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Franz Ferdinand at the Knitting Factory, 4-23-14

Bullet
Dark of the Matinee
No You Girls
Evil Eye
Do You Want To
Tell Her Tonight
The Fallen
Fresh Strawberries
Walk Away
Stand on the Horizon
Can't Stop Feeling
Auf Achse
Brief Encounters
Michael
Take Me Out
Love Illumination
This Fire
Outsiders
Right Action
Darts of Pleasure
Ulysses
Goodbye Lovers and Friends

Links of the Week 4-12-2014

"Third parties seem out of touch with reality, the refuge of idealists with dreams too fragile for the trenches of major party politics. But Democratic skeptics, at least, shouldn’t be too quick to judge. One state is now on the way to single-payer health care, and a third party deserves much of the credit."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/opinion/sunday/as-vermont-goes-so-goes-the-nation.html
 
This is may all-time second favorite Slashdot interview: "Re:Belize by Anonymous Coward
Whatever happened to your girlfriend Samantha? Why didn't she leave the country with you after running from authorities?
[John] McAfee: Within a few days of my exit from Guatemala she was happily engaged in the monumental task of seducing every male, and female, in Southern Guatemala. It was an extravagant objective and one which, given the population density of the region, had a limited chance of success, I felt. I ran the numbers by her but she tirelessly kept at this task, with no letup. She entertained me throughout with her stories and outrageously effective pickup lines. While she was thus entertaining herself I hired lawyer after lawyer to get her a visa with no success. Ultimately we mutually agreed to abandon the pursuit, whereupon she moved back to Belize and, with perseverance and courage, began the same process with Orange Walk district as her objective. There is some slight probability that she could succeed. After it was over I tattoo’d her name on my back, along with the name of total stranger who I met in the tattoo shop - and who I have not seen since."
http://beta.slashdot.org/story/200403
 
"The warning about the bug in OpenSSL coincided with the release of version 1.0.1g of the open-source program, which is the default cryptographic library used in the Apache and nginx Web server applications, as well as a wide variety of operating systems and e-mail and instant-messaging clients. The bug, which has resided in production versions of OpenSSL for more than two years, could make it possible for people to recover the private encryption key at the heart of the digital certificates used to authenticate Internet servers and to encrypt data traveling between them and end users. Attacks leave no traces in server logs, so there's no way of knowing if the bug has been actively exploited. Still, the risk is extraordinary, given the ability to disclose keys, passwords, and other credentials that could be used in future compromises."
http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/04/critical-crypto-bug-in-openssl-opens-two-thirds-of-the-web-to-eavesdropping/ 
 
One more about Vermont's attempt to start a single-payer health care system:
http://www.vox.com/2014/4/9/5557696/forget-obamacare-vermont-wants-to-bring-single-payer-to-america
 
"I support the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a physical building. It’s a pleasant structure in which to walk around. There’s a futuristic room where you can lie on the floor and watch videos on a massive TV, and it’s right next to the Great Lakes Science Center (so you can visit both venues without reparking your car). Of course, as an institution, the Rock Hall is totally devoid of meaning. But this is no one’s fault. There’s no way the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame could ever be definitive or authoritative, simply because there’s no shared consensus over what rock music is supposed to do. Say what you will about the Baseball Hall of Fame, but at least we all agree on the point of the game it celebrates. We know that individual success at baseball reflects (a) the ability to generate runs, or (b) the ability to stop an opponent from generating runs. But what is the point of pop music? What constitutes success? Everyone has an opinion, but no one knows for sure. There are players in the Baseball Hall of Fame who might not deserve induction, but I can’t think of a single inductee considered "terrible" by a subset of baseball fans; there are, however, many people (including members of the Rock Hall committee, most notably Dave Marsh) who’d classify Kiss as terrible. So how does one rationalize the canonization of a group that some people don’t even view as satisfactory?"
http://grantland.com/features/chuck-klosterman-kiss-hall-of-fame/
 
This is pretty cool: "Google is starting to show developers what they need to do to create swappable parts for its upcoming modular smartphones, currently called Project Ara. On Ara's website, it's just posted the Module Developers Kit, which contains the information that manufacturers need to get started creating modular parts."
http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/9/5598622/project-ara-module-development-kit-explains-how-to-make-parts
 
Vampire Weekend x Danny Brown, Heems, and Despot:
https://soundcloud.com/dope-music-blog/vampire-weekend-ft-danny-brown

They Might Be Giants at the Egyptian Theater, Boise

Some thoughts:
1. The Egyptian is a pretty cool place to go see a concert. You can stand up front and dance if you want, or just chill in your seat. Either way, probably no one will spill beer on you.
2. The opener was a folky kind of act called Vandaveer, from D.C. They are really very good.

