At the Hundredth Meridian

Holy crap, it's actually warm out. I'm enjoying it while I can; who knows when some stupid cold front will move in. It got up to 70 yesterday and is supposed to stay that way for a few days.

I ventured into Boston Friday night to catch the Tragically Hip on their latest visit to town. They played Avalon and it was sold out, which made for a crazy night considering the Red Sox and Yankees were facing off in their first game of the year right across the street. The Hip have virtually no presence in the U.S. on the radio, but they have made their reputation from being a kickass live band and have a good following here. As usual, the crowd was full of Canadian expats like myself, dudes in hockey jerseys (mostly Leafs--I saw guys in Wendel Clark, Doug Gilmour and Bill Barilko shirts--but also some Sabres as well), and older fans who always see them. I started off standing on the floor near the front, about six or seven "rows" from the front, but it got to be a pain dealing with all the tall and/or drunk folks, not to mention the bozo who kept holding up the homemade sign he brought and blocking the view of everyone behind him. So about nine songs in, I moved over to stand on the steps leading up to the bar and had a much better view. I was still kind of stuck in place, but at least I could see. The band sounded great and played a good mix of material from their 20-year recording career. Highlights included "Boots or Hearts" and "New Orleans is Sinking" from their first album and "Springtime in Vienna." Singer Gord Downie was his usual spastic self, sweating up a storm and madlibbing away; the guy's a force of nature. The band has been playing a different cover each night on this tour and on this night broke out a cover of Bob Marley's "Is This Love?", which seems out of character but fits with some of the reggae sounds they explored on their latest album World Container. The band closed things out with a raucous version of "Blow at High Dough," the bluesy rocker that was my first exposure to the band on WBCN way back in 1989. I got out of the club in time to watch the final out of the Sox game on a TV outside the Cask and Flagon; the Sox came back from a 6-2 deficit to win 7-6.

Deb spent the week off from school redoing the girls' bedroom. She repainted the walls from the yellow and green that had been done before Hannah was born to pink and purple and a princess theme. We bought new beds at Ikea that I spent most of Thursday night assembling, so the room has a totally new look.

I'll check back in later. I'm looking forward to going out for a 10-mile run later this afternoon.