09-18-09.

Spokane, WA.

The children… Wow, the children.

Standing in line for an hour and a half (venue set-up time fail is made of fail), it became apparent that we were in the minority of attendees over the age of 21. Significantly over, mind you. I’m not sure how to feel about that- in part it’s kind of disappointing to not look around and see an amalgamation of At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity, Soilwork and other such classic Gothenburg bands plastered onto shirts, but instead a lot of young, clean-shaven chitlins wearing very new looking In Flames apparel. Granted, there were enough respectable newer names (Amon Amarth, Killswitch, etc), but standing in line for a show from one of the original melodic death metal bands, it felt as though their origins were some distant land that the crowd wasn’t aware of. But scenes change. Quite frankly, I’m happy to see a mob of kids into In Flames, regardless of which incarnation it is.

The Faceless takes stage. I haven’t been privy to anything approaching true death metal on stage (or even influenced by it) in a long while, so just the sheer brutality was enough to leave me smiling for the first few minutes. Properly mixed heaviness is something to appreciate: the double-bass wasn’t moving my clothing, but it was enough “oomph” that you knew somebody’s feet were plugging away at lightning speed behind the kit. Guitars that aren’t made of mud, vocals that aren’t under-mixed… Wonderful. But this isn’t generic death metal- despite the vocalist’s Cannibal Corpse shirt. Somewhere between the second or third song I found myself in some sort of trance, alternating between members in admiration. It’s easy to forget how much skill this brand of music requires when it’s not crushing your face from 40 feet in front of you. Playing at hyper-speed, rapidly changing times and tempo (making it look absolutely effortless), yet still maintaining moments of groove and (thankfully) having a vocalist who knew what he was doing with his throat (or rather, not doing). Definitely a proper start to the evening.

240 pounds of man, scuzzy hair down to his shoulders, and a beard scruffy enough to compete with most bums. Denim jacket covered in patches. The sort of man that, very clearly, drinks a lot of beer. Grooving riffage pours out of the amps for the opening song. He opens his mouth. Out comes falsetto. This is 3 Inches of Blood. By all accounts they’re pretty straightforward metal- nothing terribly original, but definitely the sort of group that gets on stage with the intention of having a good time so that, by proximity, you will too. Great fun to watch, and it IS most certainly something to behold- anyone that can pull off Halford-esque falsetto in true form deserves recognition, even if it’s not typically my listening preference.

Five guys wander onto the stage, mostly clean-cut and looking straight off any college campus (mostly; the guitarist in a sleeveless Opeth tee threw things a bit). Set-up takes a little longer than it should considering things are already an hour behind, but soon it gets underway. A thick wall of noise and energy issues forth. Between the Buried & Me. I have to admit, after the first two openers, my ears were starting to disagree that the high-end of the audio spectrum existed anymore, so things got fairly muddy during their set as far as I could tell. Whether that was a set-up issue or my dying hearing, I’m not sure. Either way, as with The Faceless, these are class musicians. I probably spent most of their set in awe of the bassist- very rarely during any sort of metal is the bass doing anything independent of the guitar, but he absolutely kicked that stereotype out the window. Which was to be expected- BTB&M definitely put the prog into progressive death metal, moving not only between various metal genres (death, thrash, metalcore), but also into some strange variation of psychedelic prog-rock, complete with clean vocals (which I thought were on the strained-side; as if over-compensating for being low in the mix). It can be (and for me personally was) very hard to keep up with, considering I don’t know their material very well. And it seemed like it would all be cut short as they announced “this is our last song for the night”, seemingly early in the set. Not true. Fifteen minutes later, they wrap up White Walls to a crowd of screaming In Flames fans, by far one of the standout tracks of the entire evening. It had been awhile since I’d listened to Colors (the album), but having gone back just now to hear it again, as awesome as it is, that build at 7:20 is nothing until you hear it live. Just jaw-dropping, and it was great seeing a sea of young metalheads that agreed.

So all the openers are down, and we all know what’s next. Understandably, it takes In Flames a fair bit longer to set-up, what with being the headliner and having brought their own (blinding) light show. Not that this stops a handful of dunces from chanting the band’s name in moronic feverency; yeah, let’s just skip the sound check, great idea.

Lights drop, a teaser loop of the very distinct synth from Cloud Connected comes on, band takes the stage, and things kick into full gear from there. Here’s the setlist to the best of my remembrance:

Cloud Connected
Embody the Invisible
Pinball Map
Disconnected
Delight and Angers
The Hive
Alias
Crawl Through Knives
Square Nothing
Leeches
System
Drifter
Come Clarity
Clayman
The Mirror’s Truth
Take This Life
The Quiet Place
Reflect The Storm
My Sweet Shadow

I have to say, the first third of the setlist surprised the living shit out of me (and anyone familiar with the band before 2002 likely was as well). Embody The Invisible? The Hive? I was prepared to hear one, maybe two songs from anything Clayman and before- not this, and especially not within the first half of the set.

…Before pressing on, I’d like to take this moment to air some thoughts on what’s obviously coming here: I love In Flames. Everything from Jester Race through A Sense of Purpose. In metal circles- particularly ones that respect the early Gothenburg scene- that’s tantamount to coming out of the closet. At a bar full of loggers. In rural Montana. I saw it plenty of times on Metal Forums and it usually turned into a flame war. But I realized something at this show: In Flames- in both forms- has colored a huge part of my life since Junior High: Embody the Invisible and Brush the Dust Away were staples of my mp3 collection ever since I started thieving my brother’s music collection, I can’t count the number of times I listened to Clayman while working out (hah) or driving to school- same with Reroute To Remain, which was one of the first real “metal” albums to lyrically impact me as a young teenager. My point is, I could separate In Flames into two different bands if I wanted too, but to me, it’s one band with different qualities, and whether it’s the beautiful dueling solos and seething vocal rage of them in the Colony-era or the grove oriented riffage, vulnerable clean vocals and screams of post-RtR, I enjoy it. Period.

Anyways, as much as I’d like to think everyone is capable of that duality of opinion, it’s just not so. There was the obligatory man behind me that shouted for “Biosphere” (hadurr), very obviously wasn’t going to get his way (three more followed from Come Clarity and Sense of Purpose; I giggle), and left. And most of the folks up front nodded politely along to stuff like Clayman and The Hive, while getting all sorts of into Delight and Angers and Quiet Place. But that’s fine, there were plenty of us pleased with everything.

Also worth mentioning are some Anders-isms:

- Early in the set he was talking to the crowd, stopped mid-sentence and asked a man up front if he was “filming this for YouTube”, told him not to lie, asked for the man’s camera, and pulled it on-stage, panning around the crowd (“say hi to YouTube Spokane”) and back to his face to rapturous applause. Lucky bastard.

- “You guys on the balcony need to kick those old people, get them moving around.”

- “I love you Anders!” – some woman from the balcony. “I love you, and I want to impregnate you.” – Anders

- (introducing Come Clarity) “This one is for all you Scorpions fans, because Scorpions are the greatest band in the world!” as he grinned half at us and half at Bjorn (who shook his head in disgust).

