David Byrne
 So it's been a while... again. Yet I will be brief. Because I have too much to do. But last Wednesday, Brian convinced me that we should go see David Byrne at Oven's Auditorium. (It didn't take much convincing) We were decently close enough but way the hell off to the side, which sucked. Especially since the guy selling the tickets sold them as "DEAD CENTER." And more especially b/c it made it hard as hell for the camera to pick up anything on stage w/o being blinded by the reflected light. But whatever. Shit happens. And it was still an awesome awesome show, regardless.
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I don't think I ever got around to posting, but I went to see Of Montreal in Asheville a few weeks ago. It was... fine.
 Although the production was awesome in that it obviously took a lot of work and a lot of skill to pull off, I found it distracting. From the music. Which is the reason I went to the show. Way too much going on on stage, and the music suffered. It wasn't culturally shocking or anything either. Just a bunch of clever look-at-me-I'm-artsy kind of stuff. The point is that there were dancers at this show too, but I thought it was pulled off in a much much better way. Everything that the dancers did on stage added to the song, and I didn't find it distracting at all. Even though I found myself not focusing on the song sometimes, my focus on the dancers increased my enjoyment of the song since it became something that I felt more than something that I heard. It was a really great fusion of aural and visual stimulation.
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 As for the music... The only reason I didn't jump on this is b/c I'm rarely a fan of any complete Talking Heads record. Although I liked Byrne's Uh-Oh for its clever goofiness, I never really got into his solo career either. Before we went, I checked out the new record (with Brian Eno). As with most TH records, there were a few songs I dug, and the rest was completely mediocre. I'm sure the structure of the songs was fantastic and the vocal something or other was brilliant, but I don't really care. I just want to listen to something that, when I listen to it, I think, "I like this." To hell with thinking too hard.
 None of the songs that I liked off the new record got played, but almost (if not fully) half of the set were Talking Heads staples. Being the casual and uneducated fan that I am, that was awesome. His voice is still spot-on, and the musicians he assembled were absolutely phenomenal. For the most part, the crowd was pretty great too. Even tho it was in Oven's (a fully seated theater), I got to stand up the whole time. I hate sitting at good shows. Much to the chagrin of the people behind me. But fuck them. Lots of people were standing up including most of the people in front of me. Everyone stood up during a few songs, and I was happy to hear the everyone go really nuts at, you know, the appropriate times. Maybe Charlotte isn't so bad after all...
We ran into Don and Lori too. Talked to Don and saw Lori, but I don't think she ever saw us. I kind of expected to run into more people there that I knew, but we didn't. Then again, we got there not long before the show started... downed four beers in the car and then went straight to our seats. That worked.
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Labels: Charlotte, concerts, music
Young and Foolish Then...
Old and Foolish Now...
trying to clean up my life means trying to clean up all of my digital media. In doing so, I ran across these few pictures that I'd forgotten about... I think they're so shitty b/c they are screen-caps. But they are now where they are supposed to be and, if pictures are where they are supposed to be, they also require a blog entry. So. Here's this. And then some God-awful thing we did... the kind of thing you should do in middle school or, maybe, high school. Probably not what you are supposed to do as a college graduate. *sigh*
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Labels: concerts, filboyd studge, music, Scott
Jew(s) and Catholic(s), The Airborne Toxic Event, Dustin Edge, Toadies...
You know that song, "Time in a Bottle?"
Well I want to smash that girl in the face every time that commercial comes on when she says that. Other than that, I would totally buy some time. Couldn't care less if it comes in a bottle.
So, anyway, here's a bunch of music crap mashed all into one post b/c I'm too lazy to actually keep up with anything anymore.
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 First, I suppose, is this album. It's been a long long time since I've actually purchased a new CD from a store. I went to Best Buy the other day for some blanks to burn off the zillions of (mostly Radiohead) bootlegs I've been getting lately and decided I'd take the long shot and see if they had TATE's new (and only) record. Much much to my surprise, nestled b/t Air Supply and Akon was a lone copy of "The Airborne Toxic Event." There was no price on it, and I was fully prepared to pay $15+ for it. $11.99? Yes, please.
Despite paying less than I would have, it was actually still a pretty annoying purchase given that I'd been purchasing their singles off of iTunes as they came out. And since the first 3 came out as an "EP," you'd think that they'd not include those songs on the "album." But they did and so I had 40% of the record already. Sadly, those songs are the best songs, but the rest of the record is still pretty damn good to me. There's some Franz Ferdinand sound in there every now and then, ("This Is Nowhere") and there was one song I just didn't really care for at all. ("Something New")
The lyrics throughout are, however, fantastic. It's strange to open the booklet and see just how much ink is spilled across the page. And it's not wasted words. Words that make me happy and words that make me sad. But very few words that make me feel nothing.
And I guess it turns out I actually have very little to say about this. But I like it. Not like I liked them when it was just the four songs out, but I like it. And I'm afraid I'm going to regret this later with all of the MTV talk for Sometime Around Midnight. But for now, I'm happy with this record, and I think it's worth a listen. Or at least worth watching the videos for free on youtube...
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When it rains it pours, I guess. After staying out of music stores for a long time, I ended up with 2 new records in a week. Which may or may not have anything to do with having a new job that pays much better than the old one. Regardless, the Toadies actually finally released a new album after... what, like 10 years? I followed Vaden over to the Burden Brothers, but wasn't overly impressed. But No Deliverance (Click to listen for free) is classic Toadies. Even with the lineup change.
It's under 40 minutes long, so I was a bit miffed at paying as much as I did, (pre-order from Newbury Comics) but I did get it on the release date... and I did get an extra CD booklet thing signed by the band. Which is kind of neat since I geek out about crap like that. There's nothing really groundbreaking here that I can tell. And if you didn't like Toadies before, I can't imagine you'll like this. But I did and I do. And it's cool that they're touring again. Maybe they'll even come to Charlotte!
(that was a joke)
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The first time I saw Jew(s) and Catholic(s) was at Snug Harbor as they opened for Silent Weapons. I thought they were freaking amazing. The next time I saw them was right after the Inside EP was released at SKNet again with Silent Weapons. They were great, but it's really too bad that it was at SKNet. b/c that place sucks for shows.
This time was at The Milestone, and The Milestone kicks much ass.
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So. When I'm left to my own devices I'm rather punctual. Doors at 8:00, show at 9:30-ish. I'm there at 7:45. The bands aren't even there yet. LOSER. But I wanted to film it, and I knew where I wanted to stand. So... whatever.  I was definitely the only person there when I went in. Sat at the bar for a minute where Neil (the soundguy) said he'd get me a drink. Double tall Captain and Sprite, please. He pulls out these enormous "shot" glasses. Fills one up and into my cup... fills it up again and there's maybe an inch left for some Sprite. (turns out that the shot glasses were 3 ounces each) So I get my spray of Sprite, hand over SEVEN DOLLARS, (wow! :)) and go sit around and wait.
Eventually people started coming in and I saw Eddie and Alanna and caught Eddie long enough to make sure it was cool if I recorded. So for everything that happened from this point on, I blame myself. He was cool about it, so I got my stuff setup and then saw him frantically running around with the drum machine... the AC adapter was fucked. I guess he had a spare, which was good, but that was a rather foreboding sign.
The first band that played (The Have and Have Nots) were... fine. Energetic and pretty interesting. But I was tired of it after 2 songs. So, you know, I was pretty happy when Jew(s) and Catholic(s) were second.
 Everything started off well enough but quickly went downhill as my evil camera eye cursed every guitar that Eddie picked up. Alanna sounded great, and she was right there on time the whole time. But those damn guitars... I guess you can just watch and see if you want to. It was frustrating (and I'm sure FAR more frustrating to them), but I still liked what I heard and it was a fun and entertaining show for certain. Obviously "New Song" is not the name of #5... Hopefully they'll myspace me back with the proper title, and I can fix that.
And I need a new camera. I don't know why mine makes movies that are so grainy. I'm pretty sure it used to not do that. I played with the settings a LOT before the show, but I couldn't figure it out. I almost bought a new camera, but Allison needed a camera too, and her birthday was on Tuesday, so I got her one instead. Pretty sure I'm still happier about that. But it doesn't make me less annoyed with the shitty quality of my videos.
And I don't feel bad about the quality of the snapshots... I was, after all, videotaping at the same time..............
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The band to play after Jew(s) and Catholic(s) was Red Collar out of Durham. Never heard of them before, and I was a little worried when I saw one of the guys with cowboy boots and spurs. But they were actually a lot of fun. Having a girl bass player also never hurts anything. They reminded me of a slightly softer version of Throw Rag. I bought their EP, which is good... but, as with most bands, nowhere near the live show. I wouldn't necessarily make a special trip out to see them again, but I'd be happy to hear if they were going to be playing with some other band that I already knew I liked. They might be able to win me over just due to the awesome energy on stage.
They are going to be at Snug Harbor on Oct. 3, sooo... We shall see, perhaps.
The song I recorded is called "Fade Into the Night" (thank you, Jonathan!) It was totally random that I ended up getting this particular song on film, but I was listening to the EP on the way home, and this is definitely better than a lot of the record. Except for, of course, the shitty sound quality...
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I also got to see The Lights, Fluorescent for the 2nd time. I'd heard their name around town, but I only ended up seeing them because they played the "Celebrate Women in Music Awards" or something like that. Very poorly run award show that happened at The Milestone a few months ago. I was only there, again, b/c of Silent Weapons. And there were some crappy bands there, for sure. But I really liked this one. So when I saw that they were playing with Jew(s) and Catholic(s), I was pretty damn happy. I'm not plugged in enough to get to go to too many local shows where I actually am familiar with more than one band. So that was nice.
