Black Label Society – 2018 – Grimmest Hits
By Eric | March 24, 2019 6:00 pm
Artist: Black Label Society
Title: Grimmest Hits
Label: eOne
Released: Jan 19, 2018
Packaging: Digipack
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#Trampled Down Below
#Seasons Of Falter
#The Betrayal
#All That Once Shined
#The Only Words
#Room Of Nightmares
#A Love Unreal
#Disbelief
#The Day That Heaven Had Gone Away
#Illusions Of Peace
#Bury Your Sorrow
#Nothing Left To Say
Review:
Topics: CD Collection | Comments Off on Black Label Society – 2018 – Grimmest Hits
Tags: 2018, Black Label Society, Digipack, eOne, Standard
03/18/2019 Clutch, Big Business, Nine Layers Deep (Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom)
By Eric | March 19, 2019 7:22 am
Always excited for a Clutch show! The first band on was Nine Layers Deep, a local doom/sludge band that didn’t sound half bad, although I wasn’t a fan of the vocals too much. They seemed a little nervous, not sure if they weren’t used to playing in front of that many people (there was a decent crowd there already), or what have you. They were alright.
The Inspector Cluzo was also on this tour, but didn’t play the Buffalo date for some reason. So it was right to Big Business, who were a duo – just drums and a bass player. The drummer was an animal, very very impressive, and the bass player / singer was really good in his own right. Very heavy, obviously a lot of low end. Good stuff.
Of course, time for the almighty Clutch! It’s not really surprising that even though I was Johnny-come-super-lately on the band, they quickly became a big favorite and a must-see anytime they come around. They’re that good, and the shows are that much fun. This one was no exception. Having had some time to live with the latest “Book Of Bad Decisions”, I was as geared up for this show as any of the previous three, and just like those, the set was heavy on the newer tunes while sprinkling in old favorites and some deep cuts as well. I don’t know how often Mice and Gods gets played, nor Open Up The Border or The Dragonfly, but judging from the crowd reaction, probably not often! Of course, Spacegrass and Electric Worry got huge reactions, and of the new stuff, I was glad to get How To Shake Hands, In Walks Barbarella, and the now-proper version of Gimme The Keys (I did get to see the live debut of that, when it was still called Bubonic Blues and slightly different, at the Dome show in July of 2017!). As is becoming the usual, it was a great time, a great show, the band sounded fantastic, and I got to hang with my old RIT buddy Dave and his cousin, so that made it even better!
Big News I
H.B. Is in Control
Mice and Gods
How to Shake Hands
Emily Dickinson
A Quick Death in Texas
Open Up the Border
Spacegrass
A Shogun Named Marcus
Gravel Road
Gimme the Keys
In Walks Barbarella
Hot Bottom Feeder
Electric Worry
Fortunate Son [CCR Cover]
The Regulator
The Dragonfly
Barbarella
Hot Bottom Feeder
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 03/18/2019 Clutch, Big Business, Nine Layers Deep (Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom)
Tags: 2019, Big Business, Buffalo, Clutch, Nine Layers Deep, Town Ballroom
03/02/2019 Disturbed, Three Days Grace (Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center)
By Eric | March 3, 2019 12:53 pm
The big arena rock show. It’s amazing to think that 18-plus years ago, I first saw Disturbed open for Stone Temple Pilots at Alumni Arena at UB, and through the years they’ve just gotten bigger and bigger, and now they’re headlining arenas. Add to that the fact that it was just them and Three Days Grace, who 15 years prior I saw before their first album was even out (at Showplace opening for Theory of a Deadman). Both of these bands have come a long, long way.
3DG’s intro was great: they rolled a video package that started out with the Sabres logo, Sabre dance, and Sabres highlights, then switched to the Hockey Night in Canada theme with a Leafs logo and Leafs highlights (which got the requisite boos!), then switched back to the Sabres before the band came out. Good stuff! This was actually the first time I’d seen 3DG with their “new” singer, Matt Walst, who has been in the band for six years now. It was fine, he handles the lead singer role perfectly, the band sounded great, but even though I’ve criticized Adam Gontier’s vocals during past shows, I missed having him on the old songs. Of which there were a lot – only 4 of the 12 songs were from the last two albums with Matt. I have no problem with that spread, as I like the old stuff better, but the new stuff was pretty decent as well. They did their job, got everyone going for Disturbed.
Three Days Grace
—————-
The Mountain
Home
The Good Life
Pain
Infra-Red
Painkiller
Break
Right Left Wrong
I Hate Everything About You
Animal I Have Become [with “Seven Nation Army” interlude]
Never Too Late
Riot
There’s no doubt that Disturbed have earned arena-headlining status, and they had the production to match. Lots of video and light-show, but the band sounded good, and Draiman sounded good as well. They had a nice mix from every album, granted it was pretty much a greatest hits set, and they did two songs semi-acoustically on a smaller stage over by the soundboard (ala Shinedown). They made the show worthy of the arena, and I was happy I went.
