Dan Smith

I have been following The Hopefuls ever since they were sued by the Olympic committee and were forced to drop the word Olympic from their name. Personally, I think that is a bit ridiculous, but what great publicity! It is how I found out about them. I went over to the Triple Rock yesterday to see them again, and stumbled across a new band!

I really like The Hopefuls, they are such geeks. They have the greatest matching costumes at their shows. Whereas other bands stuck to the guitar/bass/drum combo, the Hopefuls use a variety of unusual instruments like xylophones and synths. They have so much energy on stage it is always a joy to watch them perform. The big surprise of the night was that one of the opening bands completely rocked me.

I haven’t seen a band this tight since 7/7/2001! The Melismatics really impressed me with their triple-threat music (hard rock, punk, and power pop! I know, I am a dork) . They sounded and looked the part of a current top 40 band. Pony played a mean guitar, and looked very good while doing it. Lucky for me they are from Minneapolis as well, and hopefully I can catch some more of their shows.

I was at the Fine Line yesterday listening to some great “east-coast post-grunge corporate alternative pop punk rock” music tonight from Daphne Loves Derby, Melee, and Quietdrive! I have wanted to catch a Quietdrive shows for a while now, but they have been off on the road. Luckily they were home in Minneapolis for a show last night, and I had “my” spot upstairs, overlooking the stage. It was a great show, and they even gave me a copy of “Fall from the Ceiling”. The “take a drink with me” lyrics are still stuck in my head!

It has been three years since I have lived in Madison, but that has yet to stop me from getting season tickets to the Overture Center. The 2005/06 schedule kicked off this past weekend with Chicago! Murder, greed, corruption, and Fosse’s style brought us back to prohibition Chicago where crime pays. The might of the show was in the choreography; I am a sucker for chair dancing. The sleazy plot was personified in those dance moves and really made the show.

It was also Halloween weekend in Madison. Jeremy, Erik, Steve and I dressed up as a hair metal group. Tight jeans, great long hair-metal wigs, and blow up musical instruments completed the band. The instruments brought up a whole new meaning to “air guitar contest”. Steve also learned to love WIM, wine in moderation.

Greazy Meal threw some musical gravy to me during their reunion show! In the late 90s, Greazy gave Minneapolis a funked up version of the R&B and soul sound from the 70s and 80s. Today their unique sound is found on their new 2 DVD collectors edition and last night at the Fine Line downtown! Julius “Juice” Collins has a booming voice than seemed to meld into the music. That is Soul.

On the stage was a couch were lucky audience members were invited to sit and be emerged in the band’s vibe. Raygor took his turn and decided not to sit idlely by with all this great music was created all around him. He soon jumped up, put his arm around Juice, and started helping him with the lead vocals and vibe! Greazy’s music was still spot on after a few years break, and so was their security. After the jamming had ended, I headed over to Harvey’s to meet up with Doni for her birthday.

Laura invited Anna and me to la cabana for some weekend wakeboarding. Besides my normal ride, I got to try out the air chair! It is a crazy contraption that was half water ski and half child car seat. It felt very strange being strapped onto a board with a colossal, wicked looking hydrofoil. Laura’s dad was a rock star on the beast, but not all the fun was on the water. Laura LL, Laura EK, and Anna were about to learn how to play a communist card game.

The game, actually called Durak, originated somewhere in Russia, with the variation we play making its way out of Poland. We call the game “Communist”, since there are no winners and only a loser. Traditionally only sixes and higher are used, with our theory being that it was cheaper to only make half of the cards in a deck back in Soviet Russia!. While there were no winners at cards, we all won that night since Laura’s mom kept “forcefully” refilling our rum and cokes!

Whoever said “Nothing in life is free” has never had an open bar at a hopping Boylston St. establishment! I sent the guest list in this past Wednesday. I had no idea I have so many friends in Boston; making a list of only 25 people was quite difficult, thanks to Ben and Matt for helping. My sister and her friends were still around, so last night we headed over to the Foggy Goggle to meet up with everyone.

The bartenders at the Goggle are all very young and attractive girls wearing short skirts and ripped t-shirts that are two sizes too small. They started pouring us drinks and the wild night began. The Saturday night dance party, and the free alcohol, really got all the girls moving. Even though the place was packed, we pretty much dominated the dance floor. It also happened to be my friend Joe’s birthday, so it was an extra special occasion and the girls tore off his shirt. The person who said “Nothing lasts forever” was defiantly right however. Bar time was soon upon us so we all said goodnight and Tim, Nicole, and I slowly strolled across Harvard Bridge and took in the river on our way back to Cambridge.

Anna, Nicole, and Amanda are visiting me in Boston for the week. Every time Anna has come to visit, the trip has happened to correspond to Leonard throwing a party at his place on Commonwealth. As luck would have it, the girls and I went over last night for some rooftop dancing. The intoxicating fun continued into this afternoon when the girls and I went for a tour of the Sam Adams brewery.

