Christian Kane at Dante's

Last night a friend and I trekked up to Portland to see Christian Kane's last show at Dante's. Christian Kane is an actor currently starring in the TNT show Leverage. I know him better from Joss Whedon's Angel, but I did my homework and watched the first episode of Leverage before I left for the show. Leverage just ended its second season, and last night's show was an unofficial wrap party.

The show films in Portland and also stars Timothy Hutton. All summer, Christian Kane has been performing at Dante's and has developed an avid following. Last night most of the stars of the show were in attendance as well as some of the behind-the-scenes people. I overheard a fellow say he was responsible for planning how to blow things up.

The video below shows one of the stars, Aldis Hodge, playing emcee. I know Hodge best from roles on Supernatural and Friday Night Lights. The sound in the clip is not great (oh, and there's a swear word; don't say I didn't warn you), but he basically announces that Leverage has been picked up for a third season and will continue to film in Portland, meaning that Chris Kane's band will be back at Dante's next summer. Then, Timothy Hutton comes out and gets a big welcome. After the show, Hutton mingled with the crowd and was standing about fifteen feet away for a few minutes. He's quite adorable. We also spotted Richard Kind (Mad About You) standing right behind us.

On September 15 I'll be heading back to Portland to see Flogging Molly, and on September 22 I'll be back again to see Gaslight Anthem. I also just heard that the English Beat is coming back to Eugene this fall. Yay!

I was having some frustrations with Willow Friday night, and Leslie said something that I need to keep in mind. She said, "You know, all the repetitive circle work is boring, but it gets her moving correctly. Too many big horses are ruined by people who aren't patient enough to teach them to move correctly." A good reminder not to push too hard too soon.