Disturbed
———
Are You Ready
Prayer
The Vengeful One
The Animal
Stupify [followed by guitar jam, full band instrumental]
Voices
Land of Confusion
Hold On to Memories [followed by bass / drum solos]
Ten Thousand Fists
The Game
A Reason to Fight [on side stage]
Watch You Burn [on side stage]
The Sound of Silence
Indestructible
Inside the Fire
The Light [with fan on stage]
Stricken
Down With the Sickness
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 03/02/2019 Disturbed, Three Days Grace (Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center)
Tags: 2019, Buffalo, Disturbed, KeyBank Center, Three Days Grace
02/20/2019 Sevendust, Tremonti, Cane Hill, Lullwater, Kirra (Niagara Falls, NY @ Rapids Theatre)
By Eric | February 24, 2019 9:45 am
This was the third time in my concert-going career that I got to see a show *on* my birthday, after God Lives Underwater for my 18th, and Shinedown / Theory for my 25th. I figured I’d spring for the Sevendust VIP since this time around it involved seeing soundcheck – sounded fun! I took a half-day from work and rolled into the Falls.
After standing around outside for awhile (they’re always behind!) we got in and saw the boys literally warming up, and joking around while running through Dead Set (which they played that night) and Grasp (which they didn’t, and I’ve never seen live before!). Got the requisite picture, Clint commented on my Eye Empire shirt, and I found out that LJ is the one that has the sound guys playing Big Wreck between sets! (They did that at Anthology in November also).
Soundcheck ended at 3, and doors weren’t until 5, so I met Sara for dinner in the meantime. Came back to the venue about 5:30, wandered in, got a beer, and just milled around, as both Dave and Pete / Kiersten would be coming later. Then we got a surprise. I’ve been going to shows for nearly 22 years at this point, but on this night I still experienced something I’ve never seen before at a show. A full-fledged power outage!
Around 5:50 or so the place goes DARK. A handful of emergency lights at the Dome, you could see in front of you, but essentially everything is out. Word quickly spreads that the outage affects around 80 blocks, 4500 or so customers, per National Grid, and it’s not coming back on until 8:30 at the earliest. There were about 150 people inside at the time, and while they thankfully didn’t boot us, they didn’t let anyone else in. No sales at the bar either! The owner of the place got up on stage along with a NFPD officer and told us all to sit tight. I started chatting to a guy in a Hatebreed hoodie around this time, and ended up talking to him and his wife all night too (Hi Shawn and Lana!). Same story as always, how many shows we’d both been at, etc. I always find friends!
So we’re all just standing around for about an hour and a half when the singer and guitar player from Kirra came out around 7:30 and played some acoustic stuff for us – no PA, just a voice and an acoustic guitar! They probably made more of an impression on us doing this than they would have just playing plugged in. They started with a couple of covers that A) translated acoustically, and B) got the crowd singing along. We got Chevelle’s Vitamin R, Breaking Benjamin’s So Cold (see the videos below!), Black Honey by Thrice, some Seether, Godsmack, Audioslave, and even a couple of their own songs. Most definitely a first as far as I’m concerned, and super super cool of them to do it. They played for nearly 40 minutes!
Kirra acoustic
Vitamin R (Chevelle)
So Cold (Breaking Benjamin)
Black Honey (Thrice)
Remedy (Seether)
Whatever (Godsmack)
Sixteen Suns (Kirra)
*song I didn’t know*
Like A Stone (Audioslave)
*another song I didn’t know* “Who was I before I found myself”
Then around 8:15 Tanner Keegan (bass player for Tremonti) started playing some blues covers acoustically, and unfortunately the natives were getting a little restless, perhaps because they didn’t know the songs, perhaps because folks were getting antsy. Either way, the crowd did settle down a little bit by Tanner’s 2nd and 3rd songs as he played BB King’s The Thrill is Gone, and then Eric Friedman (Tremonti’s other guitar player) came out with an electric and a battery powered amp to join Tanner for Stormy Monday. Halfway through the song – LIGHTS! POWER! A raucous cheer erupts, they finish the song, and they announce we’re getting on with the show.
*song I didn’t know*
The Thrill Is Gone
Stormy Monday (with Eric Friedman on electric with battery powered amp)
Link if the embed doesn’t work: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Y4gHWHKReMJAeP3B9
They started letting people in again. I’d been chatting with Dave, Kiersten, and Pete to let them know what was going on, so they arrived in short order, and we all hung out up front right, and they too made friends with the couple I’d been talking to. Yay concert buddies!
The actual show! There were five bands on the bill, and they were supposed to start the music at 6. It’s now 8:45, so Kirra and Lullwater got 2 songs each. Cane Hill got 3. All of them sounded good, no one seemed particularly upset that they got short sets, and then it was time for the two main attractions. Tremonti only cut one song from what they’d normally been playing, and they sounded fantastic. Mark Tremonti is one of those artists that anything he’s involved with comes out great (yes, even Creed sounds good, Scott Stapp notwithstanding), and his solo stuff is no exception. Good stuff.
