High Voltage

I spent last night digging my last rock show until '09 (barring a last-minute rock emergency): The Eagles of Death Metal at the Paradise. It took me about 35 minutes to find a parking spot because of the Comics Come Home benefit down the street at Agganis Arena. I met up with Bob and we had a few beverages before checking out the opening band, The Duke Spirit, who were really good. EoDM came on around 10:30 and played for nearly two hours, just ripping it up with their patented brand of sleaze-rock. The show was sold out and we were struck by the near 50-50 split of men and women, which is unusual for most rock shows. Frontman Jesse Hughes was a force (Josh Homme, who is the second half of the band in the studio, doesn't tour with EoDM); the four-piece featured erstwhile Queens of the Stone Age members Dave Catching on guitar and Joey Castillo on drums. They played songs from all three of their albums and threw in a couple of choice covers: "Brown Sugar" by the Stones and "New Rose" by the Damned. No ballads or down-tempo stuff for these guys, just a whole lot of American good rock, as Briggy would say. Got home just before 1:30.

It was a busy day. Hannah had her first indoor soccer game in the morning. They played at Soccer Etc. on the little field. The game's a lot faster indoors, but Hannah had fun. She even played goalie for a little while and did well, but came out when she jammed her finger. It's weird to be in there in the morning; I used to play games there late night about 12 or 13 years ago.

I got my last long run in before the marathon, a fast 8-miler. Then I took Hannah to a classmate's birthday party at Monster Mini-Golf on Route 1 in Danvers. It's like Chuck E. Cheese, but with monsters and mini golf. Total sensory overload: The whole place is glow in the dark, with music cranking, arcade games, kids all over, and of course, mini golf. Hannah had fun. Today, I'm taking both girls to another party on our street. The fun never ends.