Been lots going on since my last update. First off, I made it to the Chameleons at the Middle East on October 6. Even managed to get Veronica to go, despite the fact that she had been in bed all day with a cold. The show was as brilliant as the last time I saw them, in San Francisco in November 2000. Such great songs, such great live sound. They had a percussionist with them this time, a shrill little Jamaican who spat out things like "Maximum respect Boston, ha-ha-ha" between songs. Must be a Chameleons fixture I'm just not aware of because a lot of people there seemed to know who he was. Anyway, the set started off with "Swamp Thing" and touched on "A Person Isn't Safe Anywhere These Days", "Pleasure And Pain", "Don't Fall", "Second Skin", "Less Than Human", "Intrigue In Tangiers", "Perfume Garden", "Caution", a great near-drumless version of "Tears", "Soul In Isolation", "Indiana", and "Anyone Alive". So so good. Even worth putting up with the thirtysomething bozos in front of me who sang the worst accompaniment to The House Of Love's "I Don't Know Why I Love You" I've ever heard.

I've been recovering from a cold since last Wednesday. Always sucks to be sick, but at least because of it I let myself buy a video game to keep busy at home from work. Since Grand Theft Auto: Vice City isn't out until next week, I picked up Robotech: Battlecry for the Xbox. It's only gotten mediocre reviews, but it looked beautiful and I loved Robotech as a kid, so I was sold. It's actually quite good, I can't understand why it wasn't rated higher. The missions are varied, control takes a while to pick up but is effective, and the cel-shaded graphics make you believe you're watching an episode of the series. It really brings you the feeling of flying a Veritech, taking out battle pods while dodging hundreds of missile volleys, all in the most graceful manner imaginable.

So after getting myself back in working order, I headed to the Roxy last night with Emilio and Veronica to see Sleater-Kinney and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The Quails played first and looked pretty good, but given my distaste for unfamiliar openers we arrived in time for only their last two songs. I'd heard one Yeah Yeah Yeahs song and wasn't impressed, but Veronica was keen on seeing them. Turns out they were really cool ... a bit Liars-like in their disdain for conventionality, plus some interesting guitar work, and a kooky female lead singer. Sleater-Kinney were pretty good, not the best SK show I've ever seen but in the grand scheme of things very worthwhile. They've been out of commission for a year or so now, since Corinne had a baby. You could almost hear it from the first five songs ... lots of mistakes, sounded like they hadn't rehearsed in just as long. Carrie apparently has a new guitar effect that she's not totally comfortable with yet. It tightened up after that, however. Something I knew was going to happen one of these days at a Sleater-Kinney or Le Tigre show finally happened though ... between songs a heckler shouted out "F$#@ ME CARRIE!" You could've cut the air with a knife for the next few seconds. No retort from Carrie, just a half-believable "What?" The set list focused mainly on their new album One Beat ... just a smattering of All Hands On The Bad One, almost no The Hot Rock, and assorted favorites from Dig Me Out including the title track and "Words and Guitar". Also a couple of pre-Janet songs. I really don't like the Roxy as a music venue, but the show was all in all a good one. We're going back on Thursday for Clinic and the Apples In Stereo, also.

Now back to work. Some random thoughts and observations first: the person in front of me on the turnpike the other day paid the toll with a check ... what the f*@#? I would've won an NFL pool this past weekend, having picked 11 of 15 games right, if only I hadn't forgotten to mark down the tiebreaker over/under score ... dammit. And a big woo-hoo for the San Francisco Giants and their first World Series since 1989 and the Loma Prieda quake. Hope they have better luck this time, both earthquake- and baseball-wise.