07/25/2008 3 Doors Down, Staind, Hinder, Jet Black Stare (Darien, NY @ Darien Lake Performing Arts Center)
By Eric | July 25, 2008 11:59 pm
The middle round of my three-show tripleheader was a more relaxed affair than the first, but still had it’s moments. I arrived into the pavilion right as Jet Black Stare was finishing up. I had listened to a couple of songs on their MySpace page, and the live set was similar: generic and bland. They sound like everyone else. Upon arrival, I also noticed that by virtue of having a ticket for Section 102, Row 9, Seat 21, I was on the far, far, far left side of the venue, end of the row, right in front of the speaker stack. Thankfully, I wear earplugs, because they were needed on this night!
I settled into my seat for Hinder’s set. They were somewhat entertaining, and since I know the songs, I took more than just a passing interest, but they are such a chick band. Seriously. The singer is overly expressive (and overly raspy too), and the rest of the band just played to the ladies. Nothing wrong with that, and they were fun, but not something I’m going crazy for. They played two new songs off their upcoming (November release date, kinda early, no?) album, and predictably, the last two songs were the crowd sing-alongs that everyone knows. It’s cool, I can say I saw them, and I don’t really have to see them again.
Hinder Setlist: How Long, Homecoming Queen, Heaven Sent You (new song), Better Than Me, Use Me (new song), Room 21, Lips Of An Angel, Get Stoned
Staind was up next, after a fairly short turnaround time. Since they had a small GA section in the front, the seats only went up to row 8 (one in front of me) before a sizeable metal barrier. The turnout for this show had to be short of a sellout, either that or there were plenty of unused tickets, because that 8th row never really got populated. Well, I populated it, naturally, so I had psuedo-barrier for Staind’s set with no hassle! They looked refreshed from their two years off of touring, as Mike was completely rocking out to start off the set. They also threw the old fans a bone, by playing Just Go second in the set, which was great. I figured it would be the “Greatest Hits” set again, and while I was mostly right, it seemed more uptempo than the show in ’05, and thus I felt it was a better overall show. Perhaps the song order had something to do with that also, and that included an Aaron Lewis solo acoustic take on Bob Seger’s “Turn The Page”, which was pretty cool. They closed it out with Mudshovel, which still kills every time I hear it. Oh, and I said no hassle? Well, save for one little thing. Right at the start of Staind’s set, a guy three rows back asked me to shift a foot left or right so he could see. Okay, no problem. Then a song later, he goes “Can you sit down?” I looked at him, pretty much said “Are you serious?”, laughed, pointed at the people in the GA section just on the other side of the barrier that were also standing, said “NO”, and turned back around. I’m thinking, it’s a concert, you’re young enough (he looked mid/late 30’s), STAND UP! His girlfriend actually apologized to me after the set, saying she didn’t know why he was asking, they could see fine. I told her it’s cool, I wasn’t bothered much. But I wasn’t going to sit down either!
Staind Setlist: Price To Play, Just Go, Fade, Believe (new song), Falling, Outside, Turn The Page (Aaron Lewis solo acoustic), For You, It’s Been Awhile, Right Here, So Far Away, Mudshovel
So now for 3 Doors Down. Again, they’ve actually gotten better every time I’ve seen them, and this show was fairly exciting, considering it’s 3DD. It’s not like they’re going to have mosh pits or anything, but the crowd was ridiculously sedate compared to most of the shows I go to. It was kinda weird to see people standing, bobbing their heads, but not really getting into the show. Are you even having fun? I think it kinda kills the momentum of the band sometimes. There was enough crowd response though, as they had to have known most of the songs. 3DD actually played 5 songs off of their newest album in addition to the “Greatest Hits” aspect of the rest of the set. Not too shabby. The entire night was pretty good, and really served to get me more excited for the next day’s show.
3 Doors Down Setlist: Train, Kryptonite, Citizen/Soldier, Away From The Sun, Duck and Run, Let Me Go, Be Like That, It’s Not Me, Landing In London, The Road I’m On, Be Myself, Behind Those Eyes, Pages, Here Without You, Loser. Encore: It’s Not My Time, When I’m Gone.
