Ashes Divide @ Water Street

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Ashes Divide at Water Street in Rochester.

Opener was a band called Inner Party System from PA. i thought they were pretty good. a very strong club beat, that uhntz uhntz beat, but with guitars and real lyrics – not just a few repeated words. young guys, good stage presence, seemed professional and not just hacks. i bought their EP cuz it was 5$. it’s not bad, but i think they were more interesting live. they played a half hour non stop, one song just went into the next.

eric arrived right before AD started, good timing hah. billy howerdel is SO skinny and alien like but such a good guitarist. he seemed very shy and not used to being the center of attention. he didn’t talk much, introduced the band, mentioned they’d be back for projekt revolution. they sounded good, i really like the album. i would like to say they played all my favourite songs, but they played the entire album so that’s sorta given. 2nd to last song he announced as a cover…and for the life of me could not recognize the song. until the chorus “if you don’t love me now, you will never love me again” and i thought wait, i know that, isn’t that fleetwood mac? yep. it was “chain” except it had to be the most rocked out version of a fleetwood mac song ever. i’ve heard the real song, and honestly i still can’t think that the AD music was the same hahah. if not for the lyrics i’d not have ever recognized it. it was really awesome. who knew fleetwood mac could be cool! 🙂 since they only have one album and it’s rather short i thought he might play some APC but nope. that’s ok. eric yanked a set list
Sword
Enemies
Too Late
Ritual
Stripped
Wish
Forever
Prey
Defamed
Denial
The Chain
Stone

stayed around for a bit after for billy to sign stuff. i realized on my way to the show that we saw APC open for NIN in toronto 8 years ago…EIGHT! jesus! i can’t believe “mer des noms” has been out for 8 years. so i told billy that, for lack of anything else to say when he signed my cd book.

the coldplay ipod commercial bugs me, because is he really TRYING to be bono now? that could BE bono in that commercial. stop it. bad enough you stole edge’s guitar tone.

speaking of bono, i had a strange dream that i was in london with ang, and sometimes cassie was there, sometimes jenn. we were walking around and we were near our hotel when we saw u2 – or at least bono and edge – standing around outside with a bunch of other people. bono asked us if we knew how long the side door of the hotel was going to be closed for. i told him it wasn’t closed when i had been in london last year (ha). he had a bit of attitude with us, which i expressed to cassie, but still thought he looked hot so i forgave him. later on walking around we ran into them again waiting to cross a street. edge was holding a banjo, or ukulele and would randomly play a few notes every now and then. i kept laughing cuz each time it made me think of the banjo version of “vertigo” (http://youtube.com/watch?v=edSOGPYp3xA). then bono was talking about being fat or something, and rubbing his stomach. so i patted/grabbed his stomach to see how fat it was, and i said it was comfortingly chubby. not too fat, but no rock hard abs or anything. he didn’t seem to mind. ha wtf.

also dreamed about terrorists at the casino.

Posted in: Concerts, Dreams, Other bands \ Tagged: ,

Saul Williams in Toronto

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“That’s just Sean Avery being Sean Avery,” Ottawa Senators forward Chris Neil said. “It’s kind of like an instigator. He may not be doing anything, but he is initiating.” http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/hockey/nhl/specials/playoffs/2008/04/14/avery.ruling/index.html and that comment coming from chris fucking neil….ha! i gotta say avery’s behavior in front of brodeur is pretty childish, i can’t stand him and i’m glad they made an unsportsmanlike penalty ruling if he does it again but…it is sorta funny haha.

tonight (monday)’s colbert report is the same bit on the political candidates that he ran by us at the UB speech.

