Music: Counting Crows and Wallflowers @ The Harbor

For anyone who liked good music in the 1990's, today was a great day.

The Counting Crows and The Wallflowers are coming to Buffalo's Harborfront on Tuesday, June 28th for $16. This is a great first announcement for the prime Buffalo summer music series, especially for the types of people (like myself) who really grew up in the 90's.

"August and everything after" is one of the best albums of all time, even though Rolling Stone magazine rates it at (only) the 67th best album of the 90's :

"An artfully crafted, intimate song cycle, August and Everything After seemed to explode on impact. Vividly produced by T Bone Burnett, its post-punk bleakness married to old-school rock influences, August became that rare album over which both alterna-kids and classic rockers could bond. Sure, there are a few moments when you can hear how badly the Crows want to be Van Morrison, the Band, R.E.M. and, yes, Bob Dylan, but those don't offset the divine inspiration of "Rain King," "Round Here" and "A Murder of One."

The Wallflowers are a decent band also, with front man jakob dylan (yes, Bob Dylans son), they created a great, catchy acoustic sound that straddled the happy/depressing line really well, sometimes within the same song. They took a 7 year hiatus a few years back and, from all accounts, are stronger than ever.

NFL: 2013 Draft

It's that time of year again Bills fan, the time to pick apart a whole bunch of college kids most of us have only seen highlights of: its the draft!

For the past 13 years, this has been one of (if not the) most exciting time to be a Bills fan, with new optimism and hopes. This years draft is especially interesting because of the holes on the team, and the "Will they/Won't they" Quarterback question.

Instead of will they, the question in this post is "should they" and the answer to that question is absolutely yes. If they think they've identified a guy ***coughcoughBARKELYcoughcoughNassib*** and they think this player can lead them to the promised land, then pull the trigger at 8.

Especially now that the jets have 2 first rounders (9 and 13) and are a quaterback needy team, I don't feel like there's much choice. Wait til the second round? Top of round two has a multitude of QB needy teams (which is why theyre drafting at the top of the round), and while i would love it if they traded back into the first round (I pretty much just love trades), there is no gaurantee of that happening.

So go ahead Bill, take that QB and 8 overall, grab your WR/LB/TE in rounds 2/3, and give me a real reason to watch and hope this year.

Sports: Complete Bills Schedule Breakdown NFL 2013

Thank the NFL gods, we have warm weather games!

There will be 6 home games before thanksgiving this year, and only one Ralph Wilson Stadium home game in december, so for all the TV watchers out there, a lot more should be on TV this year!

Heres the full recap! (with some notes)

Preseason
Aug. 11 at Indianapolis, 1:30 p.m.
Aug. 16 Minnesota, 7 p.m.
Aug. 24 at Washington, 4 p.m.
Aug. 29 Detroit, 7 p.m.

Regular Season
Sep. 8 New England, 1 p.m. -Doug Marone gets thrown to the wolves early, and he better hope the NasKleOlb QB monster is up for a quick challenge.

Sep. 15 Carolina, 1 p.m. - It'll be nice to finally see Cam Newton in person, he's a dynamic talent, and Carolina should be better this year than last.

Sep. 22 at N.Y. Jets, 4:25 p.m. - Battle of the AFC east bottom feeders? Mike Pettine gets a chance to outshine Rex Ryan only three games into the season.

Sep. 29 Baltimore, 1 p.m.- For me, a much more likeable ravens squad now that RAy Lewis is retired. I'm already marking this one down as a defeat (Welcome to being a Bills fan!)

Region: Riding the Metrorail

So this past weekend, a few of us were heading to the Sabres game and decided to ride the metro rail from the allen street station.

I stood outside the station for a moment and thought about how UB will be building a $375 million dollar state of the art medical facility right over top of this staion (while incorporatioed the station into it). Its going to be gorgeous, and this rail stop has so much potential.

The excitement

Region: New HARBORcenter design disappoints...slightly

The Pegula backed HARBORcenter redesign came out today and I must say, while still being a great project overall, the redesign leaves much to be desired.

Initially, the top hotel portion had a beautiful curved glass design which i thought mimicked, or paid homage to the grain silos of Buffalo's past. This 1970's block top look isn't nearly as nice as the original renderings.

That being said, my disappointment is still muted due to the fact that this is still such a wonderful project, with the two NHL size ice rinks, massive sports bar, 8000 feet of retail space, and a hotel being built. The parking garage size is a little overbearing but at the very least I get it.

Now about fixing that hotel portion...

-Bob Z

Oh, Comely: A Review of Jeff Mangum @ Asbury Hall

I will try as hard as I possibly can to not sound as gushy gushy as i would like to be about the show last night, but i make no promises to you, my loyal readers.

It was wonderful, beautiful, haunting, and somehow amongst all that, fun.

