i usually do a live music roundup at the end of every year. usually it's about 90-95% indigo girls shows. 2008 was very different for me. and i have to say, 2008 was awesome in terms of concerts i attended.

there were a few house concerts and private shows that i went to that i can not write about publicly (sorry for the vagueness), so with the exception of those, here is my year in terms of live music:

january 2008:
i saw lady miss kier (yes, of dee lite) DJing at the mezzanine here in san francisco. the show was on the eve of joey's birthday, and we went to celebrate his birthday (and because he is/was a dee lite fan). the show was actually a lot of fun, and i have never been asked for so many hard drugs in my life (some kid came over to us looking for e and/or coke. we had neither. of course.)

i was supposed to attend four indigo girls shows in the midwest. all of them were either canceled or postponed due to emily coming down with the flu. some of the shows were rescheduled, but since i didn't want to go back to the midwest, i didn't go to any of the rescheduled dates. it was very disappointing, but thankfully the whole trip to the midwest wasn't a bust, i had to be in chicago anyway because my flight for africa left from o'hare. sadly, my friends laura and bonnie flew to the midwest for these shows too, and they really ended up in the midwest in january/early february for no reason. sad.

february 2008:

i was in africa for most of the month. while i didn't seek out any shows while i was there, i happened upon a traditional african duo in mozambique. that was quite cool. for the second half of their set, they did not play traditional african music and instead played beatles covers on their guitars. not quite as impressive. (what is it with beatles covers? i've seen "yesterday" covered by bands in japan, mozambique, france, and vietnam now. i know it's an insanely popular song, but come on!!!)

march 2008:

holyshit. i saw the black crowes live for the first time and was immediately in love. joey had loaded up my ipod with crowes music for my africa trip, and i was actually a very casual crowes fan throughout college and high school, but seeing these boys live blew me away. all of them (with the possible exception of adam) are real musicians who know how to jam. this one show made it so i will now travel for the indigo girls/amy ray AND the black crowes (for years, i'd only travel to see the indigo girls/amy ray solo. not any more. this was epic for me.)

april 20008:

joey and i went to tahoe to see the crowes. i don't really remember any details from this particular show except that i had an amazing time. i even made "friends" with some crowes fans in line. OH! and i saw mona (one of their backup singers, who i have a "thing" for) before the show. i said "mona, i love you," and she told me she loved me back. i also sweet talked the casino worker into giving me the poster for the show. good times.

the next night we went to see mark ford (former guitarist for the crowes) at blake's in berkeley. sadly, i got sick during the show and missed most of it, but what i saw/heard was impressive. joey said it was really good. i will take his word for it.

may 2008:

i saw girlyman, one of my past favorites, in berkeley at the freight and salvage (i hate that venue). it was a very "meh" show, and despite being far from sober, i found myself quite bored. by far the least impressive girlyman show i had ever seen. i slowly began losing interest in them after that show. that girlyman gig was perhaps the most disappointing show of 2008 for me.

june 2008:

the indigo girls were on the west coast, and where they were, i was there too (with the exception of the horrible venues in southern california. i actually skipped those shows). i love love love love the indigo girls (as 99% of those reading this know), but i am sad to say, i found the summer shows to be really weak for them. i am not saying i didn't have a good time - i had a GREAT time. and the shows were still awesome, hey, when amy and emily are on stage together, awesomeness occurs. but there were very few setlist surprises, and out of the 200+ indigo girls shows i have seen, i have seen MUCH better. none of the summer 2008 shows made my list of "top 10 indigo girls shows i have seen," or even top 20 for that matter. it wasn't all about the concerts, though. i had gotten some really bad news on the morning of one of the shows. and despite all of that, i still managed to have fun. plus it was so much fun to go up to the pacific northwest and see bonnie, courtney, and julianna. annnnd, joey got to see lovely oregon for the first time, so that was fun too! out of all of the shows, i think the best was the first one i saw, in yountville, california (near napa). i was stoked to be seeing the girls again, and there were some, um, very entertaining audience members. ;) the veneta show was also a highlight of that tour for me, not for the actual show, but for the fact that it was at one of my favorite venues (a general admission winery in beautiful central oregon) and because i got to meet a lot of really awesome people!

