Want to see a Portland band? Move to Amsterdam.

One of the nice things about Amsterdam is that, for a big European city, it's actually kind of small. Like a Portland or an Austin. So, when bands come here, the venues tend to be smaller, which is cool if you can get a ticket, which hasn't been too hard, since we seem to like a bunch of smaller bands that aren't that big here. So, while The Police play at the arena, we got to see Rilo Kiley with 300 other people. Very cool. Also cool: we went to that concert with some friends and before the show we went to a noodle place called Wagamama.

Side note: Wagamama is really good and we both love the food, even Rob, despite the fact that every time he eats there he later suffers from what he calls 'The Dutch Resistance.' Too much information? Sorry. Moving on...

So, anyway, who else is eating at Wagamama, not 15 feet away from us? That's right, the band, Rilo Kiley. Pretty cool. They played the small stage at the theater which was very cool, though Erika was feeling a little short amongst all the giant Dutch people. We had a better view during the Modest Mouse show, although we don't know where they ate before the show. Here's a picture from the show:



This week Erika and a bunch of the girls from the office went to Rotterdam and caught the Gwen Stefani concert. (Rob was invited, but would only go if he could watch Gwen the way he does at home, with the mute on). It was a great show, but on a school night, so Erika was pretty wiped out the next day.

And finally, this weekend we're going to see The Decemberists. Rob's pretty excited about this as he missed them twice, in both Seattle and Portland. They're another Portland band, although, like 90% of the people in Portland, they're originally from Montana. (The other 10% of people in Portland are from California. It's a little known fact that nobody from Portland is really from Portland.) Anyway, when your favorite band's concert sells out in 30 seconds or if you get tired of paying crazy Ticketmaster fees, come visit us in Amsterdam and we'll go catch a show. Arcade Fire in November!

Update: The Decemberists' show was awesome. First show of their European tour and they were amped.