Tag: Music

This was one really fun show. There were four bands & there is a good overall review of the openers over at:
http://www.die-monster.com/?p=448

But the absolute hightlight of the show was the AMT final song. The band came on very late and was doing a standard set, when the opened up with this very laid back mellow jam. The bass player was leaning against the side wall in this Claptonesque relaxed pose as the band launched into what would be an almost 30 minute jam! Much more mellow then the other stuff that they had been playing and almost a sleeper compared to what had gone on before, the song got the audience rocking mellow and when it exploded into double time (and then double time again) towards the end the place went crazy. A very strong song and a great way to close out a rather short set.

Here are my show notes made from the floor.

Cadence and DJ Weasle from Canada
10:05 – 10:27 ~7 songs
“Remix!”
“I made a deal today / We’re selling real estate!”
“This is the second song”

Born Ruffians
10:42 – 11:15 ~10 songs
Three piece emo band
“Border patrol took all of our narcotics”
Song Kurt Vonnegut was excellent
Audience made a request which they played–they did ask the sound man permission to do two more–it was not their stage.

Dananva
11:40-12:30 ~6 songs
Feedback
Drums, bass, guitar, and junkie sound effect guy
“three heavy long winded ones in a row”
Metal jamming metal
very high energy, repeating crescendo
Me and the guy decided that they were good, but a one trick pony, they needed their Beth.

Acid Mother’s Temple
12:57-1:51 ~4 songs

Tyler and I went to the Spectrum on Saturday to see Tristan und Isolde. It was very long and I could not stay for the entire thing. The parts that I did see were awesome.

I was not familiar with the story, but I loved the constantly escalating passion and tension. I liked the potions.

The show was great–lots of back stage action. A ton of insight into the play.

Really a good time.

Mars Volta
UCI Bren Events Center
01/30/08

Set list
The Haunt of Roulette Dares
Viscera eyes
Wax Simulacra
Goliath
Ouroburos
Tetris
Agadez
Cygnus… Vismund Cygnus
Metatron
Drunkship of Lanterns
Ilyena
Day of the Baphomets

Notes from Security
“Beanies off” “All personal items in hand”

Notes from the Floor
7:42–Preshow
[I am] on the floor. Wild jungle techno dud is playing—the floor is almost half full-the energy is good—the crowd appears ready to mosh.
Nothing serious, but clearly something going on. The guy at the shirt stand said to me that I am the only one who gets it—referring to my t-shirt with a Jim Jones image. He is wearing this rhinestone adorned jacket—the words on the shirt are not all that plainly printed. The words on are in English.

I had just walked by wearing a much tripped out sparkly shirt—at some level this show reminds me of the Dream Theater show that I saw in MN. I think largely because I am seeing it by me the venue is now close to full—I am feeling like a totally useless piece of meat today.

I have not being doing my jogging.

I am having some emotional feelings—my cousin has been diagnosed with leukemia. My friend Scott had a death in his family. He called to tell me about it—he thanked me for the phone call that I had made to him earlier.

Man the things at shows are just not scary at all. I like in the Mars Volta story and sobriety.

What the dude has changed—now they are playing a kind of dub by bachelor pad sound kind of thing. The DJ is mixing like made and it should really good.

Music has changed; just noise Grinding growling care sneeze snore music. [It is a] Very anonymous sounds. Light and went into it.

Bumping hard trance with jungle and voltage noises underneath it—it be Lee the hand jive—but it something—it is Hey Bo Diddly by creak and cheese.

Moog synthisizor thing mostly mellow DJing too a movie [going] to a grey 7”—looking foreword to this.

Little hip hop thing mixes well.

Some James Bond sounding theme song group—not sure what it was.

Back into a very nice mellow dub & rocked out little thing—very nice mellow grove

8:17–Preshow
Mix my bouncy jungle beats

Big mex[ican]—the bedroom went clearly into the hard hip hop and a very pop hip hop scratch fest—Jazzy Jeff I think.

Scratch Space beats have started—deep bass.

Noise beat—now a jump around sample mixed aggressively very nice should break.

Piano bachelor pad music. I hear like wild Baxter styling’s.

8:37—Preshow
Mixed with some by beats, fast and wild—a lot going on in this mix. Very space age-y.

Big break—now some space surf music

The set does not [ts] really have much of a plan-all over the map.

8:43—Show Time
Morricone

Naked lady mural major noise intro very gig guitar lots of smoke

(1) Saxophone is very long sound is but this is not enough bass.

8:56—Show Time
Drums noodling. Chance or end of song really drowning out vocal meaning

(2) Bedlam song—not sure which one. Very fast

9:06—Show Time
(3) Very fast after a long noise intro. Some comment about a football game

9:08—Show Time
(4) Song over!

