Metal Tuesday

First, i want to acknowledge that yes we're in a lot of trouble right now, but i don't have anything to say about the market/bailout/stupid-politics that hasn't already been said. So on to a topic which is heavy in a different way:

Today is METAL TUESDAY!! \m/ New releases from no less than THREE of my bands!

	Trivium - Shogun One of my white-tag bands; i've been eagerly awaiting this album for a *long* time!
	Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder Gods Viking death metal titans from Norway (i'm seeing them in concert this Friday!).
	Bleeding Through - Declaration The newest addition to my world, thanks to their awesome live show last week.

So i usually just order from Amazon or CM Distro, but since this is a special occasion (and we wants them now!) i decided to just hit a local Best Buy on my way to work.

I have to say, the Best Buy in Champaign is vastly superior. I've gone there on plenty of Tuesdays looking for a new album, and they'd always have a huge table covered with all of the new releases. Stacks of shiny new cds and dvds nicely lined up for easy browsing; you could march in, snag what you're looking for within 10 seconds, and be on your way.

The Best Buy here? Had no such table. Even worse, my cds were neither on the regular cd racks nor the "New Releases!" endcap (did i mention that Best Buy Champaign stocked both of those locations in addition to the big table?). I finally found a shelving cart tucked away in one of aisles and managed to dig through and eventually find what i wanted.

On the plus side, the cashier didn't ask for my phone number nor offer me 6 free issues of Sports Illustrated.

Cranked up the first few tracks of Trivium in the car and absorbed the rest at work...MAN it's a great album! Even better than "The Crusade", i think. I'm really digging the new Amon Amarth as well. I'm inclined to agree with the reviews i've read which mention that you're not likely to find any surprises on an Amon Amarth album, but they're so good at what they do that it doesn't matter. I think each album has sounded even richer and catchier than the previous one, and they've even started throwing in some nice guitar solos. Also for this album they invited guest musicians for several of the tracks, including Apocalyptica (heavy metal cello players).

I'm saving Bleeding Through for the drive home.

\m/

Bullet For My Valentine - 9/25/2008

Bullet For My Valentine, with Bleding Through & Black Tide
9/25/2008 - The Warfield - San Francisco, CA



I almost don't have the words. This was by far my best concert since Arch Enemy & Dark Tranquillity back in May. Kickass music, awesome audience, some pleasant surprises - just a great night overall. This is the kind of live show that i live for.

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(Be forewarned, this may be long-winded; feel free to skim and/or just look at the photos (but do click on the little images to see their larger counterparts)).

So i've been hitting a lot of concerts this year, and right now i'm in the middle of a 6-week marathon with one show after another - fun but tiring. I felt like i was running out of steam last week at Children of Bodom/Black Dahlia Murder. Great bands, and they both played really well, but the show just felt par to me; i wondered if i'd taken on too much. But Bullet & co completely fired me back up! I did everything right, i think, and a lot of factors just came together nicely.

I managed to arrive at the venue exactly on time (instead of way early) - i walked through the door just as Black Tide was starting up. I saw them open up for All That Remains back in February and was only whelmed by these kids (yes, kids - their ages range from 14 to 19); i mean their guitarwork was great, but the vocals just bugged me.

So pleasant surprise #1 of the evening - i really enjoyed Black Tide's set! Maybe it was low expectations, or maybe Gabriel's voice has developed after 8 more months of puberty. And again, their music always has been good - solid tunes in the vein of old-school thrash. Whatever it was, i'll take it; good show, guys!





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Fun sidebar: There's always pre-recorded music played between sets as the crews teardown/setup the stage for the next band. The tunes (chosen by the crew, i'd assume, or maybe the band) tend to run in same genre as the bands on the bill. At my shows this means a healthy mix of metal (both old and new) with maybe some Alice In Chains or AC/DC thrown in.