To summarize how the entire show felt, a couple songs in, during "King of Carrot flowers" the power to Asbury Hall went out. In the darkness, only illuminated by the Street lights from outside, Jeff unplugged his guitar, came to the very front of the stage, and started playing for us with no power.

And for any of you that frequent concerts knows, a magical thing happened... everyone became completely silent. No one, and i mean no one, made any noise, and we all just listened, like he was hanging out in our living room.

At a point in the song, everyone then started singing along, and in some sort of transcendent moment, while we were all singing and the energy was building to a peak, the power came back on, we continued singing, he plugged back in and the concert was on its merry way. Its one of those magical moments that makes you remember why you go to live concerts in the first place.

After that, he ran through the gauntlet of songs from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and others. And also played a song that he had "Never played before" (and asked us afterwards "if we liked it", he is exceptionally endearing)

You could tell that he really enjoyed being up there, and openly admitted how taken aback he was at how appreciative we, the audience, were. It was one of the best shows i have ever seen in Buffalo (up there with Andrew Bird and St Vincent @ asbury hall, Roger Waters @ Darien Lake, Umphree's Mcgee @ the outer harbor, Medeski Martin and Wood at Klienhans).

And who knows when, or if, he'll ever be back? He's only played a handful of shows over the past decade, and i for one hope to see him many times again in the future, but if he never comes around again.... This was filled with enough memories to last a lifetime.

Shop local, Support WNY!

I just wanted to take a moment to remind everyone how important it is, during this holiday season, to shop locally whenever possible. With so many great areas of the city to shop (your Elmwoods, Hertels, Allens, Grants, etc), there is a store for you and your loved ones.

So please, help the local economy, your neighbors and friends, and get people something considerably more unique than a gift from a big box store. Everyone will appreciate it!

Happy ChrismaKwanzaChanukah!
(and festivus!)

Local Music: The passing of Mohawk

It's strange how attached you can become to a building. Sure the Mohawk Place is like any other building in Buffalo, 4 walls, some beer, some live music, but it's meant so much more to WNY than any of that.
 I imagine this is how people a few years older than me felt about the Continental closing (i was only able to experience it for a year or two). Its like a passing in the communal family. A lot of the write up from the larger publications always bring up the fact that The White Stripes, The Black Keyes, Sam Roberts and the like played here, which is all very cool and very much a badge of honor...

But certainly not what i'll remember.

(Click to read on)

Local Music: Levek by Brian Patrick

Levek (http://levek.bandcamp.com/) presents their first music video from Look A Little Closer for "Black Mold Grow,” directed by Michael Lawrence in Buffalo, NY.

 

“David (from Levek) and I spoke for months about the meaning behind the album, “Black Mold Grow” in particular,” Lawrence says of how the project first came together. “Similar images kept on coming into both of our heads - a gauzy, transcendental view on a young woman's struggle with her psyche.  Creating the film was an organic process - everything from the original script to the end product was guided by the nature surrounding us.  The locations and environments added a large scope to the film - but, more than anything, created a backdrop for a character-driven story to unfold in a spontaneous, genuine way.”

“Black Mold Grow” is taken off of Levek’s Look a Little Closer, available now.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Levek/236507157635  

https://twitter.com/levekband

An open letter to Gary Bettman

Listen Gary, I get it, you fancy yourself something of an intellectual, plus you're stubborn.

You need to feel like the smartest guy in the room, and you want for everyone else to think you're the smartest guy in the room. So when they hired Donald Fehr you were probably pretty chapped about it. I get it.

There are lots of A type personalities out there who are stubborn, short tempered, and willing to lie to people to get what they want, but heres the difference between A-type personalities that are revered and beloved by people, and ones who are ridiculed and hated by an entire fan base: When the time comes to put the people who love your game ahead of dollars and profits, true leaders find a way to get things done.

Not some pissing match with Donald Fehr, not some lies to a fan saying the NHLPA hasn't compromised, and certainly not cancelling nearly half a season and taking your toys out of the sandbox, because you didn't get exactly what you want.

Real men and woman find a way to swallow part of thier pride, work with the best and the brightest around, compromise with thier counterparts, and find a resolution to a conflict, they don't constantly play games in the media, and rush to judgement on good proposals that work towards the same things you want. It's called compromise, Gary, and i can easily provide you with a dictionary to look up the meaning.

Just know though, Gary, you are not the be all end all of the universe for hockey. I know people who are watching more Major Junior, more AHL, more local, and oh yes, the NFL is still on and bigger than you'll ever be, partially because of your short-sidedness. But know this, this is YOUR third work stoppage, this is YOUR stubborness, and this is YOUR fanbase turning against you, slowly but surely. We are knowledgable enough to know that for a game who's grown over a billion dollars since your last lockout, this time it comes down to your greed.

I'd say "i dont know how you sleep at night", but considering how little you care about us fans in the first place, you probably sleep just fine.

Bob Z
Buffalo Sabres fan