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 07/25/2008 3 Doors Down, Staind, Hinder, Jet Black Stare (Darien, NY @ Darien Lake Performing Arts Center)
Tags: 2008, 3 Doors Down, Darien, Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, Hinder, Jet Black Stare, Staind
07/24/2008 Seether, Sick Puppies, Safetysuit (Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom)
By Eric | July 24, 2008 11:59 pm
Adam and I pre-gamed for this one by hitting up Thursday in the Square to see More Than Me, because we knew the openers weren’t that great. As it turns out, we rolled into the Ballroom just as Safetysuit was finishing up. It struck me that they were a little out of place on the bill, way too light, but as the first band at KRockathon, it was a little harder to tell, plus festivals usually have some variety. They would have fit in great down at the Square instead. We only had to listen to a song and a half by them thankfully. Sick Puppies were on next, and also having seen them the Saturday bfore, they were better at KRock. Of course, I say this because I wasn’t really paying attention to them at KRock. Here, there were pockets of people that appeared to be into them, but there wasn’t a lot of movement on the floor. Blah. They’re just not that entertaining.
Time for Seether. Adam and I got down on the floor, and fairly close on the left side. And again, there was almost no movement on the floor at all. People were into the show, but hardly anyone was bouncing around, and we had a ton of space around us. There were a lot of people there, but they were all on the upper levels, and not on the floor. Kinda odd, and a real departure from what KRock was! I think it was a little more sparse than it could have been due to the fact that the Warped Tour was at Darien Lake the same day, but there were plenty of people hiding on the higher levels. It also didn’t help (for me anyway) that save for a couple songs, the setlist was exactly the same as the show I saw earlier. Their own headlining show, and only three songs off of “Finding Beauty…”! Guys, come on! There are a lot of quality songs on that album, and they don’t play any of them for some reason. I can’t believe that Troy couldn’t learn those just as easily as he learned the back catalog. They opened with No Jesus Christ this time (instead of Because Of You), ran through a bunch of the same songs as Saturday, inserting The Gift, Driven Under, and bringing out the chick bass player from Sick Puppies to do STP’s Creep. They sounded great again, but some variation would have been nice, and a crowd more packed and more into the show would have been good too. Seether Setlist (not quite in order): No Jesus Christ, Driven Under, Rise Above This, Truth, Needles, The Gift, Fine Again, Gasoline, Burrito, Broken (acoustically), Creep (STP), Fake It, Remedy.
Oh, and Mr. Wanna-be-guido in the black wifebeater? Dude, you’re at a rock show, not a club. Showing us your wingspan in your Jesus Christ Pose *THE ENTIRE NIGHT* is not necessary. I realize you want to pose for your equally wanna-be-guido friend, and the two girls that literally up and left the area because you bugged the hell out of them, but really, I don’t need your arms in my face every thirty seconds. The band can barely see you, and they really don’t care either. Just enjoy the show, ya know, the band that’s on stage? No one came to see you.
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 07/24/2008 Seether, Sick Puppies, Safetysuit (Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom)
Tags: 2008, Buffalo, Safetysuit, Seether, Sick Puppies, Town Ballroom
07/22/2008 Eric Hutchinson, Maria Sebastian (Buffalo, NY @ The Tralf)
By Eric | July 22, 2008 11:47 pm
[Missy Higgins was the headliner, but we didn’t stay.]
Tiff and I shot down the Thruway to take in our favorite new up-and-coming singer-songwriter. We got there about a half-hour after the doors had opened, and the main level of the Tralf was just about full, so we opted for the still-empty balcony. Considering we’ve seen him before, it was nice to get a different perspective on the show. Maria Sebastian was up first, and her 20 minute acoustic set was alright, but again, I’m not really into the whole indie/folk thing. She could sing though, no doubt about that. After a non-existent set change, Eric and his two bandmates took to the stage, and ran through a bunch of songs from “Sounds Like This”. He opened with “OK, It’s Alright With Me”, and continued on through with “You Don’t Have To Believe Me”, “All Over Now”, “Back To Where I Was”, “Oh”, “Outside Villanova”, “Food Chain”, “It Hasn’t Been Long Enough”, and closed with “Rock & Roll”. The only one he didn’t play was “You’ve Got You” for some reason.
Anyway, much like Rochester in Februrary, the band sounded tight, Eric sounded good, and the dry humor was evident. Unlike Rochester, he seemed a bit more reserved with the sarcasm (expected, because this wasn’t his show), and while there were some enthusiastic reactions when songs were over, from our perch in the balcony it looked like most people were just sitting on their hands and not really getting into it. (I could be expecting too much, I dunno.) While it was also apparent that hardly anyone knew who he was beforehand, he made an impression of a lot of folks, as the buzz at the merch table after the set was “I’d never heard of him before, but he was pretty good!” Always nice to get some new fans! Eric came to the merch table afterwards, and we chatted him up for a bit (telling him to hit Rochester again!) before heading out.