july 2008:

i saw the weirdest gov't mule/ratdog show EVER! the show was supposed to be at this outdoor venue on the peninsula (the mountain winery), which is a bit snotty, but it's still an outdoor venue. however the day before the show, the crew at the mountain winery realized that the renovations would not be completed in time for the show. so this hippie show was moved to the san jose center for the performing arts. yes. that kind of venue. however, i am pretty sure the venue staff was given clear instructions not to bother any of the concert goers about anything. no one was in their "assigned" seat. and the best parts?!? people were straight up smoking up inside the venue. the san jose performing arts center smelled like a marijuana collective! and the hippies did not leave their hippie dogs at home! joey and i witnessed a few big digs running up and down the ramps at the performing arts center. as for the concert itself, i was impressed with gov't mule (warren haynes can have my babies), but not so much with ratdog. oh bob weir... sorry, but the former members of the grateful dead are nothing without jerry. sorry.

august 2008:

thanks to my friend lynn, i got to see dolly parton for free at the greek theater in berkeley. it was a lot of fun. we had amazing seats, and dolly sure knows how to put on a great show!

while we didn't have tickets, joey and i headed to golden gate park to see radiohead at the first (and maybe last) outside lands festival. although i wished i could see better, thom yorke and radiohead put on a fucking amazing show. radiohead is a band that i like. a lot. but i hardly listen to their recorded music. live is where it is at for them!

on the last day of the month, i got a very special treat (and kind of a lifelong dream of mine). the indigo girls were playing a mere six blocks from my house! the people at the oakland art and soul festival somehow managed to book them. it was an amazing show, and i think it was the best IG i saw in 2008. it wasn't the setlist (though it was quite varied, even for a festival), but it was the fact that i was seeing a band i have traveled to the UK to see within walking distance of my house. i was in my usual spot (front row, amy side/center) and many of my non IG fan friends came to the show (namely marin and kelley), and i had a freaking blast! matt nathanson "opened" for them and i was a lot more impressed with him than i thought i would be. really, can it get much better? the indigo girls for $10 six blocks from my own bed. nah, it can't! and to add to the specialness, laura came up from san diego for the show.

september 2008:

joey and i went to power to the peaceful (free spearhead festival in golden gate park) to see warren haynes play solo. that day solidified the fact that warren haynes can have my babies. while i really like gov't mule, i would say warren solo is probably in my top five or six of favorite musicians. he ended his set with "soulshine" and while it's "the 'galileo' of warren haynes," i genuinely love that song and i loved singing it with all of the hippies at golden gate park. joey and i were going to stick around for spearhead, but it was an unusually hot day in san francisco, so we went to the beach instead. it's all good - i have seen spearhead several times.

a few weeks later, we drove up to arcata (humboldt county) to see the black crowes at a small theater on hsu's campus. i really liked that show because a) it was mellow and b) they played "forgiven song," which i was creaming over. but chris' voice was bad. way bad. bad enough that the rest of the tour was canceled due to his illness. major bummer for joey and me because we had tickets to two more shows. both canceled. i think in 2008 i had a record number of concerts canceled on me (indigo girls earlier in the year). but of all of the shows on that tour, i was glad that humboldt was not canceled! seeing the crowes (big stoners) in humboldt county (and we all know what humboldt is known for) was sweet. and yes, i brought some "souvenirs" from humboldt home with me (although i get them here at home, regularly ;) )

october 2008:

i went to the hardly strictly bluegrass festival (free. again, in golden gate park. i love san francisco!) to see robert plant (of led zepplin) and allison krauss do their thing together. it was kind of a cluster fuck of people, and the show was a lot flatter than i had expected. then i gave their duet cd a listen, and it was flat flat flat. still, i had a good time in the park with my friends.