tonight was saul williams in toronto with adr2 and tammy. thanks to george w bush and the terrorists, you now need passports or certified birth certificates to go into canada, when in the good old days you didn’t even need your drivers license…i mention this because, you would think having a passport would make crossing the border much easier. but no, that just means i get pulled over and get my car searched. at the booth the lady kept asking us about saul…what kind of music, how did we know him, how’d we know about the show…adr2 knew we were getting pulled over. so when we did, we had to go talk to immigration, which i’ve never had to do and i’ve been pulled over before (i believe this is the 5th time). he checked out our passports and all sorts of stuff in the computer for ages, before going back to the other agents to search my car. the guy searching starts asking us about saul again, we say he’s a rapper, hiphop, spoken word artists. then the guy goes, “is he the messiah?”….what?! what do you say to that? so i said, “some people might think so.” LOL. then he goes into how canada has strict narcotic laws…omg who is he trying to kid, everyone knows pot is almost legal in canada! he insisted he didn’t care if we did drugs as long as there were none in the car. adr2 was offended hahah.

all in all we were at the border for about 45 minutes but still made really good time and got to mod club not long before doors opened. i was starving so we stopped into the grocery store across the street where a lady thought adr2 and i were actresses. tammy arrived after doors opened and we hung out up at the stage.

saul had an opener but she never said what they/she was called. she introduced the band members twice but not herself. she didn’t play long but she had a great voice and the music was interesting…dj, and bongos and another percussion thing, and guitar.

between acts i was saying something to adr2 about being asexual, and this kid who was by us suddenly is like…did you say you were asexual, because so am i! hahah one of my own kind. we ended up talking to him and his cousin the rest of the time and they were hilarious. definitely some of the best crowd people we’ve encountered in a while.

saul came on around quarter to 10. i wish i could tell you what songs he played but i don’t know many of the titles so it’ll be tough. they began with “break” before he came onto stage, but i can’t remember what song they actually performed after that. it was quite excellent. they did almost all the new album and about 5 from his first. he actually had a “band”, cx kidtronic, a guitarist and a keyboardist. they closed with “sunday bloody sunday” which i forget that saul covered, and it was amusing because the guitarist did the “Edge stomp” 🙂 the whole show i kept thinking, it’d be neat if he busted out with “gunshots by computer” since technically it’s his song too but i didn’t think he would. they came back out for a short encore, and he ended up really closing with “gunshots..”…and it was clear from the crowd reaction that everyone there was nin fans haha. anyway. great show. saul was very energetic, all over the place, in the crowd. they had some technical difficulties with the sound on stage, and their tech’s suck, but they over came it and put on a good performance.

Posted in: Concerts, Other bands \ Tagged: ,

Jonathan Davis at Turning Stone

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sooo worth it. omg. the show was fantastic!

godhead opened, and while i had seen them open for orgy…god 4 years ago?..and they were good, i was unsure about this time given how much i disliked the shadow line. turns out they were playing acoustic too, so it wasn’t too bad. they played for a half hour, told the audience that their name was godhead at least 4 times, covered pink floyd “wish you were here” (how many times have i heard that covered this year?), and closed with “sinking” the only song i knew. the other songs were from their unplugged cd (which I’m unsure if it’s the same as the shadow line – might explain why shadow line sucked, if i didn’t know it was supposed to be unplugged and boring, and expecting electronics and kickass).

then we had the pleasure of the worst opening band ever. not a band, a person. and i’ve seen many shitty opening bands so this is saying alot. this person – shackar, or shankar, or something like that – was worse than the girl who opened for nin in reno in 05 (carre calaway was it?). thankfully he “played” only 15 minutes. and it turns out he is on jon davis’s backing band. but yeah, horrible.

the stage set up was what you expect from an “unplugged” type show…red velvet curtain in back, big candle sticks, and a throne type chair for jon. he came out to the creepy ethereal music from Queen of the Damned and went into “system”. oh kick ass. the queen of the damned songs were the whole reason i wanted to go to the show. he did all 5 of them, plus one called “careless” which didn’t make it onto the soundtrack because it was about “the ancients” and their plot line was really non existent in the movie. the songs sounded great, and i’m so so glad i went, just for those. throw in a handfull of korn songs, and covers, and it was an awesome show. he seemed really…calm…and that he was really enjoying doing something different. when korn finally implodes, he’ll do just fine solo.

