Back from ATP!

Here is a field recording I did of Mercury Rev's set: http://rapidshare.com/files/147532676/Mercury_Rev_live_at_ATP.mp3.html

I have TONS of stories, Mark took $50 from Steve Albini at the card table! I will get pics from the Bone and update them here along with anecdotes. But for now, enjoy the above (Rev was fucking GOOD! Get Highline tickets!) and wait for more tales to emerge.

The Rev set was mostly All of Dream and Deserter's Songs (Funny Bird, bitch!) with a few tracks from Snowflake Midnight sprinkled in. Grasshopper sounded sick, the rhythm section was great, and Donahue was much more flamboyant than I remember him. Perhaps it had something to do with the bottle of wine he was swigging from the whole time.

One Crazy Summer

5/13 Kanye West
5/19 Thee Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra
5/21 Dream Theater/Opeth
5/22 Gods of Fire at Knitting Factory
5/24 and 5/26 Firewater
6/11 Swervedriver
6/13 Teenage Jesus & the Jerks
6/15 Iron Maiden
6/17 Steely Dan
6/20 The Cure
6/21 Polvo
6/23 Liquid Tension Experiment
6/25 Dethklok
6/26 Devo/Tom Tom Club
7/10 At the Gates
7/25 Ween
7/29 Butthole Surfers
8/9 Judas Priest/Heaven and Hell/Testament/Motorhead
8/14 King Crimson
8/23 Motley Crue
8/27 Nine Inch Nails
9/19-9/21 All Tomorrow's Parties
9/23 My Bloody Valentine
10/4 Nick Cave
10/11 and 10/12 Killing Joke
10/28 Black Crowes

Concert Calendar (the Helloween edition)

4/2 Steven Malkmus
4/6 Testament
4/8 Gods of Fire in Philly
4/9 Saul Williams
4/22 Megadeth/Children of Bodom/In Flames (early)
4/22 Tim and Eric's Awesome Tour (late)
5/1 Ministry
5/5 Lou Reed
5/9 My Chemical Romance
5/13 Kanye West
5/19 Thee Silver Mt. Zion
5/21 Dream Theater/Opeth
5/22 Gods of Fire at Knitting Factory
5/24 and 5/26 Firewater
6/11 Swervedriver
6/13 Teenage Jesus & the Jerks
6/15 Iron Maiden
6/20 The Cure
6/21 Polvo
6/23 Liquid Tension Experiment
7/10 At the Gates
9/21 Helloween

Shows (with Kanye added so people can stop accusing me of hating)

3/14 Iron Maiden
3/17 Van Halen
4/2 Stephen Malkmus
4/6 Testament
4/9 Saul Williams
4/22 Megadeth/In Flames/Children of Bodom/High on Fire (Early)
4/22 Tim and Eric's Awesome Tour (late)
5/1 Ministry/Meshuggah
5/13 Kanye West
5/19 Thee Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra
5/21 Dream Theater/Opeth
5/24 and 5/26 Firewater
6/11 Swervedriver
6/20 The Cure

Shows Shows Shows

2/17 Gibby Haynes (evening of Butthole Surfers with the School of Rock)
2/22 Austerity Program/Genghis Tron (unconfirmed)
2/28 Henry Rollins
3/4 Boris
3/14 IRON MAIDEN!!!
3/17 Van Halen
4/2 Steven Malkmus
4/6 Testament
4/9 Saul Williams
4/22 Megadeth/Children of Bodom
5/1 Ministry
5/19 Thee Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra and Tra-la-la Choir
5/22 Turisas
6/20 The Cure

2008 show schedule (so far)

1/15 Gods of Fire (Club Midway)
1/18 Blood City
1/23 Austerity Program
1/25 Neurosis/Mastodon
1/29 Marilyn Manson
2/1 Supersuckers
2/17 Gibby Haynes (evening of Butthole Surfers with the School of Rock)
2/28 Henry Rollins
3/14 IRON MAIDEN!!!
3/17 Van Halen
4/2 Steven Malkmus
5/1 Ministry
5/22 Turisas
6/20 The Cure

Best of 2007 - live shows

I went to a lot of shows this year, and thought it would be fun to acknowledge, in no particular order, some memorable moments...

