Looks like we’re gonna be checking out Jared Campb
By Eric | January 29, 2009 12:00 am
Looks like we’re gonna be checking out Jared Campbell at Spot Coffee tonight… A coffee shop? Time to get my smug on!
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Tags: music, twitter
Have to say, the new Stemm CD rocks!
By Eric | December 15, 2008 12:00 am
Have to say, the new Stemm CD rocks!
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Tags: music, twitter
How the hell did I miss the fact that the Toadies
By Eric | October 29, 2008 12:00 am
How the hell did I miss the fact that the Toadies have had a new album out since August? Thanks for the heads-up, Matt!!
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Tags: music, twitter
Two shows in two nights is now over… onto the th
By Eric | October 17, 2008 12:00 am
Two shows in two nights is now over… onto the three day weekend in the Falls!
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Tags: music, twitter
10/16/2008 Trivium, All That Remains, 36 Crazyfists, The Human Abstract (Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom)
By Eric | October 16, 2008 11:59 pm
I was really really excited for this show, as it’s been ages since I’d seen ATR, just slightly less of a time for Trivium, and then not having a festival crowd for 36CF was going to be great. As I was able to work the day at Fairgrounds, I didn’t have to make the back-and-forth Rochester trip, and thus got to the venue around 6pm. As I’m walking up Washington St. towards the ballroom, three guys in hoodies come around a corner in front of me. I catch up to them, to find that it was Phil and Mike (who I misidentified, sorry!) from All That Remains! So I got to chat with them for about a block before heading into the ballroom. Always fun meeting the band! I got in and was watching The Human Abstract’s set when Adam made his way in. THA is described as progressive metal, and they were decent, but not something I’m really into. They would have had to be phenomenal to have any effect though, because Adam and I were both jacked to see 36CF.
We made our way down to the floor, and much like the Mayhem festival, they opened with I’ll Go Until My Heart Stops, right into The End Of August. Again, there were a good number of people that knew the songs, which always makes it more fun when you’re bouncing around down front. Can’t remember the order completely, but they also played We Gave It Hell, The Heart and the Shape, Felt Through a Phone Line, Elysium, Installing the Catheter, and the closer was The All Night Lights. Just about the same set as Mayhem, except no Bloodwork. Cool by me! One of my favorite songs by them is Elysium, so I was especially psyched for that song.
The All Night Lights
We didn’t get much of a break, as All That Remains had the next slot. They’d been alternating “headlining” sets with Trivium on the tour, and ATR was playing first on this night. It’d been since June of 2005 that I’d seen them, on the tour for This Darkened Heart, so two albums later, I was more than ready to see them again. The crowd was really into them, knew most of the songs, and there were just as many ATR shirts as Trivium shirts, which was cool to me, because Trivium seems to get more recognition. Phil, Mike, Olli and crew were on point, tearing into the songs and the crowd gave it right back. They sounded great, and the setlist was a good mix between the latest two albums, with a nod to the older stuff as well. I really don’t remember the order, but they played This Calling, Not Alone, It Dwells In Me, Become The Catalyst, The Air That I Breathe,The Weak Willed, Six, Before The Damned, Two Weeks, Undone, Chiron, For Salvation, and This Darkened Heart. This Calling was actually the closer, and everyone sang along which was really cool. The crowd was good for the most part, save for one 15 year old kid on the barrier that decided to make the “I’m gonna push back and slam everyone behind me” move, which absolutely killed the girl behind him, who happened to be right in front of me. Needless to say, I reached over the girl, put the kid in a headlock and screamed right in his ear that if he did that again, I’d rip his nuts off and let the girl get a shot in too. Between me, her, and her boyfriend (who was next to kid A, also threatening him), I think he got the message. Everyone else was pretty cool.
