The Doc's Tuesday Night in Town

This week I'm not really working. It's kind of a week off, chill down period before I start my new job. Yeah I've got a new gig back in the world of government contracting. Which I'm personally thrilled about. I haven't gone into it in the blog, but basically the past year in my old job was a hellish, hectic ball of stress that I don't care to repeat. The new company is great and , I'm already doing some part-time work with them leading up to my official full-time start.

So with my Tuesday basically open and free, I spent the day with my son and my Mom. After a morning at the dentist getting a couple cavities taken care of, I hung out at my folks place with enjoying Mom and The Kid's company.

That evening I hit the metro and headed downtown to meet the Code Monkey and his crew at the Big Hunt. Now it's common knowledge to readers of this blog, I'm a married, family man whose evening consist of having dinner with the fam after work, catching up on work, and spending time with Lady and The Kid before they drift off to sleep. Heading into the city to meet up with the guys at a bar isn't my usual evening, but hey a curve ball is thrown into my routine everyone in awhile.

While I'd walked past the Big Hunt many times in my days of working in the city of a variety of design assignments, I'd never ventured in. The inside is much of what I expected to be. The decor makes the place look like the bastard cousin of that Rain Forest cafe restaurant chain. I'm not saying that as a bad thing, it gives the place a unique flavor, it's just the best description I can up with. The wings were simply delicious. They didn't stray from the basic buffalo wing formula, which in my opinion is a good thing. I wasn't in the mood to taste yet another reinvention of the hot wing, I got a solid traditional wing experience at this place.

The Code Monkey also introduced me to Strongbow, a hard cider import from England. Excellent stuff, I'm not a huge beer fan so having something like this on the tap moved this bar up several notches for me. Loved it so much, this afternoon I bought a six pack of this stuff at the gourment wine/beer shop down the road from me.

Though hanging out at the Big Hunt with the fellas was a great way to spend an evening, it wasn't the reason I'd come down on the Metro. The goal of this evening was to attend an acoustical Foo Fighters concert at Constitution Hall with Frank Black as the opener. The one drawback of the Constitution Hall location is that it lacks a convenient metro stop close by. So it's always a bit of a hike. Not that I mind a good walk, but when time is of the essence having the subway handy would be nice.

We got there a little late and missed most of Frank Black's set. Of course the guy only played for a half hour if the 8:00pm start time was adhered to. We only heard maybe two or three songs. One of them being a personal fav Pixies tune, Wave of Mutilation. Eh, disappointing to say the least. The Foo Fighters quickly erased any of those feelings.

I attended the Foo Fighters last DC performance at the 9:30 club last year, and that was just a great rock show. The FF didn't disappoint this show either, they surpassed any expectations I came in ther with. The band was expanded for this almost unplugged format. A keyboard/accordian player, precussionist, Pat Smear on guitar and Petra Haden on violin beefed up the usual four man group for this show.

I can't wait for the DVD of this show or some bootlegs to turn up. Because I refuse to accept that I'll never hear these versions of some of my favorite FF songs. There are almost too many stand-outs to list. Petra Haden sang and incredible version of Floaty, from the first album (further hunting found she also performs this song on a jazz album she's done with Bill Frissell). Other songs that stood out, included Walking After You, Razor, My Hero, and Virginia Moon (Dave & Petra duet). Just an incredible show, but also fun. Dave kept it light and fun, talking to the audience often. It's readily apparent that he enjoys playing in his hometown area. Damn it, they better make a Live Acoustic tour album...

After a metro ride that seemed like an eternity I drove home and drifted off to sleep after tending to the dogs. I had a great night with my bro.