The weekend seems like a blur. Cos and I caught only a few bands down at the celebration. The best was Calexico. We almost didn't go down for them but decided to at the last minute.
I'd heard Calexico recordings before and knew they had a cool, spacious vibe with interesting instrumentation, but I was unprepared for how good they were live. Vibes, nylon string + electric guitars, upright bass, drums, accordian, lap steel and trumpets + killer mariachi-influenced alt-rock is the only description I can come up with offhand. All the players were ace; the drummer and accordian/trumpet/guitar player stood out as being exceptional and the guitarist/vocalist had great stage presence. Very inspiring and the large local audience was really digging it, although only a few were dancing. Highlights were a cover of Love's "Alone again or" and a drawn out mariachi/space jam (sounds wrong but it wasn't) called "Crystal Frontier" I'm always happy when some truly good bands come through Eugene and actually have a good audience. I can't even count the amazing bands that have only played here once or twice to empty halls and never return to the hippy-college town that's too stoned to break away from the TV to go receive some live music stimulation.

All aside, I feel drained on a Monday but happy to be more-or-less back on track with my various projects and other aspects of my life.