Let me tell you, when there’s a hot dog on keytar, a bottle of mustard on the drums, and two girls who are dressed as Hot Dog On A Stick refugees, a band catches your attention. They are not the most proficient band in the universe, admittedly, but it was a fun set. I just did some investigating and found out that the cute guitarist is married to the drummer from MASTADON. Nice job, dude. Way to have a hot wife and be in Dave Grohl’s favorite band.

I’d seen Hot August Nights before, but they lost their lead singer to The Great Beyond a couple of years ago. With the addition of a new “Neil,” and a new drummer, they became NINE INCH NEILS, and it’s still a really great show. This guy’s hair is just unbeatable. Check it out:

Van Heineken closed out the night, and they gave us no quarter just because they were going on at one in the morning. Full-on DLR-era goodness for 1:20, and they never slowed down. If you enjoy Van Halen and you have a chance, you should realllly check these guys out. Spot-on Dave mannerisms, great guitar work, and DANCING GIRLS. They didn’t even have all those things when =VH= toured recently! I kid. But seriously, would it have killed them to have brought out some chicks for “Hot For Teacher”? Come on Dave… give us a break.

So, anyway, I’m tired. Who wants to go see Hellboy II?

NP :: The Exit - “The Sun Will Rise In Queens”

-The Guy Who Sits Behind Me At Work, on the subject of Michael J. Fox

Stewart Patridge, you sure did go on to play on an awesomely named string of football teams! They sound like names from Dodgeball– and that’s not a bad thing. Heh.

Say hey if you find your way here, Stewart. You were a nice guy.

Hold up. I just want to interrupt this post to announce that there is an INCREDIBLE HULK / IRON MAN double feature available this week at the Starlight Drive-In here in Atlanta, GA. How awesome is that? It’s like something I would have dreamed up when I was ten. 2011’s gonna be even cooler– Captain America, and then The Avengers. Please let all this work out right and result in more cool movies!

NP :: Gang Starr - “Discipline”

The Fall, though! This is better! It’s worth your time and effort. Again, it’s a treat for the eyes. This time, though, it’s not so oppressive and somber and faux-religious. There’s warmth, and humor, and characters you are interested in. Amazing. Must be the fact that they involved the guy who wrote Freejack and Chasers. If he can coax believable dialogue out of Mick Jagger AND Erika Eleniak, truly, his pen is golden.

Speaking of golden, there’s a young girl as the main character in The Fall, and if you don’t think she’s great, you have a heart of stone. Way to go, little girl. You were endearing, and totally not annoying. May you live long and prosper. Lee Pace from “Pushing Daisies” is the other lead, and I thought he did a very nice job, as well.

It’s been kicking around festivals and such for two years now, but this one should finally hit US theaters soon. Check it out if you like pretty visuals, and a parallel narrative that is something like The Princess Bride, or Big Fish. Thumbs up from me.

Watch out with the title trending, though, Tarsem– if this keeps up, you’re almost mandated to follow this up with a film called The Hill.

NP :: Sigur Ros - “Hafssol” (live @ The Tabernacle, ‘03)

Okay, maybe one gripe. Soundstages. Some large chunks of the film felt too… uh, soundstagey? It doesn’t necessarily make it less enjoyable, and heck, it might have even been Lucas’ inner nerd coming out in an effort to emulate the old serials that he won’t ever shut up about. Whatever the case, that did linger in my mind for about half the flick.

On the other hand– JANITOR!

Will I purchase it, to sit alongside my nifty brown boxed set of the previous Indy films? Well, talk to me when it hits the $10 mark.

After barely making it down to the Supersuckers in-store on time after work on Friday, I hobbled myself home, and surrendered to a viewing of my new RONIN DVD. It’s not exactly a fun movie, but there are still scenes that are just as bad.ass. as I remembered from that first viewing in College Station, TX, and I’m pleased with my $5 purchase. If I were ever to decide upon a second career as a gun for hire, I would watch this movie at least two more times, possibly even taking notes during the second viewing.

I started my Saturday with The Blues Brothers, because Joliet Jake and Elwood are always an inspiration for great things. There are a few extra bits worth seeing in the extended cut; I think the scene where Elwood quits his job at the spray paint (?) factory was my favorite. Did YOU know where he worked?

Before the day could get awesome, I took to the porch to blast through the first of five volumes of 100 Bullets that I’d finish over the weekend. I got about halfway through Strychnine Lives last night, trying to get myself to finally SLEEP, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Kurt came down from the hill country to meet me for the SoCo Music Thing down at Centennial. One quick Soulja Girl-free MARTA ride (with a pit-stop at the Flying Biscuit) later, we were there just in time for the Supersuckers to rock our socks. We stuck around to see how the Ghostland Observatory set went, and ended up enjoying the EFF out of it. Please see these gents if they roll through your town. Outdoors would be ideal. Dusk would be perfect.

Sunday meant relaxation, and The Transporter, and more Bullets, and finally cracking open NO MORE HEROES for the Wii. Hot damn, this game is insane. I kind of love it. Words can’t really do it justice, but we’ll go with “over the top”, and “gloriously violent” and “really, really Japanese.”

Noir Night ended with me finally watching that second version of Payback that they released last year. Definitely meaner and dirtier. Can’t say yet which one I prefer. Let me get back to you on that. What’s it to you, anyway?

NP :: Ghostland Observatory - “Sad, Sad City”