The brewery tour is down in Jamaica Plain, and takes a bit of navigating through the ghetto to find. Sam Adams uses this location as a test brewery where they develop their new beers. The tour was interesting, but the real goal of everyone present was to get to the tasting room! As you end the tour you are invited to taste the raw hops and barley; they have a unique taste, but are not very beer flavored. The tasting room itself contained a bar with many taps of various Sam Adams beers. We sat down along the long tables and the staff started passing out pitchers. It was a treat to taste the new Sam Adams Brown Ale. It had a moderate amount of hops, a really nice malt body, and just a hint of caramel. After we each finished about four pints, it was time to stumble back to the T station with our souvenir glasses.

I am an exhibitionist. I like to play Risk in public. We’ve played Risk by pools, on the Hoover Dam, and in the middle of Red Rocks. Today we added the Boston Common to the list of places. It is always fun when we play in crowded places; everyone around has a suggestion on the best strategy. The most memorable quote today came from a college cutie saying “Kamchatka is always your best bet”. I couldn’t agree with her more today!

Jeremy and Erik are visiting Boston for a few days. Yesterday we were flirting with the cute bartenders at the Foggy Goggle, and I must have made an impression. We were touring the Museum of Fine Art this afternoon when my phone rang. Katie from the Foggy Goggle called up to give me and 25 of my friends an open bar for next Saturday. She will be working the downstairs bar, and I am supposed to stop by to say hello.

After seeing all the fine art in Boston, the boys and I went over to Harvard for some drinks at RedLine. There was a cd release party there tonight, and the bar had thirty cases of free Tiger Beer. Holly has been talking about Tiger since she was in Singapore, and it was a great time for the rest of us to finally try some. What a nice unadvertised treat!

My Dad is still in Boston, and we both love the 70’s music! We went to see the Loggins and Messina reunion tour show tonight on the pier at the Bank of America Pavilion. Kenny and Jim are two great performers, and their new band was full of talent and chops too. They stuck to songs that they had written together before the 1976 “falling apart”, and didn’t touch anything Loggins did during his solo career. I was really hoping to hear Kenny’s “Footloose” and “Danger Zone“, but that feeling quickly left when they performed a funked out R&B mix of “Your Mamma Don’t Dance” at the end of the first set. Their chemistry, and vocals, all still seemed to be intact after the 30 year hiatus!

I woke up this morning to find myself still at Sean’s lakehouse! I love wakeboarding early in the morning because there is never anyone else out on the lake, and the water is so smooth. I had to get back into Boston though because my Dad was coming to visit for a couple days. We strolled around downtown and went out on a harbor cruise after dinner. I think I spent almost the whole day over some type of water.

On Saturday night I was walking down Mass Ave to Harvard Square fairly late when I ran into Chet Murthy walking the other way! I have been working with Chet for four years now, and it is always fun to chat with him about every topic under the sun since he is an “uber-genius”. I convinced him to put down his cell phone for a bit and spend the night drinking beer with me and some friends over at John Harvard’s.

John Harvard’s is one of my go-to places in Harvard Square, and I like their specialty beers. The bar has humorous stained glass images along the far wall that represent some of Boston’s most famous pop culture figures. We sat with our waitress trying to guess who all the figures represented. She knew all of them, but kept mum and would just shake her head laughingly after all of our incorrect guesses. This was all done over many pitchers of beer. The pick for the night was the Nut Brown Ale with its deep amber color and mild hops. I think it is their best brew, but the Summer Blonde comes in a close second. After the pitchers stopped coming, it was time to walk back to Central.

Matt and I have been, aside from all the wakeboarding, hitting up the bars around Cambridge pretty often so far this summer. Today after work we walked over to One Kendal Square for some drinks at Flat Top Johnny’s with Matt’s friends Mike, Dan, and Kevin. Flat Top’s is the place to play pool in Cambridge; it is a casual scene that is both close to my apartment in Central and has twelve tables with nice solid rails. The other highlights are the long list of tap beers and nine ball nachos! They are piled almost a foot high and mixed with jalapenos, green onions, julienne tomatoes, Monterey Jack , Cheddar, and then covered in beef! After the pool we took over the dart boards and played some feisty games of cricket. Matt has actual aim and really carried our team, but I am getting much better!

I stopped over at the Audubon Circle Restaurant and Bar on Beacon after I was done climbing at Metrorock. I met up with Matt, Ben+Lauren, and Lauren’s friend Andrea for an after dinner round. Audubon is completely different from the other bars around Fenway; The cheap beer and large televisions that frequent those sports bars are happily replaced by local microbrews and a dark wooden interior. Kicking back today was just what I needed after hours at the gym.

Our softball team is doing pretty well so far this season. Tonight I was three for three along with a two RBI hit! That brings my record to 14 for 18 this summer. The playoffs are coming up, and I am anxious to see how far we can go. After the game I went over to Border Cafe for some fish tacos with Ben and Lauren. I could eat Border Cafe fish tacos for the rest of my life.