Frank Black

Eug and I went to see Frank Black at Ed's in Edmonton (formerly known as Red's).

He started of just himself with an acoustic, and had the die-hard's hanging on every word. His acoustic playing reminded me of Cobain's acoustic playing... lots of power chords mixed with playing with dissonant notes and open chords with cool colours/flavours... His melodies were somewhat original for the most part, but his lyrics and phrasing were what kept you watching.

The band joined him after 3-4 acoustic numbers and they played their loud brand of alt-country for a solid 90 minutes or so... I kept thinking, if this was a new band, I wouldn't be that into them... but you can't help but think of the history the man has created and the bands he's influenced... I hear a lot of Queens of the Stone Age and Hole in his vocal phrasing and in the faster songs. What I mean by that, is I hear where QOTSA and Hole get some of their sound from.

If you read Eug's Blog, you'd know these tickets were free! Frank Black's drummer put us on the guestlist. Well, not us exactly. It was Eug + 1 ..... I had to get i.d. that said "+1" on it.

We met up with Jason Manning from Sonic and also happened upon good ol' Russell The Muscle. We chit-chatted and Russ mentioned he's going to Jingle Bell Rock... that's gonna be a cool show. Coheed and Cambria have a cool sound and are probably great live. Also, Jason gave me some of the best advice a guy could ask for, so I'll be using it right away. Thanks Jason!

I wanted to buy a Frank Black shirt. There was no merch table in sight. So instead, I spent the money at Denny's with Eug after the show. Eug asked me if I wanted have breakfast with him, the same way John Travolta asks Samuel L Jackson if he wants to have breakfast with him in Pulp Fiction. I couldn't refuse.