Amber Ale In

Last Sunday I brewed up an Amber Ale beer. Unlike the previous Brewer's Best kits that I had used, this was a very generic Amber. So I cooked it up as usual, making good progress on the time. The only real change up compared with previous batches was that at the end, I first reactivated brewer's yeast in a half of cup of water, let it stand for about 10 minutes, then added it to the wort. Stirred and then capped it off.

I got really concerned a couple of days later when I noticed that the water-stopper was not bubbling. At all. No bubbles to me translates as to no CO2 gas, means no fermenting beer. Did I brew it too fast? Was the yeast DOA? What was going on? I emailed friends and family and got some good advice, like stir it up and get them microbes moving.

I popped open the lid the next day, and immediately noticed that the smell of alcohol was there, so something was definitely going on, just not sure what. I mixed it up a bit while I was at it. By Saturday, I cracked it open again to catch a whiff, which nearly knocked me on my ass it was so strong. Gave it one more day for good measure, and bottled it all up last night.

The color was distinctly lighter my last batch, almost like the color in the picture above, despite it being an Amber Ale. I did use a bit more water than usual this time - around 5.25 gallons - so it is a bit more watered down. Unfortunately, while cleaning up after the initial brewing, I dropped and shattered the hydrometer, so there was no way to get a good reading this time. I'm just guessing it's going to land at the 4.0 to 4.2 % alcohol range.

Anyway, I swigged a bit of the leftover after bottling, and as raw as it still is it's got a nice bing to it. Excited to see how this translates 3 weeks from now!

NIN | JA

And... I'm back. It's been a minute, I'm alive and well, just busy busy where the blog's priority gets set to low.

Next topic of discussion before it's too late: the NIN | JA show @ Nikon Jones Beach Theater.

Took a trip last Sunday via two Long Island RR commuter trains out to Jones Beach area, which is about 20 miles or so from my place, but takes a bit to get to. Kind of like the old days when we would drive across town to get to Grandma's. As the crow flies, not so far! But as the wheels roll, strap in for the ride. At our exiting station, I ran into one of my coworkers, who upon hearing about the show on Friday told his wife, who happened to be a huge NIN fan, so they came. Took a 10 minute bus ride from there to the amphitheater, which is this huge cement outdoor venue right on the water. As its now Nikon's place, Ashton Kutcher is all over the place as well, yowzers.

Anyway, was totally psyched about the show going in, knowing that this is said to be the end of NIN for awhile (5-8 years is my guess), and Janes Addiction is Janes Addiction, knew they were going to be good. Gotta love those shows.

And why not kick it all off with who else than Tom Morello and the Street Sweeper Social Club, "they're not a band, they're a social club. Street Sweeper Social Club." (as vocalist Boots Riley pointed out after nearly everysong). Their songs were solid; I guess I didn't realize that they've been together for some time now. The better half of their set had Tom producing some sweet licks, some very Rage-esque, and entertaining all around.

NIN kicked off their set with a slightly altered, more explosive version of The Fragile's Somewhat Damaged and kept it going from there. The setlist was heavy in older material, in particular 6 tracks from The Downward Spiral, with no new material until the 15th song, Survivalism! (With one song each from the most recent 3 albums; no Ghost tracks here.) Simply put, they rocked it from beginning to end.

Full set list here: http://reflectinginthechrome.com/20090607.php

Compared with previous sets, the visual were surprisingly sparse, with nothing more than some overhead yellowish lights, wall strobes with white / red lights, and a smoke machine that was off the hook. Almost too simple: they could have done a bit more with the overhead lights. But the tradeoff was that the focus was on the music and its performance. For the most part things came across great, but it became apparent that beefy uncle Trent just can't hit some of the high notes he used to, not without sounding entirely constipated anyway. Hurt as a closer, while almost cliche in a sense, was more powerful than I can ever describe and was a perfect ending to see these guys off.

