is Dead tour is going strong. What’s next? Maybe Obama will wear a checkered fedora hat while in office?

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.

I was recently written about in Denim Therapy’s blog.

Do I actually wear all of these jeans? For the most part, yes. I do however have to admit that I’ve been wearing the same pair for the past two weeks straight. That’s just due to the knee brace I’ve been wearing, though.

Go check out the post and be sure to look at the company’s main site too. The services they offer, while not for everybody, are impressive. I can’t count how many pairs of jeans I’ve damaged while working in data centers and around other equipment, and hopefully won’t have to throw out any more torn pairs in the future!

It’s a 3 day weekend and I’ve got no wheels. What a bummer.

My Jeep took a while to start Friday afternoon, so I stopped by my mechanic, Tony’s, shop. Turns out that gasoline has been mixing in to the oil, so I’m going to need a new coolant sensor. There are a few other small things that need to be fixed, but that’s the only problem that conjures up images of me flying down the highway in a flaming ball of fury.

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A new Reel Big Fish album is being released on January 20th, the same day they are playing at Roseland Ballroom!

The first printing of ledouche shirts, available to the public, will be produced this spring. I’ve been working on some completely new designs since losing all of my orignal screens back in December, and will be posting them here in the next month or two. All news related to ledouche will be posted to this site’s projects area.

I’ve been playing with the idea of etching the ledouche logo in to flasks. Any opinions? I can’t think of any classier way to get drunk.

I recently received a message from a classmate asking for a hand with some projects related to our 10 year high school reunion. You know, I think it just hit me that is has been nearly a decade since I was in high school. It’s scary; I tried thinking about some of the time I spent in that cold, white building and really can’t come up with much. Granted, I didn’t really show up to school all that often, but a memory or two would be nice.

Ok, that was a bit of an exaggeration. I do have memories of my time there. They just aren’t the kind that you see on those commercials for teen dramas that are on TV these days. So, let’s see what I remember:

I wore way too many t-shirts with aliens on them.

Debating whether I needed a 28.8 or 33.6Kbps modem for my new computer while in Spanish class. Navegar mas rápido en Internet!

A classmate of mine ran out of global studies class to vomit after eating 4 slices of pizza and a pinwheel, bacon egg and cheese on a roll, some chocolate chip cookies and a quart of milk. I’ll never forget to look of relief on his face when I went looking to make sure he was still alive.

The same classmate threw a pencil at our 9th grade bio teacher’s head and was suspended for a couple of days. She used to give him a hard time and was overly nice to me, in a creepy way. I don’t know how, but she managed to go from an old beaten up LeMans to a beautifully restored 70′s Firebird. I swear she must have been making meth in the office behind our classroom or something…

Watching Reel Big Fish videos at the local pizzeria.

A lot of things are said in locker rooms that wouldn’t be any where else, but I think I heard the strangest reply to a comment back in 11th grade gym class. This kid went up to a friend and said “Wow, you have really hairy legs.” My friend instantly replied, “If you think my legs are hairy, you should see my balls!” I think he was serious. He’s a lawyer now.

I have one last memory in mind, and this is a really good one. I’m not even withholding names this time.

There was this guy named Adam that I went to school with. I’m sure he’s OK now, but he was a real dick back then. One day, before out computer programming class began, he clotheslined me by my locker. It was one of those “what the fuck!?” moments and I didn’t even know how to react at the time. My locker happened to be in the hall just outside of the classroom, so most of my classmates saw what happened. None of them were amused and a few seemed to have plans for Adam.

Our teacher, who was honestly my favorite teacher ever and got me doing what I ended up turning in to a career, left us alone for a few minutes so that he could use the rest room. As soon as he was down the hall, this kid David jumped over a row of tables and somehow managed to get Adam’s neck under his knee while sitting in the chair next to him. I have no clue exactly how he managed to make it happen, but it totally justified our calling him “The Afro-American Ninja.” Anyway, David starts slapping Adam around a bit and another kid, Ryan, joins in. I’m just sitting at my station laughing while all of this is happening. I’m sure it was expected that I’d join in, but I was having a great time watching the show. This went on for several minutes, until another classmate heard our teacher coming back to the classroom. Dave slid under the row of tables he jumped over earlier and Ryan returned to his seat. Our teacher walked back in and saw Adam, his face red with anger, and asked what was going on. Adam immediately jumped towards Ryan, so I decided to get in the middle to break things up and gave him a good punch in the process. Our teacher, who was truly oblivious of the entire incident, thanked me for preventing a senseless fight between Adam and Ryan and continued with the day’s lesson. I think that day’s lesson was “don’t be a dick.”

Despite all of these strange memories and the lack of others over those 4 years, I really am excited to be able to catch up with all of the people that I lost touch with and hope that it all goes well. It looks like I’ll be putting a site together for the reunion, so it looks like my recent interest in WordPress will pay off after all.

Until next time, remember; Don’t be a dick.