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The Best Podcast Award goes to the CBC Radio 3 podcast with Grant Lawrence.

The scrobbler thing sucks. It was working great for a few days, and now it decides it is not going to record anything unless I restart it.

Oy.

Can anyone explain to me why cameras are banned at music venues?

Dear Mr. [X],

I had the great fortune of attending this night's concert of the Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem at [your crappy venue's name goes here] (September 26, 2007). The show was very good and you should be commended for programming these two extraordinary bands.

My evening was spoiled, however, by the overly zealous security that proclaimed my Nikon D40x camera as "too professional" to be allowed into the venue. This surprised me, as my friends who had compact cameras (which the Nikon D40x is not) were allowed into the show. Many of these cameras were of higher resolution than mine. While they were allowed into the show, I, in the mean time, had to hike back to the car and secure my camera, thus missing the majority of the LCD Soundsystem's set. I might note, that I am a fan of the Lcd Sound System, and feel somewhat robbed by that experience.

I would have left my camera at home, but, after checking the Thanksgiving Point web site as well as my ticket I saw no notification that cameras of any type were barred. I took my camera in good faith that I would be allowed to take pictures of what I experienced and of my good friends' enjoyment of the show and of Thanksgiving Point.

Was I mistaken? Are certain cameras allowed and others are not? Why was such a distinction not made public? Why was it not posted on your web site?

Honestly, I am really not certain where the distinction in cameras s being made here. As most people who attend concerts, I only take photos of things I want to remember, and if I share them on the Internet (as my friends who brought compact, higher resolution cameras have already done) it is only for the purpose of sharing my experience with my friends. The arbitrary rules excluding my camera or other such digital single lens reflex cameras at Thanksgiving Point seem out of place in our day and age.

Can you explain to me why I was forced to 1) not be able to take pictures that would advertise the beauty of your venue to my friends, and 2) miss a substantial portion of the show that I paid $36.00 for in order to secure a camera that is of lower resolution than cameras that were allowed into the show?

Sincerely,

[Theorris Boonasty, Esq.]

So two weekends ago, as astute readers might have noticed, I was a the Monolith Music Festival held at the ever-beautiful Red Rocks amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado. Aside from being denied taking decent pictures because my freaking camera was "too professional," I had quite the time.

I have decided, therefore to hand out my own awards in various categories to the bands who I had the honor to witness. I was considering boring you all with a narrative of the trip, but that just seems a bit too self-indulgent. I will, therefore, leave it with appropriate awards and commentary.

Most fun

==Matt & Kim

These kids knew how to rock. Kim had cranked the drums and enjoyed every minute of their set. A smile never left her face. Matt was the most amusing yet competent musician I've seen in awhile.

Favorite line: "What the fuck is that?" said while looking at the giant red rock reef in hovering over his upper-deck stage. "I'm from New England and we don't have anything like that!"

Most surly

==Brian Jonestown Massacre

His age is showing. Get an enema. Your band is not the center of the universe and you put on a lackluster, insulting show. Your pointless attempts to become political didn't save you nor did your ho-hum cheer leading for the upcoming bands. Your excuses about making some hot shit in Iceland and giving it away for free redeem you either.

You're washed up Brian Jonestown Massacre. Face it and come out with something better. Clue one: get rid of Mr. Denim Mutton Chops for a starter and love your music again. You are not cool, and you never were: you are just fucking rude. I was so tempted to shout out "Dandy Warhols" but didn't fearing your have a hissy fit and run of stage (again) and drag our your boring-ass chord-fest even more.

Okay, okay, the music was tight, but still lacked anything that would draw any in but the most dis-affected. Bringing out a liter of Popov is still not going to make your music appealing. It just makes you pathetic, like the vagrant at the bus stop who still thinks booze makes him cool.

Favorite line: "Shut the fuck up while we tune! We're doing this for you!" I half-expected him at this point to tell us all to get off his lawn. Keep music evil? Uhuh. Eat me.

Most fun to dance to

==Flosstradamus

I lost my phone because I was grooving so much. (No worries it came back the next day after a night of debauchery.)

Favorite line: "This is what you get with one turntable!" (One of their turntables failed to function. They were still grooving.)

Most hot

==Kid Sister

She was pretty much on with Flostradamus and busted out the rhyme like there was no tomorrow. The crowd had thinned stupidly by the time she was getting into it. Their loss. She was on target and stunning.

Favorite line: (pointing to a kid in the audience who had glasses on) "I like guys in glasses! Guys in glasses are hot!"

