Baroness

Riley and I saw Baroness downstairs at The Middle East last night. The show was unreal, musically outstanding, filled with raw energy, and overall it just oozed badass. You can google them or go to relapse.com to see their tour dates. If they are playing near you, I highly reccomend it. It cost us twelve bucks each. In retrospect, I would have paid fifty. We left with our minds blown, me with a sick t-shirt and Riley with a print of the artwork of lead singer John Baizley (who plays outstanding music on stage with the passion of a viking warlord). An example of his art can be seen on the album cover above. As an aside, the downstairs of The Middle East might be the best place in the Boston area to go out at night. They always have great bands, it's never too crowded to move around (like most Boston bars), and you can actually decide to go and just go in whatever clothes you are wearing (like a smaller version of the Gas Works in Wayne's World). I went last night in a hooded sweatshirt and felt totally comfortable. I went to a bar in the North End (which will go unnamed, partly because I don't want to caue any problems and partly because just about every bar in the North End and Boston is like this) after a Celtics game last week with a Paul Pierce jersey over a hooded sweatshirt and people looked at me like I had just taken a dump on the floor. So, in summary, Baroness is sick, as is The Middle East downstairs.

The roomofzen moment of zen from last night: I walked over to the bar and the bartender had a TV on the side of the bar and was watching the tv and he said "dude, check this out" and I proceeded to watch a guy eating a scorpion live.

On another note, a great article by JA Adande on ESPN.com. I like it very much for what it says about Allen Iverson. As for the parts about Michael Vick, I think it is always valuable to get a different perspective from what you normally hear. I guess we should all be in wait and see mode with him. But, we love Iverson. Just a gutsy hard-nosed player. How many guys at his size could win an MVP, scoring titles, and lead a weak 76ers team to the finals. The comparison with Favre is right on:

(you need to paste it in to your browser.)

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=adande_ja&page=Iverson-071130&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos1

And, just to refresh everyone, one of the greatest rants of all time. Love it.