following eric’s example, i snatched the setlist from the soundboard:
system
last legal drug
4u
hey daddy
forsaken
dirty
alone i break
slept so long
love on the rocks (yes neil diamond)
hushabye
kick the PA
not meant for me
hold on
blue monday
careless
redeemer
got the life
trash
falling away from me
the chauffeur

so very glad i went. given the chance i’d definitely go again. i’m curious as to if he’s changing the set list up for the other shows. we shall see i guess.

i lost 100$ playing blackjack 🙁

an aside, any aaron lewis/staind fans…aaron is playing solo at my casino in january, in the bears den, which seats only 400. so it might be something to look into.

and jesus christ, what the hell sabres?!?!

 

Posted in: Concerts, Other bands \ Tagged: ,

Heaven and Hell

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tonight was the heaven and hell show with queensryche and alice cooper. this was a show i went to just to go, mainly for alice cooper, cuz he’s a legend. it was at darien lake, which was weird to be at considering the amusement park is closed during the week now.

anyway. queensryche. i really had no clue what they sounded like, and did not expect to know anything. but it turns out i did know one song – jet city woman – but then i realized i knew it from some cd compilation tv commercial and thought that was kind of sad ha.

alice cooper was flippin fantastic. seriously. i figured out that i knew 2 alice songs – school’s out and feed my frankenstein but only from wayne’s world – but then it turns out i knew 4! hah i also knew no more mister nice guy (which i didn’t know was alice) and poison (or is it venomous poison?). but what a show. he truly is the father of that whole “shock rock” elaborate stage show genre. most impressive was a song about dead babies, and him simulating taking a hammer to a baby in a carriage and coming out with a bloody baby doll HA! and also the gallows, which followed the dead baby song, where they hung alice in a straight jacket haha. there was also this ballet dancer that got slapped around, which turns out is alice’s daughter, and an alice dummy that he stabs in the beginning of the show. he was on longer than i expected, about an hr 15, and included an encore.

heaven and hell/black sabbath with ronnie james dio. did not know any of the songs, as expected. they didn’t play the 2 sabbath songs that i do know (paranoid/iron man). but i’ll take great guitar rock any day. my only complaint, is that every song was like 15 min long (literally, adr2 said that heaven and hell is a 4 min song and it was really 15 min long live). i’d space out in the middle of songs, then come to again and realize they were still playing the same song. so it feels like they only played 5 songs, tho they played an hour and a half at least.

the crowd was amusing of course, it was a metal show what do you expect? my favourite was the guy near us towards the end that was channeling james hetfield circa “and justice for all”, with the wife with the matching hair. we figured they must have gotten a 2 for 1 perm deal. ha i still don’t think anyone will beat the 60 year old skinny white dude and short fat hispanic lady dancing at depeche mode.

 

Posted in: Concerts, Other bands \ Tagged:

Velvet Revolver

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tonight was the alice in chains/velvet revolver show with adr2 at darien lake. lawn tickets, we be cheap. haven’t been that far away during a show in a long long time.

we got there while Kill Hannah was on. they sucked. crap emo tho the band seemed to actually be able to play their instruments. they might actually be good with a different vocalist. they murdered (or i should say the vocalist murdered) a cover of Billy Idol’s “rebel yell”. if billy idol was dead he’d be rolling over in his grave haha. thankfully they weren’t on for much longer after we arrived.

darien now has a little corral in the center of the lawn that is non smoking and non drinking. it was awesome LOL cuz no one was in it. the only people in it were along the lawn rail, and we hung against the back rail of the corral and no one bothered us and we could see. rock. it was also amusing to watch security stop people with beer from coming in the corral the entire time. it also contained a few amusing dancers.

anyway. as soon as the first alice in chains riff started i thought “god bless grunge!” so great. i guess it’s that “what you grew up with” sort of nostalgia thing, but that era fucking rocked lol. it was refreshing (which is odd to say) to hear compared to the emo shit on the radio. i’ll get the set list from eric eventually, but adr2 said it was the standard “greatest hits” set, and it was quite good.

