YYC Adventures: Chili Peppers and Rebirth BB

Last night I experienced my second time ever witnessing a live performance of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. For my birthday which was last week my dad got tickets so that the two of us could go and see the band. My father and I went to go see the peppers together about six years ago while they were touring for their album Stadium Arcadium. 

Last time when we saw them they mostly played songs of their then album and with so many hits it was a bit of a disappointment. So I was hoping that with their new guitarist that they would play all of the hits that we have all come to know and love. The Red Hot Chili Peppers has always been one of my favorite bands mostly because they are one of the few bands where the base guitarist is better than the guitarist.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are such a strange kind of band that finding a band to open for them is a bit of a challenge. This is mostly because the band itself breaks a lot of boundaries within the genre of Rock, combining the likes of Hip Hop, Jazz and Rock into a new entity. Back in 2006 when they came through Calgary the band that opened for them was “The Mars Volta Project” and experimental metal group. With all of that in mind I was very interested to see who would open up for them this time around.

The Band that wound up opening for the legendary Chili Peppers was a band called Rebirth Brass Band. It is a large brass style ensemble that has a sound that reminds me of what you should expect to hear when you go to Madre Gras. I think these guys would bring the house down in a smaller venue where there was room for some good old fashioned swing dancing.

Check them out

The Peppers brought a lot of enthusiasm to the stage and proved that even after 30 years they still got it. As always flea astounded the audience with his fantastic skill of slapping the base, I cannot think of anyone who can do it better. Every song was led into with an impressive instrumental interlude that showed of the skills of the drummer and flea.

The one down side to this show was even though they seem to have astounding light technicians and a well timed video to go along with everything, they left no room for audience interaction. One thing that I enjoy when going to a live show is how the performers interact with their audience. This is one attribute of showmanship that I found to be distinctly lacking with the Red Hot Chili Peppers show.

However with that being said they put on a fantastic show and there is a reason that I will always consider this band in my top five bands of all time. I hope to see them again in my life time if they are still touring, hopefully they don’t go the way of Mic Jager and the Rolling Stones.

Sincerely Urban Yeti

YYC Food Crusade: 2 Polcinella

In yesterdays post I described the adventures of my friends and me around town as a self proclaimed tour guides. There is one little detail of that quest that I purposely left out in preparation for a post today. It has been a while since I did my very first Food Crusade restaurant review and I think that it is about time for a second.

For the tour of our home town we stopped in at a restaurant that was located in the Kensington area of Calgary. There is this awesome little gourmet pizza place that is down in that area of town called Polcinella. A couple months back my dad took my family here when our cousin was in town for the weekend, I just had to go back.

On the inside it is a large open space that merges classic Italian feelings with very modern artist type overlay. One of the coolest features is that you can see straight into the kitchen and watch as the chefs slave away at your food.

Our tummies were all a grumble so even though it was only lunch time some of us ordered appetizers anyway. I did not order any for myself but my friends shared with me anyway out of the kindness of their hearts.

Mr. White had the Calamari Fritti to start. This dish was lightly breaded and well seasoned leaving a pleasant after taste in your mouth that left you craving more. Also I found that whoever cooked this is good at his or her job because it was not over cooked to the point of being rubbery like so many other places.

Sir Kenneth the Third started his meal off with the Polpette, Meat balls made of both beef and pork. They came in three and he shared with all of us, the sauce that they were cooked in was deliciously sweet. These meatballs were so good they practically melted right in your mouth.

My beautiful Wifey got the Tuscan Bruschetta for an appetizer. According to the menu the Bruschetta was house made and came served on an Italian roll. It was a little salty for my taste but delicious none the less with a bitter yet sweet after taste resonating in your mouth.

Being that Polcinella is an authentic wood stove style pizza place we all ordered ourselves a pie all of our own. When it came to these pizzas they were so delicious we were all a lot less inclined to share with others. These are one of the very few kinds of pizza that I believe are ok to eat with a knife and fork, actually I encourage it.

For myself I found my interest drawn to one interestingly described pizza on the menu called Vegetali Grigliati. It is a vegetarian style pizza loaded with red peppers, zucchini and grilled aubergine. The combination of these different vegetables made this pizza an explosion interesting tastes.

Everyone else got their pizzas and pretty much inhaled them they were so scrumptious, you can always tell when a meal is good because the table is pretty much silent. While I was choosing what I wanted to order some of what my friends did order were what I chose between.

