Catching up from Thursday and Friday

Thursday a gang of folks from The N&O went out to the Pour House to see N&O photographer Jason Arthurs' band, Whoa ... an Ellipsis, and to say goodbye to another co-worker who is off to USA Today. The band was kind of screamo, which really isn't my thing, but I think they did a good job of it. They just need to get a simpler name. I missed the teenage hardcore band, but I understand they totally kicked ass. Here's the video for "1060 W. Addison." Two doors down at Tir na Nog, all-star alt-country group The Whistlestop was playing, so walking back and forth between the two clubs was certainly a strange juxtaposition. This is the latest band with Rob Watson, Scotty Miller and Pee Wee Watson. Here are two songs from The Whistlestop. The first is a fairly quiet song, so you hear a lot of chatter among the Tir na Nog patrons. I suppose most of them were hangers-on from dinner. Otherwise, I can't think of any reason why someone would go to a show and just talk through the whole thing. (first song) See more photos.Friday was a different scene altogether, when I went to Chapel Hill to see Blag'ard's CD-release party at guitarist Joe Taylor's house. Black Skies and Caltrop -- who is now officially my favorite band in the Triangle -- opened up. Black Skies and Caltrop are both heavy and sludgy, while Blag'ard had a slightly poppier feel. It was great to go to a house party again. There's nothing like seeing a band play under a bunch of Christmas lights in a back yard. Plus I saw a couple of folks from way back in the day, including one woman I knew during my years at ECU in the late '80s. The video of Caltrop unfortunately was corrupted, but here's video of Blag'ard's "Kick Out Queen." See more photos.