And so things went- they pounded through each song with all the ease of a band that’s been at this for nearly twenty years, clearly still having a blast with every bit of their material. Even Anders, whom I’ve doubted in the past as having a good voice live, hit all his choruses and perfectly balanced his early growling with his newer screaming (something I feel he did on the latest album as well).

They close with My Sweet Shadow. I get lost in Ander’s screams, the band’s enthusiasm for a song that’s always been intense for me. It doesn’t reek of “live closer”, but somehow, it’s fitting: An oddly emotive synth line, start-stop riffing, and a quiet build-up to a soaring chorus. Perfect ender.

So we piled out the door, content (“that was a fucking outstanding show” – some girl, as we were leaving). At least I was, what with my revelation and all. I always thought of In Flames as a band I casually listen to, but for whatever reason I could never admit that wasn’t true. Letting the raw emotion of a live show wash over, it was retardedly obvious just how untrue that is. I’m a fan, no exceptions.

And nothing is more metal than kicking off a three hour drive at 1:30 in the morning, armed with energy drinks and Lee’s “diverse” taste of keep-me-from-hallucinating-shit-while-driving music, then sleeping for a solid (!) two hours on a couch before a full next day (including another 3 hours of driving).

Yeah.

I need more weekends like this.

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So aside from president-elect Jesus an’ the thunderous sound of the American economy going “ploop”, what ELSE is there to look forward to in 2009?

Music. The good kind. And since a recent post by some asshole in France reminded me of my intention to talk more about such things (and who I am SHAMELESSLY theiving the idea of throwing up Youtube videos as a reference for you lot too lazy to search for yourself), here’s what’s coming up, some reflection on why I care, and with any luck, why you should give a shit too.

Note: The music provided is largely from older albums, mostly intended for those unfamiliar with the band, though if there’s a video it comes with my highest recommendation.

Spring:

God Is An Astronaut. Post-rock has this problem: Most of the time, everything sounds like either Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, or Mogwai. Which isn’t a huge deal if you love that kinda thing (as I do), but some variety is always nice. And that’s where GIAA comes in. I can’t honestly say they’re like any other post-whatever band out there. In terms of tempo, it’s Russian Circles. In terms of sound… It’s electronically gorgeous and quite often heavy. Technically their S/T newest release has been out since November, but the wide release took place earlier this month.

Listen:

Dredg. I still recall the exact moment I first heard them, two years ago on the way to work at four in the goddamned morning. Leitmotif. An outstanding album from start to finish. Over the course of the summer and the following few years I plunged into their three albums (as well as acquired all the b-sides that I know to exist, including their first EP, the bizarrely rap-metal “Conscious”) and without fail, every release has become a favorite album of mine. Not even Tool holds that distinction.

Listen an’ watch (penguins and down syndrome, yaay!):

The Decemberists. Here’s how it typically went in high school: I steal music from my brothers computer, I listen the shit out of it, then I’d tell my friends, and occasionally it’d catch on. Such is the case with The Decemberists, who on at least one occasion Jed and I made half a dozen people sit down and listen to (particuarly Mariner’s Revenge- an epic in the truest sense of the word). It’s music that I can only describe as a cross between low-fi prog rock and… Pirates.

Listen and watch (one of my favorite music videos in recent years):

Mastodon. Ages ago, when I first heard Blood and Thunder, it struck me as “eh”. And while I’ve since learned the errors of my ways (two words: Neil Fallon), I still only occasionally listen to the band. Don’t get me wrong, they’re incredible: The lyrical themes of Leviathan, the guitar riffs on every song being an absolute journey, Dailor’s mind-blowing drumming, etc. But personally, the more technically oriented a band is, the less compelled I feel to listen to them on a regular basis. On the other hand, it’s a great band throwing out another album, and with a vocalist who says stuff like this, how can you go wrong: “[the new album] is a departure from everything we’ve previously recorded in the sense that we kinda strapped on our aeroshells and departed from Earth for a while, and then captained to the ethereal element of the universe and kind of slept on the roof of the world for a while to get a perspective on this record.”

Listen (because Youtube says the video doesn’t exist anymore):

Killswitch Engage. As a freshman in high school just starting to get past the nu-metal scene (shudder), Alive or Just Breathing fast became one of my favorite “metal” albums (and remains so 8 years later). I was sorely disappointed to see Jesse Leach’s outstanding vocals go, but I’ve come to enjoy Howard just as much (and in all honesty, he’s far more talented). And it’s taken the better part of two years for “As Daylight Dies” to grow on me, but I now consider it to be, on the whole, a much better album than End of Heartache (though neither come close to the masterpiece that is Alive or Just Breathing). Seriously though, if you’re reading this and you haven’t heard Killswitch Engage, I’m not entirely sure how you got here. I’ll let Adam describe what they sound like. He’s the one in the viking helmet, bright blue tank-top, and jeans cut off at mid-thigh:

Lacuna Coil. As with Killswitch, Lacuna Coil came along to me just as I was discovering the fascinating world outside of Limp Bizkit and Korn (you know, Europe). So Unleashed Memories occupies a very special place for me in that regard, and while I think it’s a great album (particularly with the Half-Life EP attached), the memories I’ve connected with it probably elevate it higher than it’s actually worth. That said, nobody does goth metal like Lacuna did on UM and Comalies, so here’s to hoping the next effort isn’t nearly as dull and uninspired as Karmacode.

Listen (a cover, but far and away my favorite song of theirs):

The Crystal Method. Why, you say? Because it’s ear candy. Infectious hooks, overwhelming crescendos, melody… I get stoked everytime I hear ‘em in a car commerical (especially when it was in the theater, man). Most people I know will dismiss electronica outright, which is a little irritating; sure, a lot of it’s repetitive and made for the sole purpose of throwing glowsticks around on E, but Crystal Method’s song structure is more akin to rock than generic electronica. This will also be their first new album in over five years (and their fourth full-length in their sixteen year career), so rest assured, action trailers and Lincoln commercials will have a whole new soundtrack for the next decade.

Listen:

Fall:

Rammstein. I think 90% of the world went through the “omg I luf Du Hast” phase, and I’m no exception. And like most people, I discarded Rammstein about a year after that single. But years later, I rediscovered them and found ‘em doing something much, MUCH more interesting with their sound: bombastic synth, driving riffs, choral arrangements, and more restrain and maturity in Till’s excellent vocals. It’s also worth noting that the forth-coming album is rumored to be their last, so hopefully it continues the streak of awesome they’ve been on since Mutter.

Listen & watch (Rammstein’s videos are some of the most entertaining out there):

Unknown:

OSI. If you’re a fan of Porcupine Tree, you’re probably aware of O.S.I, a side-project led by Jim Matheos (Fates Warning) and Kevin Moore (Chroma Key, ex-Dream Theater). Their debut plays out like something of an homage to PT’s In Absentia (even featuring Steven Wilson on one track)- prog-rock mingling with metal riffs, acoustic passages, and spacey synth lines, but also adds a touch of electronic that makes OSI very much their own band. And then there’s Free, their second album, which did away almost entirely with the metal influence in favor of the electronic aspects, giving the album a wonderfully mellow atmosphere. Mike Portnoy also contributed drums for the debut, but was apparently disappointed with the project and has since distanced himself from it. Gogo music snobs.

