Sharon Corr back in Atlanta...it's been years since a Corr sang here!

It has been years since a Corr has sang in Atlanta (to the best of my knowledge, The Corrs opened for Celine Dion at Chastain Park Amphitheatre back in '96 or so, but that would have been the last time), so when I found out that Sharon, the oldest of the Corr sisters, would be making a stop here on her worldwide tour to promote her 2nd solo album, Same Sun, I knew I had to drop by the Variety Playhouse to take in the show. 

While turnout was less than stellar (I estimate between 150-200 folks were in attendance), Sharon and her band did not disappoint.  They played many songs from her new album (to be released in the US within the next couple weeks, but like any true fan, I ordered mine some time ago from amazon.co.uk), a few covers (Dreams - of course -), a couple of songs she penned for The Corrs (So Young and Radio), a brand new song she had just written the day of the show (Take our Time), and a few Irish folk jammers.   It was wonderful, especially for a guy who's been a fan of The Corrs for nearly 10 years but had pretty much given up hope of ever seeing them live, since they have been on hiatus for years while the sisters expanded their broods.  This at least afforded me the opportunity to see "a Corr", which is better than "no Corr".

I asked Sharon after the show if they might all be getting back together once Andrea stops having kids (her 2nd was born just recently), but her response was the typical,  "I truly and honestly don't know."  I could have predicted that.  I should have asked if she ever wrote any songs that she felt were more suited for the band more so than her solo album, so she put them aside for the time when they are back together and recording again (of course, I thought of the question on the drive home).

My wife and I got our picture taken with Sharon, and I got her autograph on the setlist from the sound booth.  I also have a recording of the show....

Keane live in the US!

The wife and I braved the frigid Atlanta temps (don't laugh, it was cold!) to venture out the The Tabernacle to see Keane on their month-long US tour.  Since Keane has been one of my favorite Brit-Pop bands for years, I didn't dare miss this opportunity to see them live.  They DID NOT disappoint!  Tom was in top vocal form, even though they were nearing the end of the tour.  In fact, their show in Austin (City Limits) was taped for Stageside Live and broadcast on the web, and I must say, Tom sounded much better here than he did on that show.  The Atlanta crowd was in top form as well, and may well have been as loud and raucous with applause and adoration as any of their US stops.

Because my wife requires a mobility assistance device, we got a premium spot in the front at stage right.  For concerts, the floor area of The Tabernacle is standing only, but there is no elevator to the balconies (it's an old, turn of the century (20th) church), so they block of that section down front for those that can't stand for long periods or climb stairs to the balcony. Richard's crowd shot shows us down front, on the right.  My wife is wearing her pink jacket and waving from her scooter, I'm to her left, taking a picture of Richard taking a picture.  I really wanted to record the show with my Blue Mikey and iPhone 3GS, but I failed to prepare properly and clear out enough space, so the storage filled up after only 7 songs, and the FiRe recorder didn't even save that much...it just bombed.  Standing that close, the bass would probably have been overwhelming anyway (which is what happened when I recorded Boston last summer in Valdosta from the front row), but it would have been nice to have the recording, all the same.  I did manage to score the setlist used by Jesse Quin, the bass player (the crew was clearing the stage, and when the guy pulled up the setlist, he turned around and I was the first person he saw with my hand out, so he just walked up to me and gave it to me).

I have managed to acquire recordings from 3 venues on the tour, Nashville, New York, and Boise, as well as the Austin video. I'm hoping more shows trickle out over time, as the set was fantastic.  If you haven't picked up their latest album, Strangeland, released in 2012, you are missing a real treat.  It's a return by Keane to the upbeat, catchy tunes that propelled their first 2 albums (Hopes and Fears and Under the Iron Sea) to the top of the album charts in the UK back in the mid-2000's.

The setlist:

01 You Are Young
02 Bend and Break
03 On the Road
04 We Might As Well be Strangers
05 Nothing In My Way
06 Silenced By The Night
07 Everybody's Changing
08 She Has No Time
09 Neon River
10 Spiraling
11 A Bad Dream
12 Hamburg Song
13 My Shadow
14 Disconnected
15 Is It Any Wonder?
16 This Is the Last Time
17 Somewhere Only We Know
18 Bedshaped
19 Sea Fog
20 Sovereign Light Cafe
21 Crystal Ball

As always, I'm available for trading bootlegs.

Windows 7 won't delete a folder that has WAVE files in it

Here's an odd one I ran across again...

After burning WAV audio file to CD, I just want to delete the old folder that held the files, but for some bizarre reason, Windows Explorer pops up the "You must have Administrator permissions to delete this folder", but even if I tried to obtain said privileges (never mind that I'm logged on as an admin account anyway) or even run Explorer "as Administrator", it still won't delete the folder.

I figured out that all I had to do was go into the folder and delete the WAV files manually, and then I can delete the folder, but I don't understand why Windows wants to protect that file type....maybe one day I'll figure it out....but putting the workaround on my blog so I don't forget about it next time.

Iphone 3GS and iOS 5 ... activation required? But my phone has been unactivated for 6 months!

Well I ran into an interesting scenario today.  I have an old iPhone 3GS with a dead cell radio, so I've been using it as everything but a phone (since my temp phone, a Palm Pre Plus is just a couple ticks north of pure garbage, notwithstanding WebOS, which is sufficient), meaning it's an iPod Touch now.  So today I thought it might be cool to go ahead and pop iOS 5 onto it....oops!

The installation seemed to go okay, but when powering up after the install, it wanted to activate the phone. There was no emergency dial screen, there was nothing but an activate now prompt (and in iTunes, it just said "iPhone" and "Activate").  Following the steps on the screen was futile..pick a language and location, wireless network, but no SIM installed, so that's where it stopped.  Hmmm...did I just brick it?

I thought I was totally hosed because we've since left AT&T (my wife is sporting a brand new iPhone 4S with a crappy battery) for redder pastures with Verizon, when I remembered that I hadn't sold my wife's old 3GS on eBay yet.  I popped the SIM card out of her old phone, put it into mine, and so even though the SIM was not active (just says NO SERVICE in the upper left), it allowed the "activation" of the iOS 5 install to proceed.

Well that was fun...NOT!  Scary as all-get-out is what it was!

Firefox 7 rules, and I finally got my TouchPad ordered!

I installed Firefox 7 today, and in a word, it FLIES!  It is so much quicker than any other version, ever, that it rivals Chrome in terms of speed....on all fronts...it launches faster, loads pages loads faster (cute, eh?), and is just much more responsive.  Me likey!


...and HP employee TouchPad day finally arrived, and while it took me and everyone else in the US that works for HP way too long to get it done, I finally got my order confirmation through on my 32GB TouchPad.  I can hardly wait for the fun to begin!  Now to count down the days until it arrives (could be as much as 2 whole weeks...due to overwhelming demand).

Jamming to Replay, the new album from The Outfield

Available now from iTunes, June 28, is Replay, the latest album from The Outfield.  It's got that classic album sound...soaring vocals from Tony, catchy pop hooks from John, and distinctive percussion provided by Alan.  The trio is at the top of their game again, now if John can just lick cancer for a second time, maybe they'll cross the pond to the US and I (ok, we) can see them in concert for the first time since 1986.

In the meantime, winamp is just pumping out the tunes!

HP TouchPad demo video showing the exclusive features offered by WebOS