02/10/2007 Breaking Benjamin, Burden Brothers, Leo (Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom)

By Eric | February 10, 2007 8:21 pm

Well, 11 months without a show is no way to live! This was a great show to get back into the swing of rockin out, with no shortage of energy. Adam and I pretty much walked right into the venue, found us a spot on the third tier ring, off to the right of the stage. Perfect view, a barrier to lean against, no one behind us.

Leo was up first, an indie rock band from St. Louis. They weren’t too bad at all, kinda heavy but with the soaring vocals. I wasn’t surprised to learn that they had influences from Jeff Buckley and Ours to Soundgarden and Tool. That’s exactly what it sounded like. My socks weren’t knocked off, but I wasn’t snoring either.

The Burden Brothers were next, and I was excited to see these guys. Vaden Todd Lewis fronts this band, and he was the lead singer for the Toadies, whom I really liked, and this band doesn’t disappoint either. They played a nice mix of songs off of both of their albums, and the crowd slowly got into them as the set went along. The response would have been better I think if there had been some more song recognition, because there was no shortage of energy from the band. In no particular order, the set list included: Shine, Everybody is Easy, Good night from Chicago, I am a cancer, Buried in your black heart, Beautiful night, Come on Down, and Walk Away. Even better was the fact that the entire band was at the merch booth after the show, so I was able to pick up the new disc, Mercy, and get it signed!

But before the signing was the headliner of the night. The show was sold out, and there was no doubt that everyone was there for Breaking Benjamin. There was also no doubt that most people were not there just for the radio songs, because most everyone was singing along all night. Emphatically. The band came out to a thunderous ovation, and kicked into Polyamorous, and right into Home. Switching up albums, Shallow Bay and Breakdown were next, before they finally picked off the new album with Topless. Away was next, and then heavy on the Phobia tunes, with Diary of Jane (with the album intro), Dance With the Devil, Until The End, Had Enough, and Breath. There wasn’t much stopping in-between songs, and very little talking, just a lot of rocking! Sooner or Later was next, followed by Break My Fall, and then a cover of Depeche Mode’s Enjoy The Silence, which was actually very well done, and deviated a bit from the original. They closed the main set with So Cold, and this was one of the few crowds that kept the chant for the encore going the entire time the band was off-stage. I was quite impressed with the volume level in the place, and I think the band was too. They came back out to start the encore with You, and after saying goodbye one more time, launched into Blow Me Away. Which it did, as that’s probably my favorite BB song, and I wasn’t expecting to hear it, seeing as it’s essentially a B-side. It was an excellent show, the sound/acoustics were great, the venue was nice, and it was completely worth the $20 for the ticket. Great way to start my ’07 concert series!

Thanks to the magic of technology, someone has uploaded three songs from this show to YouTube, so I’m linking them here. The sound sucks, but it gives you an idea!


Polyamourous


Shallow Bay


Breath


Sooner or Later


So Cold


You


Blow Me Away

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Of 2006 Shows

By Eric | January 31, 2007 4:53 pm

2006 was not a banner year for concerts for me. I thought it’d be like every other year, but as the saying goes, life got in the way. After 3 shows in March, I went 0 for the century the rest of the year, thanks to myself and everyone and their brother getting married, having parties, etc. Blah! 🙂 Anyway, this year I’ll at least double my count! I have six shows in the next upcoming two months, plus one more probable one in April! As of now, here’s what I’m headed to (as in, I have tickets for):

Sat 2/10 – Breaking Benjamin/Burden Brothers @ Town Ballroom (Buffalo)
Mon 2/19 – Papa Roach @ Harro East (Rochester)
Sun 2/25 – Killswitch Engage/Chimaira @ Dome Theater (Niagara Falls)
Thu 3/8 – The Tragically Hip @ Harro East (Rochester)
Sun 3/25 – Lamb of God/Trivium @ Harro East (Rochester)
Sat 3/31 – Stone Sour/Lacuna Coil/Shadows Fall (Jager Music Tour) @ Dome Theater (Niagara Falls)

I’m more than likely headed to this one, but don’t have tickets yet.
Wed 4/4 – Aaron Lewis @ University of Buffalo

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Year In Review Survey

By Eric | December 20, 2006 4:26 pm

As always, stolen from someone else… Krista, this time around 🙂

Best Albums I’ve Bought/Burned This Year:
All That Remains – The Fall of Ideals
Breaking Benjamin – Phobia
Killswitch Engage – As Daylight Dies
Lamb Of God – Sacrament
Stone Sour – Come What(ever) May
Trivium – The Crusade

Crappiest Album I’ve Bought/Burned This Year:
I downloaded the Blue October disc and absolutely hated it.