Janes Addiction: Simply fucking amazing set. Everything I had heard up til then regarding the band's reunion sounded too good to be true, but really, they were spot on, tight as ever, and put on one hell of a show. Perry Ferrel floated around the set like some kind of impish drunkard, sipping on his bottle of wine the whole time, givin' respect to the crowd. Solid rhythm section set a perfect backbone for Dave Navarro to create a lead guitar solar system of heavy gravity proportions. (did i just write that? ha!) Visually, the band had a better back drop, with prettier colors and black and white naked ladies, and also used a partial drop down video screen, which took a pretty good beating because...

... it was cold and windy as hell down there. I made a critical error in that it was 80+ degrees when I left our house in shorts and t-shirt and of course didn't think it would be so bad. Yeah right! It was 55 degrees with the wind gushing off the cold water, and on top of that, started to drizzle at bits. Fuck me, that was brutal. Never doing that again.

My other complaint: the venue is dry. Outside of the VIP section or performances, there was no drinking what-so-ever at the location. Seriously? We found out after the fact that you can drink on the LIRR... just bring it on and chug away. Will definitely keep that in mind for next time.

Anyway, awesome awesome show, and worth the trip.

Life in the Fast Train

'Sho gonna make you lose your mind... or keep wishing for more.

One things for damn sure: this ain't no shinkansen.

Took the Acela yesterday from NYC to Boston here for the Flash on Tap conference. First time riding Amtrak in years, and certainly the first time riding their big guns, which they boast to be the fastest line in the US. Supposedly, the stretch between Boston and NYC has some parts wher speeds can surpass 130 mph - and its possible we obtained that speed, if ever for only such a short moment - but for the most part, it really wasn't that fast. Or it didn't seem that way.

Built on a foundation of old rails, it's very clear that it can't run fast for a reason - the cars would simply go flying off the tracks. Not good! But what really got me was how bumpy it was.

Case in point, I went back to the Cafe car (sweet that they had one, but $2 for a can of ginger ale? really?) and as I was walking back to my seat, we hit a bump and I fell over on top of someone. Thankfully for him, my drink only managed to spill on me. Sticky shirt express! Later on, after back in my seat, same thing: two guys were walking, we hit a bump, and I had to push to brace one of the guys from completely falling onto my lap. The seats ain't so easy to grab either.

It was craptastically cloudy yesterday, so I'm hoping for some sun on the way home. Will try and get some good video of the fast parts then, because when it does hit the fast speeds, it is slick. Just beware of the bumpy.

Holy Fuck, A Place to Bury Strangers!

Following on the tails of last week's Melvins show, saw the incredible liquid energy show of Holy Fuck Saturday night @ Bowery Ballroom. Hella good show, just a bit late for me: start time was 11:30pm. Didn't matter, I was really looking forward to the set; when former Enon drummer Matt Schulz came out to set up his drums, I knew it was on.

After standing around since 9:30ish for Crocodiles and then A Place to Bury Strangers, the feet were killing us, and we were lucky enough to grab a table with great view from the upstairs balcony. The show kicked off with a series of songs that sounded new (including "Jungle", which seems recently added to their MySpace page), and once they warmed up the crowd they started throwing some of the older tunes into the mix. A move they did, because the whole venue turned into this electric dance floor, at the very least heads were moving, and for some of the more flamboyants, total dance party USA.

Despite all this energy, at some point about 45 minutes into the show, I started feeling past my bedtime syndrome, probably in part due to staying out nearly 1:30 the night before for a nomikai with Reiko's coworkers. Thus came the weird surreal state of semi-consciousness - falling asleep in small bursts but all the while aware of the awesome show going on around me. Kinda like zoning out while riding the lawn mower and your neighbors are having a pool party, grabbing the wheel in time to make the turn and not crash into the fence. But I came to, and we headed downstairs and caught the rest of the show there. Up close, things looked so busy but with everyone having a good time.

