May 11, 2009

CF Rocks DC



If you live in the Washington DC area, there was only one place to be Saturday night: at the 9:30 Club catching Chester French's phenomenal performance. CF, along with Hollywood Holt opened for the very bada$$ Lady Sovereign. While they were all amazing, I'm going to focus on Chester French because I <3 them times infinity. :)

After watching CF's performance on Jimmy Fallon, I knew that the energy from them would be off the wall. And I was right.



My friend/assistant Heather and I were in the front row (I was actually able to rest my purse and beer on the stage, ha!) and got to soak up all of that energy as it poured off of DA and Max and flowed over the crowd.



As you know from my previous interview, these two are talented beyond words. DA's voice was smooth and sexy (like buttah!) and that boy can work a tambourine! Max was right in front of me and I got a close-up view of his tight guitar playing while he simultaneously played the keyboard:



Still blows me away! And both of their moves just make you want to get on the stage and dance with them (as three lucky girls got to do. *jealous*)



What I love most about CF, though, is how in-touch they are with their fans. They mingled with the crowd after their perfomance, took tons of pictures with everyone, and were really just so down-to-earth.



The highlight for me was when Max and DA remembered who I was when I said I was "Blonde Blogger." DA even remembered my real name, saying, "Oh, Dawn!" and gave me a huge hug. And just so you know...because you really must know this....DA also called me "sexy." ;)

The only downside of the night is that the pics of me with DA came out so bad. I'll be brave enough to share this one with you:



But the most important picture (Heather and I with DA on CF's tourbus) came out so bad that my husband couldn't stop laughing. It was that bad. *sigh* Of all the pictures, that one was the one that I really needed to turn out good. Oh well...here it is cropped:



Heather is a journalism student so I was thrilled to bring her along with me to interview CF (her first interview ever!).

The intereview is in two parts because a couple of fans walked by and wanted a picture with DA. So I paused while he took the photo. See what I mean? EVERY fan is important to them and treated like a friend.

Finally, I have tried three different hosts for these videos and all of them darken them so much that you cannot see DA's face. Which sucks for you because he has a really cute face. :)

Here is the on-the-street, tourbus-side interview with DA, with a transcript below. DA starts by offering Heather tips for interviewing, then, in the spirit of CF's brand new album "Love the Future," talks about future plans, as well as Mick Jagger and pelvic thrusts. ;)





Part One - Know that my way-too-loud laughter at DA's shout-out to you all was due to the fact that I thought he was making a joke about my blog title. I thought he was referring to himself as the other blonde of "So Two Blondes Walk Into a Blog" because even though he's a (very hot) redhead, there is some blonde there!

And this is just more proof of how sweet he is...when we realized he wasn't joking, he felt so bad that he put his head into his hands and made the most adorable, "I'm so sorry" face. Then he let me shoot a quick correction. But seriously? He could've called my blog "Five Brunettes Walk Into a Phonebook" and I could not adore him any less. :)





Part Two - D.A. explains who inspired his astounding, on-stage energy.





Part Three- D.A. gives a corrected shout out to my readers (you!).

Interview Transcript:

HEATHER: You once tweeted that, when the Lady Gaga show got cancelled in DC, that two of your best shows [that] you’ve ever done were in DC and Richmond. So what is it about DC that made it so memorable for you?

DA WALLACH: DC is just the, the most exuberant city I feel like. For whatever reason, I don’t know if it’s us or if it’s DC, when we came to DC we just played an acoustic show before in a sneaker shop and there were...I was shocked at the number of people who came out because we do it in a lot of different cities, and I was just amazed at the number of people we had supporting us in DC just organically, maybe off the internet or whatever.

But I love DC, I would probably live here if I didn’t live in Wisconsin and you know, I spent summers here a couple of times in high school because I have family out here and it’s just a great place to come.

H: So when will you be headlining your own tour?

DA: I don’t know when we’re going to headline our own tour, it’s a little bit of a mysterious prospect because we’ve never headlined, so we don’t know how many people would come out to see us in a given city. But I think we can safely say we’ll try it in the fall at some point.

H: So you’re really awesome performers.

BLONDEBLOGGER: We’ve noticed you’ve acted really well in all of your interviews, any plans to do SNL, any improv, any kind of acting?

H: Because we would love to see you do that.


DA: Man, we would definitely do SNL in a second. Yeah, we would do SNL in a heartbeat. I mean, we don’t act but we like messing around and having fun and when people put cameras in your faces it’s usually the best option. So, we’re friends, so, so I’m giving you the real genuine side.

H: Who have you seen, that you’ve taken influence from when you perform? Like, what was your first show?