Matheos announced earlier this year that Gavin freakin’ Harrison (Porcupine Tree’s mindfuckingly awesome drummer) will be joining in on the upcoming album, as will Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth) for a track. That alone makes it something that any self-respecting music fan will not want to miss. The drums were tracked months ago, so… It could really be any day now that we’ll see a release.

Listen (electronic-oriented side):

Prog-metal side:

Porcupine Tree. I could spend an entire post detailing why I love Porcupine Tree and nearly every one of their releases, but this is long enough as it is. Suffice it to say, there isn’t a single aspect of Porcupine Tree that’s weak- these are some of the most talented musicians playing today. I honestly wasn’t a huge fan of Fear of A Blank Planet and I’m hoping they’ll decide to step back from the metal influence for awhile with the next release, but that’s all very nitpicky. It’s new PT. Writing began a month ago, so there should be something this fall.

Awesomeness (watch all of it; trust me, you’ve nothing better to do for the next nine minutes):

Agalloch. Winter music. Doomy and beautiful all at once. My initial draft of Dead Winter Day was largely inspired by The Mantle (and stole it’s name from a track off Pale Folklore), and with every snowfall comes a season of my being mostly obsessed with Agalloch. A live DVD and a new full-length have been in the works since August, so one or the other (or both) should be out sometime this year.

Listen:

Isis. Isis was hard to digest at first (being one of my earliest introductions to post-metal/sludge) and quite frankly, their earlier metal/distortion aspects have never sat that well with me (Celestial, Oceanic to some degree). But I feel they’ve matured over the years, refining the overwhelming distortion to a more calculated balance with their wonderful melodies. And it’s been over two years since In The Absence of Truth, so it’s good to hear they’re finally back in the studio.

Listen:

Seriously: Dredg, Isis, OSI, Porcupine Tree, Agalloch, and Rammstein to name a few. You have every reason to be excited for the coming year.

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Three months ago I was fully expecting to see at least a handful of concerts this summer, but alas, it’s all but over now and I only managed to catch one. Good thing that one kicked serious ass, huh? Anyways, I’ll keep this brief since I have neither the time or energy to describe in full detail everything about the trip (that’s what the 190+ videos/pictures on my camera are for).

Endfest is a yearly thing that takes place just outside of Seattle and consists of a handful of unknowns and a few headlining “names”. This year it was The Gossip, Rock Kills Kid, The Subways, The Eagles Of Death Metal, Wolfmother, Nine Black Alps (missed them), The Mars Volta, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers (this being the first stop of the tour for the latter two). Modest Mouse was allegedly signed on to play, though I had no idea when I purchased my ticket (I would’ve been far more disappointed when I found out they cancelled had I known), and Snow Patrol dropped off at the last minute. No big loss I suppose. Onto the show:

The Gossip

We got there about halfway into their set, but it was certainly interesting: Vocals reminiscent of 70’s soul with punk drums and bass lines. Like the rest of the bands there I’d never heard them up until that moment, but they might be worth a look.

Rock Kills Kid

Kind of alt-rock emo band, though I think they made some sort of “statement” between songs about being labeled. At any rate, they put on a great show- their keyboardist/guitarist came on stage with a cigarette and a beer, and three songs later he was quite clearly drunkas you can see in the video (I admire the fact that he can play two instruments, wasted).

The Subways

A three piece British “indie rock” band (I generally despise the gross misuse of that term, but that’s the only description I can come up with for them). I thought they put on a great performance, but it’s the same deal as when I saw Devildriver: Great show with a ton of energy and music that sounds good live, but you know it’s not interesting enough to actually buy. They were constantly jumping and moving around, with the vocalist/guitarist going so far as to climb the beam holding the roof over the stage. In all honesty the guy was a prick- he threw his guitar down and kicked his mic at one point, so I’m sure the techies love him- but he was very entertaining.

The Eagles Of Death Metal

Just an all around fun show. Josh from Queens of the Stone Age wasn’t present, though we didn’t figure that out for sure until after the fact since everyone was dressed up like washed-up hillbillies and you couldn’t tell who was who. But yeah, solid rock music with frickin’ style. I loved it.

Wolfmother

First main stage band, only caught two songs and I was really trying to get used to being 100 yards from the stage for the first time in my life, so I didn’t get into it very much. I’ve heard them a few times before though, and I’d love to have a chance to see them properly.

The Mars Volta

Ahh, the drama of the day. Well, first I have to say I’ve heard a lot of rumors good and bad about the Volta live, and every one of the bad ones was kicked out the fucking window in about 30 seconds. They rocked. Opened with “The Haunt Of Roulette Dares”, and went from there. The show sort of melted all together so I don’t much remember the set-list, though it also included “The Widow” and two new songs (and speaking of the new album, they used the art as their stage backdrop- and it was jaw-droppingly gorgeous when they unveiled it).

But then things went to hell… First Cedric decided to mock all the people slam-dancing in the pit, saying something along the lines of “I like it when you guys shake your asses- or, if you’re like me, you shake your no-asses. But you faggots doing the slam dancing, get the fuck out, go to the fucking warped tour or some shit, I don’t want to see it. This isn’t the place to do it.” He made several other remarks, one about “why don’t you guys go suck some other major label dick”, but the real highlight came when someone apparently threw a bottle of urine at him. After it happened Cedric said, “Whoever thew the bottle of piss at me, I’ll meet you at the entrance and I’ll fight you. We’re not here to make friends.” They continued into one more song- a new one- until Omar broke a string, which was likely the straw that broke the camel’s back because he immediately slammed his guitar into his amp. He then had a brief exchange of words with Cedric (which apparently was “I’m done, I’m done”), and left. Cedric had some parting words of wisdom: “This is what happens when you have a venue on ancient burial grounds. Again, I will pay $100-$1000 to whoever finds the person throwing piss and kicks them in the nuts. I will give you free merch, a life-time supply of Mars Volta tickets, fly you everywhere, we’ll be best friends. But I want him fucking decapitated.”