in mid-october i flew to the midwest to catch a few of amy ray solo gigs since (at the time) she did not have any west coast dates up. i fucking love that woman solo and had not seen her solo since 2005 (which, fair enough, was the last time she toured solo). i had a blast at all of the gigs (of course). i hooked up with some old friends on the road (jib, sarah, amy, nancy) and it was great to see them! hearing the songs off of didn't it feel kinder live gave that album a whole new dimension for me. plus arizona, her opening band, was great as well. i simply can not wait to catch amy's gigs on the west coast later this month. whereas the indigo girls shows were mediocre (for IG shows), the amy shows were fan-fucking-tabulous! she even played "chiapas bound" at a small club in champaign, illinois.

november 2008:

the night before flying to kentucky and illinois for an extended thanksgiving holiday, joey and i saw gov't mule at the fillmore. it was a really fun show, and i was glad that mule played a full set as opposed to their opening set for ratdog. plus the fillmore is a better venue for them. the show didn't end until after one in the morning, but it was worth it to stay for the whole thing. not only was the whole set really great, but the poster (fillmore poster) is one of my favorite fillmore posters that i have. i will gladly pay to see gov't mule again.

december 2008:

on kind of a whim, joey and i went to the fillmore to see the coup, my favorite hip hop band (local bay area too). that show was so memorable in that neither of us were expecting it to be as much fun as it was. for now on, anytime the coup is in town, i will see them. we were in the front row (which is not unusual for me at concerts) right in front of pam the spinstress. joey and pam even had a few "moments." sadly, we were also by the rude drunk girl and the drunk couple who almost threw up all over me. but hey, it all goes with the territory.

and finally, the crown jewel of my 2008 concert going came in mid-late december: five nights of the black crowes at the fillmore (i was starting to feel like i should just live at the fillmore i was there so often). joey and i went to all five nights. kenny, my favorite member of joey's family, flew in for four out of five of the nights (joey thinks that the first show was the best and can't believe that he missed the first show!). there were so many amazing moments and so many highlights. since this wasn't so long ago, i am still processing it all myself. so instead of a recap, here are a few things i learned at the five night black crowes' fillmore run: 1) i am not a fan of phil lesh. 2) if there's not a barrier up and someone jumps on stage, there will be a barrier up the next night. 3) some crowes fans are amazingly awesome. we made some new friends. 4) some crowes fans are psycho ie the crazy dancer and the "YOU DON'T THINK I'M PRETTY?!??!" low self esteem girl. 5) a band that plays an unexpected setlist filled with surprises owns a piece of my heart. and 6) i can't believe the black crowes were in freaking oakland in 2007 and joey asked me if i wanted to go and i told him no. *KICKS SELF HARD. VERY HARD* i have recordings of all five nights and am constantly rocking out to them, letting the memories last a little longer.

so while 2008 wasn't a great year for me and the indigo girls (shitty venues, bad tour dates, my unwillingness to go to the east coast, canceled shows), 2008 was a great year for live music all around. i want to send a super loud "THANK YOU" shout out to joey, who basically pulled me out of my indigo/aray exclusivity and introduced me to so much more.

here's to a great live music year in 2009. we're already off to a great start... amy ray is coming west in about three weeks!

"if i know a song of africa, of the giraffe and the african new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does africa know a song of me?" ~ karen blixen, out of africa

hey y'all,

well, now i can say it: my dream since high school has been fulfilled. i have been to sub-saharan africa. of course, now that i got a three week taste, i just want more. i am already planning my next african adventure in my head. ;)

i am back in the bay area safe and sound. africa was amazing! i know that some of you were keeping up with my adventures via email and blog. thank you so much for "coming along" with me. though i usually enjoy it, traveling alone does get lonely at times. it was great to know that my friends and family were "following" me from home.

anyway, i still need to write a final travelogue (which i will write in my blog), but i spent most of the day today catching up on rest, getting over jetlag, and uploading photos! i took over 900 photos in africa (don't worry, i didn't upload them all), and for some reason my internet at home was slooooow today. so uploading took a while.