Become The Catalyst
Chiron
Before The Damned
For Salvation
This Calling
Adam and I were pretty much done by that point, so we got out, got a beer, and retreated to the outer bar area near the merch booth. The drummer from 36, Tom, was out there, so I talked to him for a second and gave him a little bit of crap for the Rangers logo on his drumkit. I told him “you know you’re in Sabres country, right?” He laughed and said he was kinda dreading coming here, as the Rangers had just lost to the Sabres a night or two before. Apparently all the guys in the band are hockey fans (they’re from Alaska), so that fact alone makes them okay in my book! I also got to talk to Brock, the lead singer from 36, and thanked him for coming back around after Mayhem, and told him we had a great time in the pit. He mentioned “Dude, I saw you down there singing, that was badass!” He’s a Flyers fan, so he thanked us for Biron and Briere… haha. The 36CF dudes are really nice guys, they spent a bit of time with everyone that wanted to talk. Nice to see.
Once their set started, Adam and I went up to the “balcony” behind the soundboard to watch Trivium. I like these guys, I like the songs, and they sound great, but I can’t get over the feeling like every time I see them live, it’s missing something. I don’t feel nearly the same inclination to get in the pit and jump around for them as I do other bands (36 and ATR this time, and Lamb Of God the last time). They certainly have the stage antics down pat though, with no less that five microphones spread across the stage. Heafy and crew sounded good though, mixed up the songs between the albums, and had the crowd into it. Since I didn’t write anything down this time, I lifted this setlist from the Trivium message board: Kirisute Gomen, Becoming The Dragon, Insurrection, A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation, Like Light To The Flies, Into The Mouth of Hell We March, Down From The Sky, Rain (I love this song, so this made their set for me!) and closed with Pull Harder On The String Of Your Martyr.
Kirisute Gomen (Embedding was disabled, so here’s a link.)
The two shows in two nights were great, tiring, and I think got the metal out of my system for a little bit!
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 10/16/2008 Trivium, All That Remains, 36 Crazyfists, The Human Abstract (Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom)
Tags: 2008, 36 Crazyfists, All That Remains, Buffalo, The Human Abstract, Town Ballroom, Trivium
10/15/2008 Five Finger Death Punch, In This Moment, Bury Your Dead (Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom)
By Eric | October 15, 2008 11:59 pm
[Another Black Day was the first band on the bill, but we missed them.]
Adam and I got there just as Bury Your Dead was starting. It was typical hardcore fare, but with the off-rhythm stuff that I don’t really care for. They were fine, but I’m not running out to get any of their stuff. It was passable.
In This Moment was another story entirely. Metalcore must be starting to jump the shark, because this was the most “put-together” band I’ve seen in awhile. They had a chick lead singer, and they were from LA. Gimmick city. Most female lead singers of metal bands fall into two categories. Either they can scream really well, or sing really well. This girl did neither, it was just a lot of screeching. And the 2nd to last song they played, which they called their “hardest”, was the most formulaic, metalcore-by-numbers song I think I’ve ever heard. As in, I could predict all of the changes, the breakdowns, everything. Terribly generic.
Anyway, after that 40 or so minutes, it was time for us to head into the pit for some action. The floor filled up, and everyone was quite excited. So was the band! They blew out of the gate with “Ashes”, then into “The Way of the Fist”. I really don’t remember the rest of the order, but they played a good chunk of the album, a couple of the bonus tracks, and a cover of “Bad Company” which was pretty cool. Everyone on the floor was bouncing around, a couple pits, a wall of death during “White Knuckles”, and general mayhem. The only idiots were these two 16-year old guys, who were pretty much holding hands the entire night, and using each other as leverage to jump (and drive their elbows) into everyone else. It’s like, if you can’t mosh and hold your spot like a normal person, don’t be a douche. They got smashed during the wall of death, so karma got em in the end! They ended up doing “The Bleeding” as the encore, and at the end of the song, had a little 7-year old kid get up on stage. When asked who his favorite band was, the kid looked kind of sheepish and pointed at lead singer Ivan Moody, who told him it didn’t necessarily have to be his band, and the kid actually mumbled “Slipknot” instead!