then velvet revolver. they came on stage to “straight outta compton” ROFL. and fucking slash! hah i was excited to see him play, even from so far away. he’s the guitarist in my fantasy band haha. and he didn’t disappoint. and scott weiland, still heroin skinny, still very hot. the band sounded fantastic (how could most of guns n roses not sound fantastic) but scotty’s voice seems to have seen better days. i couldn’t really tell until they did a few Stone Temple Pilots songs (yes they did STP songs! surprise) but it seemed stressed – too much smoking. They did Vaseline, Interstate Love Song and Sex Type Thing. They also played some Guns n Roses – Patience, Mr Brownstone…was there another? I forget. One of the encores gave us Pink Floyd “Wish You Were Here”. some song during the end, one that i knew, they showed images of serial killers paying special attention to ted bundy…and we just didn’t get it…anyway. A good rock and roll show. worth the price of admission.

we realized at one point however, that half the audience wouldn’t know the STP and GNR songs because THEY WEREN’T EVEN BORN YET! gah we’re old.

and we only had about 5 people come up and bother us – one guy looking for drugs, one guy who liked my hair cut, a guy who liked my boots, and lots of people who liked adr2s tattoos haha. and it was the quickest exit from a darien lake show EVER. we were out immediately, no traffic backup at all. helped that we were parked on the pavement and not the dirt.

tomorrow is the 10th Anniversary of the CTRC party at the terminal. i must not forget to call in.

oh and today was the employee of the month lunch. no big deal. good food, crap speeches, blahblahblah.

adr2 convinced me to go to the heaven and hell tour, sabbath, alice cooper et al to people watch all the metal heads hehe

Posted in: Concerts, Other bands \ Tagged: ,

black light burns

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tonight was black light burns (or is it blacklightburns) at the icon with adr and eric. i had gotten tickets because julien-k (ryan and amir from orgy) were supposed to play, but checking myspace right before i left, turns out they canceled because ryan has laryngitis. boo. went anyway of course. it was 12$ come on haha. i had been following blb on myspace because danny lohner (ex-nin) and josh freese (current nin) were involved in the project, tho aren’t in the touring lineup. that’s ok too haha.

adr and i got there at doors at 6, got in line with…12 year olds. we seriously were the oldest people in line. this little boy in front of us asked if we knew where he had to pay, the girls behind us asked if it was an all ages show. the ticket said 16 and under had to have a parent with them. the girl actually asked if we would be her mom. WTF! hahaha inside wasn’t a whole lot better.

anyway. first band, local, as summer dies. eh. whatever. they played 4 songs. 2nd band, i couldn’t quite catch their name…affair, or a fraid, or something like that. again, eh, whatever. followed by soulidium. i didn’t think they were too bad but they had equipment problems. it wasn’t screaming, so it was ok with me.

somehow after their set we ended up talking to these 2 canadian guys who were standing in front of us, who ended up being way cool. talked to them through the rest of the show between sets. we all agreed that new tool = the suck.

then was horse, the band. the canadian guys had explained how you really had to see the band to get it. “it” being how bad they are. and wow. they didn’t disappoint, but i don’t think they were as bad as say…The World Provider. hahahah. horse, the band was quite amusing. their set involved the stage having plants all over it, a sort of throne for the singer, and stuffed animals which head banged during certain songs courtesy of the singer. most amusing part of their set, the pit. the people in the pit were ridiculous. no way to describe it. just amusing as hell.

sad thing about the evening, hardly anyone was there. alot left after horse, the band. there were maybe 100 people for blb. they missed out. while i followed the going ons of blb on myspace i didn’t pay too much attention and hadn’t listened to any. so i had no idea what to expect, and definitely didn’t expect what they ended up sounding like. and wes borland…wow. if i didn’t know that it was him singing, i’d have had no clue. i just have the image of him in limp bizkit and he really wasn’t at all like that persona on stage with blb. i was impressed. people who did stay seemed to be into it. the band left the stage right into the audience to sign stuff and all of that. bought the cd and got it signed. i hadn’t brought my camera after hearing julien-k cancelled so we took some pics on adr’s phone haha. said goodbye to the canadian boys and headed out.