That’s not verbatim, but it’s close enough. The burial ground thing isn’t true, but the amphitheatre is on a reservation. I did find out that our suspicion that the perp got away clean was wonderfully false (we didn’t see any commotion so we just assumed): He was apparently just starting to throw fists with fans when security grabbed him BY THE HAIR and drug his ass out of the pit to a nearby police officer, who then arrested him and hauled him out of the venue.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers

First I must note: It pisses me off the way big shows are run, like it’s some sort of sporting event. As cheesy as this might sound, it kinda kills the mood, you know? If you show up early you should be able to get as close as you fucking can. But alas, I’m not in charge. Anyways, between the five of us that went (plus Keith, who met us there), only Jed and Ben’s tickets were next to each other since I ordered them all at different times. When it came close to RHCP starting their set seats started to fill up rather quickly, but we held the spots we had together for TMV with no problem. Then I decided I needed to go to the bathroom, and upon my return, security would only let me into my ticket’s designated seating section, which was 5 rows to the right of the rest of the gang. So I took my chances by going into my proper area, down a few rows, aaaand then all the way across, back to where I was. But as it turns out, other people had taken their proper seats and I was only able to sit behind my friends by dumb luck: A man with two kids had 4 tickets, but his “asshole friend” didn’t show up. He was very drunk and made a bit of a tense scene trying to find his ticket stub (Ben was ready to turn around and take him down if he had pulled out anything else) to give me, but it all turned out ok. Moving on:

The Chili Peppers finally came on and they owned everything, just as they should have. Flea was the first to comment on TMV’s experience, saying something like “and to whoever threw piss at The Mars Volta, you KNOW I’ll come down and kick your ass”. Kiedis quipped later, “You know what? I love The Mars Volta”. Anyways, I don’t have an exact set-list, but they did play Scar Tissue, Otherside, Californication, By The Way, Can’t Stop, Dani California, Stadium Arcadium, Throw Away Your Television, Don’t Forget Me, and Tell Me Baby (not in that order, but probably close). There was much improv by Flea and Frusciante (who mixed it up with his solos, especially on Scar Tissue), and a lengthy drum solo by Chad preceding the encore, which was the only song prior to the Californication album I was hoping to hear: Give It Away. Under The Bridge would’ve been cool too, but ah well. The show ended with about 15 minutes of improv by Flea and Frusciante, which I recorded none of, but all of which was incredible to hear and see.

Anyways, that about does it. All around kick ass show that was well worth the $60 ticket (which was $45 pre-ticketmaster rape-age) and 7 hour drive with 4 good friends (who are all extremely mature; no, seriously). And because I know I left things out but am far too tired to spend much time writing this, here’s a ton of pics and videos (both of the show and the trip) for your amusement:

Concert Pics and Trip Pics
Videos

Just a note on the video and pics from the two mainstage bands: When they don’t look ant-sized, it’s because I’m a genius and stuck my binoculars up to my camera lens and found out (much to my surprise) that it actually works! The pics are shit for the most part, but I’m blown away at the video I got. I kick ass, w00t!

Good day.

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Ahh, the benefits of living in the middle of nowhere: It’s rare that even one of my favorite bands will play a show within 2 hours of where I live, let alone more than that. But somehow Opeth and Dark Tranquillity (and Devildriver) ended up in Spokane at the Big Easy on Friday, and yeah, it kicked ass.

I’d love to be posting a bunch of pics with this, but there’s this wonderfully moronic trend with venues not allowing cameras inside, DESPITE the fact that people can bring in cellphones capable of generating the same quality photos as a low-end digital camera. But oh well. Onto the important bits!

Dark Tranquillity (setlist):

The Wonders at Your Feet
Lost to Apathy
The Treason Wall
Damage Done
The New Build
Punish My Heaven
My Negation
Final Resistance

DT played a fairly well rounded setlist, though it obviously favors latter-day material (not that I’ve bothered listening to anything prior to The Gallery at this point, but still). Great sound quality, though the overall volume was a bit low. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but it was the same deal when I saw Soilwork live: Both bands have been around for a damn long time and started out in the same genre (with DT helping to invent it and still actually playing it), and on stage they look as though they’re just going through the motions. Don’t get me wrong, Mikael Stanne was great to watch- cheesy song intros and all (“You guys familiar with the new album? Yeah? Good! That means you’re not… Lost to Apaaaaathy!!!”), but they just never really “hit”. I dunno, it could’ve just been that they were the warm-up band and nobody was really getting into things yet. At anyrate, it was a great performance and hopefully if I ever see them again they’ll get to play closer to a full set.

Devildriver

I’m not at all familiar with either of Devildriver’s albums, so I have no idea what they played aside from End Of The Line (so-so opener) and Sin & Sacrifice (halfway through, pretty good). Anyways, it was clear from the moment they walked on stage that most of the crowd was there to see them, which wasn’t much of a shock given that Dez is somewhat of a celebrity. But they put on a surprisingly good show, and I found myself enjoying it. They may not be anywhere near as talented as DT or Opeth, but it was heavy, loud, and fun to watch.

Opeth (setlist)

Ghost of Perdition
White Cluster
The Amen Corner
Baying of the Hounds
Closure
Under the Weeping Moon
The Grand Conjuration
The Drapery Falls

Encore:
Deliverance

Onto the main attraction. I’ve seen Opeth before, but it was on the Damnation tour so they didn’t play anything heavier than Face Of Melinda. This time, however, they did. As far as their performance, there’s not much to say: It was Opeth. Crushing, precise, and damn near perfect in every way. The only complaint I have is that for the first few songs it was somewhat of a wall of noise, but they balanced things out later. And apparently Martin Lopez (drummer) is sick again, because the drummer from Bloodbath and Witchery (Martin Axenrot) was filling in for him- and did an outstanding job as far as I’m concerned.

As far as their setlist goes, I would’ve rather heard The Leper Affinity (which they’ve been playing) than The Drapery Falls, and any song from Still Life other than White Cluster (not that it’s bad- far from it- it’s just my least favorite from the album). Closure, their “soft track” of the night, was better than I thought it’d be since they threw in a different, much heavier ending, but I still would’ve preferred any non-Damnation acoustic song (especially Harvest). Oh well though… It’s kinda pointless to bitch about what Opeth played, since even their weaker songs kick ass.

And of course, Akerfeldt was his usual goofy self. Some quotes:

“Yes, we’re Opeth, and we’re from Sveeden!”
“…And if you don’t like Uriah Heep, you can get the fuck out.”
[introducing The Grand Conjuration] “This is the first song we did a video for and lo and behold… It wasn’t very good.”

The encore was especially amusing: After taking their sweet time before coming back out (the bastards), Akerfeldt tells the crowd we’re gonna have to do something for him first: Name the band and song of each riff he plays. They were all from classic rock/prog bands and I only knew the first one (Smoke on the Water), but it was hilarious. He did about six (including Deep Purple and Black Sabbath) before they launched into Deliverance, thus ending the show.

Afterwards, the three of us (Jed, my brother, and I) felt compelled to wait outside for the band since their buses were parked out front. Martin from DT was out signing stuff for awhile, talking to fans, etc. But moron that I am, I completely forgot to bring anything to get signed (more on this in a moment) nor did I have a camera, so I didn’t even bother. Anyways, an hour goes by… No Opeth. One of the band’s security guards came out the door and told us it’ll be another 2 hours. Bear in mind it’s probably below freezing at this point…

1:45 am. The show has been over for a solid hour and half a dozen of us are outside freezing our collective asses off, wondering what the hell Opeth is doing. Then their keyboardist (Per Wiberg) pops out, signs some things, and gets on the bus (said he’d be right back). Best part was that right after that, Martin came back out of DT’s RV- I’m assuming because he was wondering what the hell was taking so long too- but couldn’t get back into the venue. Per comes back out at that point, and they figure things out in Swedish in front of us.

