Yesterday morning was spent writing a feature on The Ex Models (online tomorrow morning) and a column's worth of CD reviews (online Thursday morning) and recovering from a weekend of shows (see Oct. 22 and 23 entries). A full week of shows begins tonight at O'Leaver's with what essentially is a Hot Topic tour, featuring The Forecast with tourmates Lorene Drive and My Epiphany. The Forecast is a straight-up indie rock band with male and female vocals. They've got a new CD coming out on Victory -- the king of bland pop-punk labels. Sacramento's Lorene Drive is the kind of band that is thrilled to be opening for an act like Yellow Card, and signs their e-card "See you in the pit" even though no self-respecting punk would ever listen to their music. My Epiphany has a new CD out on Eyeball Records and has a lead singer with one of those yearning emo voices (Dashboard Confessional?) that can only be described as "unfortunate." This should have been an all-ages show somewhere, as the bands clearly fall into the high school or younger demographic. Still, it's three touring bands (as lame as they may be) for $5. If you feel like going out anyway, you might want to check out Kyle Harvey and Reagan Roeder at Mick's. It's free. I'll be at home, watching Game 3.

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