Matt Schulz in particular is a real treat to watch - his style is the epitome of fast and aggressive. The thing that really gets me is his speed and ambidextrousness: He plays a regular 4-piece drum kit, but uses his left hand as the lead for hi-hat work, right hand for ride cymbal. Drum fills seem to be right-left-right-left patterns, but again, everything is lightening fast so its hard to say for sure. The results of the mixup seems to allow for some nice change ups and patterns I've never heard elsewhere, hence my fondness for listening to him play. And, perhaps it was the lack of seeing him at that Enon show last month that left such a meh feeling in my mouth.

As for the other bands, Crocodiles had a modern new wave sound going for them, but as only a 2 piece, they lacked from where they could be with the addition of a solid drummer and bassist. Mostly good tunes, albeit intentionally dated sounding. A Place to Bury Strangers: let down. After hearing all this hype for them ("New York's Loudest band!", "THE band to see at SXSW!"), their opening song came out of sync, with the drums behind the guitar behind the vocals; this happened on a few other tracks. Another track, a slow noise builder, finally came to an end, and... wait for it... they played the exact same fucking thing for another two or three minutes, no double-time beats to save the day. I don't know if it was the venue being mean to them or what, but I was not impressed, move along folks, move along.

Japanke

JAPANKE.

That's the word my cell phone spit out when I put it in word mode and hit the keys for k-a-r-a-o-k-e. Now that I've added the word, it should input it correctly. But hot damn, JAPANKE sounds like a much better word now that I think about it.

Saint Seiya, as sung by Robert and others, was a total hit. My version of Loser got everyone going too.

Head hurts.

Punch-Out!!

Lack of posts here recently... sorry. Quick follow up to the last post: The Melvins were totally sweet last Friday and played an absolute solid set for 2:15. Didn't realize how much the core of the band is King Buzzo and Dale Crover. Well, it rocked, hard, and finished at a good hour. Wish more sets were like that...

So! Last Saturday, Punch-Out!! day at the Nintendo World Store. What this meant was the game went on sale exclusively there, and a tournament was held. Interesting idea in holding a tournament when no one had played the game before... where have I seen this before? Got there around start time at 1pm but was already too late to make the tourney, so we saw walked around, saw the game, and I bought it on spot (they even threw in a free t-shirt and chocolate bar.)

Without getting too reviewish here: if you're a fan of the original or even the SNES release, you'll totally dig this version. At its core, nothing has changed about the game other than a graphical face lift; controls with a tilted to the side Wiimote will feel right at home. Haven't even tried the Waggle control scheme yet!

Yes, there are only 12 main people to contend with, mostly from the original release, with two from the SNES (Aran Ryan and Bear Hugger), but the title bout defend mode where you battle everyone again gives the game plenty of replay time: so far, I've spent as much time on my "second round" of bouts with the Minor Circuit flunkies as I did on the whole first pass through the Minor, Major and World Circuits combined.

To do: multiplayer. Reiko wants nothing to do with this one, so it's up to y'all. Stop on by if you want to play.

Oh, and Doc Louis' famous chocolate bar? The plainest bar I've ever seen. Reminded me of my "FOR BIG MISTAKES" erase from back of the day. Yet, in honor of the late Darren McGavin, "Not a finger!"

The Roots

Heading out soon to go see the Melvins play. Very excited about this. It's funny I'm even very familiar with their tunes so well but just have the feelin' it's gonna be sweet.

And also, we used up our vegetables in the ref. Usually, we try and time it so that we don't have a lot of vegetables sitting unused over the weekend, but sometimes it just ends up that way. But this time, we're down to just a small bit of lettuce, and we're ready to stock up again. Chinatown funny roots ahoy!

Gonna brew up a beer this weekend also, a classic red ale. I'm a bit surprised because the recipe sounds surprisingly simple to follow. Not sure if that's a good thing or now, but will share the eventual results! As for the last batch, a Brewer's Best IPA batch, the flavor has been really solid, a bit crisp perhaps and could have used just a bit more water. Problem we had this past time was some of the bottles appeared to seal fine but have opened up surprisingly flat, 'specially the three or four Negro Modelo bottles, screw them for wasting my beer, you know? You like, know?