Category: music

The Porter & Mayer Hawthorne

Last Friday we had tickets to see Mayer Hawthorne at the Variety. Beforehand we met friends at The Porter for dinner. We started with the Belgian fries and they were ridiculous. Slathered in garlic oil. So good.

The vegan option at The Porter is the black bean burger. Oh, look, more fries. Now, given the reputation The Porter has for their food, I was expecting a little more from this black bean burger. It was .. okay. Not bad at all, just nothing memorable about it. Although that red pepper mustard was delicious.

Beer was consumed as well. I started with a Hopscotch, then dialed back the % to a Terrapin Easy Rider. It was like going from Winter to Summer. Easy Rider could become a regular summer beer.

We didn’t arrive at the venue until towards the end of the opener’s set. And our favorite seats were already taken. So we headed to the balcony. We found a pair with a perfect view except for the people shuffling to and from the stairs.

We first saw Mayer Hawthorne as an opener for Chromeo. Even if you aren’t 100% into the Motown, blue-eyed soul kind of music he puts out, the show is fantastic. It really is a good time.

And here’s a better view from the floor. These days there’s no need to be that person holding up their phone or camera the whole show because someone else definitely will.

Plum Bistro & Portishead

Of course we went to Plum Bistro while we were in Seattle. The raving about the Mac & Yease could not be ignored. It seemed like it might be healthier than Soul Vegetarian’s but just as creamy and tasty. What put it over the top for me was the crusty bits.

We also got a plate of sliders, three different types, that we cut up in pieces so we could all try them. And their slider size is about normal home burger size.

My entrée was Fennel Grilled Tempeh with a polenta cake and greens.

I think Kevin had the Country Fried Seitan Steak sandwich. But I’m not sure. It looks more like that than the Crazy Jamaican.

Taylor & Kevin full of noms.

And, later that evening, the whole reason for the trip, Portishead. This was easily one of the best sounding shows I’ve ever seen. The crowd was so respectful that they held most cheering and noise for between songs. Everyone was nearly silent.

 

Dinner and a show, eh

Sunday night we went to see Thievery Corporation with some friends. Beforehand, we grabbed dinner at R. Thomas Deluxe Grill. R. Thomas is one of those places where just about everyone can be satisfied. They have some meaty stuff, vegetarian, vegan, raw. They usually have a vegan desert too. While I do feel kind of bad for the birdies in cages outside, it’s a good place to go with mixed company.

They have several bowls that can be vegan. I got the Lucky Green Tea Bowl. Except they were out of bowls, so it’s on a platter. Doesn’t matter, it ate up fine. Tofu and veg stir fry in a miso green tea sauce on top of quinoa with pickled cabbage (I think) and a pile of greens. Half satisfied me and I ate the other half for lunch the next day.

Beth was sitting across from me and got one of the raw dinners, #2 I think. I enjoy getting them from time to time.

Thievery Corporation was really good. Ton of people on stage. At least 5 vocalists. Three encores. You can kind of see in the picture how packed the stage was with stuff. One of the last songs of the night they had a bunch of girls from the audience come up and dance on stage. There was one that looked kind of like Kate Gosselin and was doing the most awkward booty dance I’ve ever seen. She was also apparently dry-humping the sitar player. I’m sorry I missed that. Or not.

View from the old folks seats in the top balcony
View from the old folks seats in the top balcony

San Francisco Re-cap

Good grief am I behind! I think I’d better just quickly recap the San Francisco trip and move on.

So, I left you all at Cha-Ya and promised Maggie Mudd porn. For the porn, you’ll just have to head over to my flickr account. I had a cup with lychee coconut and tarmack (peanut butter chocolate goodness). Yeah, that’s a strange combination, but I wanted them both and didn’t want a huge amount. That didn’t stop me from digging into Kevin’s waffle cone banana split. But he needed the help. It was HUGE.

Saturday morning, we went to Alcatraz. It’s about the only touristy thing I really enjoy doing in San Francisco. I mean, you get a boat ride, 2 even, views of the city, views of the bridges, views of Alcatraz. Stomping around Alcatraz with your little headset you get all edumacated. Plus there are some amazing photo opportunities.

While we were down that way, we had to check out the sea lions. They’re stinky but really cute! On several of the docks, the males were having wrestling matches. One would stake claim to his dock and challengers would fling themselves up on it and wrestle with him until one of them was pushed off. On other docks, sea lions were just sleeping away ignoring all the barking going on.

Next, lunch at Herbivore, Divisadero where we had a shwarma war. Kevin got the “chicken” shwarma and I got the regular one. I think it was kind of a draw. But I will say that the seitan they used in mine wasn’t very shwarma like. It was cut in strips instead of slices. And it wasn’t seasoned like I would season shwarma. Oh, and of course, there was dessert, chocolate cake.

After that, we went to Zeitgeist to meet my friend Lisa. I hadn’t seen her since ’98. So we had fun catching up and I got a little loopy on 2 margaritas. Oh, and while we were there, someone I used to work with at Kinko’s said “hey.” Wow. So he gave me the rundown on a few people we used to work with. Small world and all that.

Saturday night we went to see Goldfrapp at the Warfield. The sound guy needed to be fired, but even so, it was a good show. And Alison said she was sick but she still managed to belt out a pretty full show. Unlike Elizabeth Fraser back when I saw the Cocteau Twins a million years ago. But I’m not still bitter…

Sunday, we managed to sneak in a breakfast at Herbivore, Valencia, before we had to go to the airport. I had the tofu rancheros and Kevin got the french toast. And we shared it up like we do. Both were great, but I really liked the batter on the french toast. It was a lot thicker than I’ve had it come out for me. I need to play with that because it made it that much better. We got blueberry cornbread for the plane and Kevin also got a doughnut. But since one of the kitchen guys splattered me with ketchup, I got a doughnut too! The cornbread was sweet and almost more like cake. The doughnut was also cake-like rather than, whatever the other kind is called. Good though and a really unhealthy way to end the short vacation.