Great weekend, crazy week
So the weekend plan went without a hitch. We got to drop off Alex at the inlaws on Saturday just after noon. The plan is to stay at a hotel near the BART station in Pleasant Hill so we can take a train into scary Oakland. The hotels was excellent, and we got a discreet, corner suite that we can use for any nefarious reasons ;)
We had a great dinner afterwards at a Cuban restaurant in downtown Walnut Creek. They had a great halibut ceviche and tasty mojitos, but unfortunately something did a number on our stomachs. That delayed us hopping on BART to go to the concert, and as a result we missed the first band (called 3) on stage. Slight bummer, but no problem. The main attraction is yet to come.
The next band that came on was called Between the Buried and Me (BTBAM). It's kind of this hardcore punk progressive rock death metal hybrid, and the band was incredibly talented. The only problem was the singer. I don't mind growling vocals but, as
naiad8 pointed out, he sounded like a petulant child ranting at his parents. I guess that's what punk's all about, right? They only had 30 minutes, so they only played 2 songs. >:-)
Next up was Opeth, one of my favorite bands. This is my first time watching them, so I was really excited. They were incredible to see live, but unfortunately the lead singer has a cold so his singing is a bit whiny. The sound mix sucked. I could just hear bass and drums plus a bit of guitar, keyboard, and vocals. I also think they were also in a contest with BTBAM to see how plays the loudest on tour, 'coz most of their setlist was their loudest/heaviest/deathiest ever. To me, their best material is the stuff that has a lot more variety when they have their death metal interwoven with the mellow progressive rock and psychedelic interludes. So I was bit disappointed at that, but at least I finally got to see them.
And then Dream Theater, the headliner, came on, and as usual they gave us an exceptional show. I think this is the fifth time we've seen them. We used to go see them for every album, but with Alex we missed two albums, so it was great that they played a bunch of stuff from those we missed. There's something about watching Dream Theater live. They work the crowd like no other even when playing 10-minute long song with ridiculously technical passages.
naiad8 is an amateur vocalist and as usual she was blown away by DT's lead singer. In fact, this is the first time we've seen him sing after his full recovery from straining his vocal cords after food poisoning in Cuba (wait a second...do we see a pattern here?) and damn was he good.
So overall we had a great time at the concert. We got back to the hotels at midnight, and went to sleep by 1:30am. I was in bliss not having the baby boy stick his foot in my ribs or my head (or even worse places). We woke up at 10am and went to brunch in Walnut Creek at a place called the San Franciscan. The food was good (I had crab cakes Benedict), but then it was time to pick up Alex. So we showed up at my inlaw's house. Alex was pretty good with them, but he was ready to go home. So we got home and all was well. I made a teppanyaki dinner again because
naiad8 wanted to go to Benihana earlier but the idiots wouldn't open for lunch until 1pm.
The weekend was great, but the week is going to be crazy. It's already started crazy. Alex woke up at 2am and didn't go back to sleep until 5am. So I'm pretty tired this morning. My company is having a software release today, but I'll miss that because I have to go pick up my relatives at the airport. A cousin of mine is graduating from UW Pullman so her brother and mom came from Costa Rica, who will then go on the coast-to-coast tour of America with stops in San Francisco and New York. The original plan was for my mom and I pick up at the airport, but a phone call last night drafted
naiad8 and Alex in the second car because apparently my cousin at Pullman decided to send two suitcases worth of crap with her mother and brother back to Costa Rica. So they'll have like 6 pieces of luggage and carry-on, and there's just no way it'd fit in any of our cars. Don't you just love cheapskate relatives? How hard is it to ship her crap to Costa Rica? It's not like it's a real third-world country. Jeez!
Anyway, back to work. It's gonna be crazy.
We had a great dinner afterwards at a Cuban restaurant in downtown Walnut Creek. They had a great halibut ceviche and tasty mojitos, but unfortunately something did a number on our stomachs. That delayed us hopping on BART to go to the concert, and as a result we missed the first band (called 3) on stage. Slight bummer, but no problem. The main attraction is yet to come.
The next band that came on was called Between the Buried and Me (BTBAM). It's kind of this hardcore punk progressive rock death metal hybrid, and the band was incredibly talented. The only problem was the singer. I don't mind growling vocals but, as
naiad8 pointed out, he sounded like a petulant child ranting at his parents. I guess that's what punk's all about, right? They only had 30 minutes, so they only played 2 songs. >:-)
Next up was Opeth, one of my favorite bands. This is my first time watching them, so I was really excited. They were incredible to see live, but unfortunately the lead singer has a cold so his singing is a bit whiny. The sound mix sucked. I could just hear bass and drums plus a bit of guitar, keyboard, and vocals. I also think they were also in a contest with BTBAM to see how plays the loudest on tour, 'coz most of their setlist was their loudest/heaviest/deathiest ever. To me, their best material is the stuff that has a lot more variety when they have their death metal interwoven with the mellow progressive rock and psychedelic interludes. So I was bit disappointed at that, but at least I finally got to see them.
And then Dream Theater, the headliner, came on, and as usual they gave us an exceptional show. I think this is the fifth time we've seen them. We used to go see them for every album, but with Alex we missed two albums, so it was great that they played a bunch of stuff from those we missed. There's something about watching Dream Theater live. They work the crowd like no other even when playing 10-minute long song with ridiculously technical passages.
naiad8 is an amateur vocalist and as usual she was blown away by DT's lead singer. In fact, this is the first time we've seen him sing after his full recovery from straining his vocal cords after food poisoning in Cuba (wait a second...do we see a pattern here?) and damn was he good.
So overall we had a great time at the concert. We got back to the hotels at midnight, and went to sleep by 1:30am. I was in bliss not having the baby boy stick his foot in my ribs or my head (or even worse places). We woke up at 10am and went to brunch in Walnut Creek at a place called the San Franciscan. The food was good (I had crab cakes Benedict), but then it was time to pick up Alex. So we showed up at my inlaw's house. Alex was pretty good with them, but he was ready to go home. So we got home and all was well. I made a teppanyaki dinner again because
naiad8 wanted to go to Benihana earlier but the idiots wouldn't open for lunch until 1pm.
The weekend was great, but the week is going to be crazy. It's already started crazy. Alex woke up at 2am and didn't go back to sleep until 5am. So I'm pretty tired this morning. My company is having a software release today, but I'll miss that because I have to go pick up my relatives at the airport. A cousin of mine is graduating from UW Pullman so her brother and mom came from Costa Rica, who will then go on the coast-to-coast tour of America with stops in San Francisco and New York. The original plan was for my mom and I pick up at the airport, but a phone call last night drafted
naiad8 and Alex in the second car because apparently my cousin at Pullman decided to send two suitcases worth of crap with her mother and brother back to Costa Rica. So they'll have like 6 pieces of luggage and carry-on, and there's just no way it'd fit in any of our cars. Don't you just love cheapskate relatives? How hard is it to ship her crap to Costa Rica? It's not like it's a real third-world country. Jeez!
Anyway, back to work. It's gonna be crazy.