Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
Things I Saw at the Excision Concert Tonight
- A guy over 7 feet tall and a girl under 3 feet tall (within 10 feet of each other at one point)
- Some kind of large plumbing problem which spilled water all over the left side of the venue and closed down the bathrooms for over an hour
- The volume not being nearly loud enough for the openers (and most likely illegally loud for Excision)
- Lucky Date with a solid set
- Liquid Stranger not captivating the crowd for the majority of his set, which didn’t have much flow and way too many quiet/dead spaces
- The lighting dude playing a game of Space Invaders on the lighting control board(!) during Liquid Stranger’s set
- Two guys dry humping a girl so hard that they had to carry her out to get some air
- The ridiculous 100k watt PK sound system in that relatively small venue… I wasn’t sure if it was going to burst my eardrums or stop my heart first. The wind from the bass was nuts.
- Getting home at 2am, after Taco Bell had closed… no forthmeal tonight.
Things I Saw Tonight
Here is a quick list of things I saw at and after the Prodigy/Crystal Method show tonight:
- A guy wearing nothing but a speedo and suspenders.
- A guy in a gorilla suit.
- Many gorillas in man suits.
- Waldo.
- Numerous sweaty, topless males sliding past me… yet not one topless female.
- Fans in lingerie.
- Only one guy (that I saw, at least) wearing those stupid shutter shade sunglasses.
- Checkerboard suspenders. This was not a ska show.
- Me wearing my orange jeans.
- The opening DJs, Hyperfunk and Dig-Dug, tear it up. The following DJ, Kaskade… not so much.
- Some dude constantly playing with his iPhone sitting a few seats away from me between Crystal Method and Prodigy, somehow amazed that I was playing a Nintendo DS.
- The Prodigy not play an encore.
- Small dots of tree sap all over my clean car.
- A traffic control officer smack a car with their orange light wand for not stopping at a stop sign.
Random Musings 2009-04-03
A number of quickies, since we haven’t posted in a while.
- Our last-minute trip to the Bay Area went pretty well. The flights weren’t too bad, aside from sore arms from holding babies. The boys are sleeping much better now that we’re back home, though. They picked up the sniffles along the way as well.
- Andrew’s Law: The moment you realize there is not a burp cloth nearby is the moment that he will decide to throw up. Exhibit A: My still-wet shirt sleeve.
- Guitar Hero: Metallica, which I pre-ordered in February, showed up on Tuesday. I’m about 33% through it on guitar (on expert, naturally). Two thumbs up so far. We’ll see how the drums go.
- Taco Nachos at Jack in the Box are just that — two tacos cut up with nacho cheese and jalepenos on a bed of lettuce. They deliver what they promise. Add two regular tacos and some mini churros and you’re good to go!
- The server knows what time it is, but either WordPress or PHP thinks it’s an hour earlier. Hooray for DST. I will have to look into that. (=
- The Prodigy AND The Crystal Method in concert on May 30th? Awesome!
Pay to Play, or How to Buy an Album for $75,000
This may be the coolest thing yet. Go read it and come back. (You can scroll past all the paragraphs and just look at the “menu” if you’re lazy. And I know you are.)
(If you’re lazy and lost, Josh Freese has drummed for Nine Inch Nails, is in A Perfect Circle, is a studio drummer on tons of albums, and a creative mo-fo to top it off.)
At first I was going to ask for $10,000 in donations (among other things, Twiggy, Club 33 AND a volvo?!) but I figure why not go for the full $75,000 — I’d like Josh to be our nanny for two weeks. (=
And I know Josh Freese isn’t a household name for the majority of people, but even still, $50 for a 5 minute phone call (along with a CD/DVD and a t-shirt) seems reasonable. $200 more for a signed drum head and drumsticks, AND a lunch date? Tempting, if I lived in Southern California.
It’ll be interesting to see what the album actually sounds like — I’m not sure if his crazy-ass YouTube clips are any indication. (=
I hope this pans out well for him and more artists start offering similar personalized stuff. I’m positive there’s a market for this even for small bands and niche celebrities.
Adam’s Top Concerts of 2008, Part 2
Without further ado…
Best Concert of 2008: Nine Inch Nails
If you saw this tour, you know what I’m talking about. There simply has never been a concert like this. Trent and company have broken ground on some seriously cool concert technology. Multiple interactive, moving, stage-covering screens, real-time rendered video effects, amazing lights and visuals… add fantastic music, sound and musicians, and you have… well, the best show of 2008. It was so good that I drove to Portland (with my mom (= ) to see it a second time (her second time too). The Seattle show was also William and Andrew’s first (in utero) concert.
It was even more special because Trent revealed that the band lineup was changing; Josh Freese (drums) and Alessandro Cortini (keyboards, etc.) both moved on from the band at the end of the year, and the next live incarnation will be more stripped down (understandably so) with a much less tech-heavy stage show.
We witnessed a concert spectacle that may not be equaled anytime soon. I’m disappointed that there will be no official DVD release, but I’m really excited to see what will come out of the hundreds of gigs of raw video footage and soundboard audio that they released.
Boobie Prize: Crystal Castles
Not once, but TWICE I missed them, tickets in hand. I was itching to see them, as their self-titled debut album was one of my Monster Albums of 2008.
The first time, they were opening for Nine Inch Nails at Key Arena in Seattle. Someone had the bright idea to have a giant parade that started at the Seattle Center at the same time, and it took us over an hour to get from the U District to Key Arena. That was an infuriating traffic jam. (The NIN show made up for it though, which is saying something.)
The second time, Crystal Castles was headlining a show at a smaller club. However, the universe once again conspired against me and two crazy boys popped out of Bekki four days before the concert. The night of the concert was the day we brought them home. Needless to say, I wasn’t ditching Bekki, no matter how much I wanted to see the show.
Adam’s Top Concerts of 2008, Part 1
I know it’s kind of late to be posting 2008 wrap-ups, but we just started this blog, so deal with it!
I probably only went to a dozen or so shows last year, but there were some serious doozies in there.
Honorable Mentions: Buckethead, Telefon Tel Aviv
I saw Buckethead at the Moore on New Years Eve, and it was a great show as far as solo Buckethead shows go. He was “on” and played a good variety of songs, including some from his then-latest release, Albino Slug.
Telefon Tel Aviv opened for Mathew Dear’s Big Hands (which I only made it through half of the set before leaving), but TTA was awesome. They primarily played tunes from their (at the time) forthcoming album Immolate Yourself. This was compounded after the fact when Charles Cooper, one half of the band, was found dead last week. I’m glad I was able to see them.
#3: Dethklok
Yes, a cartoon band was my number 3 concert of 2008. Brendon Small ripped it up live, he’s a heck of a guitarist (and voice actor). The sound was great, the touring band was tight and it all added up to a great show. I hung out next to the lighting guy, and he pretty much an extra band member for both Dethklok and especially the opener, Chimera. This guy wasn’t triggering lights, he was playing the light board. Too cool.
#2: Does It Offend You, Yeah?
I can’t describe how great this show was. I spent the latter half of the year obsessed with their debut album, “You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into“. Live, they were fantastic. The songs were pretty faithful to the album versions, which is impressive considering the electronic lean of their sound, but these guys can play. The energy level was nuts, and I just about lost it during “Weird Science” (not a Thomas Dolby cover). I hope these UK guys come back soon, even if I have to see them at a larger venue than the tiny Chop Suey.
Stay tuned for part 2…