Memorial Cup; Virgin Music Festival
May 2007 Vancouver
2007-05-27
Just an amazing night tonight - the Vancouver Giants won a thriller of a game over the Medicine Hat Tigers, 3-1 to win the 2007 Memorial Cup on home ice! My buddy Scott again came through with tickets for the game, and what a game it was. The home team started strong - huge hits everywhere, and there was even a good fight to keep the crowd pumped. The boys got a goal to put us up at the beginning of the second. The pace slowed a bit in the second, and Medicine Hat tied it up. But the third period, it was all us! The boys came out flying, and took the game to them. We took the lead with 4 1/2 minutes left, and an empty netter sealed the deal.
The Coliseum was awesome - a sell out crowd, all waving the white towels and making a lot of noise. It was bedlam, and a huge amount of fun. I didn't have a camera with me, so no pictures to share I'm afraid. but damn am I glad I was there!
2007-05-23
My birthday weekend ended up being a lot of fun, even if it was a wet one. Friday night, my buddy Scott was kind enough to me a couple of tickets to the first game of the Memorial Cup - the Giants vs. Plymouth. It was a really fun game - lots of action, and the Giants ended up winning in overtime. All in all, a fun night! Thanks Scott.
It looks like it's going to be a summer of music festivals for me. First Coachella, which was amazing; then this past weekend the first annual Virgin Music Festival. This was a two-day event, but I passed on the first day of the event - there were some OK bands, but no one that I was dying to see. Monday (day two...) was a different story...
Day two had a number of bands that I wanted to see, so I headed out to Thunderbird Stadium at UBC in the mid afternoon. After what had been a horrible long weekend (weather-wise), we finally got some sun! It actually got quite nice for the whole afternoon and evening. While this wasn't Coachella, there was a pretty good band list that I wanted to check out. Here's who I saw:
I showed up about half way though Metric's set. I'm not a huge fan, but they have a few songs I like. Enjoyed the part of the set that I saw, and they closed strong with one of their big hits. It was a pretty good set. After they wrapped up I thought I would try to head into the beer garden - what a disaster! The line up took at least half an hour, which was completely unwarranted. They had a ridiculous process for checking ID and letting people in. By the time I managed to get in, Hot Hot Heat (HHH) were on stage - so i decided there was no point trying to get out and come back, so I watched their set from the beer garden. Not idea, but good enough. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with HHH's music. There are a few songs I love, and a few that drive me crazy. But I'll give them credit, they put on a great, high energy set. They pulled out all the hits, and got the crowd into the show big time.
After HHH I wandered back out of the beer gardens, grabbed some food, and wandered over to watch AFI. Again, not very familiar with them - one or two songs that I new and liked. They are a bit hard for my general tastes, but again, they were very high energy, put on a great set, and really had the crowd going. I actually left their set before the end, and wandered up to the second stage, to see illScarlett. I figured I'd check out an "unknown" (well to me anyway...)band, and boy was I impressed. They're a Toronto band, and they pump out some pretty cool music. Definitely the "surprise" act of the show for me. I really enjoyed their set, and picked up one of their CDs for good measure. I like to support Canadian bands when I can.
The night ended with The Killers. The Killers are my favorite band going right now - straight forward rock and roll, with a bit of Brit-pop influence. Well I think they remind me a bit of some of those 90's bands... They put on an amazing set, and again you can just tell the different between a band like the Killer, who headline big shows and some of the other bands from earlier in the day. They really put on a great show. They played a nice mix of the big songs from the current album, plus they pulled out all the hits from their first album. This was my second time seeing the band - I had seen them a few years back at Bumbershoot in Seattle, the year they hit it big. What a difference a couple of years on the road makes. While the show in Seattle was good, they were pretty raw. There was a lot more polish to their act this time around. Man it was a good show!
2007-05-07
This past weekend I surprised mom and dad with a quick visit. I flew in Saturday afternoon, then back to Vancouver Sunday night. It was a lot of fun - especially mom's reaction to seeing me when I pulled up. :-)
It was nice to see everyone again - even if it was a very short visit. Mackenzie has grown so much in the past few months - unreal. I'm off to Atlanta for a quick work trip today - hopefully I'll be able to finish all the incomplete posts later this week.