adr and i tried to get food at nestors cuz i thought they might have falafel but they aren’t open 24 hrs anymore. off to denny’s…except they were closed for maintenance. wtf! ended up at freaking mcdonalds for the first time in ages.

all in all a good time. especially for 12 dollars haha.

the axe mens body spray commercials amuse me, the Bom chika wa wa ones, because david and i saw them all in europe months before they were on tv here haha. of course they were in german, but we got the point haha.

tomorrow tackling the concrete central climb. we’ll see what that quarter mile of rooftop holds. but whatdya know, it’s supposed to rain! could it be any different? ha

Posted in: Concerts, Other bands \ Tagged:

econoline!!

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tonight was econoline crush at lee’s palace in toronto with heather, joe and mary. it had been too too long, 6 years we figured out, since the last time we saw them play before they “broke up”. so much fun, as their shows always were. trevor is such a great frontman, and he has the most crowd interaction of any band i’ve ever seen. he looked very happy, having a great time. there was a meet and greet after the show, and i think it’s pretty incredible how he remembers us from so long ago, and always treats us really great. he had a little rant during the show, about how bands get screwed by record companies, and managers, and promoters, etc etc etc, and it reminded me of what trent had been talking about recently in australia. it was amusing. trevor also said there’d be a new album in the fall. exciting hehe. on the way home we wondered what it might sound like, hoping it goes back to the more edgy roots of the earlier albums instead of the pop-y sound of “Brand new history”. we’ll see. finally bought the purge cd, it was only 10$ and you can’t find it anywhere. had something to sign at the m&g.

setlist was pretty great. lots of affliction songs, which sounded great. the new guitarist uses a bow on the guitar for “nowhere now”. the songs sounded a bit different compared to how ziggy would play them. and the guitarist looked really familiar – but we decided he reminded us of the original singer from drowning pool, and the singer of smash mouth. one bad thing….the set list was taped to the wall so we saw it as soon as we got there…and the closing song was razorblades and bandaids. YES!!! except, AGAIN, just like the shows 6 years ago, for whatever reason they didn’t play it. grrrrrrrrrrr. i was gonna yell at trevor about it, but then when we were talking he was just too cute, and friendly for me to yell hehe. i’ll have to do it on myspace. right after the show started this kid jumps in front of us…k we were at the front, but there’s no gap for a barrier, there’s just the stage…and it’s tall. so we had stepped back to see better, and he jumps in front of us. whatever. except he was a fucking spaz, totally going nuts. this was not normal “rocking out”…i was seriously defending myself from a black eye or getting teeth knocked out. and had he done it, he would have lost a ball or two. on top of that he smelled…that “havent washed my hair in a month” greasy smell. barf. eventually he left for a beer and we didn’t let him back in front of us. then waiting to talk to trevor, he cuts in front of us… and i yelled YOU CUT IN FRONT OF US DURING THE SHOW AND YOU’RE DOING IT AGAIN WHAT THE FUCK! but he wasn’t paying attention to me. grrr.

Nowhere Now
Surefire (though i have no memory of hearing it, maybe they skipped it?)
Home
Cruel World
Sparkle and Shine
Make It Right
Hollowman
You Don’t Know What It’s Like
The Devil You Know
All That You Are
Burnt
Wicked
TDM
Blunt
Razorblades and Bandaids

hopefully the first of many more to come.