Most reason to like hip hop live

==Das EFX

They had it down. Hip hop recordings can never catch what the artists can do live.

Favorite line: "Don't be smokin' that shit, kids!" or "When I say Das, you say EFX!"

Most sad to have missed

==Ghostland Observatory

You have to hear the singers talking voice to understand why.

Favorite line: (from their live performance in Austin) "I'm so glad every body is having fun tonight!"

Most likely to make an English major happy

==The Decemberists

Their drummer looks like a philosophy professor and probably is. Overall they had a very tight set and they engaged the audience. Interestingly enough they announced that they had an EP coming out with their song "Perfect Crime" which appeared on The Crane Wife. Does this mean that The Crane Wife did not sell?

Favorite line: "Man...Red Rocks." (Stated as the feedback from Black Rebel Motor Cycle Club was raining down on them. They pulled it back together and overwhelmed the crowd with their last song.)

Most interesting British band to bring back talk-singing since David Niven

==Art Brut

Art Brut put on a tight, driven set with songs that lasted no more than two and a half minutes.

Favorite line: "Art Bruts, are you ready?!"

Most fantastic show on the face of the planet Earth (and Mars)

==The Flaming Lips

Despite rumors to the contrary, Wayne came out in his gerbil ball to crowd surf (even though it was momentary.) The Lips stage set for their concert-venues is difficult to be beat these days. They were solid and weird, as is to be expected complete with giant and little Santas and giant and little aliens. I save some confetti.

Favorite line: "Thank you!"

Best in show

The Flaming Lips

Second-best in show

Matt & Kim

Third-best in show

The Decemberists

Lucky me gets to go to the Monolith Festival at the Redrocks Amphitheater near Denver, Colorado. Given that I have Internet access in my hotelage, I might just journal up a storm from there.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

It is a decent enough line-up: the Flaming Lips are definitely the highlight. They have a knock-out live show.

Sage advice from Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips) for your summer festival enjoyment:

WC: The idea that you go to a festival and you feel like you have to see everything, all your favorite bands, I think sometimes that can kind of wear you down. It has to be like eating at the Golden Corral, where it's all you can eat, until you try to eat the barbecue chicken and the calamari. By the time you get to the fourth thing, you're burned out. My suggestion to people is just enjoy your day. Your band is playing, you get to see a little bit of them. Go see them for 10 or 15 minutes, and enjoy your friends and enjoy your day. As the sun goes down, it's a lot easier to endure."


or

WC: I think the worst thing is don't get drunk and pass out by 1 o'clock in the afternoon and be the guy who's laying out in the open field throwing up at 2 in the afternoon. We see that all the time, like my God, how big of a miscalculation was that? The guy's laying there, and he's going to get sunburned, and it's just miserable. Not only that, he's going to feel worse after this, and he's missing the show at the same time. So if you've never drunk that much beer before, don't try it at a festival in the middle of the summer. I think it's better if you're younger, too. The older you get, the more you're like, "Why would I want to stand in the heat all day with a bunch of drunk morons?" When you're young, and the possibility of having sex is in the air, and you're seeing new things, that's a beautiful thing. ("Wayne Coyne's Guide to Festival Surval", The Onion AV Club)

I'm going to see the Flaming Lips in September at the Monolith Festival in the Red Rocks Amphitheatre (located outside of Denver in the U.S.) Luckily it will be cooler by then. I also don't plan on exploiting the VIP bar and make a the terrible miscalculation that Wayne mentions.

"Gimme that z, o-l-o-f-t"

Amusing lyrics, to say the least. Oh yeah it is Ween, "Zoloft".

Why am I amused? Must be the z, o-l-o-f-t.

No that's a lie. It is actually the B, u-s-c-h.

I'm just a happy kid
Stuck with the heart of a sad punk
Drowning in my id
Always searching like it's on junk
No matter who I hang out with
I can hear the clack-clunk
Of the chains that pull the cars up
The roller coaster mountaintop so high
When it comes down it shoots back up
Straight back to the sky
I gotta laugh and then I'm asleep
And then I walk around and wanna cry
Out at night to do the strand
The little candles make the bottles glow
Got ink all over my right hand
Getting crushes with no chance to grow
It's like I'll never ever land
There's always too much sun
Or too much snow
I get slow days and no days
I get rusty and it's hard
But I get notions that oceans
Are coming to my call
You can learn to get along

And I'm just a happy kid
Stuck with the heart of an old punk
Drowning in my id
Always hungry like it's on junk

I'm just a happy kid

It is a Nada Surf song ("Happy Kid") and I've been singing it to myself all morning.