After including the Kings of Leon song “Sex on Fire” on NOW That’s What Ed Calls Music 2008, I finally made it out to see them play live last night.   Much has changed since late 2008, including the massive popularity of the band, along with a couple of other top singles.   I missed their performance at Red Rocks last summer due to Pig-Fest, though I’ve heard from multiple sources that it was a great show.   The Red Rocks show was sold  out, so this summer they decided to move to the newly renamed Comfort Dental Amphitheatre (formerly Fiddler’s Green), which is around twice the capacity of Red Rocks.   Again, I’m told it was a sellout show, but there was plenty of room in the lawn where we stood.   I’m sure the nonstop rain yesterday helped to deter people from coming out for the show.

I met a group of friends at a nearby restaurant before the show started.   We had planned to get in early to watch the opening bands, but the rain forced us to stay inside and have another round of drinks.   We thought the five and six-dollar  drinks were expensive there, but once we finally made it to the venue we quickly realized we’d be paying nearly ten bucks for beer for the rest of the night.   We did arrive while it was still drizzling, just before the  Kings of Leon took the stage.   We were able to easily find a good spot on the lawn and patiently waited the start of the show.

The band took the stage with dueling canons erupting red fog throughout the stage.   The opening song was a familiar one for myself titled “Crawl” from their most recent release Only by the Night.   From there the band detoured into lesser known material from their earlier albums.   “Sex on Fire” came near the middle of the set, which was a little surprising, but it could be fitting as most people are likely growing tired of the song by now.   The sound mix heavily favored the bass notes, which normally isn’t a bad thing, but it left the lead guitar nearly inaudible at times.   I wish I could have heard the limited solos a little better.   Caleb Followill, the lead singer of the band, sounded great and his commanding voice is definitely what leads the band.   I also thought that the drummer, Nathan Followill,  was especially good last night.

The stage production was pretty good.   Though really simple, their massive light structure was effective and interesting.   It consisted off many randomly placed stage lights pointed in every direction, all in white.   I definitely  could have used more color in the mix, but the cool part was that pieces of the structure would move up and down at various points throughout the night.   Going along with the lighting scheme, the screens showing the band were in full black and white.   It was done  rather interestingly though, with what appeared to be rather cheap cameras constantly switching from one to the next, along with interesting angles and shots.   It sort of reminded us of an old video from a recording studio.   To cap off the night, the light structure collapsed on itself, accompanied by a series of firework explosions.   Overall it was a good night out watching a good performance.

If you haven’t been back to kimandedjr.com  since I last wrote about it, here is a friendly reminder.   Kim has already written two blog posts and there are some good conversations going on over there.   She seems to be  falling into a weekend blogger, which is the complete opposite of myself, so be sure to check in at least weekly.   We haven’t added any new baby pictures yet, but lately all the talk is about baby names.   We had the chance  to visit some friends of ours who just had twin boys, and they also got us thinking about all the fun stuff we are going to need in the near future.   Busy times are ahead!

After work on Friday I had a craving for some pizza.   Kim and I decided to try something new and found Fuhgidabowdit Pizzeria  over near the University of Denver.   At first I wasn’t too sure of our decision after walking into a small and dingy restaurant.   I was expecting more than just a few tables and chairs and order from the counter service.   We quickly looked over the menu and decided to start with some garlic knots and also to split the Venetian Pizza with Ricotta, Spinach, Mozzarella, and Marinara  sauce.   We were told  that there weren’t any knots ready, so it would take time to prepare.   I’m glad we decided to wait for them to be  prepared  fresh as they were very good and were served  with a large cup of marinara.

Our pizza came out shortly after the garlic knots, and was a large 18″ pie that was cooked  perfectly.   This is New York style pizza with huge slices and rather thin crust.   Our choice in pizza turned out to be  pretty unique and also really delicious.   One of the two employees commented that one of the owners came up with this pizza on his own and that he thought it tasted a lot like lasagna.   He was definitely right about the ricotta and marinara  blending together to give a lasagna taste.   The huge pizza was more than enough and we ended up taking half of it home.