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The main reason that I go back to this place is for their dessert, normally I do not have any kind of a sweet tooth. They make this dessert that we call the nutella pizza and this is about the only time that I will ever say this about a dessert “It is to die for!!!!”. I know that is one of the most cliché things that anyone could ever say about a dessert but it is that good.

Time to rate this restaurant I suppose

Food: 5

Service: 3

Atmosphere: 3.5

Grand Total: 11.5 out of 15

If you are looking for a pizza fix but want to avoid the grease than this is a spot that you should go check out. If you do make sure to order that damn good dessert, if you do then you will be really glad that I told you about it.

Sincerely Urban Yeti

YYC Adventures: Kensington and Piercings

It seems to be that every Monday I find myself talking about just how busy my weekends always tend to be. Not that there is anything overly wrong with that, it just means that come the start of my blog time there is so much that I wish to share. With life being as eventful as it is and me always trying to make the most of my spare time it just always ends up that my weekends are generally jam packed.

What exactly did I do with my time this weekend, well to put it into the simplest terms I played tour guide. There has been a co-worker of my Wifey that has been in town for a couple weeks and we thought it best to show her around town. We could have taken her to the local landmarks but she seemed more interested in more of the hole in the wall type places. With her best interests in mind we took her to the Kensington area where there is a lot of place that we thought she would like.

It would probably be best to explain that my Wifey’s friend is an easterner who comes to us from the greater Toronto area. She insisted on seeing what our city transit was like because she had heard so many of complain about it. Therefore we started our journey by taking the train through downtown and to the shopping district known as Kensington.

We started our tour being the geeks that we are by heading over to the comic book store Another Dimension. Sure there are lots of comic book shops and geek Meccas around the city but none have a bust collection quite like AD. 

 

 After the Geek store we headed down the road peeking our head in a few other stores including a record shop. It is the kind of store that hipsters and audiophiles jus adore for their large selection of both new and used albums.

After the record store and a couple of other stops we decided it was about time that we stop for lunch. This is a restraint that is a part of my food crusade so I will talk about that in a later post, probably sometime tomorrow. After we inhaled our lunch we found a candy store and decided to hit it up where we got a much needed sugar fix.

While in the candy store I was attacked by their zombie unicorn employee,

We spent the rest of the day showing our new found friend from across the country around our wonderful city. We browsed Chinook and helped her find a simple cow costume for a party she was going to later that day.  I hope that we showed her a good time cause I know for sure that I had a blast exploring my city.

On Sunday my friend Mr. White asked me if I would accompany him while he got a few new piercings. Naturally I said I would love to go and so the two of us had another day of toting around the city.  The both of us live in the south and don’t drive but the Tribal Expressions, the piercing parlor is in the north so it is quite a trek for us on public transit.

As I said I had yet another one of my very eventful weekends where a lot always seems to happen around me. Next weekend is yet another trek for me as Wifey and I head up to Edmonton for the Star Wars Identities exhibit and boy am I excited for that one too.

Sincerely Urban Yeti

YYC Adventures: Museum Monsters

Another very busy weekend comes to an end and I am left with a smile on my face and stories on the tip of my tongue. I have consistently for the past couple of months have had very action-packed days on my weekends. This weekend was not any different than any of the others that have past actually it may have been more eventful.

The reason more eventful than the others is because of one main reason that I will talk of at a later time.  This post will be about something that I did this weekend but not the reason it was most eventful weekend for me. On Saturday evening Wifey and Me went with a couple of friends to the opening night of the new exhibit at the Glenbow Museum.

Fairy Tales, Monsters and the Genetic Imagination

All around us were beautiful and bizarre pieces that delved into the hidden world or flight and fantasy. I am not an art critic by any means and this was one of those galleries that was mostly comprised of traditional mediums of artistic expression. I tend to appreciate this kind of traditional art compared to some of the more modern pieces.

The under lying theme of this showcase was not about the traditional monsters that you would think of, there were no Frankensteins Vampires or Werewolves. The premise of this is more about the horror stories located within the more classic fairy tales such as red riding hood.

I think that some of my favorite pieces that were on display were the Sculptures by Patricia Piccinini. The main concept behind a lot of Piccinini’s work is about the horrors that could be created by scientists who try to play god. Her statue of “The Big Mother” is heart wrenching and is so realistic it feels like it could move at any moment.

This was an awesome exhibit to witness and takes a more social look at what the fairy tales really mean. It is perfectly appropriate kind of display considering the time of year with All Hallows Eve just around the corner. It is with high regard that I suggest that you should check out this awesome exhibit before it leaves.

Sincerely Urban Yeti