They played last and played well. I'm assuming that most people were there for this band as opposed to the others... or everyone was drunk. But definitely everyone was bouncier when they started. And the band absolutely fed off of it too. They played for about an hour, which was nice. But after the set, I got in a "Two More Songs!" scream, and then everyone said it, and the band happily obliged. I reckon I'll be heading out to The Milestone to see them again in a few weeks. Good times.
Oh yeah... I bought their CD the last time I saw them... shortly thereafter I got a new CD player for my car, but I left my copy of their disc in the old CD player. So it's still in there. Which sucks. But thank goodness for iTunes.
The first song below is, *I think*, called "Cubicle"
The second one is "So Sweet (Without a Care)"
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And, lastly, Dustin Edge swung back through town a month ago and played a solo acoustic show up at Summit Coffee.  I've had these mp3's up for a while, so I imagine that, if you want them, you already got them... but it deserved to be on the front page too. I really had no idea what to expect at all. I knew Cast Iron Filter, and I'd listened to Forest Through the Trees more than most people in the world. But it was beyond me to even hazard a guess as to what this stuff would sound like alone and with nothing but a guitar and a harmonica. Certainly most of the songs bore little resemblance to the multi-layered Forest Through the Trees... at least to an untrained ear such as mine. But it game them all a new life, and it made it doubly fun to hear all the songs stripped back down like that. The handful of CIF songs that were played were definitely recognizable, but definitely also quite different. Harlan County was excellent.
oh! And I guess this makes me way out of order, but I can't believe Hot Hot Hot was the opener. One of my favorite Cure songs, and one that I was stoked to get to see at the Cure show a couple of months ago.  I guess there were a rather large number of covers, come to think of it. I don't really know anything about "folk" music, so "Long Black Veil" wasn't any sort of touchstone or anything, but it was awesome. "Too Late To Die Young" was not, I believe, in the plan of things to be played... nor was the Untitled song. (Hurray for Encores!) Both of them worked well, and I hope the Untitled one continues to find its life. Bryan took about 9 million pictures... the light is bad out there, so he used the extended shutter thing. Which, I think, made a lot of these come out looking really really cool. Here are a few more... And I'm jealous of all you people in New York. Can't wait to see where all this stuff goes when/if Dustin actually starts getting a band together.
I know what I'm gonna do, by God.
Oh no, Dustin, don't...
I'm callin' 'em up.
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GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
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Loyal fan base...
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This is what The Flash would look like if you took a picture of him playing guitar.
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Listen as I pontificate as to why this is good...
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Even the moon was rocking out...
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But, eventually, it's goodnight, Moon.
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And lastly lastly, Dustin came back through town again and stooped down to come do open mic night at Jeff's Bucket Shop. I have no photos b/c I just sat my camera over near the stage and let it record the audio. So the sound quality on this is a town worse than the other one, but I actually thought the performance was better. But that may not mean anything other than that I had more to drink. Or maybe that Dustin had more to drink.
The phrasing on "Aeroplane Over the Sea..." good lord. Awesome.
Except for the bookend covers, these songs were all played at Summit. "No One Will" is a very cool song, I think.
Oh. After this was over, I bought a couple of carbombs. Dustin tried to cheat. But he lost anyway. Slut.
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Labels: Brooke, Cast Iron Filter, concerts, Dustin, music
The Cure
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Yep. Went to see The Cure last night at Bobcats Arena (fuck Time Warner) for the first time ever. I managed to get tickets in row 3 just slightly stage right, and I was really really excited about getting to see them live. The reschedule really fucked up my plans since I bought the tickets like a year ago for Allison's birthday and she's now in China... But it definitely raised my anticipation level. I didn't buy a Cure album until 1995; (or... actually I think it was 1996) I've liked them ever since, but I wasn't ever really totally ga-ga or anything. I like some Cure albums, I like more singles than albums, and "Pictures of You" is one of those songs with, you know, meaning. Now they, like any good band, have raised my opinion of them exponentially following their live show.
I'm not usually a fan of slow moody concerts, and I wasn't really sure what to expect. The one thing I definitely did not expect was to be surrounded by so much frantic energy at a Cure concert. The opening band, 65 Days of Static hit hard and loud... they only played for about a half hour (no vocals)... they were a really good choice for the opening act. 
I totally forgot what I was going to say.
So I'll say, again, how much it sucked that Pearl Jam scheduled their closest date to me since 2003 on the same day as the Cure show. Honestly, if I didn't already have the tickets, I might have gone to see them again instead. But I'm really really glad I didn't.
Wow. I really can't think or type at all right now.
I think I'm going to stop trying and just say that I was truly truly amazed by what happened on stage last night. I really did not think I was going to just absolutely love this show as much as I did.
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Oh! I will say that, although I wasn't really holding any particular I-Want-To-Hear-X songs in my head, I was secretly hoping to hear Hot Hot Hot. There was a quote from that song on a Jyhad card from back in the day... I think it was "I left that basement burning and I never went back." Plus it was on the cassette version of Mixed Up, which I listened to until it broke. That game also had a quote from Ministry's Stigmata on one of the cards... "My favorite weapon is the look in your eyes." (I think)
What the hell am I talking about? Pictures...
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I also actually wanted to hear Lullaby since we had the audacity to try and play that live once. Or... good lord... maybe more than once. I'm sorry, Robert. But I got to hear that too. And, if I was really honest, Pictures of You was on the list too. See? I like the songs that everyone knows...
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 During one of the (I think the first) encore break I saw this guy waving around this little puppet. I thought it was cute...
Speaking of people around me tho... wow. I met and talked to several people; everyone was totally awesome and really nice. The guy who was sitting next to me actually did his residency with Allison's old boss...
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 *whew*... and that's only like half of the photos that I took and didn't actually delete at the show. Even though I ended up spending a lot of money for a single ticket, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Very well worth it. I can't believe Robert still has his voice... he and Porl were looking old, but they were amazing performers. Fantastic fantastic concert. :)
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Labels: Charlotte, concerts, music
Radiohead (and Liars)
EDIT: Direct downloads of 192kbs mp3's of this show are over here
Saw Radiohead last night at the Verizon Ampitheater in Charlotte. Managed to get there about 2 hours early but had to walk around the parking lot and drink Captain and Sprite by myself b/c Allison was stuck at work...  Tried to wait, but it wasn't going to work, so I went in to catch the opening band. Knew they were opening, but I never looked them up... I suppose that, since Deerhoof opened in Amsterdam, that I was going to dig whoever it was. And that worked out. I had a video, but I deleted it to save room for another Radiohead song instead. I still have a shitty 1GB memory card in my camera... But they were cool. Except that they finished, and Allison was still sitting in the car.........................
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But she did manage to show up with, really, just seconds left before Radiohead came on. Frightening... but everything worked out in the end. She's funny looking in this photo.
Oh yeah... and just before Liars went on, I finished Memories of My Melancholy Whores, and it was awesome and really at all the kind of thing I thought I'd like. Like the ending isn't typically a kind of ending I'd appreciate, usually...
Not now...
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 I think this is probably my favorite photo... He was crazy dancing all night. I tried to do that too, but now I just hurt and no one much thought I was very cool. Which is best. We were row 12 behind the pit, far stage right. I think we were maybe slightly closer than the last time, but I think I would have preferred to sit a few rows further back and to be closer to the center. Wonder how those seats are allotted, actually... all the way down the middle and then to the sides? hm... regardless. It was still awesome, and we were still plenty close. :)
I don't really have anything insightful or interesting to say... there is very little I would have changed... setlist was fantastic, sound was great, light show was great, Allison made it in time... So I'm going to not say anything and just post the photos and videos.
(Oh... I would definitely pay another $75 to see that again.)
((And there was some stupid review about Radiohead/In Rainbows/Previewing the Show in Creative Loafing this past week. It was dumb. It sounded like "Radiohead are so past their prime." or "In Rainbows is a weak effort from a formerly great band." Something like that. It sucked.))
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 Tried to grab one more picture as they were leaving the stage, but I was still all shaky from the sound or the movements or something, so everything was blurry. This is still kind of... cute, I guess.
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I start to film pretty much every song that gets played... and then stop if I don't like it or something... so it's always pretty random or luck-of-the-draw as to what I end up actually getting and keeping. There There showed up pretty early... I guess it's not "cool," but I still really like this song, and I kept the video of that. Got Myxomatosis the same way, and it's badass enough for me as well, so I kept that and, given the size of my tiny memory card, I was done with the filming. The sound kind of sucks, which is too bad, b/c it was actually just about perfect when we were there... So it goes...
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Labels: Allison, Charlotte, concerts, music
Ministry
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I've been slack. Because that's what I do. But a couple of weeks ago, one of my best friends from high school drove down so we could go to the Ministry show over at Tremont. It was forty freaking dollars to get in the door, and I was definitely not going to go except for that Will was coming. I talked to a guy at the last KMFDM show who said that the last Ministry show he saw featured only the new songs being played. I picked up the 2nd to last album, and it was cool... but there was a lot samples of george bush talking, and it was very overtly political. I hate george bush at least as much as the next guy, but even though I liked most of the sounds on the record, it did get a little heavy-handed. Al hates george. I got it. Regardless, I just didn't want to drop a lot of cash to see a band that I liked purposefully skipping over all of the songs that initially made them great. I didn't need to hear the "hits" necessarily, but ... I'm rambling. You get the point, I'm sure.
