Well, our technologic weekend of discovery in the good ol US & A that rendered us human after all almost never got off for one of our 15 man robot rock crew because he had no passport, birth certificate or photo ID to prove citizenship. What he had was a warped driver's license with text that was practically all rubbed out, a SIN card, BC Care Card and some kind of certificate presented to his family when he immigrated from Korea (South, obviously) in the 80s (the dam thing is actually signed by Vanderzam!).

But perhaps in a symbolic gesture of our weekend to come, the US & A customs agenet (a female, no less) actually started joking around about the ghetto-ass pig fat chips the same dude without the ID was eating ("they sure go good with the beers, dont they?") and then when she said she couldnt read his driver's license, he merely said his name, spelled it out for her and then she proceeded to type it into some kind of data-base. As we all thought "dude, you mind as well hit the bus depot now..."), she handed back all our IDs and wished us a great weekend! Moral of this story? Hmmm, lets just say dont depend on the luck of the draw with the agents and bring your proper f'in ID if you plan to go into the States.

So as the 3 in my car and I were celebrating the granted entrance into the US & A of our proper ID-less friend as we started speeding off south bound on the I5, the subtle but striking differences never seem to go unnoticed for me as soon as you cross the border. Theres def more Blacks and Latinos right away (compared to our east and south Asian numbers), more rednecks (even more than Surrey) and the availibility and more economic pricing of the booze is very apparent. But then of course, you can, I believe go to jail for being caught with minor amounts of chronic, right? Ah, the regional differences.

Skipping past the Saturday night clubbing review - except to say that greasin the bouncers $60 to get in a crew of 15 dudes is def unheard of in the downtown clubbin scene here but apparently an easy way in down there - we all went to check out a Mariners game during Sunday daytime (gig day). None of us were big ball fans but at $18 for nose bleeds tix but which enables you to great standing and walking around access at Safeco field it was def a dam cool experience and quite different than your Canuck game experience at GM Place.

For one, Safeco field is outdoors. For two, baseball is obviously quite different than hockey and obviously quite an American thing at that (though some of the boys were recalling their youthful years watchin the Canadians at Nat Bailey). Another thing (the booze/chronic comparison again) is that at a baseball game in the States, when you purchase and consume a beer, you arent not confined to a certain area to do so. I cant remember the last time I went to a stupid ass hockey game at GM Place or a Lions game at BC Place but I think I can recall with near certainty that there are the wicked alcohol zones in which you can and cannot down your brew. So as a couple of my friends were walking off from where we bought our beers and I still had yet to finish mine, I started chuggin it to finish it and catch up with them.

Then they were like "what are you doin? You can bring the beers with your around." Dam, the regional differences.

Another thing which is unique to baseball is that you will not see a big banner of a Japanese grown hockey player beside the murals of Naslund and co. Seeing the big banner of Ichiro in the front of Safeco was quite a thing for me. Though I have absolutely no interest in baseball, it was def cool seeing a Japanese dude up like that to be idolized by the Seattle masses.

We actually caught Ichiro's 1500th MLB hit too and apparently the 3rd fastest player in MLB history to hit that mark.

Only after I got back did I start reading about how much success and impact Ichiro's had in the American Majors and back in Japan. Even though I've always thought this way about sports, it only reconfirmed my belief that it really dont matter where you're from in major league sports but if you help a hometown excel in their league, they will love you and thats that. Still to see a Japanese ball player become that idolized and successful in the American majors was a cool experience to see first hand.

Now...onto the SHOW!

I'd also never been a huge Daft Punk fan but being reasonably familiar with their major hits and after seeing their clips of their show on the net, it was a no-brainer to go check em out down south. With the Rapture also opening and since I'd missed them up Vancouver last year, it only made it all the more crazy of a gig.

While their set was super-tight and vocally on point (which is a pretty rare thing at gigs altogether), there was just no dam lights shining on them which made it pretty hard for the robot ready crowd to get hyped off a band they could barely see on stage.

But, a mere flesh and bone band, even as crazy live of a band in the Rapture just cant stack up to the Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger live audio and visual experience that is Daft Punk. Even though I entertained the possibility that their actual music set is only minor compared to the light and visual show which aint really what a show's all about, after some thought I came up with the following:

Daft Punk is not only one of the most commericially successful electronic acts thus far but also one of the most critically acclaimed. They have had a career of 10 years now which is quite unheard of for electronic acts. And from the get-go with their Spike Jonze directed video of Da Funk (back in '97), it was clear they had some identity and artistic concept to go with their music (which again is still rare among electronic acts).

They made an interesting blend of electro, disco, house, hip hop, breaks and synthesized effects, loops and the whole nine but they still were able to make solid pop songs out of that combo. They started off the attention of other French electronic or post-electronic acts like Air, Cassius and Dimitri from Paris and even though they released an album before Daft Punk, arguably the largely successful French nu-jazz act St. Germain as well. With their 2nd album, Discovery in 2000, they had their biggest club hits (One More Time & Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger) and also all singles from Discovery were accompanied by music videos by Japanese anime legend Leiji Matsumoto, of Battle Ship Yamato fame. These same music videos from the Discovery album, which all continued the story from the end of each previously released song/video were then compiled into the short anime film: Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem for which "Daft Punk produced the film under the supervision of Leiji Matsumoto" (wiki).

I think the pairing of the music of Daft Punk and the Matsumoto animated music videos are a great analogy for their pairing of their music and visuals for their live show as well. They arent just side by side separate entities meant to help market each other but actually complement each other - the music goes with the videos/visuals and vice versa. The old school, romantic imagery of the Matsumoto animations goes hand in hand with the disco inspired, borderline cheez but inspirational joy of One More Time. The colors of the videos and lights of the show visuals match the robotic and futurisitc discotheque feel of the music.

Aside from the fact that no one else has a visual and light show like Daft Punk's the fact that their visuals are synchronized to the songs and change as the song changes (in structure and in feel), that goes such along way to complement the music of a live show. Too often are there preprogrammed visuals that may be cool but just the simple that that the Daft Punk visuals are synchronized to the beats and effects was surreal (see Coachella clip again or any dam live clip of them on the Tube).

So with this that was running somewhere in my mind, the live experience before me was as such below:

And as my pics dont do enough justice to the show, check out Pitchfork's here.

AND DO CHECK THE TUBE LIVE CLIPS!