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.

Snap Judgments: Quick reviews of recent albums

Opeth "Watershed" - probably one of the best moments in Metal of the last five years. The end of Burden was the first time in God knows how long where I felt the urge to do a psychedelic drug. Roadrunner: please put this out on vinyl.

Children of Bodom "Blood Drunk" - It is fine, but I never listen to it. I still go back to Hate Crew. It sounds like they are settling into a little groove with their sound and the songs rock live, but there is nothing particularly compelling on this record they haven't done already and with more memorable hooks.

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!" - note to all rockers over 40, this is the blueprint of how to age gracefully. The album kicks ass but shows maturity at the same time. Nothing avant-garde or mellow or experimental. Just a straight up rocker with amazing lyrics and well developed grooves. My favorite Bad Seeds album by far.

Mudcrutch s/t - Jeff Tweedy and Tom Petty should totally make a record together. Not that this album isn't a great rootsy rock record, but Tweedy and Petty would be freaking sweet.

Def Leppard "Songs from the Sparkle Lounge" - They sound stripped down, but not retro. Love is the best song on the record. Who knew Def Leppard would be their best when blatantly ripping off Queen?

Testament "The Formation of Damnation"- FUCK AND YES! Worth the nine year wait.

Ihsahn "angL" - I made the mistake of trying to work out to this record and it killed the whole vibe. This is some pretty damn dark and depressing shit. But it is also a beautifully constructed prog-black metal masterpiece. The song with the dude from Opeth is killer.

Ashlee Simpson "Bittersweet World" - I was nervous about this record because what I liked about her sound was the guitar based pop. But Rule Breaker has an undeniable riff and the "Blondie on the 00's" sound is still there. Good shit.

Death Angel "Killing Season" - I thought the first reunion album "The Art of Dying" was pretty damn kick ass. I can't even remember one song title from this. Ass suckingly boring. Boo.

Man Man "Rabbit Habits" - If Tom Waits was following Nick Cave's example he would have written this record. Everything from the songwriting to the production is absolutely stellar. The perfect soundtrack to a life as a snake oil salesman in the West.

Spiritualized "Songs in A & E" - Another total winner. Give the man credit for self releasing and still utilizing an orchestra and choir. Death Take Your Fiddle, about his nearly fatal drug overdose is the standout for me. Goodnight, Goodnight also follows in his tradition of amazing album closers. Think Cop Shoot Cop from "Ladies and Gentlemen..."

Torche "Meanderthal" - In the 90s this wouldn't have even been considered Metal. Shoegazer with huge hooks and a ton of riffs. This band rocks hard with sick melodies. I wish they were touring with Swervedriver this summer.

In Flames "A Sense of Purpose" - what in the hot topic happened to this band? I hope they are getting their dicks sucked a lot because they have fallen hard since the Jester Race/Clayman glory days. The lyrics are straight out of a 15 year old goth girl's LiveJournal ("I feel like shit/but at least I feel something." Really guys? Fuck you!) The riffs suck too. Fuck them at this point.

Black Crowes "Warpaint" - Made me a fan again for the first time in 15 years. Daughters of the Revolution, Evergreen, Oh Josephine, so many new classics. Great production as well. Regardless of the process it sounds like 5 dudes in a room.

Twenty Favorite Albums of 2007 (Metal Edition)

In alphabetical order:

Three Inches of Blood - Fire up the Blades
Arch Enemy - Rise of the Tyrant
Austerity Program - Black Madonna
Behemoth - The Apostasy
Big Business - Here Come the Waterworks
Destruction - Thrash Anthems
Devildriver - The Last Kind Words
Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works
Dimmu Borgir - In Sorte Diaboli
Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos
Entombed - Serpent Saints: the Ten Amendments
Helloween - Gambling with the Devil
Iced Earth - Framing Armageddon
King Diamond - Give me your Soul...Please
Megadeth - United Abominations
Nile - Ithyphallic
Sebastian Bach - Angel Down
Symphony X - Paradise Lost
Turisas - Varangian Way
Ulver - Shadows of the Sun

Ten Favorite Albums of 2007 (Non-Metal Edition)

In alphabetical order:

Grinderman - S/T
Jay Z - American Gangster
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Monster Magnet - 4 Way Diablo
Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, are you the Destroyer?
Public Enemy- How do you Sell Soul...
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
Saul Williams - The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust
Thurston Moore - Trees Outside the Academy

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.

Behringer Pedal Copies

J&R are discounting all of the Behringer pedal copies. For the uninitiated Behringer, a very inexpensive German pro audio company, recently started making reversed engineered knockoffs of very popular and expensive pedals for rock bottom prices.

I had been rather intrigued by these but never bit. Right now at J&R all their stock is selling for about $25. These include sansamp copies, Electro-Harmonix copies, Boss copies and a line 6 guitar pod copy.

