The War On Drugs

Usher Hall. Two gigs in a week.

[Edited once there was time]

The War On Drugs, live at the Usher Hall.  
I wasn't really sure what to expect at this one.  I loved the last album, probably my favourite album of 2014, but it's quite musically dense and I wasn't sure how well it would work in a live environment.  Needn't have worried.  The band was really good, and Granduciel can certainly play the guitar.  I don't think I've ever seen quite so many guitar changes in one set though.  His guitar tech certainly earns his money.  They seemed to be really enjoying themselves too, seemingly reluctant to leave the stage at the end of the encore.  When the singer is having to ask the roadie for the lyric sheet you get the idea that it might not have been a planned part of the set.  

The smile and warm glow was soon wiped off my face though.  As I walked out I got a text from E telling me that we had raw sewage pouring down our drive way.  The afternoon's heavy rain had probably triggered it, but the upshot was that she arrived home with the kids to find the driveway literally covered in shit.  Getting a taxi in Edinburgh city centre at 11pm is never easy, so I ran (and anyone who knows me knows how much I hate running) down to Tollcross to pick one up on it's way back into town.  Original blip entry was posted in the cab.  

By the time I got back E had managed to clear up the worst of it, but the drains were still overflowing.  I won't go into details but the problem was caused by the useless cowboy builders who re-did our driveway and blocked the drain.  They'd already 'fixed' it but apparently the idea of actually measuring something was beyond the scope of their tiny brains.  So at midnight, in the pouring rain I'm on my hands and knees pulling up a vertical pipe that drains the rain run-off into the main drain and is effectively blocking the entire drainage system.  Had it not been for a similar vertical pipe further back up the drive (where all the sewage was pouring from) then it would have backed up all the way to the house.  Once I pulled the pipe out of the way the blockage was removed and it was a Niagara of backed-up crap.  Literally.  Got to bed at 1am having washed my hands at least 10 times.