but here it is, my final "spikey left for south africa (and mozambique)" photo set:

flickr is your friend. and (hint hint), i <3 when my flickr contacts comment!

watch for a final blog entry within the next few days.

last night, a dear friend and i were discussing how much i have changed over the past year. i see it very clearly. but i think i changed more during my three weeks of backpacking (mostly alone) in southern africa than throughout the entire year. i am a different person now that i was on 5 february. it's pretty amazing what africa can do for a person. i highly suggest it as a travel destination to y'all!

xoxoxoxox

karen/spike

ps- feel free to share my photos/travelogue/blog with anyone who you think might be interested. :)

i am back in the us (chicago tonight, california tomorrow). i started the long and arduous process of uploading my photos. i've barely made a dent! so far i have uploaded all of my cape town photos (including the cape peninsula and the cape flats) and about 1/2 of my kruger national park photos. i am too tired to upload anything else tonight, but i still have 1/2 of my kruger photos, photos from my visit to a small south african village, photos from the panorama drive, photos from jo'burg (including soweto), and ALL of my mozambique photos lef to upload. i hope to be done by monday night. here is a link to what i have so far:

"spikey left for south africa..." (and mozambique)

i will post another link once i am finished.

i made it safe and sound to jo'burg. this time, it was a coach bus from maputo to south africa, no chicken bus. i kind of missed the chicken bus. ok, maybe not so much. anyway, aside from getting stranded at the jo'burg bus station (which is one of the scariest places on earth), no incidents to report. phew. oh, and the border crossing from mozambique back into south africa was interesting. i shall write about that later (because i have a *great* quote from the bbc to include, and my notebook, where i wrote that quote down, is in my room).

anyway, i can not believe that tonight is my last night in africa. tomorrow i am doing that soweto township tour (finally!), and then it is off to JNB for the monsterous flight back to the us. it's an overnight flight, and i will arrive in chicago on saturday morning. i will spend the night in chicago at my mom's and then fly back to san francisco on sunday afternoon.

i have very mixed feelings about coming home. i plan on writing a long, reflective travelogue sometime after i am back in the us and can look back and see it all a bit clearer. on one hand, i'd love to stay and backpack throughout more of southern and eastern africa. there is just so much here! i'd love for krimpdaddy to join me, and then i'd have a friend on the road with me and could easily do another few months. i'd love to get to victoria falls, namibia, and up to tanzania. next time... and there WILL be a next time. but on another hand, i am ready to go home. traveling in africa has been rough. i've really learned to tough out various situations and i had to make a LOT of compromises. there were certain things that were way out of my control (ie lack of running water) that i just had to learn to deal with. while i feel i've grown a lot on this journey, and in many ways become a different (better?) person, i am ready to go home to knowing that the electricity will be on, the water will run, and there won't be a political situation that blocks my entry into certain places. i also miss my cats, and of course my friends and family. krimpdaddy is going to meet me at the san francisco airport, and then it is off to watch a recorded version of america's next top model, order in from sparkey's, and just hang out... the things i love most about home.

but i can not deny that africa is a part of me now. and i can't believe it took me 30 years to come here. i feel like i have been so many other places, yet i have always had a deep interest in africa. now i've seen it. i've seen how different it is when you cross borders, towns, streets, etc. it has both lived up to my expectations and left me begging for more. yet there were also disappointments. there always are (this is turning into the reflective travelogue that i wanted to hold off on...). but now that i've seen it with my own eyes, i know more about this continent, these countries, than the us media can ever feed me. and really, that is why i travel. yes, i am leaving tomorrow, but i am also bringing pieces of africa home with me. so it will always be with me. i will never forget waking up to a lion's roar at two in the morning in kruger. and i will never forget the poverty and misery, yet so much hope and happines, that i saw in the townships of cape town and mozambique. and of course, i am planning my next trip already.

