Josh Ritter

Hey Everyone,

I went back and forth between another beer blog or a Josh Ritter blog. Ultimately, Josh won out..so BWBB still to come.

Saturday was a good day. Started out with an "ugly" yet beautiful Michigan victory over Purdue. For those of you keeping track, that's seven Michigan victories, and we will finally be going back to a bowl game. Our last two regular season games are this weekend against Wisconsin and next weekend versus Ohio st. If we can win either of those, I am totally 100% content with our season.

So after watching that game, C and I headed off to Madison to see possibly our favorite musician, Josh Ritter. A few months ago, I posted a blog about his latest album "So Runs the World Away." Yes, it is an amazing album...just like all his others. C and I have only had the pleasure of seeing Josh one time. That was 2006(?) in Ann Arbor, and Josh played the entire show solo acoustic. It was the bomb. More than four years later, we were finally going to see him again.

Sidenote: Before the concert, we went to The Old Fashioned, which is right near the Capitol. Anyways, this place looks pretty much like any old fashion Wisconsin bar: lots of fried food, tons of beer and a bunch of Badger fans. But, I will certainly be back to The Old Fashioned because they have 50 taps....all from Wisconsin. It's pretty much like my heaven, or wet dream (depending on how graphic you want to be). Needless to say, I tried about four new Wisconsin beers on tap...so the next BWBB will include mini reviews of each. Start looking forward to that right now.

After some drinks at the bar, we headed over to the Majestic Theater. Let's just admit right now that the Majestic kinda sucks as a venue. There are definitely better places to see a Josh Ritter show (plus the beers were $6), but I digress.

Moving on to the show itself, the opening act was decent. The first two pictures in the slideshow are Thieving Irons. They didn't wow me but certainly acceptable. At about 10pm, Josh Ritter took the stage. He played songs from a whole variety of albums. Some were old (Idaho). Some were new (said it was his newest song). He also mixed in old favorites with new hits. For a stretch in the middle, Josh played about 4 songs solo acoustic, but most of the show was relatively "heavy" by Josh Ritter standards. The band was really impressive. No complaints. To hear some tunes and be amazed click here.

A few pictures can be seen here.

Highlights for me, in no particular order, were: Temptation of Adam, Folk Bloodbath, Kathleen, Wolves, Girl in the War, Change of Time, Idaho, and Lantern. (I probably missed a few) Anyways, he left the stage around midnight, having played almost 20 songs. Tough to be disappointed with that. Then we exited the theater into 38 degree blowing winds, and Christina had to put up with me saying, "Damn, that was amazing" the rest of the night. But, it was amazing, so I don't feel bad.

Alright, that's all for now. Like I said, look forward to a new BWBB soon. Until then...go listen to some good tunes.

BWBB

Hey everyone,

Geez, already time for another BWBB?! Where does the time go? I have a couple of thoughts on Andy's comment from the last blog, but I'll save those for a different time...hopefully later this week. (I'm also still bitter because Andy's fantasy team seemed to score multiple cheap tds yesterday against my team...but I'm over that.)

Side note: Huge Michigan victory this weekend. What a crazy/awesome/rollercoaster of a game. Phew!

Moving to the beer. Saturday night, I went to Sugar Maple. This is the same bar that had the Local Acre launch party. It's a cool place because it has 60 American craft beer taps, and they are constantly rotating in new stuff. One of their newest taps is from Furthermore, which is a brewery in Spring Green, Wisconsin. I am not overly crazy about the few Furthermore beers I have had, but they aren't bad either. Regardless, I decided to try their latest brew, Hopperbolic.

The details of the beer are a little unclear. A quick google search doesn't reveal much information at all, other than the fact it's an IPA and it's new. I also learned at Sugar Maple that it's made with hops from Gorst Valley. Gorst Valley is trying its best to popularize the use of Wisconsin grown hops in Wisconsin beer. Gorst provides varying amounts of hops to breweries such as Lakefront, Furthermore, Capital and Potosi. The trend of utilizing local ingredients in beer seems to have really helped Gorst Valley, and I anticipate we will hear more from them in the future.

Needless to say, I was pretty excited to try Hopperbolic. It pours a pale copper color. The aroma is mildly hoppy but not strong by any means. The first thing I noticed when taking a sip was how "light" the beer is. Depending on your perspective, that might be a good thing; but for me, it fell short. Hopperbolic also isn't all that hoppy. The prevailing flavor is an odd spice that I can't put my finger on. The spice flavor is not bad, but it's just a bit unexpected from an IPA. In contrast to most IPAs, this brew doesn't taste all that strong. It tastes more like a regular pale ale, than an IPA. On a positive note, the beer is certainly easy-drinking. It might be a good starter IPA for someone who is trying to experiment a bit. For me however, it was just fine....not bad, but not great.

Because of my ambivalence, I am going to give Hopperbolic 5 pints out of 10. I could drink it if necessary but would not choose to do so. I appreciate Furthermore's effort though.

I will hopefully have a non-beer blog up at some point in the near future. This weekend, C and I are going to see one of my favorite musicians, Josh Ritter, in Madison...maybe I can get some good pictures up.

Until next time...