Hey kids,

This is one of those recap kinda posts. Some music related stuff, some personal stuff, and all of the other stuff that you typically find in a recap kinda post.

When we last left my personal life, I was rocking out at the Gin Blossoms…..and a lot has happened since then, so let’s get to it.

We’re going to recap Flaming Lips stuff, Cleveland blogger meetup stuff, and Rock Hall stuff. Try and keep up.

Tuesday night, three Cleveland rock and rollers – myself, Mel from Life, Liberty, and the Cleveland Bachelor were reunited for dinner at Nighttown for dinner. Nighttown is one of those Cleveland places that I’ve been meaning to get to for quite a while now, and I was glad to finally get there. Hoping to get back there this week when Eagles songwriting compadre J.D. Souther is in town.

The night got off to a bit of a bum start when one of the waiters walked by and spilled a large quantity of garlic butter or similar on me. Kept going, no apology, nothing…although I’m not sure he was aware. I would have potentially made some sort of issue of it, but our waitress was a bit AWOL, and frankly, it wasn’t that big of a deal.

After wrapping up at Nighttown, we made our way over to the Beachland Ballroom to check out a free screening of the new Flaming Lips film Christmas on Mars. Now, I haven’t paid attention at all, so I thought that it was a concert film, but figured out otherwise prior to going out, that it was an actual movie, and knew that since we’re talking Flaming Lips, this one is going to be interesting.

Yeah, it certainly was interesting. I really dug it, and it’s actually something I would want to own, although as I said at the Beachland, if I had been watching this on my own at home for the first time, there’s no way I would have made it through in one viewing….I definitely would have nodded out. That’s not necessarily a knock on the film – I do that with a lot of flicks that aren’t Lethal Weapon or Die Hard movies (haha!)

My point: Christmas on Mars is a film that is best experienced in a theater setting, if you have the opportunity.

It’s visually spectacular (c’mon, with The Flaming Lips, you KNEW you were getting cool visuals) and also features Steve from Blue’s Clues in a way you’ve never seen him before!

The film and related film score are available now in a variety of formats, including vinyl, for the film score! Get the details here.

Christmas on Mars trailer

While at the Beachland, we met up with Jose and Kelly from Sensory Overload, who you might just see a guest blog from here in the very near future. That’s what we call a teaser, folks.

I got to meet Jose and Kelly for the first time as we all sat at the bar, while I munched on a delicious fried PBJ from the Beachland.

Actually, that didn’t happen because the fried PBJ is not on the newly revamped Beachland menu, which looks fantastic otherwise.

I’m thinking of starting a petition to get it back on there.

The Beachland and Music Saves folks really went to great lengths to make the screening as cool as possible. After the film showing, there was a free raffle with Flaming Lips film posters, copies of the deluxe edition DVD, and limited edition film-related art as prizes.

I was very excited to win the limited edition art, since I never win anything!

T’was a good night.

Cleveland Blogger Meetup:

Thursday night found me at Bar Cento for the Cleveland Blogger meetup that was brilliantly organized by Alexa from cleveland’s a plum. Thanks to Mel, I actually made it there. I cut out of work slightly early and realized that I’d forgotten to grab the address for Bar Cento, and I was blanking on the exact location. A quick text message exchange, and I was good to go, and arrived with time to spare for the meetup which was scheduled for 6:30pm. I met a huge list of Cleveland bloggers, although there were a few that were absent.

Next time, next time.

Had good conversations with quite a few folks (pretty much everyone on this list,) including some good hang time with Kelly, Jose, and Mel, and plenty of rock and roll related conversation with my new rock and roll soul brothers Narm and Jason.

We all hung out long after dinner for lots of karaoke. I wish I would have met the guy that was nailing various 80s tunes while we were wrapping up dinner. He was the requisite “serious” karaoke guy that approaches karaoke as a sport, and he had one impressive pick in particular, “I Can’t Hold Back” by Survivor, that he nailed. Pretty sure he did some Toto as well.

Survivor – I Can’t Hold Back (on Solid Gold)

One second break here – check out the Survivor clip above for the most extreme usage of smoke machines you’ll ever see. Hilarious.

Thursday night was so much fun, and I can’t wait to do it again with all involved, soon. Thanks to Alexa for bringing us all together, and getting us a special group deal at Bar Cento.

Friday night, I was planning to just go home and catch a night of rest, but my buddy Mark was in town unexpectedly, and we ended up at the Hi-Fi to watch our friends View from Everest play. It had been a while since I’d seen VFE do their thing, and they’ve really tightened up their sound a lot, adding an extra guitar player to help fill things out. A couple of cool covers charged up the set a bit with VFE putting their own unique spin on “Come Undone” by Duran Duran (duh!) and “Don’t Dream It’s Over” by Crowded House (duh, part two!)

The best part about the evening, was being walking distance to my house from the club. After watching most of View From Everest’s set, I headed out the door and was home within minutes. Love that.

Indoor smoking ban? What smoking ban?

Thanks to a friend, I had an invite for Saturday night’s Les Paul tribute presented by the Rock Hall at the State Theater. Part of their annual American Music Masters series, the lineup for Saturday’s show was one of the stronger ones in recent memory. There was barely a weak moment in the whole night, although Eric Carmen’s performance was disappointing – rescued by blazing guitar work courtesy of Steve Lukather. Lukather blew my mind earlier this year during a solo show at The Winchester, and I think that there are a few more people that are hip now to Steve Lukather after seeing him play on Saturday night. For all of the jokes that I cracked leading up to the show, Alannah Myles gave one of the surprise highlight performances of the night. Her voice was INCREDIBLE.

Midway through the 3 1/2 hour show, legendary Cleveland drummer Tommy Rich (American Noise, Donnie Iris) came out to sit behind the kit, playing with Billy Gibbons on the ZZ Top classic “Just Got Paid,” Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora on “Wanted Dead or Alive,” and GNR/Velvet Revolver guitar legend Slash, who paid no attention to that indoor smoking ban thing, lighting his first cigarette within seconds of walking onstage.

As a friend of mine made note, the dangling cigs ARE a longtime part of Slash’s everyday Halloween costume.

Speaking of Richie Sambora, he seems like he’s in a good place these days, and Sambora was one of the many high points of the evening, although his tribute song to the Hall of Fame was mega-cheesy. I guess you’ll get that after spending so many years hanging around Jon Bon Jovi.

It was a great time at the State, and what a thrill it was to catch a set from the evening’s honoree himself, Les Paul, a true legend on so many levels.

Check out a full review and lots of pictures courtesy of John Soeder, right here.

New week, new times ahead – Let’s go!