And a setlist:
Icky
New York City
Call You Mom
"Battle for the Planet of the Apes"
The Guitar
You're on Fire
Nanobots
(The rest of the show was the entire 'Flood' album, in reverse order:)
Road Movie to Berlin
They Might Be Giants
Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love
Women and Men
Hot Cha
Whistling in the Dark
Letterbox
Minimum Wage
Hearing Aid
Someone Keeps Moving My Chair
We Want a Rock
Twisting
Particle Man
Your Racist Friend
Dead
Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
Lucky Ball and Chain
Birdhouse in Your Soul
Intro
(encore:)
Tesla
Dr. Worm

Arctic Monkeys @ The Knitting Factory, Boise

Do I Wanna Know
R U Mine?
Dancing Shoes
Brianstorm
Brick By Brick
Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair
Evil Twin
Old Yellow Bricks
That's Where You're Wrong
Crying Lightning
Pretty Visitors
Do Me a Favor
She's Thunderstorms
View From the Afternoon
Fake Tales of San Francisco
I Bet That You Look Good on the Dance Floor
Suck It and See

encore:
The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala
Florescent Adolescent
505

Setlist for Brother Ali at Treefort, 24 March 2013

Watcha Got
Need a Knot
Bitchslap!
Mourning in America
Truth Is
Only Life I Know
Fajr
Stop the Press
Babygirl
Freedom Ain't Free
Uncle Sam Goddamn
Us
Walking Away
Forest Whitiker
Tightrope
Good Lord
Blah Blah Blah
Self Taught
Take Me Home
Letter to My Countrymen

The Cube, latest iteration

372 total

46 Red:
lava spike
genju of the spire
burst lightning
tarfire
lightning bolt
magma jet
incinerate
lash out
smash to smithereens
ancient grudge
arc lightning
staggershock
threaten
pillage
manabarbs
incindiary command
wildfire
fireblast
chandra nalaar
banefire
kaervek's torch

gorilla shaman
grim lavamancer
kird ape
magus of the scroll
spikeshot elder

keldon marauders
hearth kami
blood knight
tin-street hooligan
dwarven blastminer
hellspark elemental

sulfur elemental
ball lightning
taurean mauler
jaya ballard
fire imp
cunning sparkmage

avalanche riders
flame-tongue kavu
obsidian fireheart
goblin ruinblaster

hunted dragon
siege-gang commander

flameblast dragon

greater gargadon


45 Green:
naturalize
rancor
giant growth
sprout swarm
moment's peace
edge of autumn
sylvan library
call of the herd
elephant guide
krosan grip
gift of the gargantuan
moldervine cloak
stonewood invocation
mwonvuli acid moss
harmonize
garruk
primal command
roar of the wurm
momentous fall
summoning trap

basking rootwalla
birds of paradise
llanowar elves
scattershot archer

sakura-tribe elder
silhana ledgewalker
tarmogoyf
thornweald archer
vinelasher kudzu
wild mongrel

carven caryatid
dosan the falling leaf
eternal witness
sex monkeys
yavimaya elder

blastoderm
chameleon colussus
phantom centaur

indrik stomphowler
kodama of the north tree
acidic slime

cloudthresher
nacatl war pride

pelakka wurm
krosan tusker


46 White:
condemn
swords to plowshares
tithe
path to exile
orim's chant
momentary blink
temporal isolation
disenchant
balance
sacred mesa
oblivion ring
griffin guide
spectral procession
faith's fetters
worship
armaggedon
wrath of god
ajani goldmane
martial coup

akrasan squire
burrenton forge-tender
goldmeadow harrier
isamaru
soul warden
suntail hawk

kami of ancient law
knight of meadowgrain
silver knight
white knight
stoneforge mystic wall of omens

aven riftwatcher
cloudchaser kestrel
descendant of kiyomaro
pianna, nomad captain
kor sanctifiers

