Brother's suggestions

I finally have had someone suggest what I should write!  This makes my job a thousand times easier since I don't have to sit here and ponder and ponder.  My brother suggested that I give a review on the Decemberists concert and the first episode of Game of Thrones, so here goes!

For the Decemberists' show they performed at the Overture Center for the Arts instead of at the Orpheum, the venue I last saw them at.  I'm not sure if the band looked into what the Overture is like, for they seemed very much surprised that the crowd was sitting down and quite orderly.  The Overture has a feeling of class, and has seating that goes right up to the stage- not ideal for having a dancing, standing crowd.  In fact, the band urged fans to come up to the stage, but after mere minutes, security guards were forcing people back.

Needless to say, I think this reporter got it right when he said "the Decemberists warm up Overture Hall."  It certainly was the first rock concert I've gone to where I stayed seated the whole time.  Also, I was way up on the third balcony, and while it was still easy to see everything, it's harder to stay pumped enough to stand.

But, aside from that, the show was still very good.  I really enjoy their latest CD 'The King is Dead,' which has a slightly different feel for me from their other albums.  If you haven't seen them live, I highly encourage it.  The band likes to mess around- they mercilessly teases the security guards that were acting like douchebags- but they also sound just as good live as on their albums.

Now, Game of Thrones first episode was also very good, I thought.  The creators did a great job of picking a cast that is relatively unknown, not fake-Hollywood gorgeous, and matched to how I imagine the characters in the book.  My friends thought they could have picked someone other than Sean Bean, since they think of TLOTR, but that connotation didn't really come to mind for me personally.

The settings are absolutely amazing, oh my god, everything looks so good and beautifully foreign- I especially liked King's Landing and am looking forward to upcoming episodes where it'll be shown more specifically.  It's been a few years since I've read Game of Thrones, but it seemed to me that they've done a really good job of following the book as best as they could.  Impossible to add in all the details, but still a great job.

Some of my favorite details: the Hound's helm is awesome, the godswood is really neat looking, the girl they picked for Arya is perfect, and that I already hate Sansa and Prince Joff.

Song of the day: Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out