Setlist (probably not in order): Ashes, The Way Of The Fist, White Knuckles, Salvation, The Devil’s Own, Meet The Monster, Never Enough, Stranger Than Fiction, Bad Company, The Bleeding
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Tags: 2008, Buffalo, Bury Your Dead, Five Finger Death Punch, In This Moment, Town Ballroom
09/28/2008 Cake, Winterpills (Rochester, NY @ The Main Street Armory)
By Eric | September 28, 2008 11:59 pm
Tiff and I rolled in around 7:15, and milled around before the opener started. The Winterpills, well, um, let’s just say it’s not my kind of music. I’m not indie, I’m not into the jangly garage stuff, and while the female singer wasn’t too bad, she didn’t sound all that great when paired with the male lead singer / guitarist. Blah. 40 minutes too long.
We met up with Matt and Lisa, who had friends from Toronto in tow, and we were off to the left side of the stage for the main event. Cake! The actual review for this show is going to be short and sweet, because, well, Cake did their Cake thing, and did it very well. John McCrea had a couple of soliloquies between songs, ruminating on his world view without actually getting overtly political. “War is good for a lot of people,” he mused at one point. “We probably wouldn’t have this beautiful armory if it wasn’t for the militaristic past of the United States of America.” Also, after the left side/right side crowd participation of Short Skirt/Long Jacket, he commented that both sides lost, just like always. The band also gave away an apple tree, to a fan in the crowd who correctly guessed the percentage of the world’s population that has running water in their homes (allegedly 34%). All of the snark and quirky topics Cake is known for came through on this night, and the setlist was nicely varied, with songs from all of the albums, with a surprising emphasis on Prolonging The Magic and Comfort Eagle songs (4 each, out of 17 total). Also, in the ultimate irony to the drunk idiot behind us yelling all night, they *did not* play Sheep Go To Heaven, much to his dismay. Personally, I was stoked for Comfort Eagle, Arco Arena, and Wheels. It was a fun show, a fun night, and Cake still has it!
Setlist: Love You Madly, Comanche, Ruby Sees All, Frank Sinatra, Comfort Eagle, Stickshifts and Safetybelts, Arco Arena, Shadow Stabbing, Wheels, War Pigs, Ruby Don’t Take Your Love To Town, Guitar, Mexico, Never There. Encore: Short Skirt/Long Jacket, I Wanna Hold You (new song), The Distance.
Ruby Sees All
Stickshifts and Safetybelts
War Pigs
Mexico
Short Skirt/Long Jacket
Topics: Concerts | 2 Comments »
Tags: 2008, Cake, Main Street Armory, rochester, Winterpills
The Recording Idiots Association of America
By Eric | September 27, 2008 8:05 am
There’s something inherently funny about seeing people that actually paid for online music getting locked out of their collection because the DRM license server is getting shut down. And it’s not a fly-by-night company either! Don’t pirate music, buy our crippled stuff instead! Your music files have to phone home every time you listen to them, just to make sure you’re legit, but we’ll never shut those servers down… promise! And if we do, we’ll bury the information on how to get your files to work again, as opposed to just unlocking them, because, well, that’d be too easy, and we certainly can’t give you what you paid for. How would we get you to buy them again?
This isn’t the first time either. And the RIAA wonders why everyone pirates music! For the record, Amazon sells completely free and clear MP3’s for about a buck apiece, and they always have specials on albums. I’ve actually bought a couple of b-sides for various bands, and the MP3’s are fine, fully tagged, and I’ve copied and moved them around with no problems. THIS IS THE WAY TO GO, MR RECORDING INDUSTRY MAN!
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Tags: funny, music, NT, Work
Check Baby Check
By Eric | September 25, 2008 1:31 pm
The new MySpace Music site isn’t too bad. They have a lot more streaming music now. Still a lot they don’t have though. (How about all the bands putting their b-sides up that you can’t buy/get in North America, or have to buy 5273854 different copies to get? I’m looking at you, every band on the face of the planet.)
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Tags: Baby, bills, cat, mets, music, NT, sabres, Work
The new All That Remains album “Overcome” is freak
By Eric | September 7, 2008 12:00 am
The new All That Remains album “Overcome” is freakin sweet!
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Tags: music, twitter