As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Virginia Coalition has a new CD out that I have been listing to regularly for awhile now. It has grown to become one of my favorite CDs of the year thus far. Well we finally had a chance to hear some of these songs performed live last Friday night as the band was in town supporting The Beautiful Girls. Though VACO no longer has all of the extra percussion that we all grew to love, they do have a newer drummer that is very powerful on the kit. I’m not sure that he can fill the roles of three individuals, but I don’t think that’s what he is trying to do. This allows the other members to focus on their primary instruments (guitar, bass, keyboard) and has really tightened up the sound quite a bit. The result is a much crisper sounding show that still has loads of the energy we’ve all grown to expect.

As far as the headliner goes, I was pleasantly surprised by The Beautiful Girls. I was a little familiar with their music after recently acquiring their most resent release. In fact a few of the songs have quickly found their way into my head and I’ve found myself humming the words while sitting here at my desk. The first thing you’ll notice from this band is a striking similarity to Jack Johnson but with a little more energy. Don’t get me wrong, I like Jack but I just find some of his material and performances to be a little lackluster. Seeing the band in person draws even more Jack Johnson thoughts, as the front man of the group has a similar appearance to Mr. Johnson. The band is from Australia and is on their first major US tour. So catch them in a smaller venue while you still can.

As I mentioned at the end of last week, we had tickets for the championship game of this years Frozen Four. We watched the earlier wins for both Boston College and Notre Dame, and knowing that this was Notre Dame’s first time in the Frozen Four, we were hoping they could go all the way.

The game was great and started off with an even match-up, though the Irish had to play physical to slow down a quicker and more talented Boston College team. Eventually the Eagles were too much and they climbed to a 2-0 lead. We thought that Notre Dame was going to bounce right back into the game, but the goal they scored was reviewed and later determined to be kicked in, thus negating the goal. You see, a goal can go in accidentally off of the foot, but it cannot be kicked in. Shortly after the decision was made by the official, BC snuck in another goal and went up 3-0. So instead of a close 2-1 game, we watched it become more and more one sided. The Irish did score eventually, but so did BC. Final score was 4-1, but we still really enjoyed the game despite the end result not being what we had hoped.

I think that overall the tournament did great things for the city of Denver. As the girl from Maine sitting next to me said, Denver was the best city she had visited for the tournament, and I’m sure others felt the same way. I’m sure she, along with her dad and loads of others in attendance, has been to her fair share of cities for the tournament. Up next year is Washington, D.C. Who wants to take a road trip?

Kim and I watched the semifinals of the Frozen Four last night from our tiny seats high up in the 300 level of the Pepsi Center. Since hearing that the hockey version of the Final Four was going to be held in Denver this year, I knew that I was going to be there. I somehow missed the ticket lottery, but was able to get some tickets on eBay for not much more than they would have cost in the lottery anyway.

I proudly wore my North Dakota hockey hat to the games last night, hoping the Sioux could pull out a win over a better Boston College team. My dreams were quickly crushed as the Eagles took a 3-0 lead by the end of the first period and never looked back. We left after the second period with the score at 6-0, and the final wasn’t much better at 6-1. After a quick dinner we arrived back at our seats just in time for the second game between Notre Dame and Michigan.

Like the first game, I was rooting for the underdog, Notre Dame. But unlike the first game, it was the underdog that started out with a quick lead, again 3-0 by the end of the first. This game was far from over though, and we watched as Michigan slowly clawed their way back into it. At the end of regulation, the game was tied 3-3. Despite it already getting late out, I was kept awake by the oncoming overtime action. It doesn’t get much better than these sudden death match-ups. The game was highly entertaining, and the overtime period was thrilling. Both teams had a few good chances, but the Fighting Irish pulled out the win just five minutes into the period. What a thriller!

I will again be cheering for Notre Dame in tomorrow’s championship game versus Boston College. Be sure to tune in on ESPN to see some great hockey action.

If you didn’t already know, we are going to have a band at our wedding reception. We first saw them at the wedding of one of Kim’s friends, and somehow hung onto their business card for years until it became our turn. They were highly entertaining then and I’m sure that everyone will enjoy them.

