Tonight, Ms Panda and I are off to see Death Cab for Cutie – one of the bands I got tickets to see in my annual birthday present.  If you have never heard them, they are a pretty mellow indie rock band from the Pacific Northwest.  This is probably the best way to describe them. I’ve also heard them described as “ultra-lo-fi” which I think is another accurate description.

They have one song that literally sent chills up my spin the first time I heard it.  Grapevine Fires is that song.  In the song, they tell about the Grapevine Fires in 2007.  The Grapevine for those unfamiliar is a stretch of highway that connects LA to the valley to the north of LA in California.  Driving that stretch of highway, you pass through dry, steep land where there seems to be nothing.  But, there is a town up there hidden amongst the livestock.  The grade is steep, and no one likes driving it.

I guess having driven that stretch about 8 times now, I could picture their song happening.  I could see the smoke.  Hot winds feeding the fire.  And, see the scorched land from where the fires hit.  Layer in my experience with forest fires as they occur in the high desert of Oregon, people being chased from their homes, and the song paints a painful picture of summer in these areas of the country.

I can’t wait to hear them perform it live.  It should be a fun concert.  It is being held at a hard to describe place.  The Edgefield is owned by the McMenamin brothers who are notorious for buying old abandoned places and converting them into brew pubs where they usually also brew their own beer onsite.  This place was an old poor farm then a nursing home run by the county for about 70 years, and it is now a resort of sorts for adults.  (Not that kind of adult resort.)  They have a hotel and a hostel.  A very nice restaurant. A brew pub.  A pool hall.  A pizza place.  A movie theater.  Seven bars including a wine bar and scotch bar.  They brew their own beer onsite as well as do wine making.  They also have their own distillery where they make scotch, gin and brandies.  In addition to having concerts on the lawn, they also have a pitch and putt golf course with the beer hut conveniently located in the midst of the course so you are never far from a beer.  Like I said, definitely a place for adults to go have fun.   And, tonight’s concert is the first of two I get to see there this weekend.

I’m sure I will take a picture from the concert and use it as my photo of the day.  Until then, I leave you with Grapevine Fires: