End of Silence

Andy and I along with my wife and son checked out the Foo Fighters/Weezer show tonight at the Frank Erwin Center. It was good for the rock. They allow cameras into the shows, so check out the ones that actually came out on my flickr page. We were a little late, so we only caught two or three songs of the opening band, Mae. Each headliner played about an hour and a half. Weezer rotated singers a few times with the drummer singing “Photograph” from the Green Album, while Rivers played drums. Rivers also appeared at the back of the floor halfway through the set for a solo version of “Island In The Sun”. They played a good mix of songs from all of the albums. I was glad they included “Why Bother?” from Pinkerton. They pulled somebody from the crowd to help with “Undone” and finished with “Surfwax America” and “Hash Pipe”. Let’s see what else? “Beverly Hills”, “Peace”, “Such a Pity” and “Perfect Situation” from Make Believe. They opened with “My Name is Jonas”. They showered the audience with confetti near the end of the show.

Foo Fighters followed after I took The Boy up to the mezzanine to get a Weezer shirt. The Foo opened with “In Your Honor”. They played “This is a Call”. We got a solo performance of “Everlong” from Dave Grohl. They covered “Born on a Bayou” as they did at the recent Katrina benefit concert. As with Weezer, we got a song where the frontman and the drummer switched places for “Cold Day in the Sun” from In Your Honor. We also got “All My Life”, “Breakout”, “The Last Song”, “Learn To Fly” and “Stacked Actors” where Grohl enters the audience for a little meet and greet. They ended with “Monkeywrench”.

Update: Andy’s photos from last night are here.

With a title like “Free Money”, I’m guessing this post will get a little more traffic than my usual. What I’m talking about is not really free, but more like found money. A friend recently discovered that her husband had some money waiting for him via the Texas Unclaimed Property website. All you need is a first and last name or business name and a city and you can check to see what’s out there. Of course, to claim it, you’ll need to print out a claim form, sign it, and supply other proof that you’re the dumbass who’s leaving money around so long that the state has claimed it. It’s ok. I’m a dumbass too. I had a rebate check that I lost and the found again several months later. Since it said that it was only good for 90 days, I assumed that I was screwed. I guess I wasn’t screwed and the money somehow ended up at the state comptroller’s office.

Administaff, a company based in Houston that handles HR for many smaller firms in Texas and other states, is apparently no good at giving you money that you’re supposed to have either. I reclaimed some from them just before it went to the comptroller a couple of years ago and my friend had a decent amount of Administaff cash sitting at the comptroller as well. I’m not sure if it’s Administaff’s fault or the firm that we both worked for several years back, but they’re clearly not in any hurry to give you your money because I’ve been at the same address for years.

The Wife and I headed over to the Longbranch Inn last night to check out The Bloody Tears after attending a co-worker’s wedding. The band put on a lively show with Randall ending up on the bar at one point. I manged to snap a passable photo with my cell phone.

It was my first outing since the smoking ban went into effect on Sept. 1. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed not having to breathe the secondhand smoke and not having to resign myself to taking my suit back to the dry cleaners after only one wearing. There were plenty of people inside and outside on the side patio. We saw Kumbala enforce the ban on one bargoer who apparently didn’t get the memo. For some reason, the guy got so flustered that he threw the still lit cigarette into the trash, forcing the bar staff to go fishing for it. Fortunately, it didn’t hit anything flammable.