Tonight there was something different. After Black Tide's set, i heard something oddly familiar start up...the unmistakable intro of the song i made my own in the world of social dance. It was Michael Jackson's "Thriller". And there i was with nobody to lindy with :-( Even so, i had to fight the impulse to bust out some dance moves (it helped that the floor was concrete and thus no good for moonwalking). After "Thriller" came "Billy Jean" - turned out to be one of his singles collections; fortunately the soundchecks drowned out some of the lame ballads, and the crew was done by "Pretty Young Thing".

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Bleeding Through was next. I've always liked their singles (and i saw them play in 2004 with Arch Enemy and Cradle of Filth), but they never caught my attention enough to buy a cd. I was a little anxious that their hardcore style would attract hardcore fans who would proceed to mosh improperly and ruin the floor for the rest of us (this happens at a lot of my shows).

Pleasant surprise #2 - i thoroughly enjoyed Bleeding Through as well! Their songs really fired me up, and the mosh was quite acceptable (i stayed out of the pit, mostly, except to use it as a travel conduit).





Midway through their set, Brandan announced that there would be a special guest joining on vocals for their next song...Robb from Machine Head! (Robb is from Oakland; i'm guessing he still lives here & is friends with the band). Nice!


Two screamers, no waiting!

So straight hardcore acts do nothing for me, but these guys also bleed (pun intended) thrash metal and even some industrial into their sound which makes for some interesting music. These elements translate really nicely into their live show; high-energy, aggressive, heavy rhythms, strong stage presence anchored by Brandan (screamer), Brian (lefty lead guitarist), and Marta (cute keyboard player).





Also, i think Jona (their other guitar player) looks a lot like Charlie from Lost. Anyone else see the resemblance?


"You All Everybody!"


Awesome set from Bleeding Through. Congrats, guys - you've been promoted to tier2 solid.

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Finally it was time for Bullet For My Valentine! I've been wanting to see these guys for a looong time. I almost saw them back in 2005 at Rob Zombie & Lacuna Coil, but they were kicked off the tour before the Chicago date. I wasn't familiar with them at the time but the band caught my attention shortly thereafter and slowly grew into one of my tier1 favorites. I missed a few of their subsequent tours because of logistics (namely the 3+ hour drive to Chicago from Champaign). They did come right into San Jose this spring, but it was as part of an 8-band emofest which i decided wasn't worth the overhead.

So i was buzzing with anticipation when the house lights finally went down. The intro music started up, the guys slipped onto the stage one by one, then launched into the title track from their latest, "Scream Aim Fire". The floor exploded into motion, and i found out how good the night was about to get.






I absolutely loved their set. My favorite shows are the ones where i know most (if not all) of songs on the setlist, and this was definitely the case here. I knew they'd play most of my favorites, but the one song i *really* wanted to hear was "Hand of Blood" which they rocked towards the end of the night, to my elation. The setlist (not quite in this order) included:

- Scream Aim Fire
- 4 Words To Choke Upon (the four words, btw, are "Look...at...me...NOOWWW!")
- Suffocating Under Words Of Sorrow (one of my absolute favorites!)
- Eye Of The Storm
- Disappear
- Tears Don't Fall (wonderful singalong)
- Hit The Floor
- Waking The Demon
- Deliver Us From Evil (which Matthew wrote when he was going through some personal issues and trouble with his vocals (had to cancel shows and go through surgery))
- Hearts Burst Info Fire (such a wonderful warm song; i was surprised at how quickly it hooked me the first time i heard it).
- Hand Of Blood (yay!)
- Creeping Death (!)

Yes, that's right. For their final song of the night they covered "Creeping Death" by Metallica. Oh hell yeah! I couldn't have asked for a better closer! All of Metallica's old stuff rules, but "Creeping Death" is one of my personal favorites. It really does warm the heart to see so many new bands embracing (and paying tribute to) old Metallica - Trivium with "Master of Puppets", Black Tide with "Hit The Lights", Bullet with "Sanitarium" and "Creeping Death". And even more important that the next generation is keeping thrash alive. Death to nu-metal! Long live *good* metal!