Best show seen from the "front row":
3 way tie between Mudhoney@Music Hall of Williamsburg, Melvins/Big Business@Irving Plaza, Dream Theater@PNC Bank Arts Center

Best show seen from the top row:
Heaven and Hell (first time)@Radio City Music Hall

Best band seen three times in 2007: Heaven and Hell

Biggest disappointment: 2 way tie between Boredoms with 77 Drummers and Jesus & Mary Chain@Webster Hall

Biggest regret of the two tickets I had to eat in 2007: Testament@The Chance in Poughkeepsie

Band I most expected to suck but were totally awesome: Art Brut@Bowery Ballroom

Over-hyped show that did not live up to expectation but was still pretty good: 2 way tie between Sonic Youth playing Daydream Nation@McCarren Park Pool and Daft Punk@Keyspan Park

Best example of a band being better as an opening act than a headliner: Two way tie between Megadeth@PNC and Celtic Frost@Irving Plaza

Best band I never expected to have the opportunity to see: Hawkwind@Europa

Steve Vai@Irving Plaza or Joe Satriani@Gramercy ? Both were much better and more enjoyable than expected, but Joe Satriani edges into the lead for being so damn personable and keeping the show fast paced and rocking. Minimal wanking FTW.

Megadeth@PNC or Megadeth@Irving Plaza? Megadeth at PNC for sure.

Dream Theater@PNC or Dream Theater@Jones Beach: Dead even draw. The set list was much better at Jones Beach but lining my beers up on stage next to John Petrucci at PNC was a unique thrill.

Best sounding show: Placebo@Roseland

Best example of old people "getting it": Rush@PNC

Best example of old people not "getting it": UNCLE TED!

Best show where I felt really bad for the performer on stage: Qui (David Yow)@Mercury Lounge

Best show of 2007: Sebadoh@Webster Hall for being so awful that I decided to go to Vince's party to blow off some steam. And ended up meeting Kristin.

Even more updated concert schedule

12/9 Air Supply
12/16 Dillinger Escape Plan
12/18 Gods of Fire at Club Midway (with Punk Metal Karaoke)
12/21 Twisted Sister
2/1 Supersuckers
2/17 School of Rock with Gibby Haynes performing an evening of Butthole Surfers!!
3/14 IRON MAIDEN!!!!!!
3/17 Van Halen
5/1 Ministry w/Meshuggah
6/20 The Cure

Upcoming Shows

11/30 Ween
12/1 Mudhoney
12/9 Air Supply
12/18 Dillinger Escape Plan
12/21 Twisted Sister
2/17 School of Rock with Gibby Haynes performing an evening of Butthole Surfers!!
3/14 IRON MAIDEN!!!!!!
6/20 The Cure

Feud Live at Sin-e July 2003

As most people who read this blog know, I played in a pretty decent instrumental band called the Feud for about 8 years. We were loud, young, occasionally pretentious, and often straddled the line between indie and progressive. In the summer of 2003 we played a brief tour to support our second album Language is Technology. We ended at Sine-e in NYC. As the band broke up shortly after this may be our last show, or very close to it. Update: Lee confirmed this was in fact the last Feud show ever.

At this point we were a four piece band, having been at 7 members at our most bloated. The core of the band was Larry, Bone and myself. Our drummer was a talented but ludicrously insane guy named Jay. He bailed on the tour less than a week before we were supposed to get in the van. Our friend, and a much better drummer than Jay, Lee Diamond joined up at the last minute to learn the set and save our asses. He learned the entire set in less than 72 hours and hit the road with us. Lee is a diligent archivist and records just about everything he is involved in. Shows, rehearsals, everything. He had a small cassette recorder with him he used for recording our shows.

Tonight Lee sent me mp3s of the Sin-e show. While listening to it I am remembering how much I loved this lineup of the band. This is the tightest the Feud ever was, period. At best we were an inconsistent live act. We improvised a lot, we were very temperamental, and we all got way too drunk for our own good. Sometimes you would get a world class show, sometimes you would get awesome chaotic noise, and sometimes you would get amateur hour. For the two weeks we were on the road in 2003 we were a sick well oiled machine.

The sound is incredibly raw as it is from a cassette but I made an attempt to improve it. Briefly for the nerds I did an analysis of the tape noise/distortion and ran a noise reduction program to kill most of it. I then used some EQ to bring out more guitars and kill some of the muddy tape frequencies. Lastly I used a touch of compression to bring back some of the energy that was lost by the noise reduction.

