The Brain Collective

Jason attended Brainshare last week. For some of you, the word “Brainshare” may conjure up images of something resembling the Borg collective. But no, Brainshare is Novell’s geek-a-thon convention held every year at the Salt Palace. Although the arrival of Brainshare means Jason will have to work long hours and will be sharing very little of his brain with me, there is one good thing about it-the Brainshare concert.

As part of their geek celebration each year Novell has a concert at the Energy Solutions Arena just for Brainshare attendees and Novell employees. Jas and I quite enjoy these concerts; they actually bring in some quality talent for this event. The concerts typically consist of a comedian as an opening act and then some form of musical entertainment. Bands that have been part of the show in the past include Goo Goo Dolls, Counting Crows, and Train.

The comedian this year was Frank Caliendo. I had never heard of him before but he was hilarious. His impersonations were impressive and quite entertaining.

The band performing this year was Collective Soul. I am a fan of Collective Soul and have been to their show once before. They didn’t disappoint.

Based off the quantity of geeks at this event, and the anti-social nature of the typical geek, one would expect the audience to be rather blasé, but they were not. This may have been due to the amount of alcohol most of them had consumed rather than any inherent social skills. Either way, I’m glad I wasn’t the only one enjoying myself.

Jason was able to procure enough tickets to the concert for us to invite Jim and Cindy Brown, and Tom and Aimee Brown (yes, they are brothers) to join us. My sister Kristen and her boyfriend Johnny were also able to attend, so we had our own little concert posse to chill with. It rocked!