Anyways, around 15 minutes later the rest of the band finally show themselves. It was funny, Martin (the drummer) walked by Jed and me with two boxes of pizza, a beer, and some bread, and said “Hungry? Ha, kidding, kidding.” In actuality, we were fucking starving. But I guess he didn’t believe Jed when he yelled “YES!”

After that, Akerfeldt (vocals/lead guitar, Opeth) came out and gave us this absolute “what the fuck?” look before coming over and saying “I don’t know what you guys were waiting for.” But he was great; signed everyone’s stuff, took pictures with some, and headed off. The same went for the other three members, and sadly, the only piece of paper I had was a paycheck stub (it was payday), so I didn’t get anything terribly cool written on.

And that was more or less it. It was good to see some of the kids from Troy show up and prove that not everyone around here has shit taste in metal music (granted, they left halfway through Opeth’s set to go party, but oh well). Hopefully next time I’ll bring back some pictures so these massive posts have some entertainment value to the majority of you who don’t care and who, not coincidentally, can’t understand why I’d wait 2 hours in the freezing cold just to get a piece of paper scribbled on.

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Just so nobody gets terribly excited, the venue didn’t allow cameras (more on that later in this post) so I have zero pictures from the show, leaving only my always thrilling written account of a concert to be posted. I know, you’re probably shaking with exhilaration at this point…

I’m still amazed that I even got to see Porcupine Tree on Tuesday night. The show was in Seattle- a good 7 hour trip, meaning I had to skip two days of school and find somebody willing to drive there. So basically I whored the fact that my birthday is next Friday, and since I’ll be 18 I should get something kinda special… Surprisingly, it worked. And Jed (see The 7th Act) went with me, so that made the trip itself a bit more entertaining.

Anyways, The Moore Theater was a nice enough venue: It looked spectacular, though it was obviously quite old… Their site claims it holds over 1400 people, and I’d say it was probably at 75% capacity. So we got as close as we cared to to the stage (about 4 rows back), took our seats, and waited for the show to start. Now, all the concerts I’ve been to so far (save for the PT/Opeth show 2 years ago) are ones that appeal more towards people my age, so looking around I started to notice that for the first time I was actually in the minority as far as age groups go. Every once in awhile I’d see kids that couldn’t be more than 20, but on average I’d say people there were 30-40 years old. It’s not so much that it’s surprising- after all, Porcupine Tree’s sound tends to appeal more towards fans of 70’s prog (Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, etc) than to the typical teen fans of rock and metal- but seeing people at least the age of my own parents (who have mostly crap taste in music) at a loud, fairly energetic show was funny. Especially the guy we talked to behind us: He had a nine-year-old kid named Ian Anderson. Ahh, prog fans…

So the night started off with something completely unexpected: An opening act by the name of “Marjorie Fair”. In all of the shit I went through ordering tickets and even on the marquee outside (I’m pretty sure, at least) there was nothing regarding any sort of supporting band, but it turns out they did the two PT shows prior to this one as well. Odd… Anyways, their sound was kind of like a post-rock version of Radiohead, and I quite enjoyed it. Some of the sections of guitar distortion dragged a bit, but overall it was a good opener for PT. Plus, they had the most bizarre projection going on the monitor behind them (70’s film quality footage of squirrels, tall grass, and the sides of highways in the mountains, for example).

Onto the main attraction…

PT kicked it off with Open Car, one of my favorites off Deadwing. But to make it even better, they extended it by about a minute with a heavy, improv-sounding bit which kicked major ass. After that it was onto Blackest Eyes, which still sounds about 10x better live than it ever will on CD, and then back to Deadwing material with “Lazarus”. Lazarus and Mellotron Scratch were definitely my least favorite tracks of the night… Not to say they’re BAD songs- far from it- just that I would’ve rather heard Deadwing and Shallow instead.

Overall they performed an excellent mix of old and new material, though I’m really disappointed they didn’t play Buying New Soul, which they’d been doing quite a bit prior to this show. And speaking of B-sides, they did two from the Deadwing sessions, the first of which was an instrumental (“Mother and Child Divided”) a bit similar in style to Wedding Nails, and “So Called Friend”, which was equally good.

Aside from the extended version of Open Car, “Arriving Somewhere But Not Here” was one of my favorite moments of the night: It’s really something to behold live (and their screen projection during it was absolutely perfect). I guess it’s not too different from the album version, but it’s got such a great atmosphere to it that I know they’ll be playing it for years (and Wilson said himself that it was really growing on him). The other amazing moment was the first song after the encore: Radioactive Toy. Given that the album version was recorded back in ‘91 when PT consisted of Steven Wilson doing everything by himself, hearing it live with their full line-up was fucking incredible by comparison.

And of course “Trains” is always great, not to mention a perfect closer for the show.

As far as individual performances go: Wilson is an incredible vocalist, but he seems to be forfeiting a lot of his higher vocals to John Wesley (guitars/backing vocals) in favor of the style he started using on Deadwing. It was especially noticeable on “Don’t Hate Me”, though overall it was nothing too bad.

Given that this IS Porcupine Tree, everybody there put on a great performance. Colin (bass) had on his usual grin the whole time- as if life just doesn’t get any better for him, Wesley did all the backing vocals and guitarwork perfectly, and Richard Barbieri’s keyboard/synth job was outstanding. But the real standout of the night was Gavin Harrison, their drummer. I’d honestly put him up against Danny Carey (Tool) after seeing this show: he added so much more to every song than what you hear on the albums, that I probably spent half the time just staring at him in awe.

Anyways, here’s the full set-list:

1. Open Car
2. Blackest Eyes
3. Lazarus
4. Hatesong
5. Don’t Hate Me
6. Mother and Child Divided
7. Mellotron Scratch
8. So Called Friend
9. Arriving Somewhere But Not Here
10. Heart Attack In a Layby
11. Start of Something Beautiful
12. Halo
Encore
13. Radioactive Toy
14. Trains

After the show we stood around out front (they got everyone out as quick as possible basically) with about a dozen other people, waiting for our ride and hoping to catch the band since their bus was right in front of the theater. After about 15 minutes I notice that not 10 feet away from Jed and me is John Wesley signing autographs and chatting with the rest of the group of fans. I still have no idea where he came from…

Anyways, I got my copy of Deadwing signed and since I have no shame, I told him it was my birthday in a few days so it says “Happy 18th Chris!”. A bit ironic, since he doesn’t even play on the CD (a fact which Jed had no trouble pointing out every 20 minutes or so for the rest of the trip). What really blows is we thought we had driven the farthest to see them, but some older couple from NPR out of Missoula was in that group too and talked to Wesley first, so we kinda lost there. And Wesley claimed at one point that “the rest of the guys are honestly just shy”, but I’m starting to think they use him as a diversion because as we were standing there talking to him I saw Wilson and the rest of the band rushing into the bus (we stood facing the driver’s side so the bus doors were on the OTHER side, which was wonderfully convenient for them). Ah well, he was a great guy and I’m happy I got to meet him.