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I'd never heard of either the opening band, Hemlock, or the "special guest" Meshuggah, but Brian Burton liked the drummer for that second band, so he actually went with us as well. We were too busy pre-drinking and missed the opening act which, frankly, was fine by me. We did, however, get there just in time for the Meshuggah set. Which, in my opinion, was pretty brutally awful. The sound in the building was terrible... sure it's industrial metal, and it's often going to sound pretty mushy, but this just was not good. I didn't like the lead "singer" at all either. He did a lot of posturing and putting his hands up like he was Jesus. Then yelled and mumbled some into the mic. I dunno, but I was glad when it was over and pretty stoked to finally see Ministry. Between sets, I was talking to people around me... met a few nice people and took photos b/c I was bored...
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I got both of these dudes to put their email addresses in my cellphone... I tried sending the photos over, but my emails got bounced back. Oh well... I tried.
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So, anyway... Ministry was headed out soon. So, good. But the bouncer guys started putting up fences. wtf. Divas? It was definitely packed in there, and there was a little moshpit, but no one was going totally apeshit or throwing stuff on stage or anything. Very strange. And annoying. But, whatever. So they came out, and it was all dark, and everyone was screaming, and they tore into a newer song that I may or may not have heard before. In fact, throughout the entire first set, there was only one song I heard that I was absolutely positive I had heard before. I don't know the name of it, but I could pick out all of the soundbites of george bush saying something stupid, and Al was like, "This is for our goddamn stupid fucking President" or something.
A lot of it sounded the same, because I, not being a die-hard post-Filthpig Ministry fan, didn't have my ear trained to listen for any particular riffs. I was mostly waiting to listen for the intro to "Just One Fix" so I could tape it, but it never came. So I watched with a feeling of removed bemusement and tried to snap a photo or two when I thought something would look sweet. After I took that one to the left, (the first photo I took since Ministry came on) some bouncer guy came up and told me that he wasn't trying to kick me out, but I wasn't allowed to take pictures.
 Despite the sea of cameras being held aloft all around me. I was all, "wtf, really? Just photos?" "Yep, camera phones only; nothing with a zoom on it." Does that statement sound contradictory to anyone else? So, whatever. I quit taking pictures for a while. Then I thought I had a good chance to take one of Al, (it's only even mediocre b/c I touched it up in Photoshop) so I gave it a shot. I know I shouldn't have done it, but I figured I definitely wouldn't get bitched at the only two times I took a picture.. Within 2 seconds, dude was tapping me on the shoulder and took me out for a stern talking-to. "If I see you with that camera again, I'm kicking you out." Fine. Whatever. So I got another drink and went out back to the side entrance to watch from outside. It was way too hot and loud and annoying in there anyway. And still yet, not a single song off anything older than 2 records ago. (maybe 3...)
Which, I should clarify... is cool if you're touring on a new record or something. But if you're on your "farewell" tour, why wouldn't you try to mix it up a lot? *baffled*
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Right. Enough complaining about that. So I went to watch the show from outside. Usually I'm not allowed to get up on the little staircase there, but I started talking to this guy named Craig, and he let me come up and watch from the band doorway.
So I ended up hanging out with Craig, the guitar tech from Meshuggah (whose name I have sadly forgotten), Chelsea, and Chelsea's two friends. I couldn't quite understand who Craig was, but he seemed like a really nice guy and was happy to talk about stuff including and not including Ministry. He was down from Greensboro just hanging out, so he said. Chelsea, as best I could tell, was somewhat of a band-aid. She had 5 or 6 kids back in California, and I found out that one of the little girls is, supposedly, a really great ice skater. I don't think she was an industrial-dance ice skater tho. I kind of watched the show out of the corner of my eye, but mostly talked to Craig and watched the guitar tech guy hit on that girl. At some point, Craig was like, "hey, you want to meet someone interesting?" I really had no idea what to expect, but sure, I like interesting people. So he pulls this guy back from inside, and "hey man, this is Burton; Burton, this is jim." It took me a minute, but then I asked, "wait... Burton C. Bell?" And, sure enough, it was the lead singer from Fear Factory. Well, shit, that was pretty cool. So I tried to get from him what he was doing there; the closest I could get for a while was that he was going to be singing some old stuff with Ministry. Eventually I finally got him to tell me just what he'd be singing. And, sure as hell, "Just One Fix." Bad. Ass.
I tried, for a little while to seem like I was sort of cool by mentioning that I'd bought the Remanufactured Fear Factory disc but that I'd bought it around the same time I got the first Gravity Kills record. I think that pretty much killed any chance I had of seeming cool. Oh well. Burton was nice enough to let me have a picture with him. Why do I do that tho?? I look like such a complete tool. Blah blah. So there was a short break in the set inside, and Burton took off. I took my post on the side of the door to try and get Just One Fix taped. I managed to get it although my position sucked, and I was drunk, so I kept shaking and zooming in and out WAY too much.
But it was cool... they were finally doing some older stuff... Stuff that I recognized. They played Just One Fix, N.W.O., and Thieves... all with Burton on lead vocals. He was definitely awesome, but isn't that super strange too? Farewell tour. Finally playing old stuff. And the one guy whose band this really was stops singing. It was all such an incredibly strange experience.
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When the show ended, I was standing just outside the door still watching things inside... Within seconds of the show being over a cadre of yellow-shirted strong guys started running through escorting Al into the waiting tour bus outside. They weren't overly rude, but they certainly weren't saying, "excuse me" or "please." So they rushed Al out to the bus, a few curious onlookers wandered over to stand around the bus, and I went inside to find Will. We were definitely too drunk to drive, so I was glad to be walking home... plus I walked out enough of the alcohol to drive us over to Jeff's Bucket Shop for the after party. Which was, perhaps, more fun than the concert itself. I'm definitely glad that I went, but I'm also definitely sure that I wouldn't ever pay $40 to do all that stuff again.
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Labels: concerts, music
new songs...
Couple of things...
Went to see Silent Weapons play at "Charlotte's Underground" tonight. Some place that used to be, obviously once you're inside, a strip club. It was huge, and the stage was enormous, and the sound was really good, but it was one of the crappiest places I've been for a show. The door guy totally grabbed my ass and gave me a pseudo-wedgie. The bar is cash only. They only let you get one drink at a time. I ordered a "Guiness Draft" (as advertised above the bar) and received a Guiness from a can poured into a glass. Eliza used the plastic gun that she always uses, and some dude pulled her off-stage immediately after the show to bitch and moan about how they could send her to jail for having the gun or something. Got a 6 oz vodka & red bull... six dollars. Ugh. It had potential, but ended up just sucking. Definitely don't plan to ever go back there again. Just brutal.
Aside from that... Scott was here last week, and we managed to cobble together a few songs.
The first song is, as I understand it, a sort of love song to Raven...
The second song is, as I understand it, nothing.
I was working on something else last night and today. Allison came over later and agreed to sing someting on it. We came up with this.
Also, after Eston told me to fix the vocals, I played with the production on this "song" I did a long time ago.
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Labels: Allison, concerts, filboyd studge, music, Scott
Silent Weapons & Bang! Bang! @ The Milestone
I was planning to write about this long ago. Really, I was. Sarah bitched at me last night for slacking off on my quickness tho, so I'm trying to make up for lost time. Now it's one month later, and I hardly remember what happened. I do recall being pretty psyched to be at The Milestone again. And pretty ashamed for not being there more often. But I was also pretty psyched to see The Silent Weapons play in a place with good sound. Sadly I've got no audio/video from that night... I tried, but the lighting was so freaking low that making videos was just silly. And yeah, so I really don't remember any details past what I just said. Dammit. It must be the drugs. So, I guess mostly, here are some photos from their set.
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The one in the middle is my favorite. But it only beats out the one above b/c Jason is standing in front of Josh.
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Uhm... and I just poured the Rum & Sprite I was drinking into a clear class. I think I forgot the Sprite.
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Allison also had recently dyed her hair purple. This photo got me kind of famous. myspace default photo famous. And, dammit, I hope that I actually took it and not Sarah and that I'm not just forgetting yet another thing. Regardless. The purple was sweet. Then this other thing happened... later...
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 As is often the case with shows in Charlotte, the crowd was, sadly, rather sparse. I suppose it's slightly understandable this time as it was a Tuesday night. With a new band from Charlotte and a band from Chicago. I really wish I'd had some recording of the show, cuz this was absolutely the best the actual sound has been.  I like being able to hear Eliza sing. I think she looks great, but, ugh, I ALWAYS just want to hear her better. It was much much much better at The Milestone than I've heard it before. Given, of course, I've only heard them at SK Net and the Bucket Shop (which is now NOTORIOUS for shitty mics...), but still. I do recall being glad that the levels sounded better and that I could hear Eliza. Dammit, I wish I could remember more better. I do know that I often feel that I'm just waiting for a wall to come down when I get to see TSW play. I really like what I hear, but I just have this feeling that it could *sound* so much better. It'll get there. The songs are really fucking good, and everything happening on stage is pretty sweet. (and, damn, Josh knows his way around the equipment on stage.) Anyway. It's good. But totally has a lot of room to get better. A lot of very fillable room. It'll get there. And it's great fun to watch it progress. Also, I'm eating Cheetos. mmm. But the other reason that the lack of bodies on the floor was sad was b/c this random band from Chicago called Bang! Bang! was actually really fucking cool.
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But before I get that, here's the last photo. Of Eston. Because he's completely a diva and would be pissed if I didn't post. Well... not pissed. I've seen Eston pissed. I don't think I've quite gotten that far on his bad side yet. <3 Eston.
