Columnist Spencer Patterson: For vacations, iPod is music to our ears

Spencer Patterson

Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 | 8:36 a.m.

Packing for a vacation has never been easy for me.

Not that I have a tough time picking out clothes or remembering to bring a toothbrush or anything like that. The trouble has always come when it's time to gather my music.

First there's the issue of selecting which discs I might to listen to on the beach in Hawaii or the back roads of Napa Valley. Given my wide-ranging tastes, it's hard to predict what I might want to hear the next day, to say nothing of a full week later.

Then there's the matter of finding a manageable way to lug all around those CDs, usually between 50 and 200, depending on the length of my trip. Adding an extra carry-on bag is a major pain, but is usually required to house not only so much music, but also a portable player and batteries.

No longer. After much resistance, I finally gave myself over to the iPod last week. I'm never looking back.

Apple's much-hyped MP3 player was a holiday gift from my wife, just in time for our trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, last week.

With 40 gigabytes of memory at my disposal, I didn't strain my brain trying to decide which albums I needed to bring. I simply dumped everything I might possibly want -- more than 20 days worth of unique songs, iTunes tells me -- into my computer, and then transferred it all onto my iPod before leaving town.

The skeptic in me considered bringing a few discs and a CD player, just in case the iPod flaked out. Needless to say, I spend a considerable part of each day listening to music, and a vacation without it would have been a significant disaster.

But in the end, I surrendered completely. I brought only my headphones (along with a splitter and a second set for my wife) and an A/C adapter for recharging.

I'm happy to report that the iPod met my high expectations in most areas, and even exceeded them in a couple. In fact, since I've been back, I've hardly returned to my CDs, save for a few in my car to and from work.

One of my chief reservations about owning a portable MP3 player stemmed from my nature as an album, rather than a song, listener. Most of my friends who have iPods use them to shuffle randomly between tunes by a variety of artists, something that doesn't interest me greatly.

I was most pleased to learn, however, that iPod stores albums in their original playing order, and that they can easily be played in that order with the touch of a button.

My other major concern pertained to sound quality. I've shunned MP3s for years, preferring to download and burn music in lossless (CD quality) formats, since I often find the difference between compressed and uncompressed versions of the same tracks to be irritatingly noticeable.

Here, the iPod really won me over. I chose to import all my songs as AAC files, an Apple format relatively similar to the MP3. And while I'm guessing I might detect slight sonic flaws if I ever hooked my iPod up to my home speakers, I found the experience to be quite satisfying through my Sony headphones.

I do have a couple of minor bones to pick. For one, I'd like to know why the iPod automatically inserts a brief gap between all tracks. That apparently intentional glitch ruins segues in live albums and sabotages key transitions on DJ mix CDs.

Also, I'd like to be able to cue up my next album while the one I'm listening to is playing, without having to decide on such an order beforehand and create an iPod playlist.

Still, those gripes are relatively minor, and will hopefully be cleared up in future versions of the device's software, which can be updated via download free of charge by iPod owners.

Overall, though, any gadget that cuts down on both my pre-vacation stress level and my luggage count is one I would recommend to any music lover, fanatical or otherwise.

Quick hits

A look at a few of the shows scheduled to hit Southern Nevada in the next week:

Veteran indie blues-rock trio G. Love & Special Sauce invade the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay at 6:30 tonight with support from the Southland. Tickets are $20 and $22 for the all-ages show.

Eric Burdon & The New Animals, the re-tooled British Invasion outfit whose hits include "House of the Rising Sun," "Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," play the Sunset Station's Club Madrid at 7 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $19.50 to $37.50.

World-renowned DJ Roger Sanchez spins Saturday night at Ice, 200 E. Harmon Ave. Tickets to see the New York City-based house music impresario are $20.

The "Winterfresh SnoCore Tour" lands at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel at 8 p.m. Monday. Scheduled to share the bill: Chevelle, Helmet, Crossfade, Future Leaders of the World and Strata. Tickets to the all-ages show are $20.

Blackmore's Night, a band fronted by ex-Deep Purple and ex-Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, performs at the House of Blues at 7 p.m. Thursday. The self-proclaimed "rock-meets-Renaissance" group is touring behind new ballads album "Beyond the Sunset," and is inviting audience members to dress in costume. Tickets are $17 to $30.

On sale

Jimmy Buffett is back at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 9. Tickets are $65, $100 and $200 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday at the MGM Grand box office, at Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at 474-4000 and at www.ticketmaster.com.

Erasure plays The Joint on May 27. Tickets are $30 and go on sale at noon Saturday at the Hard Rock box office and through Ticketmaster.

Social Distortion has added a third show at The Joint, for Feb. 2. Tickets are $27 and go on sale at 1 p.m. Saturday through the Hard Rock box office and Ticketmaster.

3 Doors Down performs at Rain at the Palms on Feb. 24. Tickets are $35 and $50 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Palms box office and through Ticketmaster.

Joe Satriani returns to the House of Blues on April 9. Tickets are $25 to $40 and are on sale now through the House of Blues box office and Ticketmaster.

Tickets are on sale now for two other recent additions to the House of Blues box office: Avion with Anna Nalick on Feb. 4 ($13) and Steve Vai with Eric Sardinas on April 28 ($22 to $32).