Ali and I headed to The Constellation Brands Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center (CMAC) (Lincoln Hill Dr., Canandaigua) to see David Byrne and Ani DiFranco. She bought me the tickets for our anniversary last month and I gotta say, I had a great time. Oh yeah, and we saved the $10 on parking because Ali has friends who live about a quarter mile from CMAC and they let us park there. That savings paid for all of about 1 beer, though.

Anyway, Ani DiFranco — although I don't seek out her work — was very good. I imagine she's incredible to see in a small venue, but it's terribly difficult to pull off that kind of personal connection among a thousand people. Since I'm not all that familiar with her, I wasn't nearly as excited or interested.

David Byrne, however, has been consistently great in my book. I liked his PowerPoint-based art in Trees, Tombstones, & Bullet Points when I saw him present it in October, 2004 and I've enjoyed what he's done with music. In this show, he didn't use as much multimedia as I'd seen before, but all the performers were dressed in white and changed appearance considerable with the use of stage lighting and the lighting on the back curtains.

I'll be sure to look for the new album because it has the power and pop-rock feel of old Talking Heads stuff while still feeling current (as if old Talking Heads heard by fresh ears doesn't sound modern enough). We were about to leave after the second encore, but he and his band were coerced into a third encore so Ali and I headed to the front row. The security guards eventually even let the stairways fill up with people.

Overall it was a blast and I had a great time. Thanks, Ali!