As for pictures… The Moore Theater not only says on their website “no cameras allowed”, but they actually had somebody going down the line outside before the show with a sign that said the same thing. Oooh, but what do I see as soon as PT starts playing? People using camera phones to take pictures, and with a security guard not 10 feet away. I’m seriously considering buying one just for that purpose, because driving 500 miles to see one of my favorite bands and NOT getting to take pictures is fucking ridiculous.

So my only big complaints (aside from the above) were that the overall sound pitch during the show was often too high, and Wesley’s backing vocals on the first few songs were way too loud. But this is compared to their performance at The Showbox 2 years ago, which was perfect in just about every way.

All in all, it was a great show and I’m damn glad I made the trip to see it. Hopefully I can do it again when they come back next year. And who knows, maybe I’ll take that one bassist kid with me…

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^ I should probably be shot for that title.

There’s now a new video from The 7th Act on their page. This time it’s a jam (improvised song) they played after the junior party/cookout thing a few weeks ago, and I was pretty much the only one there at that point so I had absolute freedom of movement with my camera.

So please, check it out. And if you’re a junior, grab something heavy and hit yourself in the face with it for not sticking around to watch them.

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Wow. To be honest, I could sum up the entirety of the show I attended Wednesday night in that one word. But when it comes to posting here I’m not one to be brief, so you’re damn right if you’re thinking I’m gonna drag this out as much as possible. However, for those of you lacking an attention span and/or interest in good music, I’ve included bolded summaries at the beginning of each description. You’re welcome.

So I can now add Soilwork, Killswitch Engage, and As I Lay Dying to the extremely short list of bands I’ve seen. I can’t say As I Lay Dying was too impressive, but the other two most certainly were. Then again, there’s just something about seeing two bands you’ve been in love with for 3 or 4 years live for the first time…

The show took place in Missoula, which is only a 4 hour drive. Considering most bands of this caliber don’t play anywhere closer than Seattle, that’s an excellent deal (and being from the middle of nowhere, 4 hours is nothing). Basically, this was an on-the-way stop for the three bands: They’re all on Ozzfest, which was heading to Seattle the next day, so they opted to drop by Montana on the way from Minnesota. A college town in the middle of summer, you’d think nobody would show up… Wrong.

The doors opened at 6:45 pm and my brother and I were some of the first in, meaning we made it down to the third row with no problems at all. It wasn’t PACKED, but given the above, it was pretty full. The venue was a theater that holds about 800 (including a balcony), had fans in the ceiling (ensuring that I wasn’t dripping sweat by the end of the show), and there were seats. Since I’m not into moshing, that didn’t bother me at all… Just meant that I didn’t have to be on my feet for 2 & 1/2 hours straight.

On that note, there WAS moshing (and stage diving; more on that later), contrary to information on the ticket. It was the 10 feet between the stage and the first row of seats, granted, but it still got going pretty good. There were points during the KsE set that it was nearly all the way around me, which was momentarily worrying.

Onto the important parts…

Soilwork:

Amazing. For the uninitiated, up until about 2002 Soilwork was one of the best melodic death metal bands. Then they went in different direction, abandoning their more thrash-y influences almost entirely. I personally love both sounds because I’m not a whiny elitist bitch, but that’s just me.

They kicked off with Stabbing The Drama (one of my favorite songs of theirs) and promptly went into Bastard Chain, which was a thoroughly pleasant surprise. I would’ve preferred something like Needlefeast or Neurotica Rampage (I doubt they’d go any further back than A Predator’s Portrait, but I would kill to hear Sadistic Lullaby live), but it was great. The rest of their set included One With The Flies, Nerve, As We Speak, Rejection Role, and Follow The Hollow. All great songs, though Speed introduced “Rejection Role” as if it were something incredible. It’s a good enough song, but pales in comparison to the rest (considering FNF is their weakest album).

All around, great performance by them. Their sound quality was easily the best, though the keyboards were a bit low in volume. They also hid Sven (keyboardist) in the back… Not that there was much room for the guy anywhere else, but still, most of the time Frenning was standing in front of him. Anyways, I hope they come back to the northwest headlining in the future, unlikely as that seems, because that short of a short set didn’t do much justice to their six album history.

As I Lay Dying

Meh. I’ll be honest, I was not impressed. From what I know they’re fairly revered in the metalcore community, but on stage they seemed really generic. The lead vocals weren’t very interesting, with there being only 3 songs where they briefly used clean vocals (94 Hours, Confined, and Forever; not coincidentally, those were their strongest songs), and the lead guitar was pretty much drowned out. Which was a shame, because I could occasionally hear some really nice sounding parts… Oh well. I wasn’t there for them.

Killswitch Engage

Fucking insane. This describes both the band and the crowd during the set, actually. Killswitch Engage is infamous for Alive Or Just Breathing, an album that’s hailed as nothing short of amazing by TONS of critics and fans alike. Metalcore at it’s finest. I would’ve loved to see their former vocalist (Jesse Leach) live, but Howard Jones is just as spectacular. He’s got the necessary range, that’s for damn sure…

I have to mention, above all else, Adam Dutkiewicz (one of their two guitarists). Aside from the respect he gets and deserves for being an amazing musician and producer, he’s hilarious to watch. Through most of their set he was acting like a complete dork: Either striking poses, blowing kisses to the crowd, harassing other members of the band, dawning a top-hat, or mocking the stage divers. All of this is a bit funnier if you actually know what he looks like I suppose, and there’s plenty of pictures at the link below, but above all it showed that they were having a great time the whole night.

In terms of sound quality, it got muddy at times and the vocals were occasionally drowned out, plus the crowd was going berserk most of their set anyways, so that didn’t help. But the band made up for any problems with sheer energy, including a couple times where Howard let the crowd sing several of the song’s choruses (with good results).

I can’t remember what they opened with, but I’m pretty sure it was A Bid Farewell (or something else from End Of Heartache). They played a very nice balance of material from AoJB and EOH, including Self Revolution, Numbered Days (two of my favorites), Take This Oath (with Adam filling in for Jesse’s guest vocals on the track, with complete grace), and all their singles including When Darkness Falls. I would’ve liked to hear Temple From the Within and To Sons Of Man just because I’m really interested in hearing Howard do them, but overall it was a damn good set.

The really great part of the night came halfway through their set. After a fan had made his way on stage and put up a fight getting off (probably drunk), Howard announced “Alright, if you guys wanna stage dive, that’s cool. Just make sure nobody gets hurt. And NOBODY gets fucking kicked outta here, alright?”

Insert chaos.

From there on, every 5 seconds somebody was jumping off stage, including people that were a good 50 lbs. too heavy to be doing any sort of diving, period. It was complete madness, with half a dozen security guards and staff members on stage at times trying to keep things in order. Howard missed a couple lines here and there, since he couldn’t help but laugh at a few of the people diving… Some did back flips, one asshole mooned the crowd (cheap pun, fully intended), one idiot held up a Nonpoint shirt for some reason before diving off, and some girl licked Howard’s face before jumping. He seemed a bit disgusted, though he didn’t get a look at her (which really wouldn’t have helped). On a side note: I personally don’t understand girls stage diving in skimpy outfits, given the almost entirely male mosh pit they’re jumping into. But there were quite a few doing it, so I guess they enjoy the anonymous groping?