But the real reason for this entry is that they take a few fifteen minute breaks throughout the night, and instead of having downtime I’m thinking that we should have some music going via CD player. So here’s your chance to help us out, since everyone has been offering anyway. Put together a 15+ minute playlist of songs that you think will be good for our reception and that everyone will enjoy. The mix can definitely go over 15 minutes but it may not all get played, so plan accordingly. Once your mix is done you can either send it to us in the mail or get in touch with me to transfer it electronically. May the best mix tapes win…

The Monkees cannot be beaten! We won again last night in the first game of our two game matchup. The winner of the game on Monday will be the outright champion. I think the team we played against had full intentions on winning since they hadn’t been beaten in quite some time. However we took an early lead, like we often do versus this team, and this time we didn’t let them back into the game. I didn’t add any points to my stats, it was a relatively low scoring game 4-2. But I did shut down their best player for most of the night. He never scored, and I don’t think he picked up any assists either. Supposedly he played for the University of Findlay in northern Ohio, so it was nice to feel that I was near the same level as him, even if for only one night. I’m looking forward to the week off, we’ve been playing entirely way too many games recently.

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been staying pretty active playing two nights of hockey a week as we go through the playoffs. Well, I’m happy to say that I’ll be playing again tonight since we won yet another game last night. I didn’t add any goals to my stats in the victory over the fourth place team, but I did get an assist. Tonight we start the championship series and must win. Provided we do win tonight, we’ll play again next Monday for all the marbles. Wish us luck!

If you didn’t know before, one of our favorite places to snowboard is definitely Keystone. Toward the end of last year, we realized that we could pay $5 and take a snowcat ride out to some nearly untouched powder from the top of the third mountain. Throughout this season we have taken multiple trips out there to show visitors this great spot. While waiting in line for the ride, I was surprised at the number of people that were hiking out to this very same spot.

I later realized that you didn’t have to hike very far to reach the fresh stuff. After scaling a small hill, you can practically snap in and then ride/ski over to various parts in these back bowls. And that’s exactly what we did yesterday, three times actually. We did two trips down the north side and one down the south. I think the north side is much easier and actually has more snow. The drop at the start of the south side is very intimidating, not to mention the windblown and icy conditions. Regardless of which side you choose, once you are down into the tree line again, the conditions are better than anywhere else on the mountain. This is such a hidden gem!

I haven’t posted a song of the moment in quite some time, but this one is definitely necessary. It comes from Virginia Coalition’s latest CD titled Home This Year, which was just released on March 18th. Often known for their crazy live performances full of crowd interaction and high energy stage performances, this CD may come as a shock at first. It is much more subdued than any of their other material, or at least anything recent. But I feel that this is some of their strongest song writing ever, and I am not alone. One of my favorite albums of theirs is a very early one called Colors Of The Sound, and this one is quickly becoming my second favorite album from this extremely talented group. For a sample of the CD, take a listen to “Sing Along” and then go and purchase the whole thing.

After two days of taking the light rail home from the office, I must say that I am really enjoying it. So far I’ve avoided the shuttle to the station and have been walking instead. I put my headphones on, find some good tunes, and enjoy the nice mile long walk. I find it to be very relaxing after a long day of work. Once at the station, I’ve been extremely lucky so far and hopped on the train right before it’s departure time from the station. However if I do end up missing one, there is usually another one around ten minutes later. After taking my seat, I’ve been reading a few issues of Paste magazine while continuing to enjoy some music. This really helps to pass the time on the near half hour ride. At the Broadway station it is just a few block walk home. Perhaps I’ll take some pictures of the commute one day.

The NCAA tournament isn’t the only madness going on right now, our men’s league hockey playoffs have been going on for the past week or two. We went into the tourney in third place and faced off with sixth place team in the first round. Despite a disappointing loss to this team to end the season, we beat them this time rather handily. I missed the game the following week, thus we lost the game to the second place team. This put us into the losers bracket of the double elimination tournament.

That brings us to this week, where somehow we played the regular season champs in the losers bracket on Monday night. Even though we could never beat this team during the season, we finally got our revenge with a 6-4 victory! Since we won we had to play again last night with hopes of keeping our championship drive alive. Fortunately the team we played was one of the worst in the leagues, and we beat them with no problems 10-1. I added two goals to my total stats but still remain in the sixth place in total points for the team. We are off until next Monday when we play the fourth place seed. After that it will be onto the championship game(s).