The Evening Muse for Evening Music

For the 2nd Saturday night in a row I headed to North Davidson St. in Charlotte to the Evening Muse last weekend to see Baleen, and this weekend to see Glorydive. I knew nothing about Glorydive, and so after sitting through last weekends acousticly toned down atmosphere, I wasn’t too excited to go again (despite the fact that Jane loved it last time).

But I put aside my apprehension and decided I’d plunk down the $10. When I arrived I was surprised to see that where last week the floor was full of seats an tables, the floor was now empty for people to stand (like at a concert). I talked with Marcus and Jessica and Brandon for a bit before someone came up behind me and said, “Justin Ritchie! Nathan Hammond!”… I didn’t recognize him at first because he’d cut his hair a little since I’d last seen him 2 years ago, but it was Nathan Hammond, the former candidate for Student Body Vice President at UNC Charlotte and the man I went to the Muse concert in the on-campus basketball arena with. He told me that I was in for one of the greatest shows I’d ever seen and that a Glorydive is, “When you dive for a Frisbee and put yourself completely on the line, and after you catch it you have nothing but glory” . Well, I must say I didn’t believe Mr. Hammond a bit. How could this band be so awesome? What made them so great?

The show started and they sounded pretty good. Kind of folksy rock by 3 guys. One on vocals and acoustic guitar, one on all sorts of percussion, and one on a custom electric fiddle/guitar that strapped on to his shoulder. As the set continued, it grew on me more. And then the humor began. They performed what seemed like improvised (and even if they weren’t improvised they were still hilarious) songs about coconut monkeys and the failure to get receipts at the gas station when you request one. As the percussionist, Alex recalled his purchase of gatorade from a gas station, he commented that his trouble with addition came from the fact he was an NC State grad…. haha… In the end, Glorydive did live up to the high expectations Nathan Hammond set for me. Marcus remarked, “Jason Feltis would love these guys.” and he would.. .so Jason, check them out.

Here is a link to their MySpace, http://www.myspace.com/glorydive

My thoughts that the Muse fostered pretentious musical stereotypes is gone thanks to Glorydive

… Seriously, check out their Myspace

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Sometimes You Take a Gamble and Lose

It may seem like a mystery that the Panthers would lose because of a trick play that had no reason to be called. But don’t be so quick to crucify Chris Gamble. Gamble was either,

a) Given the option of doing a lateral on a punt return
or
b) Told to do a lateral on a punt return

There is no way that Gamble could do that by his own decision and still walk over to the sidelines receiving just a little pat on the head by the guys on the sideline. John Fox himself would have walked over and told Gamble he was an idiot for trying a lateral on a punt return in the 4th quarter while in command of the game if it was improvised. It may be an ugly 0-2 start but the game did have a lot of optimistic points. For starters the defense looked a lot better for most of the game (minus Minnesota’s opening drive). DeAngelo Williams looked good too. Give it about 2 more weeks before Williams wins the starting job.

While DeAngelo Williams Looked Amazing, Chris Gamble Looked to Draw Anger From Fans

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