academy rector
ranger of eos
calciderm
voice of all

cloudgoat ranger
mageta the lion
reveillark
baneslayer angel

reya dawnbringer
akroma, angel of wrath


46 Blue:
brainstorm
ponder
mystical tutor
stifle
counterspell
daze
remove soul
impulse
into the roil
negate
standstill
frantic search
capsize
oona's grace
circular logic
tinker
psionic blast
jace beleren
forbid
cryptic command
fact or fiction
mystical teachings
gush
force of will
mind control
upheaval
confiscate
future sight
recall


aquameoba
thought courier
waterfront bouncer

man-o-war
serendib efreet
trinket mage
vendillion clique
sea gate oracle

ninja of the deep hours
thieving magpie
venser, shaper savant

aeon chronicler
ethersworn adjudicator
mulldrifter

guile
palinchron

inkwell leviathan


44 Black:
slaughter pact
dark ritual
duress
entomb
executioner's capsule
bitterblossom
demonic tutor
diabolic edict
exhume
smother
animate dead
nameless inversion
hymn to tourach
sudden death
dead reckoning
phyrexian arena
makeshift mannequin
vigor mortis
damnation
hatred
liliana vess
mind twist
profane command


vampire lacerator
guul draz vampire

black knight
dark confidant
order of the ebon hand
mesmeric fiend
oona's prowler
withered wretch
bloodthrone vampire
vampire hexmage

faerie macabre
hypnotic specter
stinkweed imp
vampire nighthawk

faceless butcher
grinning demon
mirri, the cursed
nekrataal

puppeteer clique
evil eye of urborg
malakir bloodwitch
shriekmaw

dread

avatar of woe


31 Gold:
r/g:
rumbling slum
fires of yavimaya
bloodbraid elf

g/w:
armadillo cloak
loxodon hierarch
quasali pridemage

w/u:
iridescent angel
kiss of the amesha
teferi's moat

u/b:
agony warp
psychatog

b/r:
blightning
goblin outlander
terminate

r/w:
ajani vengeant
lightning helix

w/b:
desolation angel
tidehollow sculler
pillory of the sleepless

b/g:
maelstrom pulse
spiritmonger

g/u:
mystic snake
trygon predator
simic sky swallower

u/r:
fire/ice
gelectrode
invoke the firemind

3-color:
rhox war monk
dromar's charm
wooly thoctar
cruel ultimatum


10 hybrid:
r/g: vexing shusher
g/w: kitchen finks
w/u: mirrorweave
u/b: sygg, river cutthroat
b/r: murderous redcap
r/w: figure of destiny
w/b: unmake
b/g: sapling of colfener
g/u: snakeform
u/r: nucklavee


47 artifacts:
mana:
lotus bloom
lotus petal
mana vault
sol ring
*grim monolith
mind stone
10 signets

equipment:
bonesplitter
skullclamp
basilisk collar
umezawa's jitte
loxodon warhammer
5 swords
sigil of distinction

utility:
relic of progenitus
sensei's divining top
aether vial
isochron scepter
crystal shard
oblivion stone
tumble magnet
mindslaver

creatures:
5 mana myr
epochrasite
bottle gnomes
masticore
triskelion
wurmcoil engine
triskelavus
darksteel colossus


55 Lands:
10 duals
10 fetchs
academy ruins
city of brass
faerie conclave
ghitu encampment
mutavault
pendelhaven
rishadan port
strip mine
treetop village
volrath's stronghold
5 karoos (enemy colors)
5 allied color man-lands
5 vivids
5 tri-lands
5 artifacts

Some strange and rambling thoughts on Thoreau and the UFC

In what is surely a sign of a deeply diseased mind, one of my first thoughts upon reading the opening chapter of Walden was to compare Henry David Thoreau (unfavorably) with Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight Roy Nelson. Roy Nelson is what MMA fans call an "ambassador for the sport." He may be fat and (at least as far as professional fighters go) pretty bad at fighting. But people root for him b/c he comes across in interviews as intelligent and humble, and he spends a lot of his time helping underprivileged kids in Las Vegas. Contrast w/ Henry David Thoreau, who is widely regarded as one of the great American writers. Yet in Economy, the first chapter of Walden, he delivers blanket insults to anyone who didn't choose his style of deliberate living, and frankly (imho) comes off as kind of a dick. Maybe the reason so many people still lead "lives of quiet desperation" is that there have been too few ambassadors for the "sport" of alternative, examined, deliberate lifestyles. I am sure that there are better ways to live than the regular [go to college -> get a job w/ two weeks off /year -> get married -> retire] template that so many take for granted. But surely we don't need to insult the people who are living that life in order to demonstrate that there are better (or at least different) ways to do things.

