Laughing and listening, we do both here at Sound Check. We also play checkers, draw crayon depictions of famous U.S. landmarks (we do a friggin' awesome East St. Louis Public Library) and like to take our shoes off under our desks when no one is looking, but that's all probably beside the point.

But anyway, we started this news cycle (that's what we call a "week" when we're trying to impress people like you) by getting the last couple seats at Randy Liedtke's comedy show at the Summit Saloon and Stage. The packed room got its laugh on early with a set from loveably drunk comic Kyle Kinane who told jokes about suicide, drunken driving and leaving babies in hot cars, which was hilarious...but you kinda had to be there.

Liedtke took the stage and received a warm welcome from the hometown crowd and proceeded to dish out some of his classic one-liners and then capped the show with a slideshow that was funny in and of itself but doubly so once a "technical difficulty" sent pictures of, how shall we put it...um...naked dudes onto the big screen. Yeah, you had to be there for that one, too.

On Saturday night, we put on some fine threads and joined a half-full Tower Theatre in digging the sounds of Portland indie folker Emma Hill and Her Gentlemen Callers. Once the amazement at the sweetness of this band name, Sound Check took in Hill's silky voice on cuts from her new record, Clumsy Seduction and also rocked in our seats (how hardcore is that?) to some of her brand new material. Hill's solo acoustic show a year and half ago at the Silver Moon was impressive enough, but with a five piece band behind her...yowsa.

Don't believe us? Check out tsweekly.com/blender for video from these shows. Crayon drawings coming soon.