Dude dragged out of the pit right next to me

9:12—Show Time
(5) “Chill out…save that shit for the warped tour” “There is a lot of testosterone and it smells like balls up here”

9:24—Show Time
Big guitar break

9:26—Show Time
(6) “Thank you, Goodnight! What you don’t have a sense of humor? You can throw people, but you can’t have a sense of humor”

Two more kids charged out of the pit this was the fast yet was the massive huge

9:51—Show Time
(7) Missed

(8) thank you very much

9:58—Show Time
(9) Old Song

10:05—Show Time
(10) Big surreal lights.

(11)?

(12) Maybe I’ll break down

10:30—Show Time
(13)

10:38—Show Time
(14) Song switch
Not sure
Super machine

9:46—Show Time
(15)
(16) “Do you guys have a CD? Yeah, I buy a couple of records”

10:56—Show Time
(17) Fan Favorite

Notes
This was a massively good show.

To the large Mexican ZZ Top goatee guy. You look crazy!

To the emotional ravaged Asian student behind me. Everything will be ok.

To the Emo Kid who did the Diaper Change Dance. You rule—never give up no matter how much the bouncers laugh at you.

To the hot chicks that came up late and tried to walk up front. You really did not need that shoe.

To the Fat Guys standing next to me when the lights went down who created one of the largest clouds of smoke I have ever seen. Peter Tosh died for your sins.

To the Emo girl with the repetitive stress disorder arm pump dance move. Remember the rhythm that you had in high school when you listened to Hip Hop.

To the Skinny Emo Boy with no shirt on. The Emo girl with the repetitive stress disorder arm pump dance move is into you.

To the people lined up at the sound board before the show. You are my people—never change.

To the crazy eyed addict who over shot the mark. Keep coming back!

To the crowd surfing girl who complained of being grabbed by throwing a fit and kicking people. The girl who you gave a black eye to was on your side.

To the wastoid in the Cramps t-shirt. Yes, this is Bedlam.

Dream Theater
August 9, 2007
State Theater
Minneapolis, MN

Opening Acts
The show started right at 7:00 PM as advertised on the ticket. It is 8:45 PM—two horrible opening bands just played.
The first was some Canadian Math Metal Band—truly horrible. They had a bald drummer, as well as a bald bass and a bald lead guitar—long haired rhythm and singer from the movie Rockstar (throw your head back and yell “AAAHHHHHHEEEHHEHEHE”—over and over again). As they took the stage the guy next to me muttered “looks like its time for some head banging”. Their “territory” in Canada was very cold. So cold, in fact, that they wrote a really unlistenable song to celebrate it. If Canadian Territories are half as cold as this song sucked then it is a wonder that every one up there is not dead. Lord knows, I wish I was put out my misery while being subjected to these guys. At one point they actually bragged that one of their songs had been played on the Mtv’s Head Bangers Ball—they wanted to be rock stars in the worst possible way. It was hard to watch. I just wanted to go up on stage and kick all of their asses.
Redemption was next. They had an Asian Lead Guitarist who had some fun dwarf dance steps. A very serious Emo lead singer fronts this band. He appears to have forgotten that he got into rock for the chicks. This may be easier to do in MN then anywhere else in the world. Redemption redeemed absolutely nothing. It was a mess of mixed up styles which lacked any focus and contained a ton of just general badness.
Both bands played the same song for 45 minutes.
There was a street signal hanging from the lights—it is just over the orchestra pit which is two roped off rows of about 10 seats. The signal has two ants crawling on it. The light was red. I have no idea if this is a song reference but it was a cool way to keep the crowd focused during set break.
8:51 the stop light has gone yellow.
Also, the preshow music has changed. An up beat violin thing which I do not recognize is playing. It is a good song, but not great. It is creating a fine mode in this venue. Which is all art decoded out—gilded stage ends and balconies and stuff. Murals of the muses (Comedy, Fantasy, and Tragedy on stage left from the back—Music, Cinema, and Opera on the other side—all very naked nymph Greek looking stuff. There are also ants on the guitarists pedal box, the little side keyboard stand, the street light behind the marshal stack, and two on the gong stand. All of these are about three feet long—there is a five footer at the front of the stage.

Set List
Constant Motion
Panic Attack
Blind Faith
Surrounded
Dark Eternal Night
Keyboard Solo
Lines in Sand
Scarred
Spirit Carries On
Presence of Enemies
E: Medley: Tears in the Rain
Finally Free
Learning to Live
In the Name of God
Octavarium