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 From what I've heard since, Bang! Bang! is actually quite the popular band up Chicago way. They've certainly got more friends than filboyd studge... The lighting came on for this show, and I probably should have recorded something, but I had no idea what to expect, so I just listened and watched instead. What a novel idea. It was this kind of punk/pop thing that leaned more towards the whole punk thing instead. And I thought it was really badass. If I wasn't so poor, I definitely would have bought a CD. (speaking of which, why the hell aren't Silent Weapons CD's for sale at shows??)  Anyway. I kind of think this is the kind of thing that I might get tired of if I were to try to listen to it for an extended period of time. Not that that makes it less good... just not exactly what I'm looking for long term. For a random discovery as a band that happens to be playing with another band that I like? Wow. Maybe one of the best one of THOSE bands I've heard in a long long time. They had a really good stage presence too. Cuz it completely seemed like they were just having a great time. I don't think I've ever heard a cymbol solo before either... And the guitar string broke, so we got the Flying V. And it all happened like everyone there were just friends having fun. the fact that I recall that may or may not have anything to do with something I find missing in day-to-day life. Hm. Although I'm getting old and boring and bald and rarely venture outside the safe confines of my apartment to discover anything unknown, I'll keep my eye on this band... maybe they'll play somewhere near a stop of the new light rail. Or, hell, maybe they'll come back and play with The Silent Weapons again. I really liked it.
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Jack Flash
Jason, dude! You're always in the way!
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Gretta Fine
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Nick Kraska
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Although Holster was actually headlining the show I, yet again, missed their set. Allison had to work early, so we took off after Bang! Bang! had finished up. But the end of their set certainly worked out for the end of the show. I know there's a video of this whole thing floating around somewhere b/c the guy next to me was holding his phone up recording it all. I don't really remember exactly how it happened but they, somehow, managed to get all the prettiest people in the crowd up on the stage for a nice little dance party to send things out. Of course I didn't join, cuz I didn't want to make anyone feel bad. With my skillz. But that's good for everyone else who is a dude b/c it means that I have a couple of photos. So there's that. And there's my awful awful words that are simply here to fill space b/c I have these pictures, and I didn't want to do nothing with them.
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Labels: Allison, concerts, Eston, music
Silent Weapons @ sk Net
Finally made it out to see Eston's newly acquired musical home in concert the other day. Biased tho I may be, I was pleasantly surprised. I got there kind of late and missed most of the first set by Holster... I'd never heard them before either, so I wasn't overly worried. But I kind of liked them as well. The lead singer was fun to watch and, for some reason, reminded me of David Byrne. I have no basis for that... it's just what I thought of when I was watching. I only had a couple of photos... neither were that great... but they're here for the taking or viewing or whatever. They're playing again next Tuesday at the Milestone, and I'm not at all unhappy about seeing them again. Perhaps I'll have more of a real opinion then.
The only thing that I had time about which to be annoyed was the muddiness of the sound. At first I thought it was just the lead singer either not really belting it out or just being low in the mix... When Silent Weapons played, I felt like I was losing Eliza in the songs sometimes too. So I'm chalking that up to either sound problems or venue acoustics. Or lack thereof.
Actually... you can't really have a lack of acoustics, can you? It's really a matter of quality as opposed to quantity.
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But the only reason I went was to see Silent Weapons... I did catch that whole show. And, like I said, I was pleasantly surprised. I'd really only heard songs on myspace, and I don't really pay attention. I dunno why. I guess it's that stupid player with all it's controls locked down or the poor buffering... whatever... it's not talk-about-why-myspace-sucks time. Right... music.
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From stage-right... Eston looking very pleased with himself.
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Eliza trying to figure out just what, exactly, to do with that gun...
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And Josh looking like he's doing that AC/DC kick-step across the stage thing.
(he wasn't)
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(perhaps I should say that I, obviously, used a lot of Photoshop lighting and red-eye effects to try and make these photos better...)
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Well... it didn't take her long to figure out what to do with it. Eston busted a string on, like, song 2. Idiot.
His playing must be completely superfluous tho, as it didn't seem to affect the rest of the show. Hopefully he's learned his lesson now...
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So. I like drums.
There is, as you can see, no drummer in Silent Weapons. Which, is you watch the videos, you'll hear does not mean that there are no drums in Silent Weapons. Josh, as I understand it, programs the bass beats, and all the songs are played to backing tracks. On the one hand, it's really cool to be able to execute your songs basically the same way night-after-night. (I didn't hold it against The Helio Sequence) And I am kind of a sucker for the fusion of talent and technology. But, on the other hand, a drum track... Something about a real-live drumbeat is so much more comforting and emotional and raw than digital tracks. Not that I'm trying to get stuck on one minor thing. The tempos and beats that were there were groovy and entertaining. I just missed the sound of someone actually banging on something.
 And the sound issues... there was definitely some muddiness that pulled away from the show, but nothing I couldn't get over. Sometimes I just wanted to hear Eliza better, and I couldn't. I do think that both bands were just suffering from the acoustics of the venue. sk Net is a low-ceilinged, narrow, and long coffee bar. Not really the best place for big crisp sounds. The band itself seemed to be pretty tight and on with the backing tracks. At the very least, there weren't any major issues, and they sounded good. And like they were having fun. Well... Josh looked like he really wanted it to sound good. As Eston said, "Everyone listens to Josh but watches me." Makes sense.
I'm going to steer away from making any sort of comparissions. At this point, I'd end up saying they sounded a bit like the Rockfords, but I think I'd take that back in an hour. The song-writing was pretty catchy and hooky tho, and I don't recall being bored. I didn't record the whole show this time, and it's actually been a while since I've tried to write about something I didn't have recorded. Strange that it matters. But my memory sucks. The two videos I got were decent and, I think, a pretty good representation of the show.  There are definitely two distinct moods in the songs... the slower spacey kind of thing and then the more punk/pop kind of song to which I am more partial. Except for if I'm home alone lost in a project. Or really sad. Or on tons of drugs, perhaps.
But I digress.
What else? ...The lighting was actually really neat. Especially for such a small place. Basically, it was just cool that the lights were doing something other than shine. (cuz I'm pretty sure there wasn't anyone actually running lights.) Silent Weapons are playing with Holster at this next show too, and I'm looking forward to it. It'll be nice to go in having some kind of previous knowledge.
Uhmmm... and, to be completely honest, I wasn't really struck by the uniqueness of either band at the time, so it'll be cool to get to listen a bit closer this time without everything just being "new."
Dispite my earlier complaints... there are some good sounding songs on myspace...
Silent Weapons on myspace
Holster on myspace
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To be fair about the uniqueness statement... and, really, everything I said... I definitely wasn't giving 100% of my attention to the stage cuz there were other people there with whom I could interact. These people. So that was mostly nice. Except for the universal annoyance of ever trying to interact with anyone ever at a concert.
Or maybe that's just me.
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Sarah
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Judith
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Shirin (and Sarah again)
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And, dammit, I almost forgot this one. I jumped up on stage and took this from behind the band looking out. (obviously) I think it turned out to be pretty cool.
That's Jason - Holster's bass player - standing in the middle. Isn't it sweet when bands stay to watch bands who perform later? Yes. Yes, it is.
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ugh. I forgot this one too. Definitely the last photo this time...
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And, lastly, the couple of videos I have from the show.
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Labels: concerts, Eston, Judith, music, Sarah
famous by association
I got a message on youtube from an intern at Paste Magazine...
He was writing an article about the upcoming Helio Sequence album and found my videos of the concert from a few weeks ago on youtube. At the bottom of the article are links to my videos. Cool!
Paste article
Labels: concerts, music
The Helio Sequence
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The Helio Sequence, somewhat amazingly, showed up in Charlotte this past weekend. They played between two bands I'd never heard of: Tiny Vipers and Minus the Bear. I didn't dig the Minus the Bear stuff on their myspace page, but I didn't care. $17.00 for The Helio Sequence right down the street... I couldn't pass that up.
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| Uhm... Tiny Vipers consisted of a pretty cute indie-looking girl with a Dolores O'Riordan voice and soft stepping fingers and a kinda geekycute guy playing backup accousitc and accent bass. They had some technical problems, but regardless, I just didn't get it. Maybe it was just wrong for this soft flowing duet to be playing the big stage at Tremont. Or maybe it just wasn't right for me. Or maybe they just weren't very good. I dunno, but it seemed pretty painful for everyone - performers included. They definitely left the stage before finishing their set. I felt bad for them, but something just wasn't there. The bass was superfluous, the guitar was too soft... it was just background music to showcase her voice. It almost had a Velvet Underground feel, but I asked the guy later, and he was just like, "Yeah, I know who they are..."
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So, enough of that...
I haven't seen The Helio Sequence since they opened for The Secret Machines and Kings of Leon in Asheville a couple of years ago. One of those bands that I remembered fondly but didn't think I'd ever get the chance to see again.
I remembered Benjamin's flailing arms, a bunch of groovy electronic beep-boops, and this really clean voice that I oddly enjoyed. When I bought the record (the, at the time, new Love and Distance), I really liked the upbeat first half but could rarely get into the more mellow second half. Luckily, for me, the show stuck to the live / first-half-of-the-record sound that I remembered...
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I went alone... there were lots of people younger than me. Also, I didn't really take any pictures b/c I was video-taping the whole thing. I tried taking this one photo with my left hand while a I taped with the right hand. It didn't work out so well.
I should say that I can see some people thinking that it's a waste to go to a live concert and focus more on taping the thing than living in the moment or whatever.
Fuck you.
Anyway. I don't think I could have been happier with the set. Yeah, longer would have been nicer, but the battery on my camera was dying and I didn't want to try to swap to my other camera. OK... there's a reason that taping a show might not be cool... Ugh.
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They played 4 out of the 5 songs from Love and Distance that I really like and none of the slower stuff that I didn't feel like hearing at a concert. I hadn't heard anything off their new album (Jan. 29th on SubPop), so I was also really really happy that they played a lot of new stuff. I can't figure out the name of the 3rd song they played, but they either played 4 or 5 from the new album, and I really liked all of them. Honestly, not too "new" when compared to the last album, but I still think it's good. (Am I changing tense improperly?)