i will write more after soweto. right now i have to pack and organize.

can i just say that i hate that we are on the same continent??

seriously, sometimes i feel like he follows me around. we happened to be in bangkok at the same time a few years ago.

totally laughable, bush was speaking about the MALARIA epidemic today in ghana. umm, fucko, malaria is bearly a threat to africans, only people who are not immune to it. what a moron. if he is into epidemics, he should do more to fight AIDS in africa (and not only pledge money to organizations that are anti-choice, as he has done. you gotta love it, help, but only if abortion is not an option...)

hey y'all,

first off, this keyboard is weird. it's portugese style, so i don't know how t use all of the punctuation. sorry 'bout that.

i am in maputo, mozambique's capital. while i had a VERY awsome time at the beach, it is amazing t be back to civilization. my beach bungalo was quite rustic, and the "running water" never really ran. i am actually at a REAL hotel with an elevator, i have not seen one of those in weeks, and a tv!!!!! i have not watched tv since i left my mom's house in chicago. well, except for the flight over to south africa. oh, and i caught the africa cup finale, cameroon vs egypt, at the cape town airport while waiting for a flight. bu tonight i am going to watch bbc world!!! YAY! i do know that castro stepped down as i talked to joey VERY briefly on the phone last night. but aside from that i don't know any other goings on in the world. i am eager to catch up. the last news i got was from jo'burg over a week ago. i also took a PROPER shower, something i needed so bad. BEST SHOWER EVER! this hotel is the equivalent of a comfort inn-type thing in the states, but for me it is luxury since i ahve not seen air con, elevators, tvs, proper beds, and proper showers in SOOOO long!

anyway, the road back t maputo wasn't nearly as nice. it was anpther 8 hours crammed in a chicken bus, that didn't want to run at all times. we stopped to pick up, and drop off, locals, their babies, and their livestock at every po dunk town. although i am used to chicken buses by now, i was really getting to my wits end. my contacts were becoming irritated, and the body oder, MINE INCLUDED, was a bit unbearable. mozambique is really not developed at all, and compared to moz, south africa is like fully developed, which it is not. oh, and not to mention i thought i was going to die like 1000 times on the chicken bus. my lonely planet guide clearly states to avoid mozambique's roads during the dark. great in theory, but in practice, the only bus leaves tofo at 4am, so there is no way to avoid night driving. the roads are littered with people crossing and live stock. plus, most vehicles here have non functioning lights. i am hapy to report that i am alive, though somewhat surprised to be! my bus back to jo'burg tomorrow is a "luxury" coach bus, so no more chickenbus!

anyway, i think i might ctually explore maput for a bit. the good thin abou the early chickenbus is that i t got me here by noon. when will i ever be back in maputo? maybe never. i hear there is a decent market here. i think i am going t check it out.

my HOTEL (read, not hostel, not campground, not rustic bunaglo.... HOTEL) has free, albeit very slow, internet. so i shall return later.

oh, anyone want me to pick them up an african parrot? they sell them on the side of the road here. i can also offer y'all chickens, goats, and loads of other livestock. i am sure us customs won't mind if i exit the plane with an armful of parrots and a goat on a leash....

ps: i don't know ANY indigo girls news. sorry. i have no clue if emily is still sick, no clue if the shows have been rescheduled, and no clue if there are any new dates. generally, indigovortex takes too long to load here, and the internet is so slow in general that i am not checking my long list of daily indigo girls sites. i am sure any updates will be posted on indigo vortex... sorry.

pps: i am using my humberto icon because he looks how i felt pre shower. ;)

hey y'all,

i am writing from a small town in mozambique that i had to take a chicken bus to get to. needless to say, i will NOT be accessing my email until i get back to the capitol sometime wednesday night.

this is what lonely planet has to say about moz:

