And sixteen hours of interstate hell later, we’re back. Alive, most importantly.

The concert was amazing. Absolutely incredible. And by “the concert” I mean Linkin Park. The opening band (Chiodos) was very good. Coheed and Cambria was… Coheed and Cambria, I suppose. If you like that sort of thing, they performed admirably. But LP’s performance is going to mean that all of the concerts in my foreseeable future will be something of a letdown.

Coheed left the stage, taking all of the on-stage equipment with them. The LP concertdirectorguy knows what he’s doing. Completely bare stage, with the exception of Brad Delson’s guitar pedal and a keyboard/mic, with which the show began. Shinoda’s scratch tables came up through the floor on one side, Bourdon’s drums on the other.

… I don’t even know what to say. The play set was a good mix of old and new music, some close to what it was like on the albums, some completely remixed. … They played fricking three encores. You knew they were coming, of course; the house lights never came up. But they pulled off some serious manipulation of the crowd between the encores and the twenty minutes of making everyone stare at a bare stage before the concert began. People were going insane. :)

The drive up to the Cities was uneventful. Six hours of unworrisome highway. It was, however, snowing when we left the concert venue. This should have served as a warning, and things would probably have been better had we just gotten a hotel room for the night. But no. Took ten hours (count them, ten) to get back, driving behind largely invisible semis and wondering where exactly the driving lanes have gone to.

But we’re alive, and the concert rocked. Not that I’d want to do it again anytime in the near future, but there you are. And check photog and Facebook for more photos.

Classes skipped in their entirety today, in favor of sleep. … And another road trip tomorrow, this time up to Wausau with my cousins for Hannah’s birthday. This week is going to kill me yet.

random stuff

Adobe Flex – a framework for flash web applications. Free for students – all rejoice.
Travian – like Age of Empires, only somewhat closer to realtime and browser-based.
Filler – the spiritual successor to Jezzball, for those of you still running Windows 3.1.

not quite so random thought
My role has always been the third wheel. Always. … With one exception, and that bicycle is still lying mangled in the yard.