You know, it's actually probably good that I was filming. If I had been free, I would have wanted to be moving much much more than the crowd in front of me. I guess that most everyone was there for Minus the Bear although I did hear some people calling out "Harmonica Song," so at least some people knew who The Helio Sequence were. Still. A bouncier crowd would have been nice.
And the lighting... There was one moment towards the beginning of the show where it looked like they might have had someone doing lights, but no one really was. I think I remember liking the light show from Asheville, but nothing was really going on here. But it was fine. It was bright enough for me to see the band, and that's what I really wanted. Benjamin is a freakin' machine on the drumkit. I suppose the both are, really, but watching him play the drums is so much fun. And he looks like he's having a blast too. Fantastic. :)
Plus Brandon and Benjamin were both really nice when I asked them to sign my record. For some reason, Brandon thanked me...
Then Minus the Bear came on... I listened for a minute while I waited to get the 2nd signature and left after I did. They were fine, but I didn't think they were very special. And I had things to do.
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So... watch the show or download the mp3's... they only played about 47 minutes, and I think I did an ok job of recording and cutting, so hopefully it will be entertaining. There is a little bit too much bass, so maybe turn that down a bit.
I probably would have not really cared that much when their new record came out in January had I not seen them again. But now I'll be pre-ordering for sure.
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Labels: concerts, music
The Fiery Furnaces
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Despite a plethora of cool releases in the recent past, (read: NIN, Spoon, White Stripes, Interpol.....), I've not really done a very good job of following music lately. We'll chalk it up to a lack of funds. But now Continental Airlines and Chase Bank USA have joined forces and given me the ability to earn my way back to Amsterdam by buying a bunch of crap I don't need. Or crap I do need like food and tires on my car.
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Regardless, my most recent frequent-flyer-miles purchase involved a pair of tickets for the triumphant return of The Fiery Furnaces to my musically shallow city. Last time I got to see this band was a few months prior to the release of 2006's Bitter Tea. I went in a Fiery Furnaces virgin and came out struck more by the opening band (deadboy and the Elephantmen) than by FF. This time, however, I'd let Bitter Tea sit in the car stereo for a few days, I had my recording stuff, and I was prepared. Hell, I got there almost an hour before doors opened b/c I forgot this was Charlotte, and I thought that people might be lined up for the show...
but that's neither here nor there. dios. The Fiery Furnaces. I will now talk about them both.
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Opening band was a pleasant surprise. While it wasn't my thing as much as deadboy was, dios was a lot of fun and turned out to be a fantastic choice as an opener for The Fiery Furnaces.
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Their website, however, is fucking terrible... The lead singer reminded me (quite a lot, actually) of a South Carolina band called A Decent Animal, but that's about all I can do for comparisons. Everything was super-tight with a fantastic amount of ambient noise, and the drummer was a fucking BLAST to watch. It was just the right mix of painful groove and groove rock that neither put me in a mosh pit nor put me to sleep.
While not a jam band by really any stretch of the imagination, it almost could have been. I had a hell of a time noticing when most songs ended and the next began. I even recorded the thing, and I've been struggling fruitlessly listening and re-listening trying to find where to chop the 40-odd minute set up into individual tracks. It's not that everything sounded exactly the same, but everything fused together so well that pinpointing that moment where things changed is just proving to be impossible for me. Not that it really matters. I really enjoyed the set, and I would definitely go see them again. If anyone who reads this knows this band and would like to help me track the show, I'd be grateful... I'm here.
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<-------------
dios breakdown takes next to no time at all... the stage crew gets everything ready for the main act, and Allison checks my equipment for me. (that is not a euphemism)
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While waiting we meet new friend and fellow Orange Peel/Arcade Fire/Sonic Youth/Pearl Jam fan Darryl... but what's up with everyone and the earplugs?
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And, so then... The Fiery Furnaces
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Caveat: **If you want a really good review of The Fiery Furnaces, I implore you to check out Scott Shupe's review here on CrazyTalk.**
I'm just going to end up rambling and not really saying anything meaningful.
So here we go... As I mentioned, I'd been spinning Bitter Tea in the car for a while, and so I thought I was totally prepared. I was going to know the songs and the words and the beats, and I was going to be soooooooooooo cool. Then they actually started playing... "Little Thatched Hut"... a song I definitely know... kicked off the first half of the show, which ended up being entirely devoted to songs off the new record. And I hardly recognized it. Bitter Tea clocks in right at 80 minutes, and they played a pretty healthy number of tracks off the record... plus another equally long "set" devoted to older stuff (and one brand new song). The entire show was almost exactly as long as the record. Everything was blisteringly fast. Combined with Eleanor's voice often being submerged under the sonic wave sent forth by the rest of the band (I had no idea Jason Loewenstein was playing with them!!), I found myself completely lost.
But that was great. And hopefully part of their plan. Very little stage banter... No breaks between songs. Just continuous sound after sound after sound. Although I was trying to pay attention to my computer and searching for familiarity in the music, I couldn't help but getting lost in everything they were throwing out to the crowd. Every single song raced off the stage like the damn place was on fire... lyrics were left out, but not Eddie-Vedder-I'm-Trying-But-I'm-Too-Drunk-To-Remember-All-My-Words style... it was all very calculated.
Also not a lot of stage antics or really much movement at all. The whole show was 100% about the sound. You really just couldn't get away from it - there was nothing to really distract you from just being there and listening... actually... I guess I take that back a little bit. I have no idea what in the world the point of this was, but Eleanor and the lead singer from dios did end up tossing a softball back-and-forth near the end of the show. Dustin (comic-book guy) Harbin was there begging for the softball but was met with a simple yet firm shake of the head that said simply, "I don't think so." She's smart.
So, yeah. I liked it. Not that I've become a huge Fiery Furnaces fan now or anything, but I'm very very glad that I got to see them again with a little bit of knowledge in my head. I'll be picking up Blueberry Boat the next time I see it at Manifest, and the next time they're at The Visulite (God, please don't go to the Neighborhood Theater...), I'm totally there.
And now I have to completely rethink my stance on hating bands that tour with two drummers.
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I really did not intend for this to be so long... I did record the full audio of the show as well as some video. I was standing next to this girl when Eleanor handed her a copy of the setlist, and she was nice enough to let me copy it down. That turned out to be a Godsend as I desperately needed that when I was tracking out this show.
Anyway. For the media-minded of us... (If I'm wrong about the names, let me know, and I'll fix it)
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Labels: Allison, concerts, music
The Arcade Fire
Last week, I didn't go to work past Tuesday. I, instead, hung out exclusively with people I like. Partially in a town I like. Partially at a concert I liked. Doing all that liking was scary. Here are some photos. I'm saying everything that I type right now in the back of my head as though I were Hank Hill. That is also scary. I do a terrible Hank Hill.
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These are pictures of me getting destroyed in the new expansion for Apples to Apples.
By Kennedy.
And Allison.
Also... the comic book store that's on Biltmore (or Broadway? I can't ever remember which side of the street is called which thing unless I'm there) sucked. Except that they had Apples to Apples. You shouldn't work in a comic book store if you aren't well-acquainted with Bone.
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And this... dammit... seems like there's always a picture of Bryan's ass whenever we take pictures of anything. And not to compare Brooke to Bryan's ass in any way whatsoever... but the picture of a person taking a picture of the person taking the picture of... Gay. Like Bryan's ass.
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Not that I have anything against gay people...
Of course. |
We kind of pushed it a little too close with the eating and missed half of the first song by The National. Which was annoying for me. But not as annoying as for other people. As far as I know. I had gotten the new album prior to the show, which made things much much better since they mostly played new stuff. Musically or whatever, they weren't extremely deep or cutting-edge, so knowing the songs helped a ton and made it a lot of fun. The dude can scream. I was surprised. Especially since I described the new record (multiple times) as perfect sitting-at-home-alone-on-the-couch-in-the-dark music.
The lighting, however, was really really low... While I have a few photos, I couldn't even get the lighting up enough in Photoshop to make them worthwhile, so I will spare you.
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And then the Arcade Fire... The setlist was really really good. Lots of new stuff, some old stuff... and very few slow sad-bastard songs.
We were sitting right in the middle in the 2nd balcony row, which was ok for me, but not for those who require glasses.
Nor, apparently, was it ok for my camera and my stupid shakey hands. Nothing really came out that great at all, but some of them at least weren't completely terrible...
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I can play a C-Major scale on all of the above instruments... Yes, I'm that amazing.
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I like how the screaming guy is pretty much in focus. If everyone on stage would have just stayed still the entire time, all of my pictures would have been as amazing as my C-scales.
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<-- Ahhhh... young love...
(Is that really two gay jokes in one post? Maybe I do have something against gay people, and I just don't know it.)
hmmm... -->
And why does everyone else look happy, and I look like a retard? There. I made fun of retarted people instead of gay people that time.
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And, lastly, here's the first encore song that Arcade Fire did. The girl sitting in front of me left for some reason, so I was able to jump down a row and use the balcony rail to hold the camera still.
Well... kind of still... Labels: Allison, Brooke, concerts, Jen, Kennedy, music, Thomas
Pearl Jam in Hawaii
I saw this band last night... I may have already mentioned it. They're called "Pearl Jam." And they're fucking great. Met some amazing amazing people and managed to trade my Row 20 Stage Right tickets for Row 12 dead. fucking. center. Show was almost three hours... not including Kings of Leon opening. Last time I saw them, I left halfway into their show b/c The Helio Sequence and The Secret Machines were FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR better. This time, however, they nailed it. And Ed sang the last song with them. And the guy next to me gave me a little puff on his nice Hawaian... errm... doobie. Yes, doobie. Shared some beer rounds with the guys on my other side too. Very very excellent. That's all for now. Because I have to fly now. And hopefully eventually float back down for a smoke in a tree. Labels: concerts, music, Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam in Amsterdam
It seemed to work last time... so I'll try again. These are the select few that didn't look like total complete shite from the Pearl Jam show day... at least the ones I haven't already posted.
