Keane Concert at the Bowery Ballroom

I'm back from the Keane concert at the Bowery Ballroom (NY) and the show was amazing. Although I waited in line for awhile to get in, I got to see the show from an outstanding vantage point. The Bowery Ballroom is a great place to see a band you like. I was a few rows in at the stage--only about 15 feet away from the band. I had a great view of the keyboards, and the show was fun to watch and listen to. The keyboardist (Tim Rice-Oxley) played some pleasant synthesized sounds, the drums really rocked (Richard Hughes), and the lead singer (Tom Chaplin) had strong, clear vocals. The strobes flashed around me while the band cranked out the tunes. At times, I was bathed in white light. As for the audience, they sang along to some of the songs, and mood at the show was generally upbeat.

Some of the tracks they played at the show were: Atlantic, Is It Any Wonder?, Nothing In My Way, Leaving So Soon? (phenomenal drums), A Bad Dream (This song is about soldiers at war throughout the ages.), Hamburg Song, Put It Behind You, Crystal Ball, Try Again, Somewhere Only We Know, This Is The Last Time, Bend and Break, We Might As Well Be Strangers, Everybody's Changing, Can't Stop Now, and Bedshaped.

Has anybody out there heard Keane play "Sunshine" live? I'd like to hear that song too in concert.

I wouldn't be surprised if these guys play larger venues as headliners. They are really quite good. I wholeheartedly recommend seeing them in concert, or at the very least, give their new album "Under The Iron Sea" a listen.

Triathlon/Custom Nike Shoes

I recently did a casual, mini-triathlon this past weekend. I swam at the pool, then ran around the high school track, and then mountain biked around town. I did this all in quick succession. I will probably do more of this, weather permitting, and I will increase the distances for each portion of the triathlon.

In other news, I was looking on www.nike.com for running shoes, and I noticed that you could customize the colors for some of their shoes. Go to the Nike website and look at the running shoes with the iD designation. Then, color your shoe the way you like it. If you are on a sports team of some kind, wouldn't it be great to customize your shoes with your team's colors? You can also customize the sneaker with some text—name, team name, etc. The model for running I like the most right now is the Nike Shox 2:40 iD. I plan to get a pair featuring my high school's colors!

Upcoming Keane Concert at the Bowery Ballroom

I'll be going to a sold out Keane concert at the Bowery Ballroom (Manhattan, NY) in a couple of weeks. I am definitely psyched for the show, and I am also looking forward to their new album. The new album called "Under the Iron Sea" is being released in the U.S. on June 20.

Photo T-shirts

I recently made a couple of photo t-shirts of two digital photos that I like. They are easy to make from online photo developing merchants. You simply upload the digital photo to the photo website and choose the t-shirt option. I chose to use www.shutterfly.com and www.dotphoto.com, and I am very happy with the results I got with both. However, in the future, I'd probably go with shutterfly because they allow you to easily add text and a border to your t-shirt. So, the shutterfly shirt came out a bit better. Well, if you are a digital photo enthusiast, you may want to show off your work on a t-shirt like I have. It is fun and it cost me about $18 for the shirt on shutterfly (including shipping). When the weather gets cool, you can also make a sweatshirt. I'll do that in the fall or winter. I found out about photo t-shirts after reading an issue of Popular Photography. Try making a photo t-shirt sometime and show off your photography!