I bought a Boss EQ copy and the EHX Big Muff. The picture of the "Behringer Vintage Distortion," aka the Big Muff, is on the left.
So I broke it open this weekend. Notice the silver color. Unlike the EHX original this is not metal, but silver colored plastic. Also take note of the small metal stomp in the middle. This is in fact real metal, but not a real selector switch. You know the satisfying click of putting your foot down on one of those stomps and getting the tactile response of a connection being made? No click. It is all for show. It triggers a silent and loose a/b switch. It gets the job done, but I would never use this live. I suspect these pedals are all digital and just fancy plastic houses for a programmed ROM chip.

How does it sound? Like a fucking Big Muff! I've already recorded with it. The thing is cheap, morally suspect and not durable enough to be part of a live rig, but it sounds like it is supposed to. I imagine it could be A/B'ed against the original and someone would have great difficulty telling them apart. I am intrigued to pick up the Small Stone copy, and the MXR Phaser 90 copy. The EQ is still in its packaging but I will be testing and reviewing soon. If I was a small studio owner, and I guess in some ways I am, I would pick all of these up to have a dirt cheap way to add a lot of pedals to my arsenal for clients.

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.

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.

Rush South Park intro

Tomorrow the full Rush review will be up. There is much to talk about.

For now, enjoy this. The show was already brilliant when this little tease happened before Tom Sawyer!

Sonic Attack! aka "Hawkwind played! Hawkwind played!"

Resembling a lower tech underground version of Pink Floyd in almost every respect, I finally got to see my heroes Hawkwind live at Europa on Monday. Yes, the very day after Nuge. Turcotte came along for the ride, always up for hearing something new, and Lee who loves the records as well.

Hawkwind has had a very long, complex and storied history that involves very distinct periods and exceedingly tumultuous lineup changes. I am by no means a Hawkwind historian, but from what I gather, David Brock makes Dave Mustaine look like a positively benevolent saint.

The band that performed in Brooklyn was a very stripped down four piece of Brock on Guitar/Synth/Vox, a bassist, a drummer, and a Keyboard player who rocked two Korg Tritons.

Opening up with the titular track from the "Warrior on the Edge of Time" record, the performance started off a bit rocky. The band wasn't really gelling and the vocal harmonies were way off. Whether the issues were performance related or technical is not really known, but as the show went on the playing improved dramatically. Most of the set concentrated around the Space Ritual era and the 1977 masterpiece Quark Strangeness and Charm.

There were video screens, as evidenced by the photos I posted, which were pretty low resolution and were showing computer animation dvds that had very little to do with the music. Some of the graphics were laughably low tech and looked like graphics from an old PlayStation one game. How do I know they were sourced from a DVD? Someone was physically switching the tracks back and forth as they played and you can see the commands "Previous" "Next" "Play" etc. on the screen as the appropriate buttons were pushed. But this only added to the overall charm of seeing ambition pulled off with limited resources.

What do they sound like? The only way I can really describe Hawkwind's sound is that the band found a whole bunch of shared connections between Pink Floyd and Public Image Limited and devoted their career to exploiting that middle ground. Punk and Psychedelia on paper should have no common ground but it is simply not true. Hawkwind is amazing proof to the contrary.

Opening the show was The Phantom Family Halo. They were a pretty great pseudo Kraut Rock/Glam band. The singer played drums standing up, but used a semi-conventional kit. It was more unique and less cheesy than lets say, Phil Collins rocking Su-su-dio. Stylistically the singer was a dead ringer for Jello Biafra, but the music was much more droney and psychedelic.

Uncle Ted

So the Nuge had some major problems selling tickets to his show at the Nokia (pronounced "Nookie Theater" by our crazy Uncle Ted during the concert) so there was a deal on Ticketmaster that admission was free as long as you paid service charges. This worked out to about 10 bucks a ticket. Turcotte already had one so we grabbed a couple and went on a journey to the centers of our minds.

I am not even sure how to write a concise review of the show. I'm just going to list out random thoughts and observations of the evening.

Picture 1 - Yes, the Nuge rocks a headset Mic Sammy Hagar style. It is not cool when he does it either.

Picture 2 - That is a cane. Yes. Someone was rocking so hard they had to raise their CANE in the air. Not a pimp cane, just a cane.

Picture 3- Taken so you can see the backdrop. Click on the picture to enlarge. Make it your wallpaper.

Ted Nugent HATES the French. He made two derogatory references to them during the night. I think he still holds a grudge that they wouldn't join the coalition of the willing in 2003. As the show was really starting to cook, he exclaimed that he celebrates his freedom each and every day. He then told us to appreciate our freedom and this rock show as you "can't do this in France." No, really. Then he played a simple pentatonic blues lick on his red white and blue American made Gibson Les Paul and said "you can't do that on a Jap guitar." No, really.