I apologize now for the copious amounts of blur.
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These two were in front of the Neuwe Kirche (spelling?) before we left for the day... they're dumb, but also kind of funny. Kind of.
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And these... These are the golden tickets... and the pink wristband... which was SUPPOSED to get us way up front... but landed us in the middle/front instead. dammit.
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Everybody. In blue. I almost didn't put this cuz of how blurry it is, but it's the best one, sadly, that I got of the whole band.
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Eddie doing something weird... I think that's his signal for "Give me all of your money."
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And Ed and Jeff...
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Also was close to not making it, but there were so many of Mike that were almost good... I decided this one would go. Even though there's no "action." As it were.
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Lots of attempts to get something good of Matt. But, damn, drummers are difficult... This sucks but was the best I had. Matt and Stone's back.
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If this was a LITTLE less blurry, it would be really awesome. Pretty classic Jeff pose regardless.
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Another, shittier, full band shot. But Ed's wearing the george bush jacket and, if I recall, just took to stomping on the bushy mask that just got thrown on the floor. EXCELLENT. :)
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Eddie and Jeff again... mostly b/c Ed's actually kind of clear in this one.
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Mike finally decided to come hang out on our side (I'm sorry, but Stone is not as much fun to watch)... so this is Mike. Along with that guy who keeps making the band sound worse. grrr...
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Labels: Allison, Amsterdam, concerts, music, Pearl Jam
KMFDM
Friday the 13th, and I've managed to secure a pair of tickets to some industrial music down the street in a nice dark dirty loud club. yeah. KMFDM. I remembered they was fun, but I'd forgotten how much fun. And not really any bad luck befell me. As far as I can recall anyway...
I wasn't too psyched to see CombiChrist as the opener as I'd never heard them and any band with an "Army" is kind of lame, but they put on a GREAT show. When's the last time you were at a show with two drummers, a DJ, and a lead screamer? Cool. Their lyrics mostly sucked... although some were trying to be poignant... I think there was one about how rape is bad. Duh. (Disclaimer: Schmakt Dot Com says, "Don't rape people.") They also came out wearing masks... which is also kind of lame... but they didn't totally gimick it (can I use "gimick" as a verb?). Masks were tossed into the crowd after the 1st song and weren't used again. I fear that the energy at the live show will not transfer to a recording well at all, but I still might pick up the record if I find it for cheap. Photos were kind of difficult, but here are a few...
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Drummer on the left (on the kit)
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The whole band... mostly
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Drummer on the right (on the stand-up djimbae (or something))
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Oh yeah... and here's us before we went...
Allison looked pretty hot.
I kind of look like a muppet.
And then there was KMFDM... I had a ton of cool picturs of Sascha K, but it was mostly because he looked like badass with his blonde mini-mohawk, so whatever I took looked kind of cool. Terrible time with Jules b/c he was behind the pole, Steve wouldn't stand still... and, well, there are always problems with drummers. Sorry. That was a waste of time.
The show was fucking fabulous tho. Sascha and Lucia both sounded great, and the mix was really really good too. With Allison in tow, I managed to stay out of the mosh pit. Which meant I could actually watch the show more. And hanging out with her drinking and watching the funny people was definitely awesome. But there's something about going to a concert and not coming home with at least one major bruise that doesn't sit right with me... They played a pretty damned long Set 1 with a 3-song encore and then another single-song 2nd encore. I was, first, surprised that it wasn't another full 2nd set as it wasn't THAT late and then, again, surprised with the 2nd encore. That was cool. Especially since people started leaving after the 1st set. Whatever.
They played Hau Ruck, which is the only thing I REALLY wanted to hear. Figured they'd play it and they did, so I was glad. Got versions of Light and A Drug Against War as well. Not on the top of the must-hear list, but still cool nonetheless. Oh. And we sang happy birthday to Jules. He seemed happy. I definitely would have gone back for a 2nd night show had there been one. Or even travelled somewhere if it was closer than Atlanta. And not Atlanta. Anyway. Photos. Here.
I was going to caption those, but I don't think it's necessary.
Enjoy. Labels: Allison, concerts, music
Pearl Jam in D.C.
Driving is fun, sometimes.
But expensive... damn.
I thought I'd have enough time to listen to all of the Pearl Jam studio albums before I actually got to Annapolis. But that didn't work out. Luckily, I got to skip the last few songs on Binaural and only play the ones I liked on Riot Act, thereby leaving the new S/T as the only record I didn't spin on the drive up. Awaiting me after the 390 minute drive were three nights of... well... debauchery...
Starting with what is, apparently, the best Mexican in Annapolis (i.e. Margaritas)... downed a pair of those and then downtown for some bar hopping and expensive beers. Unfortunately, I have very few stories to tell. There was one girl who kept eying everyone who walked in the door. I thought Kennedy had her nailed for sure. You know... so to speak. But it didn't work. She's a bitch. If I recall correctly, the cab ride home was uneventful but let to one member of our party redecorating the bathroom. After which, we went to the dock with some sweet sweet Coronas and talked about things that were wrong with the world and then yelled at Scott by way of this new fangled thing called a "telephone"......
While the first full day afforded Tyler and myself the opportunity to saunter around downtown Annapolis, eat at Ruth and Chic's Deli, and search for national secrets at the Naval Academy,
night two saw only Kennedy and myself heading back to downtown Annapolis. Dinner and drinks on the water. It was very romantic. Until I posed the question, "Dude, the Pearl Jam show is TOMORROW, right? Not tonight?" At which point stomachs sank and cellphones began ringing. And noone answered. I resorted to calling ticketmaster... "Uhhh... what time is the Pearl Jam show in DC? Cool. That's tomorrow, right? Thanks." So that was nice. And allowed us to go bar hopping again. And for me to play poorly at Cricket (Darts, not the British thing) yet still roar to victory. Twice. dum-dum-dum. And that was, pretty much that. For the first time in, like, 8 months or something, I actually watched a little late night TV and then took to bed. (Has anyone ever heard of some guy called Jon Stewart and the Daily Show? That shit's funny.)
....... Day Three. Tyco arrives with plenty of time to get ready, chill in DC, and get to the show. Yet we somehow manage to dick around Annapolis long enough going to McD's and the bank that we had to go back to the house to refill the beer cups. And get my phone. But this time we remembered to toss the bottles of Captain and Skyy into the trunk.  Finished the drinks on the way to the train station, refilled, and got onboard. Got to the MCI Center a couple hours ahead of time and decided to just wait in line... and take turns walking back and forth to McDonald's bathroom to refill the beer cups. Two Yuenglengs were casualties of war as we were forced to leave them behind to get inside quickly enough to snag some show posters. And thank God. These are seriously sweet. (and on ebay for $150?!?!?!?!? wtf.) From the show, all I can really recall is screaming. A lot. And I now have a bunch of bruises from something. Opening with Release was badass and exactly what I was hoping for. Despite the presence of Betterman, Small Town, Man of the Hour, and Come Back, it was a great show. Encore 1 was mildly disappointing (Man of the Hour, Masters of War, Small Town, Come Back, Alive), but the last encore more than made up for it with Comatose, Leash, Fuckin' Up, and Yellow Ledbetter. I haven't heard YL live before. Nice. I guess that's all I'm really saying.
Oh. Except that Wasted Reprise -> Life Wasted was frickin' beautiful.
oh yeah... also... that I really did not enjoy My Morning Jacket. I don't know if it was the fault of the sound guy, the beer, the band, or my aural preference. I thought they were decent on Austin City Limits, but I don't like "Z," and I didn't enjoy the live sound. Although it looked like they were probably doing cool stuff on stage. It may have also been due to the fact that I REALLY wanted Sonic Youth to be opening instead.
This has been an exercise in indulgence and I dearly hope noone wasted their time reading this far down. This isn't even interesting to me. I just felt like typing.
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Oct. 29, 2007:
Tyler sent me these photos a while ago, but I just scanned them in last weekend. I'm pretty sure they're from the night of the show...
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Labels: concerts, Kennedy, music, Pearl Jam, Tyler
If anyone happens to have a lead on Radiohead tickets for Aug. 28 in Amsterdam, I would be much obliged if you would tell me. Labels: Amsterdam, concerts, music
Pearl Jam in DC... Section 102 Row O... not great, but it could have definitely been worse.
And, holy shit, I just noticed that Nine Inch Nails actually scheduled a date in Charlotte!
I'm so there. Labels: concerts, music, Pearl Jam
something I typed for Crazy Talk:
Although I was too poor to see Spoon, too out-of-time to see SNMNMNM, too I-have-to-teach-Sunday-School-tomorrow to see The Dandy Warhols, and too annoyed to even try to see U2 (is that tonight? The traffic is going to SUCK on the way home. Fuck you, Bono.), I did manage to catch the next evolution in the Cast Iron Filter pioneered genre "Irongrass." (What? It was free? shhhhhhhhhhhhh)
The first CIF show I attended was the final show for Mr. Cockrill and the first show for new bassist Mason Bissett. I had heard some live stuff before but didn't totally dig the albums, but the band live? I was hooked. Fast forward a few years through a few more lineup changes and the band has decided to part ways for, at least, the time-being. And for a while Michael Orlando focused his mando skills on creating some true bluegrass music with The Carter Brothers. This isn't exactly my scene, so when Mike began talking about getting together with Mason (of all people!) and a drummer(!!) I was, needless to say, stoked. Stoked. There should be a word that means "stoked but apprehensive."