“Found” intro
You Waste Your Time
Another Heart
Flying Monkeys
Throw Them to the Lions
A Dying Machine
Wish You Well
Another Heart
Throw Them To The Lions
After all of this – Sevendust played a full set to a full house. Unlike the Anthology show, they went back to opening with Black, and the place went nuts. Then *I* went nuts, as Pieces was next. I ended up following Kiersten to pretty much dead center about two off the rail for the rest of the set, and bounced around down there all night. A great list, with a lot of older stuff, heavy on Animosity stuff again too! So. Much. Fun. It seems that most other encores also had Splinter, we didn’t get it, just Face to Face, but that’s a minor quibble. We had an absolute blast. Sevendust show #19 hit the spot just as much as the prior 18!
Black
Pieces
Reconnect
Praise
Bitch
Dirty
Dead Set
Waffle
Enemy
Angel’s Son
Shine
Thank You
Face to Face
Black
Praise
Waffle
Face to Face
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 02/20/2019 Sevendust, Tremonti, Cane Hill, Lullwater, Kirra (Niagara Falls, NY @ Rapids Theatre)
Tags: 2019, Cane Hill, Kirra, Lullwater, Niagara Falls, Rapids Theatre, Sevendust, Tremonti
Sister Hazel – 2019 – Fire
By Eric Bonus | February 6, 2019 6:00 pm
Artist: Sister Hazel
Title: Fire
Label: Croakin’ Poets
Released: Feb 8, 2019
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#Every Heartbreak
#On and One
#Life and Love
#Fire
#She’s All You Nee
#Here with You
#Elements III (Growin’ Up)
Review:
Topics: CD Collection | Comments Off on Sister Hazel – 2019 – Fire
Tags: 2019, Croakin' Poets, Jewel Case, Sister Hazel, Standard
Will Hoge – 2018 – My American Dream
By Eric Bonus | January 11, 2019 6:00 pm
Artist: Will Hoge
Title: My American Dream
Label: Thirty Tigers / EDLO
Released: Oct 5, 2018
Packaging: Cardboard
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#Gilded Walls
#Stupid Kids
#Still A Southern Man
#Oh Mr. Barnum
#Thoughts and Prayers
#My American Dream
#The Illegal Line
#Nikki’s A Republican Now
Review:
Topics: CD Collection | Comments Off on Will Hoge – 2018 – My American Dream
Tags: 2018, Cardboard, Standard, Thirty Tigers / EDLO, Will Hoge
Top 5 Albums of 2018
By Eric Bonus | December 31, 2018 11:41 pm
Alphabetical, as I’m not rating them:
Alice In Chains – Rainier Fog
Bad Wolves – Disobey
Clutch – Book of Bad Decisions
Myles Kennedy – Year Of The Tiger
Light The Torch – Revival
Honorable mentions to Halestorm – Vicious, Shinedown – Attention Attention, Dee Snider – For The Love Of Metal
Topics: Blog | Comments Off on Top 5 Albums of 2018
Tags: 2018
Top 5 Shows of 2018
By Eric Bonus | December 31, 2018 11:28 pm
In chronological order, since you can never pick just one favorite!
04/18/2018 Papa Roach, Nothing More, Escape The Fate (Rochester, NY @ Main Street Armory)
10/24/2018 Sevendust, Ovtlier, Cry To The Blind (Rochester, NY @ Anthology)
Topics: Blog | Comments Off on Top 5 Shows of 2018
Tags: 2018
Monster Truck – 2018 – True Rockers
By Eric | December 31, 2018 6:00 pm
Artist: Monster Truck
Title: True Rockers
Label: Mascot
Released: Sep 14, 2018
Packaging: Digipack
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#True Rocker Ft. Dee Snider
#Thundertruck
#Evolution
#Devil Don’t Care
#Being Cool is Over
#Young City Hearts
#Undone
#In My Own World
#Denim Danger
#Hurricane
#The Howlin’
Review:
Topics: CD Collection | Comments Off on Monster Truck – 2018 – True Rockers
Tags: 2018, Digipack, Mascot, Monster Truck, Standard
Slash – 2018 – Living The Dream
By Eric | December 31, 2018 6:00 pm
Artist: Slash
Title: Living The Dream
Label: Snakepit / Roadrunner
Released: Sep 21, 2018
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#The Call Of The Wild
#Serve You Right
#My Antidote
#Mind Your Manners
#Lost Inside The Girl
#Read Between The Lines
#Slow Grind
#The One You Loved Is Gone
#Driving Rain
#Sugar Cane
#The Great Pretender
#Boulevard Of Broken Hearts
Review:
Topics: CD Collection | Comments Off on Slash – 2018 – Living The Dream
Tags: 2018, Jewel Case, Slash, Snakepit / Roadrunner, Standard