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 07/22/2008 Eric Hutchinson, Maria Sebastian (Buffalo, NY @ The Tralf)
Tags: 2008, Buffalo, Eric Hutchinson, Maria Sebastian, The Tralf
07/19/2008 Krockathon 13: Seether, Shinedown, Sick Puppies, 12 Stones, Luna Halo, Black Stone Cherry, Safetysuit (Weedsport, NY @ Cayuga County Fairgrounds)
By Eric | July 19, 2008 11:10 pm
[Three Days Grace actually headlined this, but I wasn’t about to stick around for them.]
The infamous KRockathon. Year after year, this brings out the best and brightest that Syracuse and Utica have to offer, and I don’t mean the bands. Much like any festival or carnival, you wonder what hole a lot of these people crawled out of. And since it’s hot, and there’s alcohol involved, they end up wearing far less clothes than they should, and start way more fights. Anyway, the sideshow notwithstanding, there was music to be heard! I left the house at 10, got there by 11:15, got in line and was in the park by 11:45. Milled around and found a spot reasonably up front. Safetysuit went on at 12:30, and they were alright. I’d never heard of them before, I probably won’t bother to check them out now either, but they were passable as openers. They just sounded like every other generic post-grunge-lite band out there, which is to say they captured my attention for a half hour.
Next was one of the bands I really wanted to see, Black Stone Cherry. The four dudes from Kentucky ripped through their half-hour set with a ton of intensity, and had the crowd going nuts with their hard rocking, the wild solos, and the couple songs that had gotten radio airplay. While entirely too short (why didn’t they get 45 minutes instead of Sick Puppies or 12 Stones? Anyone?), they did mangage to fit in Rain Wizard, Backwoods Gold, Blind Man, Hell and High Water, Lonely Train, Maybe Someday (just as the rain stared to come down), and closed with a crazy take on Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile, which included lead singer/guitarist Chris Robertson coming down into the security pit, right up to the crowd to play the guitar behind his head. At one point the other band members were joining him in the behind-the-head maneuver, which looked pretty awesome.
After their set, I escaped to the FYE booth and bought the BSC CD, which put me in the express line for the autograph tent. Finally used that one to my advantage! So I got the CD and a small poster signed, and then foraged for some food while Luna Halo was on.
While I freely admit I wasn’t paying too much attention to them, Luna Halo didn’t sound all that interesting to me. I caught a seat in the grandstand for 12 Stones, as I know a couple of their tunes, and I wasn’t terribly impressed with them either. The lead singer had a I-wanna-be-Jacoby-Shaddix (from Papa Roach) thing going on, as far as his running around the stage and trying to jack the crowd up, and he tried every lame rock gimmick he could think of on the crowd, including one of the worst “wall of death” attempts I’ve ever seen. The band sounded okay, but the singer couldn’t really sing, the songs I knew didn’t sound that great, and the ones I didn’t know weren’t performed in any manner where I’d want to check them out. Off to the left side beer stand, and that was my spot for most of Sick Puppies, who I’d seen before (opening for Finger Eleven). They were okay, the crowd was eating them up, but I’m still not convinced they deserved a 45 minute slot. Just like last year, they’re competent at what they do, but I don’t feel like anything sets them apart. They did the Say My Name/Brain Stew mash-up again.
Time for Shinedown. I made my way into the back center of the “floor”, and had a pretty good vantage point, and pretty decent people around me. The guys came out, and launched into Devour, and from there had a nice high and low flow to the set. Lead singer Brent Smith sounded good, was hitting notes, and the band sounded good too. Brent sold out far less notes this time around. They played Devour, Heroes, Cyanide Sweet Tooth Suicide, I Dare You (dedicated to the troops), Cry For Help, If You Only Knew (about Brent’s fiancee), Left Out, Burning Bright, The Sound Of Madness, Save Me, 45, and the set closed with Fly From The Inside. Hearing the whole crowd sing along with 45 was pretty cool, and pretty much the whole place was into their set.