DA: Well, I’ll tell you a show I saw that stays in my mind and remains inspirational, and that is my mom took me, in like sixth or seventh grade, to see The Rolling Stones in Madison, Wisconsin and even at 60 years old, Mick Jagger is running back and forth across the stadium, and dancing his ass of and, you know, not that it competes with The Rolling Stones of the 60’s or 70’s, but I certainly feel like I can’t let a 60 year old man out-energize me every night. I’m not there yet, but I’m aspiring to his level of you know, energy.

BB: Your energy was amazing tonight.

DA: Thank you very much.

H: Yeah, I noticed the thrusts [like] you did on E!

DA: A lot of pelvic thrusts. We do a lot of pelvic thrusts.

H: It’s your signature.

DA: It is my signature. I just like people to know that that whole section is just working, you know what I mean? Just trying to clear the rumors up, you know? It’s all functional.

***********************************




Functional indeed! Mick Jagger doesn't have a thing on DA!

I'd like to thank 42West for making this review/interview possible, and thanks again to Heather for her assistance. Of course, thanks also goes to DA for the interview and the hugs. :)

Be sure to check out Chester French's website as well as their Twitter accounts. You can also choose from a number of fun packages CF is offering along with their "Love the Future" album here (I so want that safari trip!), and get a free download of CF's "Jaques Jams" mixtape here.


May 3, 2009

Su-Fine! Dane Cook's ISolated INcident Tour, 1st Mariner Arena, Baltimore, MD



Friday night, Dane Cook rocked the house hard with his ISolated INcident Global Thermo Comedy Tour at the 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore, MD. I had the privilege of reviewing the show from amazing seats thanks to the wonderful people at 1st Mariner.

I have been a fan of Dane for a long time now and I am clearly not alone, as thousands of people filled the huge arena. Think Britney Spears' crowd level. It was that big.

Here's something you need to know about Dane and this particular tour. This is his first time touring since losing both of his parents. His mother passed away first from cancer and shortly thereafter, his father became ill with cancer as well and died within nine months of his mother.

So it would be hard for anyone to pick themselves up after such a loss, much less find laughter once again. But Dane performed with energy and zest in honor of his parents, who were his biggest fans, and even included them in his routine. He called the show his "therapy."

One of the best parts of the show in fact, was about how Dane's parents got to see the good part of his fame (such as the packed arenas) but not the bad. Which would include the haters that come along once you're a celebrity. Dane had me both laughing and cheering him on as he recounted stories on that issue (I won't give away any of the jokes).

And what he revealed, to me at least, was that he has a HUGE heart. This is a guy who can crack jokes about the most crude things in one breath, and then turn around and make you laugh about very profound, deep moments from his life. That not only takes talent. That takes guts. And the crowd loved him for it.

More proof of the big heart that lies beneath the animated, boyish exterior: directly in front of me were a group of Marines who yelled out "Oo-rah!" Dane heard them and knew right away they were Marines.

He stopped his act to acknowledge them, thanked them for their service to our country and promised he'd be back in Iraq to perform for the troops as he'd done before...despite having a dog take a chunk out of his arm the last time he was there, lol ("But then I thought, maybe there's a bomb in my arm!" Dane said. "Good dog!")

The jokes Dane tells for ISolated INcident lean heavily toward the sexual. There were less of the type of jokes I love best from him (car alarms and parking garage squeals, the friend nobody likes, don't get on the flight, pickles, etc.), but I was still laughing until I cried. I did hear others commenting on the same thing, though as we left the show so I wasn't the only one who noticed.

One thing that I found funny....the girl next to me visibly tensed up every time he cracked a crude, sexual joke and all I could think was, "What are you even doing here? Don't you know what Dane Cook is all about?!"

Seriously, if you're that easily offended you do not want to go to a Dane Cook show. Everyone else around me was in hysterics, though. I think the girl might have been brought to the show as a date by the guy she was with. Man did he read her wrong if that's the case!

If you're a Dane Cook fan, you know that nothing is too offensive and nothing is off limits for him - politics, racism, and even the death of his own parents were all part of his act. Which just proves that humor is what makes Dane tick and if you have an open mind and a good sense of humor, you will totally get him.

And if you get him, and you have the opportunity to see his show, you're going to have the time of your life:

*************************************************************

~Visit Dane Cook's official website here. You can also find him on Twitter here.

~Click here to see upcoming dates and to purchase tickets for Dane's ISolated INcident Global Thermo Comedy Tour.

~For more information on the 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore, Maryland, click here.

~Follow Dane on tour with the VIP Pass iPhone app.

~Watch the "ISolated INcident" television special on Comedy Central, May 17.

~Purchase "ISolated INcident" on CD and DVD, in stores everywhere May 19.