The UVA men’s basketball team just upset the No. 10 Arizona Wildcats in the newly-built JPJ, 93-90. It was the season opener and the ingaugural regular season game for the JPJ. Sean Singletary (ACC POY this year! Yeah, maybe…) and Mamadi Diane both had 25 points, and Jason Cain got a double-double. What a way to open up a new arena, eh?

Man, what a high scoring, exciting game. Too bad I missed out on it, and the new arena too! I really have to try to get to a game when I visit home.

Last night Than and I saw a very late-night solo show by Spoon’s talented front-man Britt Daniel. We thought we were “late” when we got to the Parish around 10:30, but we still caught both of the gigs on before him. I remember checking the time right before Britt started his set and, seeing that it was after midnight, thinking: “This is going to be a very late night. I’m going to be very tired.” Honestly, I was already really tired, and I can’t remember if I’ve seen a show where the main gig started after midnight, at least not since college.

I might have been really tired before Britt’s set – and I definitely was ready to pass out after it ended (1:30am or so?) – but during the set my mind forgot the late-nightedness and tiredness. Because the venue wasn’t very crowded (surprising, I thought), I was less than arm’s reach from the stage and practically right under Britt’s nose. It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to see every wrinkle in a musician’s face when he/she smiled and sang. It was literally amazing. And it was neat to discover small things, like how Britt shuffles his feat a certain way when he’s performing.

For most of the show, though, I found that I couldn’t keep my eyes off of Britt’s hands. It was as if I was trying to take in as much of the chords and techniques as I could so I could replicate them myself later. I don’t know why though, since, as we all know, there’s no way I could ever play that stuff, even if I theoretically worked it out in my head! Even then, seeing Britt play the songs I love so close inspired me to want to play them myself. We’ll see how that goes…

Britt’s set was good – I feel like there were some songs that he played that Spoon the band wouldn’t normally play. He started the set with a few new songs that will be on their next album. One of them had “Ginny” in its lyrics; at first I thought I was hearing it wrong, but after Than nudged me a few times after Britt would sing it I figured it really was there. Pretty cool, huh? First the Harry Potter series, now a Britt Daniel song… I’m getting famous!

All in all, it was a great night. The only thing that was bothersome was the guy standing behind me who was belching out the lyrics to Britt’s songs. I’m usually cool with people singing along and whatnot (I do myself!), but at a solo show when things are quieter, I’d rather not hear some Joe-Schmoe’s crappy voice over for who I actually paid to come see. But that wasn’t enough to dampen my enjoyment of the show anyway. I’m surprised I got through the night fairly well – much better than I would have originally thought, considering I managed to wake up and get to work on time!

So being in Austin is pretty awesome for music… I’ve seen Dwight Yoakam, Wilco, attended ACL… Britt/Spoon again in December… and many more shows to come I’m sure!

I saw Spoon last night! They played at Emo’s in front of a sold-out crowd. It was a really awesome show. They played all the songs I wanted them to play, a couple of new songs, plus more. Even though the stage was the “outside” stage, it was REALLY stuffy and hot – so many people and just two fans! I’m just glad I got to see them. I can’t believe it took over 1.5 years to see them again. Next time will be sooner – moving to the city where they used to be from helps :).

And Britt Daniel is a real showman. He almost got his guitar caught in one of the wires hanging off the ceiling, and on more than one occassion he either ran into the mic or knocked his guitar into it. Good stuff.