I wandered up closer through the mass of people to get about 5 rows back from the front, on the left side (stage right) for Seether. Again, I was around some pretty cool people, and once the band started everyone was in tune to the crowd surfers going overhead and acting accordingly, so there weren’t any surprises as far as people landing on someones head. Always a good thing! Seether picked up Troy McLawhorn (of Doubledrive and Dark New Day fame) as 2nd guitarist, so it was nice to see him rockin out with the guys. The set was surprisingly very sparse on songs from the new “Finding Beauty…” album, thus being slanted more towards the first two discs. They did a lot of improvising within the songs, and even managed to make Fine Again sound somewhat new, with a couple of different wrinkles in the performance. They seemed to be having a ton of fun up on stage also, laughing and joking around while doing their thing. The band opened with Because Of You, and again, the order is probably screwed up, but they also played Rise Above This, Truth, Needles, Fine Again, Gasoline, Burrito, Broken (acoustically) Fake It, and Remedy. I was very happy with their performance, and I’m glad I’m seeing them later in the week in Buffalo, with them headlining, so hopefully we’ll get more new songs this time out.
Regardless, I had a good time, and was able to get out of the place with no delay, thanks to the majority of people staying for Three Days Grace. One change into dry clothes later, I was on the road back home. Another fun and successful KRockathon!
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 07/19/2008 Krockathon 13: Seether, Shinedown, Sick Puppies, 12 Stones, Luna Halo, Black Stone Cherry, Safetysuit (Weedsport, NY @ Cayuga County Fairgrounds)
Tags: 12 Stones, 2008, Black Stone Cherry, Cayuga County Fairgrounds, KROCKathon, Luna Halo, Safetysuit, Seether, Shinedown, Sick Puppies, Weedsport
A Good Night and A Busy Week Ahead
By Eric | July 18, 2008 11:00 am
Last night was a damn good night. At Roller Hockey, we finally won a game! We’ve improved our record to 1-6 with a 12-9 win, and I scored my first goal of the season! So we won, one of the guys brought a 12 pack, so we all had a beer in the locker room, and that was cool too. Then I got home and watched the Mets make a Top-of-the-9th four run rally to beat the Reds. Damn cool.
But this Saturday starts silly season. Well, as far as concerts anyway. Through the end of the month, check this schedule out:
Tomorrow, July 19 – KRockathon: 3 Days Grace, Seether, Shinedown, Black Stone Cherry, among others @ Cayuga County Fairgrounds
Tuesday July 22 – Eric Hutchinson @ The Tralf
Thursday July 24 – Seether @ Town Ballroom (and I’ll probably get down there early to catch More Than Me @ Thursday In The Square)
Friday July 25 – 3 Doors Down, Staind, Hinder @ Darien Lake
Saturday July 26 – Godsmack, Sevendust, Alter Bridge, etc @ Darien Lake
5 shows in 8 days! I can’t wait. I love when they come in bunches, especially 3 shows in 3 days. That’s happened twice before to me: May of 2001 (where all three involved Econoline Crush), and then March of 2001 I had 3 in a row. As far as other clusters, August of 2007 had 4 shows in 9 days, July of 2001 had 4 shows in 5 days (including 2 in one day!). When it rains it pours I guess! Naturally, that doesn’t count what’s going on in August!
RAWK!
Topics: Blog | Comments Off on A Good Night and A Busy Week Ahead
Tags: Beer, cat, concerts, hockey, mets, NT
06/26/2008 Mike Doughty, Scott Celani, Kevin McCarthy (Buffalo, NY @ Thursday In The Square)
By Eric | June 26, 2008 11:51 pm
Matt and I journeyed down the Thruway on this fine evening, meeting Adam at the Square. Martin Sexton was supposed to the headliner, but due to what was termed a family emergency, he cancelled. Therefore, the man we wanted to see, Mike Doughty, went from opener to headliner! Honestly, we didn’t watch the other two openers at all, as we spent that time getting food and beer. But we certainly paid attention once Mike and “Scrap” Livingston (billed as “The Mike Doughty Duo) took the stage. Scrap is Mike’s usual bass player, but on this night, he had an electric guitar while Doughty rocked an acoustic. Just about everyone stuck around to watch, and we met up with some familiar people ourselves, as Adam’s landlady and her crew hung out with us, and by random chance I ended up next to Ryan from More Than Me (who recognized me first, I might add) and his crew. Needless to say, a good time was had by all! Since I’m a schmuck and blew away the setlist I had typed into my phone (Rule 1: Send it to yourself when you’re done!), I stole the list from setlist.fm: Grey Ghost, Madeline and Nine, Circles, Unsingable Name, I Hear the Bells, Janine, I Just Want the Girl In the Blue Dress to Keep on Dancing, Sunken-Eyed Girl, True Dreams of Wichita, Looks, Busting Up a Starbucks, The Only Answer, Rising Sign, Fort Hood, Put It Down, Soft Serve, The Gambler (Kenny Rogers Cover). Encore: Firetruck (“Written by a 4-year old!”), 27 Jennifers, Looking at the World From the Bottom of a Well.