Download the zip file of the remastered show here via a yousendit link.

The Feud Live at Sin-e July 27th 2003

1 Intro
2 Citizen Beautiful Alien (Larry Bass, Bone and Seth Guitar, Lee Drums)
3 XYR Fingers for the Young Ghost Allegiance (Larry Bass, Bone and Seth Guitar, Lee Drums)
4 N'finite Rug (Larry Bass, Bone Guitar, Seth Keys, Lee Drums)
5 Don't Be Such a Fucking Harness Joyce (Larry Bass, Bone and Seth Guitar, Lee Drums)
6 Le Passion de Noam Jamski (Seth Bass, Larry and Bone Guitars, Lee Drums)
7 Desized (Larry Bass, Seth Guitars, Bone Keys and Guitars, Lee Drums)

Concert schedule - Q4 2007

9/25 Steve Vai
9/26 Megadeth
10/5 Melvins/Big Business
10/9 Qui
10/15 Bad Religion
10/28 Dillinger Escape Plan
11/2 Manorexia (Jim Thirlwell) at the Whitney Museum
11/30 Ween
12/1 Mudhoney
4/1/2008 King Diamond/Kreator
6/20/2008 The Cure (I know, WTF? It was supposed to be yesterday)

Shows!

Well now that the Cure have fagged out what am I seeing?

Funny you ask.....

9/8 Heaven and Hell/Alice Cooper/Queensryche
9/25 Steve Vai
9/26 Megadeth
10/5 Melvins/Big Business
10/9 Qui (David Yow from Jesus Lizard)
10/15 Bad Religion
11/30 Ween

Schedule is looking a bit weak. Gotta find more love to fill it with. What should I be seeing?

After Effects- one last show, Joe Satriani

So last night there was one last show from the series of insanity. I went to the Blender Theater at Gramercy- a Live Nation venue (isn't that a mouthful???) to see Joe Satriani's 20th anniversary presentation of Surfing with the Alien.

First, Turcotte and I had an amazing dinner at Curry Leaf in that Indian section of Lexington. I HIGHLY recommend this restaurant. They are owned by my favorite spice merchants Kalustyans. Everything was so spiced out it, it was almost like curry pornography (tm). Even the samosas were oozing with delicious flavor.

So we get to the venue, and I have to say it is AWESOME. It is rather small. I would say the floor holds about 400 with another 100 or so in the small mezzanine. It is bigger than the Knit, but smaller than Bowery. And the sound was pretty amazing. I don't know if the credit goes to Satch's team or the venue, but everything was amazingly pristine.

The show? WOW! I was completely blown away! I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was. The first hour was Satch playing through the entire Surfing record with a band, stopping in between every song to tell little anecdotes. This was actually a lot more interesting than my expectation. I was nervous it was going to devolve into a guitar clinic, but he is very personable and kept a good balance between guitar nerdery, and some genuinely interesting stories about the making of the record.

He is such a tasteful player. He kind of kicked off the whole instrumental guitar thing, but he really isn't a shredder in that classic sense. Although true he may have invented the genre, he does not wank like everyone else in his wake. There is such a musicality to his playing, and he phrases and sings on the instrument like no one I have ever heard. His music is genuinely catchy and hum-able and have verses and choruses. The second half of the show kicked off with "Flying in a Blue Dream" and then the band played for a full extra hour without any more talking. Although I didn't remember the names of anything, I recognized all these songs I hadn't heard in ten years. How many instrumental artists have made music that is instantly recognizable and singable? What a great night.

The band mentioned they were heading over to the bar area to hang out, but we had a birthday party to go to on Bleecker so off we went, and a little trouble began. Much of the time spent at the Red Lion is very hazy, but I do remember the mediocre cover band's drummer was none other than our buddy Johnny Mac. I gotta hand it to that guy, he definitely makes a living playing drums. He is working seven days a week, playing with anyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to a Bleecker street cover band.

A long week of shows Pt. 3- Symphony X

Saturday night Jason Heidi and I went to my favorite out of town venue the Starland Ballroom to see New Jersey's hometown heroes, Symphony X. Their bassist Mike Lepond played in the Ross the Boss Manowar show with Keith and I have sang his praises on this blog before.

