Week In Review (part 2)

Wednesday
Wednesday was a very consumerish sort of day. First I made a trip to Kiss the Sky in Batavia (or somewhere close) and picked up a bunch of really good classic rock records and a needle to make my turntable work again. Here's the records

• I - Led Zeppelin
• III - Led Zeppelin
• IV - Led Zeppelin
• Houses of the Holy - Led Zeppelin
• Aftermath - the Rolling Stones
• Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
• John and Yoko in Toronto '69 - Plastic Ono Band

Needless to say, it was a successful trip to the record store. Then I made a quick stop at Best Buy to pick up a new hard drive and expand my memory since I plan on finally recording music on my computer.

Thursday
On Thursday my family and I went to the Museum of Science and Industry to see their Body Worlds exhibit. If you don't already know, its a collection of hundreds or cadavers and body parts that have been plastinated and are on display. With this plastination procedure everything looks like a mannequin but it is a real body. It was awesome. There is no other word to describe it. Particularly if you like studying the human body, but even if you don't it is a phenomenal thing to see. I don't even want to try and describe it for fear of underestimating the greatness of the stuff there. Moving on.

Friday
What did I do Friday? Oh yeah, went to one of the best shows I've ever seen. Accompanied by my favorite chemist not named Ron Anderson, I went to the New City YMCA in Chicago for this year's Block Party (here is my review of last year's). First to perform was Hot Hot Heat, a band who I could pretty much care less about. However, they put on a wonderful show, packed with unintentional comedy. For instance, I have devised a few ekrashuns to describe what each of the members looked like:

• Lead singer (Steve Bays) -- Carrot Top + Napoleon Dynamite's nose + Freddie Mercury's stage antics
• Guitarist (Luke Paquin) -- Johnny Ramone + Scott Lucas from Local H
• Bassist (Dustin Hawthorne) -- my friend Tyler when he has long hair and hasn't shaved
• Drummer (Paul Hawley) -- the oldest Hanson brother + Ug from Salute Your Shorts + 80s guitar solo faces

As for the show, the singer kept on encouraging the crowd to clap, much like a church service. He also favored the best knees - crotch thrust as his keyboard playing pose which was of course hilarious. He seemed like a caffeine addict.

Next to take the outdoor stage was personal favorite Interpol. Well dressed as usual, the band played music that seemingly filled all of the surrounding air. The best word to describe the atmosphere during their performance was sexy. Some would say that the band was seducing them without them even knowing, which is of course a great definition of sexy. Since there was three bands, Interpol only played for a little less than an hour. However, the ten songs they did were perfect. There were some other ones that I wanted to hear but I can't complain. That being said, the next time they come to Chicago as headliners I'm going no matter what.

Last up was Queens of the Stone Age who were easily the heaviest band that I've ever seen. I was surprised by how loud and heavy they were. In fact, I couldn't hear out of my left ear (which was slightly turned to the stage) until about 3 in the afternoon the next day. Frontman Josh Homme did his usual sweet things like talk about dancing, rocking, and of course, threatening to fight a kid in the audience who threw a shoe on stage. They played all of their biggest singles ("No One Knows,""Go With the Flow,""Little Sister," etc.) and a few lesser known songs. Josh rocked it real hard on the guitar, even at times going back and forth on solos with the other guitarist Troy Van Leeuwan.

Like I said, I definitely had impaired hearing for a good part of the next day to go along with my sore back and legs. However, I think that those things are a sign of a really good concert. And if you don't then you're stupid.

Normal Blowtorch posts will resume tomorrow.