As per usual, Mike had the crowd laughing the whole time with the witty banter in-between songs, seemed genuinely happy to be playing (hell, he got to headline!), and sounded great. I had a great time, I know Matt and Adam did, and the rest of the crowd seemed to as well.
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 06/26/2008 Mike Doughty, Scott Celani, Kevin McCarthy (Buffalo, NY @ Thursday In The Square)
Tags: 2008, Buffalo, Kevin McCarthy, Mike Doughty, Scott Celani, Thursday In The Square
Who Says “I Do” To A Party More Than Me?
By Eric | June 9, 2008 1:45 pm
Another whirlwind weekend has passed…
Friday night right after work we hauled down to East End Fest to meet some peeps, watch some bands, drink some beer, etc. Had a great time, even though it was muggy as hell, and it was wall-to-wall people. Greg and Mindy are friends with the guys in More Than Me, so they were our attraction for the night, so to speak. East End veterans Uncle Plum were on the stage opposite MTM once they were done, so we turned our attention to them afterwards. They both sounded great, and the assembled masses were into the music. Good times, good times.
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Tags: music
06/01/2008 Ashes Divide (Rochester, NY @ Water Street Music Hall)
By Eric | June 4, 2008 11:46 am
I raced over to Water Street after my roller hockey game, and completely missed Inner Party System, the opener. Sara said they were pretty decent. Anyway, I got there as they were doing the final prep for Ashes Divide’s set, and I really only had to wait about 10 minutes. The band came out, and launched into Sword. Billy Howerdel didn’t really talk much, only pausing between songs to say thanks, and at one point he mentioned that they’d be back in the area as part of the main stage of Projekt Revolution. They ran through the entire album, plus a wild cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” that neither Sara nor I recognized until they got to the chorus. Easily one of the most rockin’ Fleetwood Mac covers I’ve ever heard. Maybe they’ll release that somewhere! Anyway, the band sounded terrific, the songs were true to the album versions without being carbon copies, and despite not talking much, Billy seemed to be happy playing his songs for the 100 or so people that were there. After the set was finished, Billy came to the back merch table and signed everybody’s stuff. I snagged a setlist from the soundboard, so I had him sign that along with the CD cover. Sara mentioned to him that it had been 8 years since we first saw him (as a member of APC, at the 4/28/2000 NIN Toronto show) and that we couldn’t believe it had been that long. He was pretty gracious about the whole thing, and I came away liking the album that much more after seeing it performed live. A great Sunday night show. Setlist: Sword, Enemies, Too Late, Ritual, Stripped Away, A Wish, Forever Can Be, The Prey, Defamed, Denial Waits, The Chain (Fleetwood Mac cover), The Stone.
[flickr-gallery pagination=”0″ mode=”tag” tags=”2008-06-01″ tag_mode=”all”]
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 06/01/2008 Ashes Divide (Rochester, NY @ Water Street Music Hall)
Tags: 2008, ASHES dIVIDE, rochester, Water Street Music Hall
Back In Business
By Eric | May 30, 2008 4:13 pm
After about a month of power problems, I finally got around to ordering and installing a new DC jack on my jukebox, as the old one decided to give up the ghost. It’s not like I can’t recharge batteries, but when I use it in the car, it’s really nice to have it turn on and turn off along with the car (read: I’m lazy). I also picked up a nifty little device that converts the 5v USB out of the computer into a 9V line suitable for powering the archos. No more wall wart necessary! It’s a nice workaround for the fact that the Archos was manufactured before the time of powering/charging stuff via USB.
Topics: Blog | Comments Off on Back In Business
Tags: NT, Work
Jamey Gets It, Why Can’t Everyone Else?
By Eric | May 28, 2008 10:48 am
From an interview in Miami, Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta hits the nail on the head, in reference to heavy music:
It’s all aggressive music, you know? It’s people that overthink it on the Internet and stuff who make that there’s all this separation. But there really isn’t. But once you get out to the show and see kids in a shirt and talk to the kids, you realize that just because there’s four guys posting ten times each, it’s not reality, you know? There’s not as much separation as everyone thinks.
Jamey, you are soooooooooo not metal/hardcore/extreme. Way to sell out. Or something. 🙂
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Tags: music, NT