He saw a small child in the audience and asked the father to bring him closer. Ted tells the child, speaking directly to him, that he is 59 and loves life because his father taught him to hunt, fish, and kill his own meals. No, really. Then he said you can be as happy as "Uncle Ted" if you just follow these four rules: No drugs, no alcohol, no tobacco, no fat pussy. "The fat pussy will kill you first!" he said. The child was under 10.

Not only did the Nuge constantly bring up that he was raised in Detroit, he called the music he played "Soul music" and also told us he was a black child with a large afro. Nuge said it was his job to give us white folk soul, and to get us to dance. No, really. He also played a cover of "Soul Man."

There is a song in his repertoire called "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang." This should not be confused with the song "Wango Tango," which he segued into a cover of "You Really Got Me." This was third up. He opened with "Journey to the Center of your Mind." As Kristin pointed out he really wastes no time just diving into those hits.

At a certain point in the show the Nuge did a shout out to all the members of our Armed Forces who were in the audience tonight. No doubt to pad more of the empty space left open by those who didn't buy tickets. He enthusiastically announced how much he loves "when the good guys kill the bad guys."

His drummer is "Wild" Mick Brown from Dokken. No, really.

There is more, but this post is now quite long. He obviously did not pull me to his side, but I enjoyed and admired the FUCK out of him. Like Manowar, believe it. He is for real and takes himself completely seriously. He, unlike most of you and myself, has a real life philosophy he applies towards his everything he does, and he lives well. I do not dig his tunes, I disagree with his politics, and I think he is a pretentious prick. But I had a really fun time at the "Nookie Theater" last week watching the Nuge just be the Nuge.

Dinosaur: The kids are alright!

The kids are alright my friends! We like to lament the kids but I think I am eligible for 2-4 years down at county for all the underage boob I accidentally came in contact with in the pit. That's right, a pit! Dinosaur Jr. in 2007 was very very similar to Dinosaur in 1993. Down to the underage kids. They did a great mix of the entire catalog. Nothing from Green Mind this time but they did add "Out There" and "Feel The Pain" from the 90's records. The new record sounded great live, and J is once again surrounded by stacks of 4x12s. Not all of them active this time around but DAAAAAAAMN were they loud!

Wow great show. I need to go to sleep and get my strength up for the Roller Derby and subsequent after-party tomorrow. But tonight I sleep basking in the transcendent old school feedback of Dinosaur Jr.

Did I mention I was in the pit?? A real old school pogo pit!!!! Jesus Christ I had fun tonight!

Spoiler free reaction to the season finale of Lost

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?

....and a great Nirvana reference!

Jesus and Mary *snore* Chain

Nerds, if you look closely at that photo on the left you may notice that William Reid was playing through TWO (2) Orange heads powering TWO (2) Orange 4x12s. That is more juice than even J Mascis needs!

Unfortunately the show wasn't very loud, wasn't very heavy and the band looked as bored as ever. No one forced them to reunite or take my $50.

Why bother going on a reunion tour if you can't go out on stage for an HOUR (I heard it was 70 minutes with encores. I left right after their last proper song, Reverence) and pretend to be vaguely interested? Yes Johnny Rotten, I did feel cheated.

Between the show and the season finale of Heroes, last night was very dis-satisfying. At least the Falafel and Hummus plate at Chickpeas was good. As were the 10 shots of Jager I drank throughout the night..........

New album micro-reviews!

The best, worst, and in-between of the recently leaked/released:

Chemical Brothers We are the Night: I don't know when they became a rock band, but they're damn good at it! The track with the Klaxons is so far my favorite

Art Brut It's a bit Complicated: "People in Love" is the best pop song I've heard this year. The rest of the record is very good too.

Bad Brains Build a Nation: Ugh.

Dream Theater Systematic Chaos: They got really heavy and more traditionally proggy. Love it! They should ease back on deliberately cribbing Muse, though. "The Dark Eternal Night" is the current stand-out track for me, but I imagine this will change with more listens.

Symphony X Paradise Lost: The first one that sounds like an album, and not a home recording project. The songs are great too. I think it is a concept album, but I can only tell because every song references Babylon. They are still not world class, but one day. Every album shows a big leap in songwriting and scope.

Marilyn Manson Eat me, Drink me: Unlistenable. Sounds like something a high school kid posted to MySpace.

Megadeth United Abominations: About half the record is as good as anything they've ever done. What more could you ask for?

Wilco Sky Blue Sky: See Megadeth

Ozzy Black Rain: I can't tell if the album is no good or if I just irreparably hate Ozzy. Either way, fuck this noise.