(i love the shoulder-to-shoulder jam)
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I enjoyed (and participated in) the mosh for the first time in a long while. Why? Because these kids are awesome. A far cry from the usual big shirtless assholes who seem to use concerts as an excuse to wail on each other. I mean really, if all you want to do is hurt people, join a fight club or enter into the bloody UFC. But Bullet clearly draws a much different audience. I hate to use the term "Hot Topic crowd", but i haven't seen this many young kids at a show before, all prettied up and amped for the band the way only teenagers can be.

And really, that's what it's all about. I felt these amazing surges of energy as song after song washed over me, and looking around i saw that my peers were feeling the same thing. It was *so* *much* that it just had to be expressed physically. I don't even want to call it moshing - it was old school, thrashing at its finest. Not three guys hitting each other and pissing off everyone around them, but the entire front of the floor jumping, bouncing, crashing through waves of movement, feeding off of the music and each other, loving every minute of it.





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A few thoughts on the band's style. Bullet For My Valentine are sometimes classified as "emo" or "metalcore". This is quite inaccurate. Sure, maybe they have a few emo qualities. And maybe they do employ the some of the smooth riffing and catchy hooks of metalcore. But there's so much more to this band. I mean successfully rocking old Metallica is a proving ground all its own, but their metal underpinnings flow through all of their songs. Guitar solos. Good balance between clean vocals and screaming. Delicious melodies. And great songwriting, charged with emotion.

I heart this band. Every time i play one of their albums, it hits me all over again. And finally seeing them live has cranked them up yet another notch. Maybe even another candidate for my white-tag list.





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My night belonged to Bullet, of course, but the bill was still 3 for 3 which is a rare gift (and even better as a surprise). This show has revitalized me; prepared me to take on my concert calendar for the next few weeks and, indeed, through the rest of 2008. Rock! \m/

Nightwish - 9/12/2008 - The Fillmore - San Francisco

For once, i actually don't have a whole lot to say, so i'll just mention a few things before getting to the pretty pictures.

There were two bands on the bill, both from Finland. First up was Sonata Arctica. I wasn't familiar with these guys, aside from a run through the songs on their myspace page. They weren't bad, but their set sounded kindof stock - decent riffs and melodies, but seemed to lack the spark that really lights up a live show. But i did enjoy watching their keyboard player from my vantage point up front near stage left. He was definitely feeling the music; if only more of that energy had translated to the audience. Or maybe it was just me.

Quick history lesson: After growing personal tensions hit a breaking point, Nightwish fired their original vocalist, Tarja Turunen, in 2005 and started auditioning for her replacement. They finally hired Anette Olzon in 2007 who made her debut on their next album "Dark Passion Play".

I, like many music fans, tend to resist change. When one of my bands changes key members (especially their vocalist), the new lineup then has to prove themselves to me. Some bands fail (e.g. Evanescence). Nightwish, however, succeeded and then some; i actually like Anette a lot more than Tarja. I mean, i wouldn't presume to devalue Tarja's 10 years of excellent work with the band, nor fail to recognize her stunning soprano stylings. But i feel that Anette's singing is just warmer & richer somehow; maybe it's because she's an alto.

Anyway, Nightwish rocked the house. I have to admit it wasn't the most fired up i've ever been, but their performance was highly enjoyable. They played a fairly comprehensive set, and i think Anette did a lovely job with their older material (i daresay i liked her renditions better, but don't tell Tarja i said that). New singles, old favorites; a great set start-to-finish.

With that, on to the photos!

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Sonata Arctica:







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Nightwish:

Sunday Sunday Sunday

I renewed my lease today. Hard to believe i'm already coming up on 12 months in the bay area. It was wonderfully appropriate that my boy James was working the leasing office when i went in today, because he was the one who set me up last fall (he showed me the apartment, ran all of my paperwork, etc). Even better, he'd started working here right before i moved in, and i was his first new lease. And even *he* said that he feels like the past year has really blown by.