I copied this set list down from a woman who got the copy which was taped down under the lead singer’s feet. I was writing quickly so there are likely errors (which have likely been corrected!), but here are my individual thoughts on the songs largely recorded when the song was playing.
0. Video montage opens the show.
It is of the band throughout their history and is played on a HD screen behind the drum kit about 40 feet across. While this is going on the band instrumentalists slowly walk out—they start fiddling and end up blasting out a massive Also Sprach Zarathustra jam to start the show—the drummer is going big, jumping up and down, the guitarist makes a slight charge at the audience which goes wild at one point. The bass player is hanging out slowly bobbing his head. The most action is likely from the keyboardist who is pumping his fist and basically having a very good time getting ready for the show.
1. Constant Motion
This started hard and fast with a fitful spat of jamming and then some traditional rocking. This is good start. Nothing all that mind boggling to get things going. The vocalist looked disinterested but sounded good. The drummer was dropping his sticks a lot but was on fire.
2. Panic Attack
This song started with some super space music. Swirling flower lights projected on the floor under the band. Images of crosses and candles on the screen in HD—really cool stuff on the screen the entire show.
3. Blind Faith
This song started with a keyboard jam. Slow and mellow unwinding and wandering kind of new age guitar jam comes in. A Wall image goes up on the screen and the band starts jamming solo for Pink Floyd. It is massively good. At this point, this song was the highlight of the show for me.
4. Surround
Big rock chord opening—EVERYBODY UP! This is clearly for what the fans have been waiting. Screen has this cartoon with the band battling this wolf creature that is holding women puppets hostage on strings. The NADS is the North American Dream Squad—The AALANO clubs in MN call their meeting groups “squads” so I found that interesting. This song also had some ferocious playing. Earlier the keyboard player had come out on stage with a portable keyboard, this time he did not need such tricks to just unleash high holy musical madness.
5. Dark Eternal Night
My notes say “physically keyboard opening” I am not sure what that means. Things were getting way to loud at this point in the show—my ears were actually hurting. The band however seemed very relaxed—the drummer was still dropping his sticks, the bass player was bobbing as his fingers wrecked HAVOC on the strings. The keyboard player is insane. The guitar player appears to have become one with his instrument at this point and is just endlessly soloing. I am in the zone.
6. Keyboard Solo
Mostly designed as a break for the rest of the band I think. This had some good musical ideas presented in a much more easy to follow kind of way, I could actually keep up with much of what was being played. The ending was massive and fun.
7. Lines in Sand
This song started out with a bass jam introduction which I had been hoping to hear–the bass player is clearly Dream Theater’s Secret Weapon. It was played with serious passion and precision, likely some of the best playing of the night. During the introduction, there was a lot of audience clapping. A massive rock and roll ending closed this one. At one point I actually thought that my ear drums were going to burst—this was the loudest song of the night.
8. Scarred
I did not take any notes during this song. I remember that the jamming had taken on a very otherworldly quality. The room was starting to shift and the band seemed really locked onto something. I was struggling to keep up with any of their music ideas, I was tired from travel and lack of sleep, and my ears hurt. By the end of this song almost all of my energy was back. This song really took me somewhere else.
9. Spirit Carries On
This is a keyboard driven ballad. It was dedicated to the victims of the Bridge tragedy (a major freeway bridge had collapsed in MN a few days earlier). Every single person in the audience knew all the words to this one and sang along loudly. A big tubular jam that did not know how to untie itself finished this one up—I think the band may have started to play with energy that even they could not control with this song and a lot of the mysterious and magical energy created earlier was lost towards the end of this. Also, this song took a lot out of the audience who really got into singing and came closest to dancing then anything else that they had done this night.
10. Presence of Enemies
I do not know much about this band, but at this point the guitarist stepped up and CLEARLY demonstrated whose band this was. A big fat tight Tight TIGHT opening solo lead into some Big Guitar Jamming—kind of a retro rock and roll masterpiece on meth feel to this song, but it went over big with the crowd, fist pumping and all. I think that the drummer dropped four sticks during this song. I started paying attention to the video screens again at this point, and there were some good animation sequences during this song—in fact, the screens were uniformly strong, the light show itself could use some work—maybe invest some more money in lights and hire a decent art director. The stage design with Ants and deserted city imagery was OK, but it was not connected to the rather generic light displayed during the show. The screens, on the other hand, had some really trippy stuff going on most of the time.
10:48 “Thank you, Minneapolis”.
11. E: Medley
OK, this song had video from pretty much the only concept album by Dream Theater that I even somewhat knew. Robert had given me the album for my birthday. The songs in this cycle felt hurried—the show ended almost exactly at 11:00 PM. The video also had these balls on strings knocking into each other with the band logos. Musically, this was treated as a tool to simply show off—the musical message was mostly lost and the jam had a very distinct lack of coherence. The crowd seemed very happy with this, but I could have used something more “bluesy” for lack of a better word to end the show—it basically recapped a lot of the intense precision jamming that had gone on earlier, but did not add all that much to the overall show. The show ended at 11:10 PM.
At the end my ears hurt a lot. I was very thirsty. It was an extremely fun show—lots of smiles and nods in the crowd. Some of the jamming did get kind of repetitive in the first section of the show, but the band really pulled it out during the final few songs. I bought the concert shirt to wear so I looked like I knew what I was doing, but I will give this to T-Hamas for his birthday when I get home.
Exit music was the Beastie Boys.