Just got home from the greatest concert I've ever attended. 4.5 hours of fantastic metal. I hope I get full hearing back soon. Self Mutiny, Arsis, Exodus, and Arch Enemy were playing at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. It was the last stop on their tour, so they went all out. Arch Enemy put on the best show I've ever seen. They had jaw dropping solos that went on for minutes, amazing mosh pits, and played a great set. Arsis was selling merchandise between sets, and I got their autographs and got to shake their hands. Their instrumentals were the second best of the night. Exodus was full of energy, and Self Mutiny was suprisingly not too bad. The night ended with a cat fight in the pit, with three chicks that were showing lots of skin. All in all, a great time. If Arch Enemy is coming to your town, don't miss them.
Still a bit of a ways off,(May 28th-30th) but I'm really excited for Summercamp this year, the lineup is insane. Here's the link http://www.summercampfestival.com/2010/artists , but the artists I'm most excited about are moe, Umphrey's Mcgee, Sts9, Gov't Mule, Keller Williams, and Victor Wooten. I'm expecting at least a few of them to play together, I'm pretty sure Keller will do a song or two with Umphrey's, because he usually does when they play together, and I really hope Warren Haynes hops on stage with some one.
I'm going to Hammerfall, and Powerglove at The Venue in Vancouver, on March 23rd. I love power metal, so I can't wait. Soon after the Hammerfall and Powerglove tour, Sonata Arctica and Powerglove are touring as well. They're also going to hit up The Venue in Vancouver. Any other power metal fans? Powerglove isn't that popular of a band yet, but I think they're fucking amazing. They play something called "nintendo metal", where they just take popular video game music and metalize the shit out of it. They do songs from Mario, Zelda, Mega Man X, Final Fanatasy, and more. No lyrics, just pure kickassery.
Muse tonight @ the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. They're one of those bands you've probably heard, but don't know their name, and when you hear them it's like "I know this song!"... Maybe I'm way off.
As posted in the Networking thread, I have 4 tickets to the Bon Jovi concert Sat April 10, 7:30 PM Dallas AAC that I need to get off my hands.
Flaming Lips in May at St Augustine with god know how many drunk friends my brother will bring. Needless to say it will be awesome.
I saw Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits this past Thursday in St. Louis at the Fox Theatre. If you want to see how an incredibly talented musician assembles a world-class band, go see him. A lot of his new songs are rather slow, but his live performance makes up for it, especially on the Dire Straits songs. That man can play the guitar like no other. He had a camera on the neck of the guitar that was projected on a screen behind the stage during "Sultans of Swing." The studio version is just no comparison to hearing and seeing it live. I'm 40 years old and that was the best concert I've seen in my life. He's playing very small venues on this tour so there's really not a bad seat in the house if you have a chance to catch one of his remaining shows in North America.
I really wish I'd seen this earlier, since then this wouldn't be quite so old, but here goes. A couple months back I saw Reel Big Fish, Sonic Boom Six, and Big D & The Kids Table at Academy 1...SBS were pretty awful, but I think the singers mic setup was screwed, as you could barely hear her, and they spent about 20 minutes messing about with the mic after the SBS set. Big D & The Kids Table are great fun live, if you ever get the chance to see them (and you like that kind of ska tinged rock music) then I definitely reccomend it. Ditto for Reel Big Fish...just so much fun live. They also did a cover of Enter Sandman, which was just odd. But awesome. The only other gig I've been to recently was to see Emilie Autumn at Academy 3..really tiny venue, the bar takes up the entire back wall, and with the sound technicians bit in the middle it only fits about 100 people. The crowd is almost entirely teenage goth girls, but that's not really a huge issue. Definitely a fun thing ot watch, and the Bloody Crumpets fulfil their role of backing vocals and A+ eyecandy quite nicely.
I saw John Butler Trio at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland Thursday night. Overall I'd say it was a good show, Ocean live is even more beautiful than on tape. The band's 10 minute free-form musical odysseys halfway through EACH SONG did get a little tedious towards the end. John Butler seems like an interesting character, his take on piracy... "If you download my music a gremlin will come rape your dog. I really don't care if you download me, but I do care about your pets. So please, if you like my music buy a cd, your pets will thank you." --- John Butler For you heathens unfamiliar with Ocean... *edited to add link
I love seeing John Butler Trio in concert. The free form does get to be a bit much here or there, but his guitar playing and personality really shines live. I'm hoping to take the wife to see Jack Johnson and G.Love later this summer. Should be one of those nice summer night concerts sitting on the lawn, relaxing to some good music.
I saw Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots last week. Both put on good shows, although I do believe that (surprise surprise) Scott Weiland is hitting the bottle/crack pipe/needle/Rx bottle before shows. Couldn't understand a damn word he said when he was talking between songs. Somehow he still was able to sing coherently though so I guess that is all that matters. I had already seen AIC with their new singer and he was a great replacement for Layne. The DC crowd was kind of "interesting", I am a perfectly vanilla woman in my 30s and I don't think I have ever been hit on by so many younger guys. Just kind of presents a picture of how low the bar was set. Going to see Tool next month, always a good show. Hopefully they change up their set list from the last tour. I have seen them a few times and it would be nice to hear them play more of their older songs. Thinking about seeing Roger Waters doing The Wall, I am thinking that opportunity will never present itself again.
Wife™ and I just bought tickets to see Alice in Chains, The Deftones and Mastodon in September. I mean... Fuck Mastodon, but the show should be a lot of fun.
This is going to be pretty much a once in a lifetime deal so I'm going to see this. Tour stops here around September.
Just ordered my ticket for Deftones on September 14th here at the House of Blues. I've been waiting to see them since my high school days.
Got to see Counting Crows on Monday night. I'm not a huge Crows fan myself, but my wife loves them, and they certainly put on a good show. But the highlight of the evening for me was the venue: if you live in the DC area, go see someone play at Wolf Trap. It's a beautiful, intimate venue, but more importantly, the only one that I've been to where you can bring your own food and booze in with no limitations, except that kegs aren't allowed. It's only about a five minute bus ride from the West Falls Church Metro station, and did I mention that you can bring in WHATEVER YOU WANT? No frisking at the gate, no bag checks, nothing.
Going to see James Otto, Trace Adkins, and Toby Keith tomorrow night. I'm really more of a red dirt and texas country fan but my friend had an extra ticket and many girls my age around here love pop country so I couldn't say no to the possibility of meeting some of them. Hopefully the show will be good and Adkins and Keith will play their better material. If nothing else, it will be a good chance to hang out with some friends and drink some beer.
I saw Muse at the Staples Center last night, and let me just say, HOLY shit. I've never seen anything remotely close to the visual show they put on. They also had some of the best instrumentals I've ever seen. Their drummer is fucking ridiculous. They played through most of their biggest hits, some new stuff, and a few older songs. They also rocked out for like 20-30 minutes when they were done with their songs. Any one of you who even likes a few of their songs is doing yourself a huge disservice if you miss the opportunity to see them. Edit: Their opener, passion pit, was awful. I tried to arrive late enough to miss their set but was there for a few of their songs. They are like a gay, shitty version of MGMT.