Additional thoughts on the UFC, not wrt anything else: The Ultimate Fighting Championship is in a strange place right now. Its marquee divisions (welterweight, middleweight, and light heavy) all seem like competitions for second place. Georges St-Pierre has cleaned out the 170 lb. division to such an extent that challengers are being ported in from Strikeforce (his fight w/ Shields wasn't particularly close, and I don't see any reason to think Diaz will fare any better.) Anderson Silva has had exactly one close fight since he won the Middleweight belt in 2006, and he has looked like a monster* in his last two fights. It might be too early to say that Jon Jones will be as dominant as GSP or Silva, but after the way he destroyed Rua, I predict that he will be wearing that belt for a good long time. Full disclosure: I have been on this bandwagon since I watched him suplex Stephan Bonnar at UFC 94. But even when I try to think objectively about it, I just don't see anyone in the division with the tools to beat this guy with his 85" reach and his varied (and ridiculously unorthodox) skill set.


*Here is a great clip of Forrest Griffin talking about their 2009 fight at light heavyweight: "Every fight I go into, no matter what happens- it couldn't be worse than Anderson Silva."

We'll remember this when we are old and ancient, though the specifics might be vague...

I went to see the Decemberists today at the Botanical Garden. It was a great show. The opening act was a local band called Typhoon, and they were really good. Kind of like BSS, but with discernible lyrics. They had 13 people on stage, singing and playing horns and guitars and violins. I think the word is "soundscape." Then the Decemberists came on:

"This is Sam Adams, mayor of Portland, Oregon. This message is not prerecorded; I am speaking to you live. I am floating above you in a blue geodesic dome. Do not be alarmed."

The set list:
July, July
You Are My Sunshine (Seriously, Colin Meloy was called offstage here by one of the audio techs, and none of the other band members could come up with a joke to tell.)
Down by the Water
Calamity Song
Rise to Me
Shiny
*Pause here to borrow sun hats from various audience members.
The Rake's Song
We Both Go Down Together
Won't Want for Love
The Crane Wife (all three parts!)
All Arise!
Rox in the Box
("We're glad to be in Boise; you've all been so accommodating... that this next song is about imagined Latino gangland warfare in California.)
Oh, Valencia
This Is Why We Fight
The encore:
Raincoat Song
The Chimbley Sweep (Pause in the middle for Colin Meloy to trade places w/ the drummer, who proceeds to play a cowbell and then sing something you could probably call the Failed Cowbell Solo Blues.)
June Hymn

An Evening With Cake

I went to see Cake on Friday night at the Idaho Botanical Garden, along with Katie and Jason Keffer. It was a really good show. John McCrea does most of the heavy lifting, but the rest of the band seems to have really improved since they started putting out albums in the mid-90s. The set list:

Sad Songs and Waltzes
Opera Singer
Frank Sinatra
Arco Arena
Wheels
Stick Shifts and Safety Belts
Sheep Go to Heaven
Comanche
Rock 'n Roll Lifestyle
Long Time
Mustache Man
Federal Funding
Sick of You
--Intermission
Love You Madly
Haze of Love
Guitar
Satan Is My Motor ("I know there are probably a lot of religious fundamentalists in the audience. But this is just a metaphor, so you can still go to heaven if you sing along. Probably.")
--Brief pause here to give away a willow tree- apparently they do this at all of their shows.
Jolene
Pentagram
Never There (The trumpet player has gotten so much better since this song first came out. He used to sound like the first or second chair in a fair-to-middling high school band.)
--Encore:
Short Skirt, Long Jacket
The Distance

RSS Graffiti Test

test test test

I'm tired of Facebook

I heard way too many dramatic stories tonight about things that happened on Facebook. Between that and being creeped right the hell out by Catfish, I am starting to wonder if I really need to be putting myself online so that people can look at pictures of me in a Rocky Horror costume, or rag on me for posting too many stories from the New York Times. (Get it Matt, rag?)

England friends, Michigan friends, OK friends who are out of town: I want to stay in touch with you. But how about I give you an email address or phone number? I haven't made up my mind yet, but I'm thinking about deactivating the ol' FB account, and instead using this blog to post news articles and interesting musings.

What say you?