Despite my thoughts on the physical restaurant, the food is great, and the service was excellent.   I’m sure it’s much busier when school is in session at DU, but it was a perfect quiet night out for the two of us.

Last night we headed up to Red Rocks to see O.A.R. with opener Citizen Cope.   This was O.A.R.’s third time playing at Red Rocks, and of course it was my third time seeing them play there, taking my grand total up to ninety-one.   I’m inching closer to one hundred, but I don’t see them anywhere near as much as I did while in college.   This was my third time seeing Citizen Cope, the other two times were in 2004 and 2005.   I’ve always enjoyed their music, but found their live show to be  a little bit of a downer.   Last night was better than I remembered them sounding, with most upbeat songs, besides a slower stretch in the middle.

O.A.R.’s set was great!   I wouldn’t say that it was the best setlist  ever, but the band sounded really good and were very energetic.   I’d image playing Red Rocks at any point in your career would be an amazing experience, and Marc definitely stopped at various points in the night to let the crowd know how wonderful it was and to take it all in.   Some new songs were played  last night, one of which is titled “Light Switch Sky.”

Last June, O.A.R. asked [their fans] to help them write a song by submitting lyrics via twitter. After collecting submissions for 10 days on the @ofarevolution  twitter page and much deliberation, the band chose 6 overall winners – 5 lyrical contributions, and one song title, “Light Switch Sky”. The band created the music for “Light Switch Sky” using the lyrics as their driving inspiration…”Light Switch Sky” [is] available for purchase at liveoar.com  for just $0.99. All proceeds from the tracks purchased through July, 22nd 2010 will be donated to Paralyzed Veterans of America, an organization that works to maximize the quality of life for Veterans suffering from Spinal Cord Injury or Dysfunction (SCI/D). Paralyzed Veterans of America is a leading advocate for SCI/D research and education and veterans’ benefits and disability rights.

The weather was perfect, with very little wind and comfortable temperatures.   Often times the wind at Red Rocks can be bad, as it was for O.A.R.’s first ever performance there.   Last night it seemed that everything connected perfectly.   After the show Jerry mentioned that he didn’t think they could have played a better show.   That’s what I love to hear, leaving it all on the stage.

We had a one week hiatus from playing hockey, and the break badly hurt my team.   Prior to last night’s game we had won two in a row, and only had two loses over seven games.   Unfortunately  we added another loss to our record last night, and ended our streak.   We had previously beaten last night’s opponents earlier in the season, but last night was different.   We couldn’t generate very much offense, some of our guys couldn’t stay out of the penalty box, and overall it was a pretty weak performance.   Personally I played pretty well, and our line had some chances, but we didn’t add any points to our stats.   Only four games are left in the short summer season, so hopefully we can finish strong before heading for the playoffs.

Last night Kim and I prepared a corn on the cob  recipe from a book I mentioned earlier titled Patio Daddy-O at the Grill. I highly recommend the book as everything we have tried has been full of flavor and relatively easy to prepare.   Here is the recipe:

The cure for fresh corn fatigue: Char the ears in their husks, strip them naked, then roll them in soft butter spiked with basil and lemon.   For a final flourish, hit the glistening rows with a   flurry of grated Parmesan.

• 6 ears corn, husks on
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste
• Vegetable oil for the grill
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. Soak the corn in a large bowl of water for 1 hour (so the husks don’t catch fire).
2. Prepare a medium-hot fire in a charcoal grill, or preheat a gas or electric grill to medium-high.
3. In a small bowl, mix the butter with the lemon juice and basil, and season with salt and pepper.   Spread out the butter in a 1/4-inch-thick layer in the center of a large plate or baking sheet and set aside.
4. Brush the grill grate with vegetable oil.   Grill the corn, turning often, until the husks are evenly charred all over, 25 to 30 minutes.   Carefully peel back the corn husks, but leave them attached to the cobs.   Discard the corn silk and use the husks as handles.   Roll the corn in the softened butter, and top with Parmesan cheese.   Server immediately.