If you are unfamiliar with the band, they are the more hard rocking, down to earth foil for Dream Theater in the prog rock scene. The analogy I always make is they are the Rolling Stones to Dream Theater's Beatles. They are fulfilling a LOT of fantasies by touring together in Europe later this year. As DT are arguably the leaders in terms of pushing forward progressive music and being better artists, there is something amazingly earthbound about SymphX. They are drunks. They are accessible. They will talk to you. Heidi thought Russell waved at us as they left the stage before the encore. I wouldn't be surprised if Russell did remember us from Dingbatz. They are that kind of band. Drink whiskey with them and you have friends for life.

The set was almost identical to the one they did at BB King's a few months earlier. Most of the new record, and some great old favorites like "Smoke and Mirrors." I'm sorry to say but for the second time now, I was bored out of my skull during the encore of all 20 minutes of "The Odyssey" in its entirety. Jason nailed it. It is not a cohesive epic like Dream Theater's "A Change of Seasons." It feels like they wanted to write a 20 minute song and sewed a lot of incongruous parts together. It sounds stilted and forced. But anyways.....

Russell Allen is a frontman and a half. He must be about 6'4 and 300 pounds. A gargantuan of a man with a very powerful and commanding presence. Michael Romeo is now getting into "faster than Yngwie" territory with his chops. As the BB King's show was very loose and casual, the Starland set was tight and polished and sharp. Good stuff, a great end to a very long week of rock shows.

A long week of shows Pt. 2- Daft Punk

Will do this random thoughts style, like my review of the Nuge.

Best celebrity sighting- Dennis Miller with two teenage boys
Most Obvious celebrity sighting- James Murphy

The visuals were out of control. It felt like I was rocking out at an alien invasion, where they truly do come in peace. To bring you funk. Their intro music was the Close Encounters theme, to really bring it all home.

On the horribly inefficient beer line a girl wearing pajamas started flirting with me. It was mostly uneventful (and all just in good fun Bollocks) but things went painfully south when I told her I was "spinning" the Girl Talk album a lot. This led to a quick conversation about how I am "old school" and still use the term spinning even if I mean listening to something on my iPod. When this led to her finding out I'm 30, she turned to the guy behind me who she said "looks like Zack Braff" (he didn't) and stopped talking to me. Yikes. Although, can't we take the word "spinning" back? Hard drives spin, right? But apparently I'm hitting the age where if I talk to a hipster girl in pajamas I am a pedophile.

As beautiful as the pyramid and the outside light structures were, the music was only OK. I thought the album versions of all of the Human After All songs are far superior. My favorite song, "The Prime Time of your Life" seemed like a perfect drugged out live show no-brainer. As it is on the record that song is perfect. The weird cutesy droned out remix took away a lot of the power and sentiment. On the flip side, the perfect synergy between sound and visuals on "Steam Machine" was one of my concert going highlights of the year.

Keyspan park is an awesome show venue and they do not oversell it. I will find an excuse to go back there next year.

Kraftwerk is still the best presentation of live electronic music I have ever seen, but Daft Punk was completely insane. I think those pics say much more than my words.

A long week of shows Pt. 1- Zappa and Deep Purple

So last week was pretty crazy in terms of the rock and roll.

Monday- Zappa Plays Zappa at Westbury Music Fair. Decent setlist. The addition of the video screens where daddy Zappa was projected and shown playing and singing was a nice touch. I don't think Dweezil would be able to sing low enough to hit Cosmik Debris without the assistance. The rotating stage at Westbury is a trip. The band was a bit freaked out as well. It was frustrating that the whole experience was very all or nothing. Either you saw the whole band or you saw the whole bands' backs. Ray White was a great guest but I missed Bozzio and Vai.

Tuesday- Deep Purple at Radio City Music Hall. Great set, mediocre show. That band is *old* and although Ian Paice is still a drumming whiz, this was an oldies show for an oldies crowd. Ian Gillian's voice is pretty blah at this point and there is not nearly as much of the biting rock energy that made me fall in love with this band in the first place. Your best bet is to stick with the records and archival dvds. Deep Purple in 2007 is just not a great show.