Howard and Adam on the stage diving after about three songs:

Adam: “This has to be, by far, some of the worst stage diving I’ve ever seen in my entire life! But, BUT, it’s also the most fun I’ve had on the tour so far.”
Howard: “Yeah, so you guys may be failing, but you’re failing with style.”

The crowd managed to chant loud enough to get KsE back onstage for an encore (again, I can’t remember what song, but it may have been Breathe Life), and they closed the night to a deafening roar of approval from the crowd. My ears were still kinda ringing 24 hours later…

As with the Blindside show, we waited for things to clear out then headed back inside (Jed, I thank you for telling me about this incredibly obvious way to go about meeting band members; If I weren’t so deprived, I may have thought of it myself). I missed him on the way out the first time, but Peter Wichers (Soilwork’s guitarist) was standing by their booth signing things and such. I got a picture with him and my brother got a poster signed. It’s funny, I get to meet somebody from one of my favorite bands (and whose abilities I really admire despite not playing guitar) and there’s a dozen things I want to ask them (and there were few people around at that point so I had ample opportunity), but all I could blurt out was “Wow, I love you guys”. In hindsight, I should’ve asked him about the alleged DVD coming out, above all else.

Alas, he was all that ventured out of the back to meet the fans (should’ve asked if I could maybe meet the rest of the guys; for some reason I think that might’ve been possible), so it was pretty much straight home from there.

I took a grand total of 109 photos while the show was going on, but the really amazing thing is I didn’t notice at all that I was taking so many. Which was nice; wanting to take good pictures of something has a tendency of ruining the experience itself. Overall they turned out decent (uploaded 62), but most are a tad blurry or have ghosting, and only a handful turned out perfect. The lighting was good and we were close to the stage, so that helped a lot.

Pictures:

Soilwork, As I Lay Dying, & Killswitch Engage at The Wilma Theater In Missoula.

I also took some video clips that aren’t nearly as bad as the ones I took at Blindside’s show. Granted the audio is still complete garbage, but visually it’s pretty cool. It’s all Soilwork and Killswitch Engage, and I managed to get some of the chaos from the latter’s set captured.

Video:

Soilwork & Killswitch Engage (6.66 megs; the size number is out of sheer chance, btw)

And that’s all there is. I’m sure most of you enjoyed scrolling to the bottom of this post in 3 seconds to avoid straining yourself reading it. Don’t worry, I’ve got some more rants coming up very soon.

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That’s a huge understatement, actually…

I’m getting into this nasty habit of making non-rant posts, but I don’t really care. It’s summer, I see no reason to go out of my way to get pissed off, and as long as I’m not posting what I ate for breakfast, I figure things can’t be too bad around here.

So Friday night I went to a concert (Blindside, Showbread, and The Showdown) with two of my friends. We’d been planning this for awhile, since a show even with bands that are relatively unknown is STILL 200 miles away from us, and I have to say it was the best damn day of my summer thus far. I guess it was more of the overall experience than the show itself… Anyways, here’s how things went:

We checked into our motel and then Jed, Ben, and I wandered off in search of the venue and just generally something to do in downtown Spokane. Well, none of us had ever been to the place, so aside from knowing it was a couple blocks from the motel, we had no clue what we were looking for. And being from Troy, we’re not so adept at finding things in cities…

About an hour later, after being given poor directions by half a dozen people, we stumbled upon a hitchhiker who claimed he could lead us there. As we’re waiting to cross a street with him, he decides to break the silence by telling us he “just graduated from his anger management course”. From there we learned that he’s going to do the drug course next (but not before heading to the other side of town to smoke a bowl with his sister), he once hitchhiked all the way to Missoula to see his girlfriend, and that he’s tried all sorts of other drugs. I thought it was pretty funny, though Jed did most of the talking and he was just waiting for the guy to flip out on us.

We finally made it to the venue with the guy’s help, checked the time the show started, and wandered around the various shops downtown. I won’t bother detailing much of that, but I have to say that finding a gangster coloring book at one of the weird stores there was a great moment.

Onto the show… This was my first metal concert, and second “real” concert. I saw Porcupine Tree and Opeth in Seattle two years ago on the Damnation tour, which was amazing despite Opeth only playing their mellow stuff, so that’s the only thing I have to compare this with. Kinda unfair, given the sheer brilliance of both those bands and how long they’ve been at it.

Anyways, I got a kick out of waiting in line for an hour. It was worth it to see all the emo/hardcore kids looking completely ridiculous just as you’d expect… The haircuts (holy hell, the haircuts), the terrible attempts at fashion statements, and people just trying to be as unique-looking (read: moronic) as possible. Though the best part were all the Jesus/general Christianity shirts I saw (the bands themselves aren’t really preachy, but the influence is definitely there). So despite it being sort of “my kind of music”, I didn’t feel at all a part of the crowd. *sniff* I feel so alone without Jesus in my life!

Ahem. Moving onto the important stuff: Fat Tuesday’s is a pretty nice venue. The sound quality was good enough, and the set up was nice since it allowed you to get away from the crowd if you wanted and still have a decent view of the stage. Bear in mind this is compared to The Showbox in Seattle (PT & Opeth show), which is essentially a concrete floor with a stage in front of it. Anyways, a good half an hour later, things got started (click each band name to go to their page on Amazon, if you’re curious what they sound like)…

The Showdown: First band up, and my first exposure to double bass live. They kicked it off heavy and didn’t slow down at all, even when the vocalist announced “The next song is a monster ballad; every rocker’s got his soft side”. It was nothing of the sort, and I’m not complaining.

Their sound is basically southern-influenced metalcore, which is a welcome twist on a genre that’s growing increasingly stale. It’s a bit reminiscent of Pantera, though admittedly I thought their songs all sounded pretty similar. But they put on a great show so it didn’t really matter, and their vocalist in particular was really entertaining: He had a southern accent (on stage anyways; we talked to him after their set and it seemed to have disappeared), would pretend that the mic stand was a bar-bell during parts of the song where the guitar “chugged along”, and at one point took his flannel long-sleeve shirt from around his waist and fanned the guitarist during a solo. If nothing else, hicks are always great fun to watch…

Showbread: Not long after The Showdown was done, these guys came on. They have 7 members: Two vocalists, two guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, and a key-tarist (there’s pics at the bottom if you have no idea what that is). In general they have a punk-ish sound, obviously with some electronic influences.

Sadly, with a venue so small and that many members, sound quality suffers. I couldn’t make out either of the vocals- a lot of times I simply couldn’t hear one or the other- and it became a wall of sound at some points. But the upside is that you have 7 people essentially spazzing out on stage, which is quite entertaining. Moreso since they were all sorta… “Flamboyant”. The drummer was great to watch especially, as he had a lot of showmanship (twirling his sticks while playing, bouncing around, etc). And there was a keytar solo, which was in itself hilarious and very cool…

Blindside: The main attraction, and they didn’t disappoint at all. I have trouble describing the sound accurately, since I love trying to pigeonhole bands into a certain genre, so I’ll just say it’s a fair blend of emo and hard rock.