Actually, it's fine that it just means "stoked." Mason and Mike were able to fuse back together brilliantly. It shone especially bright on older CIF tunes with which Mason was already familar - Tamarack being, for me, the prime example. Although the songs weren't perfect and there were flubs, I thought Mason had improved tremendously as a player who is a member of a band. Mason and Mike both always seemed to really like playing a lot of notes. A LOT of notes. But this was subdued - in a really great way. Apparently Frank and Mason had been playing together previously, and it showed. Mason really held back and nailed the song down with the necessary simple walking basslines that many of the songs required. And, when the time came, it was the old Mason again flying all over the fretboard, and I loved it.
Although Mike's gorgeous little electric mandolin didn't make an appearance, we were witness to the nimbleness of Mike's fingers across a range of stringed instruments from the acoustic mandolin to acoustic guitar to banjo to the electric guitar. Ah yes, and he sang. Mike's vocal rendition of Sheila & Jake was becoming a standard at CIF shows throughout the final tour, but I wasn't quite sure what to think of Mike as frontman. He's no Dustin as far as vocal ability goes, but as soon as I started thinking that, I realized that was my problem. This isn't Cast Iron Filter, and Mike isn't trying to be Dustin. He's being Mike. And thank God, b/c that's what he's best at. (whether I - or anyone else - like it *ahem... bluegrass...ahem* or not) There were only 8 unique songs with vocals and Mason (yes, Mason) sang one of those. "My Dear Nashville" was an extremely slow number not to my liking at all, but the other songs shocked me. Most of the subject matter seemed to be somehow involved with love... either you lost it, want it, got it, can't ever have it, or can't wait to get back to it, but even a pretentious ass like myself who prefers to write about why God's a dick found it enjoyable. Aside from the content, his actual vocal sound was clear and on key, plus I could actually understand most of the words he said. Which was nice. Mike definitely brought more of his bluegrass taste to these songs than to songs you would expect to hear from CIF, and I think he succeeded in creating a fun and exciting new sound with which he can continue to promote the Irongrass standard.
Oh, and the drummer... the drummer turned out to be Frank Bloom who somehow manages to pull off the duality of being an extremely nice and socialable dude AND a really damned good drummer. Weird. The other guys have their place in Irongrass history... as it were, and Frank's the relative newcomer to the scene. As far as I know. While I can compare Mike and Mason to previous incarnations of themselves, I have no such crutch with Frank. He's the new variable in this equation, and he filled it out very very nicely. The venue itself may have held him back somewhat, but Frank seemed sharp and precise yet very fluid at the same time. Former CIF drummer Brian Burton hit HARD and fast and precise and, for my money, fit the late model CIF very well, but Brian's style would not, however, fit with what Mike is trying to do. Mason and Frank worked well together and there were moments of pure coalescence with the two of them just sitting back and holding the songs together. It's nice when unknown situations turn out to be much better than I thought they could have been.
Oh. And the fanboy in me wants to say, "OMG! And he played with FOUR sticks at once!"
but I'm past that phase of my life and refuse to lower myself to actually finding something someone else is doing interesting and exciting.
I never would have imagined to see Mike and Mason on stage together again, but it was an extremely pleasant surprise. Having Frank Bloom round out the trio was an amazing stroke of luck and probably only the third good thing to have ever come out of Tryon, NC. (including the BBQ) Looking forward to the recording in January and hoping for more shows soon. I will only say one other thing about that. February 2, 2006 - Charlotte, NC. God that would be sweet.
I wouldn't say this is groundbreaking material nor is it REALLY pushing the boundaries of any common sensibilities, but it was good. And it was fun. And I enjoyed it for the sake of enjoying it. And the very last thing? I should reiterate: this is not Cast Iron Filter.
Now back to my Captain and Sprite. Labels: Cast Iron Filter, concerts, music
oh.
and the Dandy Warhols will be in North Carolina on Saturday.
and I probably can't go.
hell. Labels: concerts, music
So Friday was my girlfriend's birthday. A few months ago, however, I had noticed that Kings of Leon and the Secret Machines were playing Asheville's Orange Peel on the same day. (great club, btw) I was kind of grooving on KoL's newest album and Scott had recently picked up The Secret Machines, which I also dug. Sounded like a very sweet show to me. Being the very good girlfriend that she is, I was allowed to take her to the concert for her birthday. (and, in the process, miss a rehearsal dinner for a wedding. Score!)
Took the day off work, caught "The 40-Year Old Virgin" by way of an interesting sequence of events that might, at some point, be described elsewhere, and then headed over to the Orange Peel for the show. (If you haven't seen that movie, btw. Go see it.)
Back? Good. It was funny, wasn't it?
Onwards... The show. Sold out. Everytime I've been to the Orange Peel (www.theorangepeel.net) it has sold out. I'm either picking good shows, or that place is making a killing. 942 Max Cap. @ $25 each. Nice. But I digress. I didn't realize there would be an opening band, but my penchant for showing up early to places that aren't work paid off nicely. Ran into a guy named Scott (who I saw get a ticket for FREE before the show) while he was hitting on Allison, and he mentioned that he was there for the opening band - The Helio Sequence. The drummer, Benjamin Weikel, also tours with Modest Mouse, hence the excitement. Well. That's pretty damned cool. I guess. I'm kind of into them as well even though they also gave Charlotte the shaft. (The city, not my roommate's girlfriend... as far as I know.) Do I ramble too much? Does anyone care?
To make a short story long, the band (i.e. two guys, a drumkit, a guitar, a synth, and a harmonica) head up to stage and plunge right into the extremely infectious "Harmonica Song." And, holy crap, what was I hearing? I absolutely loved it from the beginning to end. They seemed to have a bit of technical difficulties with the vox being a bit too low, but it didn't matter. The musicality (is that a word) of the song was SO engaging that the missing lyrics were hardly noticeable to a novice such as I. I noticed the guy in front of me dancing like a fool during the first song, so I asked him afterwards what song that was... what album... you know... dumb but interested questions. He told me. Which was nice. Only later was I to realize that the guy dancing like a fool was, in fact, the guitarist for The Secret Machines - Ben Curtis. Stupid ignorance. I wish I could give a setlist or any kind of informed opinion about what I had witnessed on stage but, alas, I know little more than that I was amazed. Weikel, even if I was deaf, would have been a joy to watch. He is one of the most animated drummers I've ever seen. Having the drumkit at the front of the stage certainly helped, but he really seemed like he was having a great time and was completely absorbed by what he was doing. As for Brandon, I was hardly certain that the sounds coming out of his guitar half the time were actually coming out of his guitar. And I loved that too. Very tight band. Very very exciting to watch. And extremely aurrally engaging.
The Helio Sequence's ownership of the stage was far too short for my tastes. 20, maybe 30, minutes. And I really really wanted more. I sauntered (yes, sauntered) over to the merch table after the set and there sat lead singer/guitarist Brandon Summers pushing his musical drugs at the table while happily signing albums and talking to everyone who came by. So I waited in line only to have my fears confirmed that the presence of the little money bag in Brandon's hand did, in fact, mean that cash was the only accepted bartering tool at that table. Dammit to hell. So I gave the obligatory compliment about the music, signed up for the email list and shuffled back to the bar. Beer should make it ok.
Lest I forget, The Secret Machines and Kings of Leon did actually play at the concert as well. TSM were really amazing, and I'm kind of surprised they were able to pull of the sound from their album in a live setting. The feel of the first part of their set was really mellow, however, and I kind of wanted to be at home on the couch instead of standing in a club. Towards the end they REALLY shifted modes and ended with both "Nowhere Again" and "First Wave Intact" in the final three songs of the set. And THEN is when I wanted to hear more. Grrrr. Back to the bar.
Then outside for the set break where we ended up talking to a Scottish/Irish guy named Ewen (sp??) and his German-spawned friend, David. (I think) 'twas nice, but the only story I had was a memory of being in Scotland and following a group of guys singing a rousing rendition of "If you hate the fucking Germans, clap your hands." Yeah. So we went back in. And Kings of Leon started. And the lead singer reminded me of Evan Dando for some reason. Dispite two more trips to the bar, I still just couldn't get into their set. They were tight and relatively fun to watch on stage. Dude's voice is very original and interesting, but if you're going to play music like that, you just can't follow The Helio Sequence and The Secret Machines. I may have been tired b/c I'm getting old. Or just bored due to the contrast, but the KoL set just wasn't very exciting to me at all. We actually ended up heading out about half-way through their set. I never got to hear them ask if I was too good to tango with a poor poor boy, which is all I really wanted from them, but the night was, nevertheless, amazing. On the way out, I noticed that Helio's drummer was now sitting at their merch table as well. Got to shake his hand as well and impart my valuable opinion that The Helio Sequence was the best band of the night.
I had gone to a Kings of Leon concert and come away with a new appreciation for The Secret Machines and an incredible infatuation with The Helio Sequence. I've ordered the vinyl and the CD from Sub Pop. I can't wait. You can download two full tracks off the newest album (Love and Distance) as well as check out the video for "Harmonica Song" here:
The Helio Sequence
I highly suggest that you do so. Labels: concerts, music
Martin Sexton
After digging holes in the backyard for a couple of hours last night, I found out, around 9:00, that Martin Sexton was playing right around the corner at 9:30. Got my crap together, paid the $15 and got in during the middle of the 2nd song. Now I've only ever heard The American, so I figured I'd be kind of lost. And Martin isn't generally the kind of show I'd go too, but I like the album I have and Scott said he was good, so there I was.
