(Finally) the Mojave 3 show and one of the best Chills yet

So Brandy and I went to the Mojave 3 show at Slim's last night.  Dinner was very good (ribeye with potatoes and roasted red peppers), although we almost weren't allowed to sit in the balcony which is the best part of getting dinner tickets.  The show itself... well, to be perfectly honest with you, it was a bit disappointing.  (I hope Neil takes this with a grain of salt if he reads it.  He might.  The band is on my Friend List, after all.)

Let me qualify my disappointment.  Taken independent of context, the show was fine.  The songs are gorgeous.  Neil Halstead's live vocals are amazingly, uncannily identical to the recorded version - it's obvious that there's no pitch-shifting going on in the studio.  But it was also obvious that it was one of the first shows of the tour and that they are breaking in a new bassist.  Which brings us to the most disappointing part of the show...

No Rachel!  And no Rachel means no wonderful male / female harmonies, no beautiful intertwining of vocal lines, no rock-solid bass lines, and no repeat of the transcendental performance at Bimbo's a couple of years ago.

In keeping with the altered lineup and the more straightforward pop-rock of the new album, the entire show was a bit more uptempo as well, which was fine up until they played "Some Kinda Angel."  Let's just say that I prefer the album version of my favorite Mojave 3 song.

Lest you think that I hated the show, let me reiterate that I throughly enjoyed the whole evening and highly recommend you go see them when they come to your town.  I just want to see Rachel, too.

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On Wednesday night, Brandy and I went to another Chill, which you might remember from one of my previous posts [I just tried to link to it, but MySpace is being a bitch, so I can't find the specific URL.  It's one of the 8.21.2006 posts, if you'd like to find it on your own].  Well, this was one of the best Chills yet - hosted by Diageo and Moët Hennessy (man, talk about a monster luxury goods company).  Three words for you:  Hennessy Paradis Extra.  Two better words for you:  Richard Hennessy.

Since I seem to like lists, here's another one for you.  If you have the means, you can pretty much buy any of these products sight unseen and enjoy them thoroughly.  And if not, you can probably get me to buy them off you.

- Krug Champagne.  Any of them.

- 2001 Cape Mentelle Cabernet Sauvignon Margaret River - I'm generally not a huge fan of Australian cabs, but for this one, I'll definitely make an exception.

- 1999 Château La Mission Haut-Brion Pessac-Léognan - Ahh, good Bordeaux.  At seven years since harvest, this wine is just coming out of its infancy and starting to drink really well.  To borrow a corporate slogan, "M'm! M'm! Good!"

- The Concha y Toro Almaviva again.  God, I really need to go buy a case of this.

Yummy yummy.