Glen Phillips show at Red Rock Cafe

    I loved Toad the wet sprocket so when I found out Glen Phillips was going to play a solo show I was stoked. He played at Red Rock Cafe in Mountain View. It was really cool to see him in such an intimate, warm setting. He played a few things from Toad, including a lot of new solo stuff. I really enjoyed the show. I would like to take my boyfriend and friends to see him live again someday. I hope to also see Toad perform sin the future. I remember playing Toad's music in High School. My favorite albums were Dulcinea, Pale and Coil. I really love their earlier stuff too. I remember playing "Fly From Heaven" and "Fall Down" Their music always resonated with me and my friends. Even now when I listen to my Toad albums it is super nostalgic and I cherish the memories that their tune's bring back. The show started off with him playing a few older songs. The crowd was thrilled when he played "Walk on the Ocean". I have always loved that song and I really like his song "Solar Flare" and he played some newer stuff which we were excited to hear. Melodic and cool as ever we sung along to some of his songs.

    For Glen fans it was a dream come true. His lyrics and tunes always move people. If you haven't heard of Glen Phillips or Toad, I recommend you check them out. Especially if you love 90's, indie, grunge era like me. I feel like Glen's music kind of really resonated with that generation. Dulcinea was one of those albums I would listen to again and again. When I was depressed I would put on that music and feel better. Music like that will always stay in my heart.

        Glen played an awesome show at Red Rock. He is extremely witty and funny. He talked a lot during his set and interacted quite a bit with people. He played two shows back to back which is so cool of him and awesome. I remember saying he had never done that before so I thought it was really nice that he did. Glen doesn't have that bull shit arrogant rock star thing going on. He is genuinely chill and very cool. You can tell he actually cares about his fans and he cares about the music he is making and is really into it. He took time after the first show to talk and hang with fans, sign our cds and even take pics with us. I found him to be an incredibly kind and generous person. He took a pic with me and even signed my old Toad cd. It was one of the high lights of my year and I won't forget it. When I got home I immediately went to his site and bought his recent solo album "The Coyote Sessions" Very cool and worth it. Go check it out!

Mark Brown's photography show

One of the pieces I bought. I loved this.

My friends holding down the fort ;)

The talented Mark Brown in front of one of is amazing pieces.

Sunday evening my friend Mark Brown and his wife Donna held a really cool photography show fundraiser for their aid work in Central Asia. I met Mark a few years ago and have always loved his photography but it was amazing to see his work up close and personal. It was a very nice turn out last night. His work ranged from minimalist pieces that were so simplistic they almost looked as if they were pen and ink to more complex incredible land scape pieces. He really captures the soul of each subject and has a story behind everything. There were so many photographs I wanted to buy but I picked three of my favorites: A really cool photo of deer called "The Sentinels" in the tall grass that showed his incredible depth of field, a minimalist tree branch in the snow photo and a small picture of school children in Afghanistan. He had some other incredible pieces of forests and trees and of of Garin Park that had a Lord of the Rings like vibe.

Some of my other favorite photos were his Afghanistan pieces. He played with color extremely well in those. Some were subtle others were colors of people and bright clothing juxtaposed against black and white settings. I loved his nature landscapes as well. They weren't cliche at all, they were very different. He has a way of capturing things so they almost have a fantasy like feel. He can photograph a tree root and it takes on a life of it's own. My friend Emily picked up a really cool tree piece that I totally dug. Some of his rolling landscapes looked amazing mixed in with more minimal shots that had a really cool indie rock feel to it. The thing I liked about the show was how different each photograph looked. There was a a definite mixture of styles and I really enjoyed that. It was one of those shows where you wanted to keep going back over and over again to look at each piece. It was a great show and it was fun to mingle with other artists, photography enthusiasts and be able to chat with Donna Brown and others.


Go here to check out more of Mark's work: Mark Brown Photography