Wednesday- Kristin had to cancel plans, the subways stopped running, so I stayed in Brooklyn and spent my first good chunk of quality time with the Wii. I recommend everyone who owns one to pick up Paper Mario. It has some of the best art direction I have ever seen in a video game. It is like Dali and The Residents tried to put together a surrealist mash-up of classic 80's Nintendo platformers. I have never seen characters or locations look quite like this. Absolutely amazing. Beautiful and breathtaking.

Current concert schedule

8/15 Joe Satriani
8/24-8/25 Dream Theater
8/26 Blood City Shack Up
9/8 Heaven and Hell
9/23 The Cure
9/25 Steve Vai
9/26 Megadeth
10/9 Qui
11/30 Ween

Latest Concert Schedule

Because everyone loves the list! Am I missing anything?

7/28 Sonic Youth
8/2 Metal Meltdown III (Gods of Fire)
8/6 Zappa Plays Zappa
8/7 Deep Purple
8/9 Daft Punk
8/11 Symphony X
8/24 Dream Theater (4th row on John Petrucci's side!!!!!!)
8/25 Dream Theater
9/8 Heaven and Hell/Alice Cooper/Queensryche
9/23 The Cure
9/26 Megadeth
10/9 Qui (David Yow's new band)
4/1/08 King Diamond/Kreator

Rush will school your face!

Look at the above pictures. If you are in a rock band that is what your show absolutely must look like from the upper decks. Adjust to scale and budget. Club bands, there is no excuse! For whatever room you are rocking, you have a responsibility to give maximum entertainment value for your ticket price. Your local band charges $10? Rush charged me $80. You MUST provide exactly 1/8th of that awesomeness! Trust me, that is still quite a lot to live up to! In fact, laugh at Rush all you want, you should be so lucky to be considered 12.5% as awesome as they were up on stage!

Do they still genuinely care? Are they just doing it for the money? I don't give a SHIT. Just go up on stage and do your fucking job. Punch the clock, put on the happy face and ROCK. Then I'm happy. I don't care if you suffer for your art. Jesus and Mary Chain couldn't do it for 70 minutes and a $50 ticket. Rush did it for THREE HOURS. And not only did they play hits like Tom Sawyer and Spirit of Radio as energetically as if they were just written, they played some album cuts so deep you needed a mining helmet and a set of permits to excavate them off the grooves.

Everything was in perfect synergy. The band was super tight, Geddy Lee's voice has never been stronger, and they played an incredible mix of hits and the aforementioned deep cuts. The light show was perfectly complemented with the hi def video screens and there were beautiful color palettes drenching the stage in swirls of lights and future-kill fantasies. The spacier more futuristic songs would be awash in blues and purples, as the earthier rock songs were complemented with reds and oranges. And yes, there were lasers. Tons of lasers. It was like laser PORN. And God knows I love a good laser show!

So now young chaps, go forth and figure out how to be 12.5% as awesome as Rush. Me, I think I gotta talk to the band and hit up Halloween Adventure. We're going to have to hasten a few of our new ideas..................

77 Drummers are better than one?

Last Saturday, 7/7/07, was a fun day in the park. I went to go see a band I enjoy very much called The Boredoms. As everyone knows by now they did a one time performance of a piece called 77 Boa Drums, which I have been looking forward to for months.

I know there has been one hell of a debate on how the event was handled, and it was indeed amateur hour, but they did send emails the night before saying your RSVP was worthless and you needed to get down there at 2:30 if you wanted a shot at admission. As most people who know me are aware, I balk at the slightest hint of aggravation. But I was determined to make it into the show, so I got there early, around 2:15, watched some sound check, got on line and had no issue getting in.

What did it sound like? Sometimes it sounded AMAZING. Beautiful bursts of energy and noise and electronics and cymbals resonating into the East River. Cascades of sound would move through the drum circle and slowly envelop you. This was about 40% of the show.

The rest was watching 77 drummers play rudiments. It is not that I dislike ambient music. If anything the show could have been MORE ambient. But this was a weird game of drumming telephone that had happy accidents, rather than a beautiful movement and flow. Also to prove all of those psychoacoustic experts right, 77 drummers are not necessarily louder than 3 or 4.

I don't mean to sound cynical or hard to please. I came in with a completely open head ready to witness something unique and beautiful. Maybe I was too sober. I don't know. It was good, it was fun. It was not......well it was not Rush.

About that show............stay tuned.