Split Blogging

Baby Lotto We went in for another baby checkup yesterday. The official due date is March 6th, 11 days from now. Mrs. E is already dilated 2 centimeters, 50% effaced, and Lil'er Euphrony is dropping like a rock. Will she make it, folks? What do you think; take your best guess. Tags: Pregnancy, Poll, Lotto

Downhere in Houston Thanks to the amicability of the lovely Mrs. Euphrony, and some kind friends who thought it would be nice to watch Lil'E for a few hours to let us relax before D-Day (Delivery Day), Mrs. E and I got to go to the KSBJ Brownbag concert last night - featuring downhere. For those not from the Houston area, KSBJ (the monolithic local CCM radio station) hosts a monthly mini-concert, sponsored by and located at a Chick-fil-A®. And since downhere is a Canadian band, they don't get, well, down here very often. I've liked their music since their first self-titled album came out in 2001.

Let me set the mood for this concert. First, this was at a Chick-fil-A inside a mall, so they were rocking the food court. Mrs. E and I get their, stand in line at Chick-fil-A for a quick bite to eat (they give me free music, I'll give them my dinner money) and I see the guys from the band munching on their (likely free) Chick-fil-A sandwiches and nuggets before they go up to belch out a few numbers. (Sorry, guys, but I couldn't eat like that before getting up to do a show.) As we sat for the show, we were simultaneously brought some good Canadian rock with the message of Christ and washed over by the aromas of fresh-baked cookies from Great American Cookie Company. Sweet!

The guys put on a good set. The way the brownbags work is the band does a approximately 40-minute set, breaks to sign autographs, then repeats (rock, rest, repeat). They open the set with "The More", the lead song on their newest album Wide-Eyed and Mystified - a good rock'n opener - then segue into "Larger than Life" from their first album Downhere. After a few words to the crowd, they go into their audience participation song "Rockstars Need Money" (we can't live on bologna sandwiches), a hidden track also on their debut album. After introductions of the band and a short message describing the inspiration for their next song, the play two songs from Wide-Eyed - "Little is Much" and "A Better Way", both of which have been getting airplay, and the second has been sitting on the top-twenty charts for a little while. They then closed the set with "What It's Like" from their sophomore album So Much for Substitutes.

It was a fun set; lots of energy from the band and from the crowd. I've got no idea when I'll next get a chance to see downhere (or any other band, with the new baby getting here soon) so I was relishing every minute of the show. I like their music, and they have a good message that they present in a good way. If you haven't heard their music before, you can check out a couple of their songs on their Purevolume page.

Tags: Downhere, KSBJ, Music, Concert, Chick-fil-A, CCM, Christian Music, Canadian Rock