taz_39 | Circus Xtreme Salt Lake City, UT - Foo Fighters, PixMob, and shows (Reply)

FOO FIGHTERS!!!

Ok, those of you who know me know that I'm not into any particular rock band. But the Foo Fighters are a pretty great band, and Jameson got us some tickets for their show in Los Angeles. I was thrilled to see them live!!

On Monday we drove to LA for the concert. We arrived in time to grab dinner at Roscoe's House of Chicken & Waffles. Roscoe's is related to Home of Chicken & Waffles in Oakland; due to some sort of disagreement the company split around 2004. Home of Chicken & Waffles is one of our favorite places, so we were excited to compare them to Roscoe's!

It was like comparing apples to oranges. Waffles at both places were excellent, with Roscoe's being softer and fluffier and HOCW's being chewier and thinner. The batter was very similar, and we both agreed that there was some sort of cinnamon/nutmeg flavoring to the syrup in both restaurants. The chicken from both places was also excellent, although personally I thought Roscoe's was a little dry while at HOCW I'd gotten a juicier piece...but so many factors can effect that. Overall they're both great and I can't recommend one over the other. Stop in and check them out yourself!!

After that it was time to get to the arena. We were able to park and get up to the concourse level quickly, and were there right when the doors opened. We both bought "Break A Leg" T-shirts (for those who don't know Dave Grohl broke his leg a few months ago during a concert) but once we got inside I traded mine for an "Iron Throne" shirt, being a Game of Thrones fan and all :)

We found our seats and enjoyed the opening band, Gary Clark Jr.. We were both surprised that more people didn't show up for his performance, as he's an amazing musician. But then again it was only 6pm and I'll bet people were just getting out of work and fighting traffic.

Finally around 8:30pm the lights dimmed. Time to have our socks rocked off!!!
The Foo opened with All My Life, followed by Times Like These and Learn to Fly. I won't list everything on the set list...here's pretty much how it went. During the second half of the concert Jack Black made a brief appearance and sang Tom Sawyer with the band. Near the end of the concert Stevie Nicks showed up with a group of three singers (known as HEIM) and sang Stop Dragging My Heart Around and Gold Dust Woman. It was a great show and a great crowd.

After that we drove to a nearby hotel, exhausted and happy :)
The next day we faced a ten hour drive to reach Salt Lake City. Urgh. But you know what, it wasn't so bad. Jameson and I get along well. He plays full albums for me, describing the bands and what the songs are about, and that keeps us both entertained. At sunset we were treated to a thunderstorm, our first since entering California almost four months ago. Near the end of the storm a lovely rainbow appeared.

We reached our destination before midnight, yay!
The next day was a dark day. I took the bus to the arena and walked from there to Harmon's, a local grocery that's similar to Whole Foods. Back at the train I prepared some food and just relaxed until dinner time, when Jameson and I returned to The Green Pig Pub for trivia night just as we'd done two years ago! This time I got a burger with maple bacon and jalapeno cream cheese, unhealthy but YUM! And we completely lost at trivia again! LOL!!!

Opening day ended up being a little more exciting than usual. We had a full show run-through in order to test some LED wristband technology from PixMob. Audience members wear an LED bracelet that lights up with certain preplanned patterns and colors during parts of the show. During rehearsal there were no audience members, so the wristbands were placed on the seats. The effect wasn't very impressive...but for that evening's show the whole audience wore them, and it was AWESOME.

(photo courtesy James D.)

A clip of the cannon shot. You can see the bracelets flashing in the audience. A really cool effect.

I managed to get a bracelet from somewhere and put it on the end of my slide. It was way too much fun having a glowing slide. Totally made my night :D

Here's a link to PixMob's Projects page where you can see how this technology works. It's pretty cool!

The next day we had two shows, a 3:30pm and a 7pm. That's kind of an unusual schedule for us, but I actually liked having a shorter break between shows as it made the day go faster. Crowds for both shows were excellent.

Saturday was normal except again, 3:30 and 7pm shows. The evening crowd was great.
Sunday the usual two shows, with the second show being at 4:30pm instead of the usual 5pm. I wonder why the show times are different this week?

After the shows we took Jameson's car for a wash and picked up some groceries. We've decided to go our separate ways this week: he's going to drive eight hours overland to catch a limited release Pink Floyd movie in Denver, and I'm going to ride the train because there's supposed to be an animal walk on Wednesday morning.

We still have one more show on Monday. Then it's two weeks in the Mile High City!!
(Sidenote: The Bloomsburg Fair starts this week and I'm missing it!! ARRRRGH!!!)

Other stuff:

Have you ever wondered what the Center for Elephant Conservation is like? Or what the inside of an elephant's train car looks like? Here's an excellent video from National Geographic documenting their tour of the CEC. Check it out!

The train run to Salt Lake City is one of the most beautiful on our tour. Nikki took some great photos.

This week the clowns held auditions, and also worked out their contracts for next year (clown contracts are for one year at a time). Who will stay and who will go??

(photo courtesy Lindsey AM M.)

Here at Ringling Bros. we do a thing called "enrichment". The trainers and handlers make interesting objects and puzzles for the animals (especially the elephants) to play with. This week Adria and her cohorts made these puzzles out of fire hoses. The hoses were woven together, then bamboo and other treats were inserted into the weave for the elephants to discover. The elephants can choose to take the weaves apart, throw them, stomp them, etc!