Evan Dando - Joe's Pub, New York, USA - Saturday 30th January 2010

Being in the USA at the same time as Evan Dando is doing a solo tour, always seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. So, I headed up from Philadelphia to an absolutely freezing cold New York - to see Evan Dando play, then to catch the Arsenal vs Man U game in Nevada Smiths the following morning. The gig was in Joe's Pub, a weird gig venue that was almost like a dinner show - doors opened at 6, most of the audience had a dinner reservation (with a minimum $12 spend per person), the show ran from 7 until 8:15, then we all got thrown out so that another show (with another set of dinner reservations) could kick off at 9pm. Very strange indeed.

So, without any support act, Evan Dando walked on stage just after 7pm, tuned his guitar for a minute or two, then started playing Confetti. This was very well received, so he played a number of other songs - Lemonheads songs, his solo songs, and the now expected covers. All of this was played with an excellent sounding Fender guitar, and for some of the songs he had Chris Brokaw helping him as well. Obvious highlights were his versions of Style, No Backbone, Tenderfoot and the set closer Layin Up With Linda - but really, the whole set was packed with great songs.

As an Evan Dando gig, this was fairly standard, the songs came thick and fast, he barely said a word as he fell straight from one song into the next, and it all sounded excellent. It struck me as a strange place to be playing, as people ate their pasta for dinner, but there we go. I enjoyed the set very much - but still think that nothing beats a full, electric, plugged in Lemonheads set. So, whilst this was very good, it left me wanting more - and thinking about just how good the full band are.

Work trip to Warsaw, Poland - 18th to 19th January 2010

A flying visit to Warsaw, where the high temperature for the day was scheduled to be -7 degrees. I say a "flying" visit, but it almost didn't happen thanks to the lack of urgency in Aer Lingus's approach to flying. Almost a 3 hour delay spent sitting in the departure lounge at Gatwick, then the danger of the crew having worked too long, or the airport in Warsaw closing for the night. Just before that latter problem became a reality, we got going, and arrived at 11pm. Luckily, I was staying in a hotel across the street from the airport, so a 2 minute bracing walk after leaving the terminal building, I was in my hotel. As I quickly remembered is customary in some parts of Eastern Europe, the heating was jacked up to the highest possible level, making it possible to sit around in a t-shirt and ignore the fact it was -10 outside.

The day I was in town was no warmer - at one point whilst stood outside waiting for a taxi, a gust of wind blew and made it feel like I was wearing no clothes. Really cold. There was a load of snow on the ground which obviously never gets the chance to melt through winter, but unlike the UK chaos recently, the country still seemed to be moving OK. They just moved the snow to the sides of the road, piled it up into huge white walls of the stuff, and carried on as normal.

After a day of work (including a huge burger for lunch, in an empty backstreet American diner called the Pink Flamingo), I headed back to the airport for my (thankfully not delayed this time) flight home. Whilst waiting for checkin to open (no online checkin on Aer Lingus from Warsaw, how advanced!), I strolled into the now mostly disused old terminal building. Presumably a modern piece of post communist architecture when it was built in the early 90s, it already looks very outdated, and was very spooky when you were standing inside an empty building that should be buzzing with activity.