"here's the good news. mozambique is on the up. after more than 10 years of peace, the spectres of the past are finally being laid to rest and the mood among the country's gentle, welcoming citizens is one of unbridled optimism. best of all, most of the world's tourists haven't arrived yet. traveling around mozambique is still quite a challenge, especially once you're across the zambezi. most of the journeys still involve rickety busses filled with mangy chickens and leaky babies. but hey - they lead to dazzling white beaches, magical old towns and prawns the size of crayfish."

and that, my friends, is spot on. of course i don't care about the prawns, but the beaches, the towns... wow.

let me start with the journey to tofo. you've all seen pictures - crappy old mini busses STUFFED with people, livestock, and (uggh) children. not to mention the road conditions north of xai-xai are, well, non existant. the trip from maputo to tofo took well over 8 hours. but once in tofo, it was worth it. tofo = paradise. the beaches are clean and virtually untouched. the diving is said to be magnificent (ask me about that after tomorrow). the town is tiny, chill, and laid back. there is no running water (septic tanks) and no telephone/internet. right now i am in inhambane, the town about 45 mins away, checking email and getting to an ATM. once i leave inhambane, i am heading back to tofo for te rest of my stay here. that means no more internet for a few days.

but y'all should SEE where i am staying! i have a private bungalo on the indian ocean for $20 usd a night. and that is a splurge! i go to sleep at night to the crashing of waves. i wake up in the morning with the clear, blue indian ocean just steps from my door. i have my own mosquito net (thank tha lord for that), and a ceiling fan. air conditioning? HA! yesterday i spent much of the day playing on the ocean. i also hit up tofo's small market (i am going to hit the larger market in inhambane as long as i'm already here). last night, i had a few drinks with some germans and canadians at dino's, this bar owned by a south african.

compared to mozambique, south africa is a developed nation. amenities are easy to come by. traveling in moz means ROUGHING IT. and i have never roughed it this much. but the rewards are massive. traveling in moz is not for anyone who believes that schedules need to be stuck to. traveling in moz isn't for anyone who has a weak stomach and can not handle being stuck on a minibus for hours on end. i am a lot more adaptable than i've given myself credit for, and i am pleased that i have held up so well. i've never, in all of my travels, been to anywhere quite this remote, quite this undeveloped. but i am LOVING it. i am loving the chance to kick back and just enjoy being in africa...

and i am IN africa. the ride to tofo as everything i expected africa to look like - jungle huts, lush greenery, women in traditional garb carrying their goods on their head, people and livestock on the "highway" (if you can call it a highway), coconut palms everywhere. it's pretty amazing. it's a very different life from the one that i live at home, and the sociologist in me is intrigued beyond belief. english is non existant here, most people use tribal language or portugese. but i am enjoying working my way around. also, single female travelers are very very very odd here. most foreginers either come in groups or couples. so i am getting quite a bit of attention (none of it unwanted or threatening, just pure curiosity). and people have gone out of their way to help me. the people of moz are some of the warmest, friendliest, most inviting that i have ever met.

i am glad i am here now. for the time being, very few people (mainly backpackers) know about tofo. give it 3-4 years, and i am sure there will be mega resorts, golf courses, ritzy tour buses, and yes, running water. i am glad i discovered this paradise before it changes. because trust me, it will. you should SEE the beach.

my first order of business when i get back in the us will be to take a nice, long, hot, proper shower. in fact, since i left for kruger, the quality of shower here (even in jo'burg) has been questionable. and once i get back to south africa, my first order of business is to find me an outlet to charge my ipod. i am SO glad i have the foresight to buy a battery powered ipod charger. i have not seen an outlet since i left south africa, and the chicken bus journey would have sucked without music.

anyway, i am gonna send this one off, explore town, and head back to tofo (45 mins away via chicken bus). i will write again once i get back to maputo (moz's capitol).

i am off to mozambique for a week in paradise in the morning.

i don't know what the internet situation is going to be like in maputo and tofo.

but, while y'all are chained to your desk jobs, you can think of me sipping a 50 cent pina colada on a perfect white sand-ed beach with clear aqua water on ithe indian ocean.

don't hate me. ;) really, don't.

xoxoxoxoxo