Remember the saga of the robotic dog? Well, it will continue this weekend as I’ve been asked to come pick the thing up on Friday, so I can play around with it for a while. The boys over at Innovation Lab are having some kind of conference on Tuesday and they asked me to stop by with the dog and show off how it works. They haven’t had time to figure the thing out themselves, so since I already “worked” with it once they figured I might be interested in spending some time with it again and then do some kind of presentation on Tuesday. I’m pretty curious to see how well the voice recognition works and how much you can teach it, so I said yes right away. So that means I’ll probably be on the floor trying to teach the damn mutt some tricks this weekend, while following the Ryder Cup team kick some Yankee ass.

Last night I went down to see The Czars and unsurprisingly the place was more than half empty. And it seemed like a lot of people had shown up to see local act Yellowish and not the main act. But it was a good show all the same. Singer John Grant is a big Shannon Hoon-looking mother with long, braided hair and the full flannel getup. He has a killer voice that’s deep, powerful, soulful and just generally pretty outstanding. They mixed styles a lot and would jump from alt-rock to blues to country, but most of the time they played moody and atmospheric tunes carried by the dreamy vocals and melancholic arrangements. Therefore it was the more annoying that I eventually had to go up to some people I know and tell them to shut the hell up. They’d been standing with their backs turned at the bar and talked through the concert oblivious to the music and the fact that they were getting angry stares all the time. I hate it when people at concerts (or the cinema) talk through the show. It just drives me nuts and I’ve on several occasions told people to can it, because it bugs me so much. If you’re at a packed rock show it’s just annoying to the people standing in the crowd. But when you go see a band play quiet music in front of an almost empty house then it’s annoying to the band as well and it just pisses me off that people have so little respect for the performers and the paying customers.

After the show the band hung out and sold merchandise. I think it’s really cool when the band sells their own stuff instead of having some roadie do it. That way people can have their CDs signed and talk to them if they want. I just picked up their latest, The Ugly People Vs The Beautiful People, and I’m glad I did. I’ve been listening to it today and it’s just a beautiful record. I’d heard some of their songs before, but hearing a full album after you’ve heard a lot of the songs live is usually always a cool experience, because you already feel very familiar with the music. They’re playing Copenhagen tonight and will then be touring all over Europe until the end of October, so if you have a chance you should check them out.

I just found out that Idlewild will be supporting Coldplay in November. I haven’t heard anything by them yet, but have heard a lot of great things about them, so I’ll have to check them out before the show (I actually went to idlewild.com to learn more about them, which is a fun experience if you think you’re about to learn about a rock band).

Tonight Arsenal are playing PSV Eindhoven, which ought to be a good game. Hopefully, Thierry Henry will wear a t-shirt congratulating the newlywed Mr and Mrs Arseblogger and show it off, when he scores his first goal. That would be something.