But on the other hand...last summer feels like it was a lifetime ago. And in a way, it really was, with so much that happened so quickly. If you were to take a snapshot of mid-September, 2007, and deliver it to Past-Neilam three months prior, he would have taken one look and said "No fucking way. Never happen. Who the bloody hell are you, anyway?" Poor bastard had no idea what was coming.

But before i delve too deeply into the past (i'll save the 1-year retrospective for later), how about a new topic.

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I logged into Ticketwanker at exactly 10am today to snag my ticket for In Flames & All That Remains in November - yeah! \m/ And i went ahead and sucked up the inconvenience fees for the Bullet For My Valentine show as well; i was hoping to save a ton of money by driving up to SF to buy directly from the venue, but my last attempt was foiled because i didn't know the Warfield was closed for renovations. And now their box office apparantly isn't open on weekends (suk).

Anyway, Ticketbastard has OH SO GENEROUSLY been "giving" me a "free" iTunes download with each ticket. I don't use iTunes nor the iTunes store (fuck DRM), so i've been giving away the download codes to friends. So if you're reading this and would like a free iTunes download, drop me an email. First-come first-served; i have two up for grabs now and more to come, i'm sure.

I know TM's assholery is a well-known rant, but here's a data point anyway: The face value of my In Flames ticket was $22. The fees added another $13.25 (60%). And no, it's NOT going to help when Live Nation breaks off next year; i'm afraid they'll only make things worse. Like when Microsoft "saved" us from IBM back in the 80s.

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I repaired my ReplayTV yesterday! It died about a year ago; i packed it up and brought it to Cali with me - too apathetic to debug it, but unwilling to dispose of it. Finally yesterday i decided to have a look; turned out to be a hard drive failure which was really bloody easy to fix. The hardest part, actually, was building up enough motivation to dig out my desktop PC and set it up. This required reorganizing my desk area, messing with a rat's nest of cables, and clearing up enough space for the behemoth 21" CRT which i haven't gotten around to replacing yet.





The rest was cake. I didn't even bother buying a new drive - with 4 hard drives in my PC (aka archive box), it wasn't hard to free up the smallest one (120 GB - remember the days when that was a lot of space? Man.). I downloaded a clean factory image for the Replay and used RTVPatch to image the drive. Open up the Replay case, pop out the dead drive, and mount the fresh one:



Then just reinitialize, and voila! If i'd known it was this easy, i would have hacked the thing years ago - back when i watched enough tv to have need for more storage space. Or at least before the Olympics. Ah, well; better now than never. And it was nice to see that i still know my way around the inside of an ATX case; i even reorg'd my hard drive cluster (cleaner layout; less tangle with the ribbon cable).

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Finally, i went out to buy a shredder this afternoon but (even after having done some research) couldn't decide how much shredder i wanted. A smaller model which would take up less space and be more portable? Or the grunt-worthy monster which can pulverize cds, credit cards, and floppy disks with its mighty jaws! Hmm, suddenly it doesn't seem like so hard a choice. But at the time i was torn, so i gave up and went to Kohls instead and - to my surprise - FOUND PANTS THAT FIT ME! But more on that later; right now it's time for bed.

"I saw three angles...of that i'm sure"

While pulling up videos on youtube to feed my James Blunt obsession, i came across this hilarious parody from his appearance on Sesame Street:




This triggered memories of other SS parody songs from my childhood. Since i didn't really start listening to music until high school, i had no idea at the time that they were parodies. A few favorites that come to mind:

Billy Idol - Rebel L ("The little rebel L, he cried 'Luh, luh, luh!")




Madonna - Cereal Girl




And maybe the best one of all - even when i finally heard the original, i *still* thought the Beatles were singing about the letter B:




Ok, now it's your turn - what are your favorite Sesame Street parodies? Bonus points if you can find them on youtube.