On Tuesday night Social Distortion rocked one of the crappiest venues in Edmonton. Yes Edmonton Event Center, I am talking about you. Seriously how weak is it that instead of changing your name you just take the ‘R’ off of Reds and call yourself Eds? I don’t like the venue for acoustics, layout, and the “too good to be here” attitude of the staff.

Social Distortion is one of my favorite bands so it was great to see them for the first time. Formed in 1978 (seriously) they have gone through the death of bandmates, heroin addiction, law troubles (leading to the albulm Prison Bound), and countless band member changes. They have such a unique Johny Cash inspired sound (even doing a great cover of ring of fire). I deffinately recommend to check them out if you have not already in the last 30 years.

They put on a great show and they played every song I wanted to hear. The pit was full of energy and I have the bruises to prove that. For a rockabilly / cowpunk band the pit was quite agressive but you always get some assholes in a crowd I guess. The band did such a good encour that I did not want to leave the pit but finally had to at there last song due to a bit of heat exhaustion. Although I would not have been embarassed to faint at a Social D concert… it was just that good.

Well this weekend my neighbors invited me over to do carve some pumpkins. Apparently last year I got a bit of a reputation for having a good pumpkin (we had a Rick James pumpkin. There is no photo as some stole it!). My ex was the one that carved it but I guess I gotta keep the title. See if you can guess which one is mine?

So if you can not tell its a computer pumpkin. It has 2 wireless antennas for horns, some power supply fan grills for eyes, a floppy drive for a mount, and a power cord in the back. I wanted to add a USB and Ethernet port in the side but ran out of hardware.

Then more people showed up and this is what we ended up with:

From left to right: A dreadlock pumpkin (the girl who carved it made it in her own image), A cat shadow looking at a pumkin (really well done), Top is a happy pumpkin that kept loosing its lip, My computer pumpkin, A standard issue one carved by a foreign girl who was celebrating her first halloween, well the diagram describes it all on this one, the last one…. I have no idea it was supposed to be a crab… but then …. well… now it looks like roast beef.

And with the lights off:

And most of us with our pumpkins:

We put them all out in the hall that night. What really pisses me off though is somewhere between 5 and 9 am someone stole one of the antennas which were part of a working router. Why anyone would do such a thing is beyond me. Then again why someone would steal my pumpkin last year is beyond me as well.

I have been taking a ninjitsu class in the west end (of Edmonton) for the past couple of months now which has been a ton of fun. The instructor is starting to cover some basics again so it is a perfect time to start in the class for anyone interested. You can then become part of my elite squad of ninja death coders. I am currently the only one so now is your chance to get in on the ground floor. For those interested shoot me an email (dave at solidhouse.com)

So last night I went to one of my favorite punk bands of all time…. Pennywise. I have never seen them live and well they are probably going to retire / not ever return to edmonton again.

First of all the venue was REd’s. What a hole. I have never been to a show there and I hope that I never have to go again. We drank in the lounge that they have there by the arcade while the opening bands were playing as well…. they suck. They had one bartender there and a sold out show. Took 20 minutes just to get beer. Who ever does the staffing for that place must have tried to read running a concert for dummies but that would require litteracy. The beer gardens inside the venue was large but hard to find your way out. Then there was only one way to get into the pit and one way out which made for no movement of people and it was hot (NOTE: I was dumb and wore a synthetic shirt… bad idea. I did buy some merch though and changed into a nice cotton shirt. Insert Justice shirt comment here: ______________).  The sound was ok but nothing special. The second the show was over it was last call at the bar (12:10am for some reason).

Enough bashing of Ed’s, now to bashing Pennywise. But is that not your favorite band Dave? Yes but they still sucked in my opinion (maybe I AM hard to please). They played all their hits which is good but there was no energy it just felt like they were working at a box factory pressing the same button they have pressed a thousand times. Maybe I am just used to smaller venues and smaller bands that appreciate what they do more. The set seemed really short though and then there was no encore. I heard later that they did not come out again as the band wanted to go drinking at union hall. I have lost respect for that band.

The crowd was very diverse too. Lots of people who look like they should not be there (then again I am one of them). The pit was full of energy and I have the bruises to show it. I did manage to keep everything I went there with (including my shoes). There were some assholes in the pit but there always are and thats why they get the ninja elbow the spleen.

I would still go see them again but not be as pumped for them as I was this time. And really we get so few punk shows here that you gotta take what you can get.