Some thoughts about the WBC

The Westboro Baptist Church came to Norman today, and Katie and I went to hold a sign and see what would happen. I've always kind of suspected that these people don't really exist, and someone has been photoshopping their signs into other pictures as a weird, elaborate prank. The fact that they do is a serious body blow to my faith in humanity. Apparently the WBC also protested in front of the Big 12 Championship last night. I find it interesting that the a super-conservative religious organization goes out of its way to offend conservatives and religious people: Baptists, OU fans, the military...

Suppose for a minute that you've bought into the Bill Maher, anti-theist idea that religion is bad, since people use it to justify all kinds of madness all over the world. Further suppose that you really want to help your fellow man escape the captivity of faith, how would you do that? I submit that if you were dedicated enough, you might get together with a group of like-minded friends and troll the world. You'd be as offensive as possible to as many people as possible, although probably stop short of actually killing anyone (since it's hard to effect social change from jail), and you'd do it in the name of religion. Not "I hate fags" but "God hates fags." You might come up with one or two issues, and take a stance that is unpopular, or better yet completely untenable. Better still if you can find some verses from your holy book of choice that seem to support these positions. After that you'd just make a lot of noise and harass people, but especially religious people, since they are the ones you'd need to convert.

Basically, if you wanted to convince people that religion is a bad thing, you'd found the Westboro Baptist Church.

This basically the deck that I took to Indy two weekends ago. I think it has a lot of potential, although my testing for that particular event was somewhere between insufficient an nonexistent. I won last week's FNM with it, and I am going to try again tonight.

4 crumbling necropolis
1 dragonskull summit
1 drowned catacombs
1 lavaclaw reaches
2 creeping tar pit
4 scalding tarn
3 swamp
4 mountain
3 island
4 halimar depths

4 spreading seas
4 treasure hunt

4 calcite snapper
4 sedraxis specter
4 blightning
2 chandra nalaar
2 cruel ultimatum

4 lightning bolt
2 terminate
2 earthquake

2 countersquall

SB:
1 earthquake
2 terminate
3 flashfreeze
4 goblin ruinblaster
2 countersquall
2 magma spray
1 chandra nalaar

More updates!

I have decided to start posting on here again, although probably not quite as frequently as before. This blog has been a good way to stay in touch and practice writing every now and then. However, life in Oklahoma is a bit less adventure-filled than life in England. Much more of my time is consumed by school, work, and my beautiful girlfriend, although I will still write about any interesting things I do in the meantime. Additionally, I plan to write about: books, software, Magic: the Gathering, the Prime Minister of Italy*, and why I hate Glenn Beck.



*Warning: If Silvio Berlusconi is not one of your top five favorite heads of state, you might not enjoy this blog. If you do not have a top five, you should work on that, starting here.

Norman/Glasgow

Today was interesting. Apparently the Commons has changed management two or three times since I moved out, and I am no longer in their records. They won't let me move in until they do a background check, which won't happen until monday, at the earliest. Until then, I'm homeless and sleeping on Katie's couch.

So... Glasgow. It is very much a working town- not nearly as picturesque as the capitol, but it was nice enough. My favorite part was the trip to the Glengoyne Whiskey Distillery. It's about 45 minutes north of the town; when I went, the countryside was gorgeous in the snow. I toured the works, which was really interesting. At the end, I tried single malt Scotch for the first time.


After I got back that night, I met up w/ Cliff for dinner. He is studying at Uni Glasgow, and it was his first day in country. We went out the Basement Bar afterword. Cliff was really funny- he kept getting up to chat with the dj or ask about good Glaswegian bands.

Bedford/Edinburgh

I made it to Katie's yesterday. The money is all the same size again, and everyone drives on the right side of the road. When I was waiting in line to get my passport checked, the man in front of me turned around and spontaneously started a conversation; it is good to be home.

But back to the story. I flew from Dublin to Edinburgh, my single favorite city on the trip. Edinburgh Castle is really cool; it costs like 10E to get in, but there is so much to see! From the Scottish crown jewels to the National War Memorial to the spectacular view out over the city.

On my second day in town, I caught the bus to Rosslyn Chapel (that's the one from The Da Vinci Code). You know how Tom Hanks walks into the crypt down that stairway w/ the Star of David? You can still see where the movie crew cleaned the wall to stick it on there. That's just about the only carving the chapel doesn't have, though. The place is full of weird, asymmetrical carvings of plants and people. The walls tell stories from the Bible and the Apocrypha, stories about the St. Clair family and Robert the Bruce, and there is a weird little murder story behind the three pillars in front of the alter. The strangest thing might be the Green Men, though. The chapel has about 100 carvings of faces w/ vines coming out of their mouths, and old Pagan symbol for nature and fertility.