(this new DVR commercial on tv has all these local buffalo celebs talking about what they watch on tv…including rob ray saying that he hates hockey hahahahahhahah)

Posted in: Concerts, Econoline Crush \ Tagged: ,

lacuna coil

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tonight was the lacuna coil headlining show in toronto with heather. “the hottest chicks in metal” tour (seriously) it was stolen babies, in this moment, the gathering, and LC. as i approached the canadian border my check engine light went on. shit! i hurry and pull off the highway and call dad. hahah. checked the oil but was paranoid about driving to toronto and back and the car dying. so i found an auto parts store to see if they’d check it for me, but they wouldn’t, they sent me to firestone. they claimed they’d need 3 hrs to do it…wtf. autozone plugs the reader into the car and it takes all of 30 seconds. the guy didn’t seem to think it was a problem though, and said to go ahead to toronto. so i did. by this point i’m running a good 45 min late. oh well. picked up heather and got to the venue – the opera house. i had forgotten i had been there before, for the u2 elevation cover band zoo tv recreation thing ages ago. i like the place. we went in while stolen babies was on. very interesting. lead singer is a girl who looks like faruiza balk and plays the accordion, and the bassist also plays the upright bass as well as electric. the 3 songs we saw were entertaining, and for some reason they made me think of dresden dolls tho the music was totally different. i think it was the bassist reminded me of brian. adr2 would have liked him hehe. in this moment followed, they were interesting as well. no real opinion on the music, it was alright. then the gathering…now i have heard about them for a long time now, so i was sorta looking forward to seeing them but…wtf. they looked nothing like i was expecting – like they just walked in off the street, no real “show” style or presence. they sounded nothing at all like i expected…i expected metal. they were so not metal. they kept smiling….wtf. there is no smiling in metal!! haha. and they were boring. heather thought so too. it was just weird. and it seemed like they played FOREVER even though it was only about 40 minutes. the songs were way too long, you thought they were over, and then they’d keep going – sorta like the new tool album hah. anyway.

lacuna coil….much much better than last month with stone sour. they played about an hr 15, and had a good mix of old and new. the new stuff sounded better than the show at dome theatre, and they played “in visible light” which i was totally surprised to hear. i dont know, i thought the orchestration in the song would prevent them from playing it live. so that was awesome. they also did “my wings” from in a reverie, the oldest song in the set, very cool. closed the main show with “enjoy the silence” and did a 2 song encore – “heaven’s a lie” and “our truth”. it’s very hard not to watch christina the whole time hah. she’s so on “my list” hahahhahhah. the band sounded good, much less like korn than the last show and the album. don’t really know what was different about it, but…definitely a way better show.

very happy the car thing didn’t prevent me from going to the show, because they said this was their last tour through north america until the next album – whenever that is. so anyone who wants to see them and hasn’t yet, it’s your last chance for a while (ahemdavid).

and the sabres won 🙂 prepare for the comeback!

Posted in: Concerts, Lacuna Coil \ Tagged: ,

back to work

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back to work and things are as if i never left. other than a few minor personnel changes…as soon as i walked in the players were back on my nerves again. i need another job that pays me tons to do very little haha.

saturday was the jagermiester music tour with shadows fall, lacuna coil and stone sour at dome theater in the falls. it was sort of funny, eric was excited for shadows fall and was a bit disappointed, and i was excited for lacuna coil and was a bit disappointed. we went up in the balcony and away from retarded little kids, which was nice, except it was wicked hot up there. of course as lacuna coil comes on i get way too hot and dizzy 😛 anyway. they were good, just they got to play 7 songs and 6 were from the new album. which isn’t their best. which sounds like fieldy joined the band. they need a solo show so they can play for longer and play old stuff that was good. that is all. hopefully they do come around on a solo tour soon. stone sour was entertaining, corey knows how to work a crowd. the floor looked ridiculous, and i’m too old to be in the pit for bands i don’t even really know/like hahaha. really, nin only as far as getting killed at shows. so it was fun, nice to see eric again.

and i’m back to my “going to bed at 7am and waking up at 3” ways again. i had to do the toke schedule yesterday and it’s all messed up because we all have weird start times, and extra days off, and it was a hassle. but i am getting paid an extra 6 hours a week to do this stuff, so i can’t really complain. i get my hair cut tomorrow FINALLY and work 6-2.

back to working on my pics from the trip. oh, which reminds me. everyone who already knew, or asks about meeting trent – the first question they ask is if i slept with him. um yes. i jumped him right there in front of all those people and no one seemed to mind 😛

Posted in: Concerts, Lacuna Coil \ Tagged: ,