We only prepared  half of the recipe, and used only 2 tablespoons of butter.   That seemed to be enough butter for us and we left the remaining butter mix ingredients at their full six serving amounts.   We didn’t have lemon juice so we used lime juice instead.   The results were delicious!

I’m getting the travel bug again and I’ve started looking into an anniversary trip for Kim and I.   Last year we headed to Alaska to celebrate our first year together as a married couple.   This year I’m hoping to get to Yellowstone and other surrounding areas, including Grand Teton and parts of Montana.   I’ve started today  by searching for available lodging inside Yellowstone.   It looks like we should spend a night near Old Faithful, and a few other nights elsewhere in the park, likely near the Canyon Village.   We may have started planning this a little too late, as many of the rooms are already filled, but I’m hopeful that we can find sometime in September to make the trip work.   What I’m looking for are suggestions for where we should stay, and for how many nights.   I’m not sure many readers have been to the area, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

On Saturday I had another fairly decent experience at this year’s WordCamp, which took place in Boulder.   I was a little disappointed in the lack of knowledge gained from last year’s WordCamp, and the same is true again for this year.   The one session that I looked forward to the most, was definitely the most informational and in my opinion the best of the entire day.   This was titled Caching in WordPress and was presented  by Chris Scott and Sean O’Shaughnessy  from Voce Communications.   The information presented by these two easily beat out all other presenters at the conference combined.   The only other session that was even close was WordPress Development by Alex King and  Shawn Parker  of Crowd Favorite, which featured on the fly sidebar widget development from a crowd suggested list of features.

I pretty much stuck to the more technical sessions the entire day.   I thought that the SEO Techniques  session was pretty much common knowledge, or at least stuff that I was already fairly  aware of.   However the room was packed  for this session, so I guess others may not be as knowledgeable.   If nothing else, the session was very entertaining.   The DIY Usability Testing session was also entertaining.   Steve Martin from Clever Cubed  was the presenter and though the crowd was a little smaller than earlier  presentations, the information provided was focused and intelligent.   I don’t think it applies to my work very much, but there were  a small number of people in attendance that were very interested in the subject.

Finally I sat in on Jane Wells’ presentation on What’s Next for WordPress.   She is the user experience lead for WordPress and is very knowledgeable on all things WordPress.   Though she didn’t talk much about what’s actually next for WordPress, she did highlight new features from the recently released version 3.0 as well as answer question after question from the audience.   Before the presentation I wasn’t aware of the new menu functionality in this release of WordPress and that is something that I definitely plan to utilize in the future.   Otherwise, her presentation was good and she helped many in the crowd with all kinds of varying problems.

With all of that said, it is really hard to beat the cheap price of admission ($45) that included a $10 gift certificate to local venues for lunch as well as a nice t-shirt.   After these tickets were sold  out, the organizers announced $25 tickets that didn’t include lunch or a shirt, and I wish they would have offered that from the beginning.   I don’t really need anymore t-shirts in my closet.

If you haven’t already heard, I am going to be  a father!   Kim is pregnant and due on January 14, 2011.   We couldn’t be more excited.   We have lots to do between now and then with the house, so I’m sure the time will really fly by.   We converted our old wedding website into a blog for baby updates, so be sure to check out kimandedjr.com.   There are already a bunch of ultrasound photos there and I’m sure there will be many more to follow.   I’m trying to convince Kim to post on the blog, and hopefully she will add an entry soon.   Be sure to check back regularly for updates on the baby.

Hopefully I can write more tomorrow, but today has been super busy at work.   We have a deadline to release the next version of our software on Monday and we still have a lot of work left to do.   So far this short week I’ve put in twelve hours Tuesday and eleven hours yesterday in the office.   That’s a lot of overtime that I wish I got paid for.   I’m hoping to get out a little earlier tonight, but time will tell.   I’m really just hoping that I don’t have to work this weekend, as that could ruin my plans for WordCamp on Saturday.