There was a lot of energy from both them and the crowd, which chanted along enthusiastically to many of the songs (All Of Us & About A Burning Fire especially). The guitarist and bassist ran around the stage quite a lot, and I’d say their vocalist did at least two jump kicks every song. Their sound quality was great, on par with The Showdown earlier, but the vocals were still occasionally overpowered by everything else.

The highlights, for me, were “All of Us” (one of my favorite songs of theirs) and the final song, “About A Burning Fire”, which the entire venue seemed to be singing along with at the end.

Once that ended, we waited outside (where it was at least 30 degrees cooler) for the crowd to thin out, then headed back in to find the band. I was a bit surprised to see them all just hanging out near the merch, not getting mobbed or anything. Everybody managed to get something signed, though only Jed managed to get the guitarist’s autograph since the guy was pretty squirrelly. We met Christian (their vocalist), got a picture with him, and then slowly wandered back out.

The Showdown was nowhere to be seen at that point, but we’d already got a picture with their vocalist right after their set. Showbread was here and there, but nobody seemed to care or notice. They looked like typical emo kids, so it was hard to tell which ones they were anyways.

And that’s pretty much it. Well other than the giant, fat, stoned Indian guy who struck up a conversation with me when we were outside. It was a bit scary, seeing as he was apparently disappointed in me: “I told you earlier man, you could’ve got in there for 20 bucks, but you didn’t listen to me!” I just kinda nodded along with what he was saying, hoping he wouldn’t attack me with the rolled up umbrella he had under his arm… Then we ate at Perkins around 1 am, pissed off the waitress more than once I’m sure (we were kinda hyper), and headed back to the motel.

I’d just like to say thanks again to Jed for taking me along on such a great trip, Ben for taking the brunt of more bassist joke than I can count, and Charleigh & Matt for the ride after the show, and for hanging out with us as well. It was a lot of fun, and I’m really glad to have met the both of you (in the unlikely event they read this)…

I’ve got all the pics I took that didn’t turn out like shit (2/3 of them were really blurry due to the lighting) here, for anybody interested:

Black Friday Tour, Spokane, 7-22-05

And a collection of video clips I took of Blindside here (right click, save target as):

Blindside Clips

The audio is atrocious (this is my digital picture camera, not my GL1), so feel free to mute it. The only songs you can make out if you really try are All Of Us (38 seconds into it), Shekina (1:16), Eye Of The Storm (2:10), and About A Burning Fire (2:53). You might be mildly entertained by what you can see of the band since there’s a couple of Christian’s jump kicks in there, but it’s nothing too great given my camera’s crappy quality in low-light environments.

So that’s that. I’ll inevitably go back to my cynical rantings, but I felt like I had to post this. Good day.

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Well, this is a first… I’ve been tagged for a meme. Thanks Heliologue.

Basically, I’m to name 3-5 bands who have exactly one good album to their name. So without further ado:

Powerman 5000. Tonight The Stars Revolt! is great, with the 60’s Sci-Fi nostalgia it has about it; just a good combination of simple metal with a slight industrial influence. Buuut, their material before that was just… odd (not in a good way), and then they got ruined by 9/11 when Anyone For Doomsday? was slated for release that day, prompting them to hold it off completely, following up instead with Transform. Yay for generic hard rock!

Disturbed. Down With The Sickness. It’s nu-metal, yeah, but I think Dramain’s vocals are damn good on it and no two songs sound the same. Neither of which can be said of Believe, which was just flat out boring both vocally and instrumentally. And I just heard the single off their new one, which sounds exactly like something from Believe. Imagine that.

Nirvana. Nevermind is their only solid album. Every other release consists of about two decent tracks and a lot of crap that sounds exactly the same… I wonder how many LESS people would put them on a pedestal if Kurt hadn’t shot himself. And if I hear one more person go off on how “ooh, it was Courtney! I know it was!” I may smack them. Shut the fuck up. Just because you read a suicide note doesn’t make you a damn expert; that’s what crime scene investigators are for.

Well that’s it I suppose. It’s so much easier to think of bands that released only a few good songs as opposed to albums. However, I’d like to mention Paradise Lost and Green Carnation as bands that released absolutely incredible albums (Gothic & Light of Day, Day of Darkness, respectively) and followed up with albums that weren’t so much bad as just disappointing. Paradise Lost moved from doom metal to generic goth rock (Draconian Times is flat out boring, and I honestly don’t understand the hype around it), and GC went kinda prog metal-ish. Which is a shame, I loved the vocals on LoDDoD and the long, atmospheric instrumental sections. I’m told In The Woods is quite similar in sound to that album, but damned if I can find any of their material.

And yes, I’ll get back to my real ranting and raving soon.

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Ok, this is getting out of hand…

A couple of months ago System of a Down released “Mezmerize”, their 3rd studio album (sans STA). I personally enjoy their music, though I can’t say I was too impressed with this album, but I know a lot of people can’t stand them for whatever reason. That’s beside the point…

Their single, BYOB, has suddenly become “known” here. That’s right, after being out a good two months with constant airplay people here, many of which claim to be fans of the band, are just beginning to notice. Anyways, I have now corrected THREE people on what the acronym stands for (which is exactly three people too many). They have this notion that it stands for “Bring Your Own Beer”, further leading them to think it’s a song all about partying. Why? Because of exactly one line from the chorus:

“Everybody’s goin’ to the party, have a real good time”

Which is quickly followed by…

“Dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine”

Oh, but it gets even better. Halfway through the song, after that line, comes this:

“Blast off, it’s party time
And we don’t live in a fascist nation”

And if you’ve heard the song and have an IQ higher than 6, you know it gets even MORE obvious that it’s politically motivated. You know, just like 98% of ALL their songs. I wonder, are some people even aware that the chorus is not, in fact, the only part of a song, and do they have to practice to get to the point where they can dismiss all but one line of a track with around 4 verses?

I should poll people on whether or not they know System of a Down’s major lyrical themes are political; I bet everybody under 18 answers “no” and looks at me like I have some sort of nasty growth on my forehead. But this is what happens when rap is the most popular form of music in my town (and seemingly America; On a national average, we suck at having taste in music), so any mention of the word “party” in a song’s lyrics automatically makes it about just that.

This reminds me of a time back in the sixth grade after Red Hot Chili Peppers released “Californication” (a great album, in my opinion), and a couple of my friends were saying that the title meant sex. I pointed out that it didn’t because of the whole “Cali” addition to the word, and they fervently tried to convince me I was wrong. Sure, it was the sixth grade, but we’d all learned how to speak English by then so I figured the meaning was pretty clear. Alas, even after the lyrics of the title track make it exceedingly obvious it’s about California/becoming a Californian, it just wouldn’t sink in.

Some people shouldn’t be allowed to listen to music that doesn’t consist of a drum machine, a keyboard, and a materialistic high-school dropout “singing”. Everything else is just tooooo complicated for them.

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