Decent crowd for Charlotte. Especially on a Tuesday night. And, wow. Really. I never would have guessed so many cool sounds could have come from one dude, a guitar, and a loopback machine. It was half beatbox, half soul, half R&B, and half pop. I know that equals two. Guitar tone was amazing too... so clean and clear. And he really has an outstanding voice. It sounds great on the album, but being able to replicate that live is an amazing feat. If I could play an electric guitar solo with an electric guitar the way Martin plays an electric guitar solo with his mouth and a microphone, I'd never be nervous to play again.
First set, everything was great... If it wasn't for the, like, 40 minute set break, everything would have been MUCH better. Was able to get most of the way to the front for the 2nd set tho, so that was nice. Especially when he opened with "The Beast in Me." Good second set, but also kind of short. I think the whole show couldn't have been more than an hour and a half. Was hoping for another half hour or so. But even that would have been ok if it wasn't for the encore. I was REALLY liking everything he was doing up until then. And, for the encore, he came out and did "American the Beautiful." wtf. Not that I have a problem with the song, per se. Or people singing it. I didn't care to hear it, personally, but whatever. It still SUCKED that the very last thing we got was a short rendition of that crap. Even him playing that song would have been fine if we'd gotten another Sexton tune afterward. But, no. America the Beautiful and then done. Even CIF shows ending with "Who Are We..." have never been that disappointing. Was kind of pissed that I spent the extra money to get the CD's of the show after that. Que sera sera.
And, dammit. There was more, but I got sidetracked, so I'm done for now. Labels: concerts, music
Oh man.
I am going to hurt so much tomorrow...
my eye's swelling a little too... someone's head + my eye would do that...
Primus still rocks ass.
No Harold tho... and no new stuff... I wanted to hear Electric Uncle Sam too! It played like a "best of" set. Which, really, was fine, but... well, whatever. It was awesome. And everyone in the pit kicked ass too. no elbows, and no one was ever down for long. Good stuff!
So now I'm all energied-out, so maybe I can really get some work done tomorrow. Been kind of unhappy about it lately and pretty unmotivated, but I'm going to try to go early tomorrow and get into it. Starbucks is going to have to help me through...
Oh man.
I am going to hurt so much tomorrow...
SWEET :) Labels: concerts, music
I've done a LOT of work on the bootleg section here for all of you who care. Finally finished adding all the 2003 PJ shows and am in the process of now adding some from '92 - '94. And by "work", I just mean entering the shows in the database - functionality hasn't really changed. Hm. 02 March 1992 Show Track 8 (Saying No - formerly called Suggestion) is a great great song. Funky, groovy... and it means something... cool.
Enough of that tho. Pearl Jam is already famously kick-ass. Cast Iron Filter... made it to the Raleigh and Flat Rock shows this weekend. Met Paco, Nick, Karen, and Chris. Which was good. Nick should have the Raleigh show posted on his site shortly. When he does, I'll definitely post a link here. It was an amazing set including Model-T, Morgantown, Wiregrass, and Murder, but also some 100% NEW songs - Men Who Die Young, Redemption, and Falls of Rough. I'd never heard Redemption before (apparently built off of one of Brian's drumbeats), but it's amazing. From what I could decipher, the lyrics are just as good as the music too. We might have a new forerunner for the album's single. Oh, and I got to run lights in Raleigh... had no clue what I was doing, but it was fun. Probably moved them too much and not enough at the same time, but I was sort of getting the hang of it towards the end. There were definitely a couple of places where I timed it just right, and that was pretty awesome. And, naturally, afterwards, I thought of a zillion things that I would have liked to have done better/differently. Maybe some other time. And maybe I'll get a light that'll just shine on Phil some other time too. We'll see...
Got to Hickory at about 7am on Saturday morning, slept 'til noon, then drove to Flat Rock. On the way to Raleigh, David Bowie kept me company with the Remastered Ziggy Stardust soundtrack, and on the way to Flat Rock, Yield cemented itself as one of my top-five favorite albums ever. EVER. I do this thing where I turn the radio up whenever a good song comes on, then I'll turn it back down a little when a not-as-good song comes on. Problem was that I NEVER got to a point where I would want to turn Yield down. Listened to it at least four times in a row b/t Friday night and Saturday. If you don't have this album, I'm BEGGING you to go get it. But I'm off topic again... (Go get Yield)
Flat Rock was a shorter set, but still sweet. No Redemption, but Men Who Die Young blazed by with Dustin having a great scream at the end. I really desperately hope they get a good producer on this album. The songs have so much potential... I don't want another Ugly Town... But yes, Flat Rock was good. Sold a lot of stuff, and everyone was very complimentary of the band. It's odd when people tell me "I love you guys so much" or some variation thereof. I mean, come on, all I do is stand around and try to make you buy CD's b/c I think you'll like them. You don't love me, you love THEM. Or, rather, their music. Nevertheless, I say "thank you" and continue to hock my wares... "No, no... you don't want that one... well, actually none of those songs are any of these albums yet... no, the bassist and drummer aren't on any of these albums either... uhm... this is the only one that is similiar to what you're hearing tonight... but it IS 2 for $20, so why not get their first album as well?" You get the idea... The crowd was older... kind of Neighborhood Theater-ish from a couple of weekends ago... but the response was entirely different. While some (SOME) of the N. Theater crowd found CIF somewhat grating, it seemed like everyone at Flat Rock loved them. Sometimes it's nice to have conversations with older people who like the same thing as you as opposed to super super drunk dudes who just want to hear "Like a Prayer." Anyway... good times all around. Both nights. Super tired by the time I got back, but it was worth it. (And if I didn't have to work next weekend, I'd do it again - but I'll still be at Zigggy's on Friday, so come there and say hi, but come early, cuz CIF opens.) Labels: Cast Iron Filter, concerts, music
So. I made it to the Pearl Jam shows and back. In one piece. Raleigh was great night with a good setlist. A decent number of new songs (which are what I wanted to hear), and a few nostalgic ones as well. (read: Alive) True to form, Evenflow showed up, and I got a good Corduroy and Given to Fly. Eddie's funny in GtF. Also, he says practically nothing during the whole show... mighty strange. I didn't get to see the opening band, but they came out for Fortunate Son and Rockin' In the Free World for the encore. It was alright. Growing tired of RitFW tho.
Charlotte was a really weird show too... not in that Eddie didn't talk, but that they played pretty much every single off Ten (Black, Jeremy, Evenflow, and Alive) and very few Riot Act tracks (Save You, Green Disease, Love Boat Captain). We did get another Corduroy, so that was cool. Not to mention getting to hear Breath. No State of Love and Trust either night tho... disappointing. I did see Sleater-Kinney this time, however, and I liked them. They played hard and their voices were really interesting. Nice to have fun with the opening band. Oh, and we heard Eddie at the pre-set singing Driftin' by himself. I REALLY like that song and wish we would have seen him, but hearing it was pretty cool too.
Didn't go to Nashville and Atlanta. Should have. They FINALLY played Bush Leaguer in Nashville for the first time since those 24 people walked out in Denver, Know Your Rights made another appearance, and Steve Earle sang Fortunate Son in the encore. Other than that, tho, I don't suppose I was THAT thrilled with Nashville. I really really would have liked to have gone to Atlanta tho. Baba O'Riley AND Yellow Ledbetter in the second encore. Plus Crazy Mary with Boom's amazing keyboard solo. The rare You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, State of Love and Trust, Glorified G, Porch, 5 new songs, AND Crown of freaking Thorns. I can't believe I didn't go to that show... Live and learn... I guess... but I'm not too sure what I was supposed to learn...
Enough about Pearl Jam I suppose... CIF played a really good show at the Visulite here in Charlotte the Saturday before. Dustin's voice was back on track, which was GREAT. I know Mike, Mason, and Brian are all really really great musicians, but, really, I have the most fun when Dustin's voice is %100 and he really makes the show his. He can do the rhythmic singing thing very well. But anyway, all-in-all, the band was tight, and I thought the show went really well. A kick-ass Soky was the encore and the energetic crowd got them out for a second encore and a rockin' rendition of Baba O'Riley. (So take THAT, Pearl Jam. Bitches.) I was pretty stoked about this show and was hoping to post a more in depth review thing that really would just make me feel good about writing even if noone ever read it. And I wanted to post it so everyone else could hear it. Unfortunately, the CD was over in the middle of Soky Fair. Sucked, but I figured the Baba encore was a cool thing to have saved just for the crowd. Sucked even more to find out that the recording of the whole show got screwed, so we ended up with nothing. Hope that everyone who went enjoyed it. If you didn't go... Shame on you. It was well worth the ten bucks.
CityFest is this weekend... Live was supposed to play on Saturday. I'm a big Live fan. If you ever looked at my cd database, you know this. I was excitied. Bought my tickets way in advance. Foo Fighters'll be there on Saturday too. Sounds awesome. Then I hear that Collective Soul (?!?!?) is going to show up on Friday. I thought they were heading out due to some lineup changes... guess I was wrong. So, I was super-psyched, cuz I like Collective Soul too. They're a GREAT radio band and I like most of the CD's as well as the singles. But then I found out that Collective Soul was REPLACING Live instead of supporting them. Last time I saw them, I had to sit through Counting Crows as the main act. Then, they skipped this area all together for the V tour, and now they cancel the show?? NOT happy with Ed and the boys right now. I don't think I have anything else to whine about or criticize right now. If something comes to me, it'll probably be here. I'll do my best to get another good CIF show uploaded by the end of next week.
Today was Shakespeare's birthday, btw. RIP
And my dad's birthday too. RIP
life and transience and whatnot... Labels: Cast Iron Filter, concerts, music, Pearl Jam
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