Last month Kate and I went to see the Foo Fighters at the Berkeley Community Theater. I wasn’t sure what to expect because they decided to make this an acoustic tour, reflecting the music found on half of their “In Your Honor” CDs . I love acoustic sets, but I have to say that one of the things that draws me to the Foo Fighters is the raw energy of the band that is created from the huge multi-layered sounds that emit from the guitars, bass, drums and Grohl’s belting. It only took a couple of mintues into the show for me to realize that this would shape up to be my favorite show of all time.

It also re-inforced to me that Dave Grohl is one of (if not the best) rock musician out there. Towards the end of the show, he came out for an encore by himself and sang “Best of You” a cappella and then added only his acoustic guitar. If you are familiar with the song, you’d remember that it is a pretty heavy song, yet he carried it without any bass, drums or backup vocals. Okay, he didn’t carry it, he nailed it….gave me the chills. Was over the top incredible. The entire show was unbelievable. There aren’t many shows left and many are sold out, but if you can catch it, I HIGHLY recommend it.

Here’s the set list (Thanks Kate!):

1. Razor – (just David Grohl – later joined by rest of band)
2. Still
3. On the Mend
4. Walking After You
5. Over and Out
6. Next Year
7. Another Round
8. Ain’t It the Life
9. See You
10. Floaty (sung by Petra Haden)
11. Virginia Moon
12. Cold Day in the Sun (sung by Taylor Hawkens)
13. Miracle
14. February Stars
15. Times Like These

ENCORE
1. Friend of a Friend (just David Grohl)
2. Best of You (just David Grohl)
3. Everlong (just David Grohl and later joined by the rest of the band)

And did I mention that Dave broke his own rule and played a Nirvana tune? Not only that but he preceded “Friend of a Friend” with an awesome story about his days in Nirvana….

[Engadget.com] Jobs offered a bit of advice to consumers: “If you always want the latest and greatest, then you have to buy a new iPod at least once a year.” Gee, thanks, Steve. We always thought it was the dead batteries or battered shell that kept sending us back to the Apple store. Glad you could set us straight.

Yesterday Keesey suggested that I pick up the new Raconteurs CD. Wow! 90% of the time I need to listen to a CD several times before I can say if I like it or not, but that’s not the case with this one. The Raconteurs are fronted by Jack White and Brendan Benson while the rest of the band is from Cincinnati OH (the Greenhornes). If I were to say they sounded like anyone, I would say old Zepplin. This CD rocks!

A couple of months ago, I bought the Bose SoundDock off of my boss. He used it for a day and decided that it cluttered up his desk (yeah, I didn’t get it either), so he sold it to me for a great price.

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I’ve had my 60GB Video iPod for almost 6 months now and you’d think it was 6 years. It is ridiculous how easily and badly the iPod scratches. It amazes me that Apple can get away with it! Can you imagine what a car would look like if it were built to iPod specs? I think I’m going to have to make a subsequent post on the subject once I’ve photo shopped the hypothetical result

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I love my 60GB Video iPod. It fits my entire music collection on the device and when combined with my playlists, it allows me to listen to my favorite tunes at all times. At home I use iTunes, but I decided that I needed access to my iPod in the car since my daily commute is about an hour.

CNET did a review of the DLO Transpod , saying it was the best FM Transmitters out there and that the sound quality was “excellent”.

After using the product for the last two months, I’ve come to the conclusion that I will never trust another review from CNET, ever!!. Although the DLO Transpod works as advertised and the fact that I now have my playlist available in my car, the sound quality is terrible.

My entire music collection is ripped into .mp3s sampled at 320kbps which is lossless. On my PC they sound great. On my iPod playing through my Shure headphones they sound great. Pop the iPod into the DLO cradle and I lose my low end, “p”’s pop and the overall quality of sound goes through the floor.

Small price to pay for the convenience I guess, but I’m going to insure that my next car has built in support for my iPod.