I bought a copy of the Scotsman when I saw that the bus ride to Roslin was almost an hour each way. Page 3 was about halfway taken up by a story about a new type of tartan being introduced. You know you are in Scotland when...

Confession: I tried haggis, but it was in a vegetarian restaurant, so it was mostly peanuts. It was delicious, though. I also like Irn-Bru, which is basically extra-fizzy orange pop. It is pretty much the national drink of Scotland, the only country where the leading soft drink is not Coke or Pepsi.

Heathrow/Ireland

I am in Heathrow airport, waiting for the Lufthansa desk to open so that I can check in for my flight. It is 23:31 right now, so that will be in t-minus five hours. Since getting back to Hatfield, I have been busy with school stuff and preparing to return to OU, so I haven't had much chance to write about last week's trip.

The first stop was Belfast. I only stayed one night there, but it is not a big town, and I got to see pretty much everything I wanted to. I learned a lot about Irish history in the Ulster Museum, from St. Patrick all the way up to 'the Troubles' of the last few decades. Speaking of which, Belfast still bears the scars of the sectarian violence from about 1968 until just a couple of years ago. You can walk around and see memorials for people who died (which always include the religion of either the victims or their killers) and murals which are either Protestant and pro-English or Catholic and republican, depending on which part of town you are in. I climbed Cave Hill, up past Belfast Castle. The castle itself is not terribly impressive- they mostly use it for weddings and stuff. But the view from the hilltop is incredible. I could see Scotland, and I was told that on a clear day you spot Wales as well.

Dublin was also very cool. I walked past the house from James Joyce's short story The Dead on my way to the Guinness Storehouse. I saw Strongbow's tomb in Christ Church Cathedral, then the next day I saw this picture of his marriage to Aoife (the daughter of the king of Leinster) in the National Art Gallery. I also really liked just wandering around the city: Trinity College, St. Stephen's Green, and Irish-language street signs.

Look 'em straight in the eye and say...

Yesterday was a good day. I went into London early to look around before the Pogues concert at 7. (I bought my ticket the day after they went on sale.) The plan was to ride in early, visit the Science Museum, and play some Magic before catching the tube to Brixton for the show.

That's pretty much what happened. I was excited to see the Difference Engine that the museum built for Babbage's 200th birthday. Since I wasn't in a hurry, I decided to stop at the Albert & Victoria Museum on the way to the tournament venue. They have a really cool Donatello sculpture of Judith killing Holofernes; I have now seen at least one piece of artwork by everyone with a ninja turtle named after them.

I got to the County Hotel just fine, and signed up for a side draft which never happened. It was fun just hanging out with Liz and Simon, though. I wish I had known that the Legacy Grand Prix Trial was only going to draw 30 people, and most of them would play bad decks. I would definitely have tried my hand. When it became obvious that I would not have time to draft and still make the concert, I decided to walk down the block to the British Museum, which was awesome.
From there I caught the tube to the O2 Academy in Brixton. The concert was phenomenal. The Marseilles Figs were good. The King Blues (who I had never heard of and did not realize were playing) were outstanding. The Pogues blew my mind. It was like the whole crowd was starving for Shane MacGowan. I stood right in front of the stage, and when they played Body of an American, I thought I was going to get crushed by the sheer weight of thousands of people pressing forward. It was phenomenal. They pretty much followed the set list I found the other day, with the last six songs forming the two encores. It was an incredible show, and I have never seen or heard anything like it before.

Pogue Mahone.

Unofficial Pogues Set List for Brixton:

Streams of Whiskey
If I Should Fall From Grace with God
The Broad Majestic Shannon
Boys from the County Hell
Pair of Brown Eyes
Tuesday Morning
Kitty
Sunnyside of the Street
Repeal of the Licensing Laws
Old Main Drag
Greenland Whale Fisheries
Metropolis
Lullaby of London
Body of an American
Thousands Are Sailing
Bottle of Smoke
Dirty Old Town
Sickbed of Cuchulainn
Sally MacLennane
Rainy Night in Soho
The Irish Rover
Fairytale of New York
Fiesta

Six days and counting...