Bands I Really Loved This Year:
Was a year for the harder stuff – pretty much whoever was up above, plus Chimaira, Shadows Fall, and a couple others.

Bands I Hated This Year
The rise of rip-off Metalcore, and the pop-punk-emo crap.

Best Concerts This Year
Damn, there were only three… and all three were in March! Nine Inch Nails in Rochester, Queen Plus Paul Rodgers in Buffalo, and Chimaira / Stemm in Buffalo.

24) What was your favorite song from 2006?
Toughie… I’ll say Lamb of God – Redneck

25) What was your favorite record from 2006?
See earlier list made above.

26) How many concerts did you see in 2006?
only three… (What’s happened to me?)

27) Did you have a favorite concert in 2006?
Gotta be NIN Rochester

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Your Favorite Band Sucks

By Eric | July 14, 2006 3:12 pm

Let Me Tell You Why…
…[Insert your favorite metal band here] sucks:

1. they have a video

2. theyve sold more than 5 copies of each cd

3. they tour with bands like slayer

4. they were on ozzfest

5. their music isnt as fast as cryptopsy

6. lead singer’s haircut during 2002-2005

7. they have machine recording their record! shouldve recorded it on a fostex 4 track in their moms basement for a real UNDERGROUND sound.

8. they have enough money to make a living off music

9. these dudes have instrument endorsements! SELLOUT!

10. they have a tour bus

11. they bang girls

12. they’ve only been around for 10 years

(shamelessly stolen from blabbermouth!)

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03/23/2006 Chimaira, Stemm, Through The Eyes Of The Dead (Buffalo, NY @ Icon)

By Eric | March 23, 2006 11:59 pm

Another trek down Interstate 90, and another fun night. Chimaira has become one of my favorite metal bands, so it’s hard to pass up an opportunity to see them. What makes it even better is that they seem to like Buffalo, they’re helping Stemm out in the industry, and the shows are always tight and exciting. This night was no different. I got there right before Through The Eyes Of The Dead were about to go on, and they were okay. Seemed like the usual metalcore type stuff, the music was alright, but the singer had a very high pitched scream, so he almost sounded like the guy from Cradle Of Filth, and I’m just not a fan of that type of vocals. Anyway, their half-hour came and went, and Stemm was up next. A high energy set followed, despite the fact that their lead singer just had surgery, and as such, the lead guitar player took over vocal duties. The kids that come out for Stemm always go bonkers, which is really cool to see. So their half-hour seemed a bit too short, but then it was Chimaira time! Opening with Nothing Remains, they ripped into the opening of the show. I don’t remember the exact order, but they spread the songs out over the 3 albums, and played some stuff I hadn’t heard live before, which was really cool. Plus, the original drummer, Andols, is back in the band now, so it was nice to see him kicking behind the skins again. From the new album, they played Save Ourselves, Inside The Horror, Salvation (hadn’t heard live before), Comatose (kicked ass), and Pray For All. Then from TIOR, we got Pictures in the Gold Room (another new one for me), Power Trip, Down Again (first time hearing this one!), The Dehumanizing Process, Eyes of a Criminal, and Pure Hatred was the closer of the evening. POOE was represented by Severed, and Painting the White to Gray (another first timer!). Even better than that variety, was I got to hear my favorite b-side also, Army Of Me, which kicked all kinds of ass. So after Pure Hatred, they mentioned how they were shooting a video for Save Ourselves, and proceeded to tell us to get as crazy as possible (as cliched as that sounds), because they were filming for it at our show. They then proceeded to play Save Ourselves for a second time, and the place went nuts. Hopefully you can see my ugly mug in the video at some point!! Hell of a show, fun as always. m/

Here’s the video… I love how they make the Icon look like a much bigger/cooler place than it really is… Gotta love the magic of TV!!

And here’s Army of Me!

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Switching Into Living

By Eric | March 18, 2006 11:46 am

Now that we’ve had the better part of a month to settle in, things have settled down a bit. It’s just the little projects, and maintaining until it gets warm enough to tackle the outside. I missed the one awesome Saturday we had, because I had to cover a day shift at work 🙁 Tiff did an awesome jobs getting the leaves raked and the deck cleaned off (yes, the former owner didn’t really do much in that department). I rocked my first home electrical project, adding two light switches in the unfinished part of the basement (why they went with pullstrings on the fixtures I’ll never know), so I’m all proud of myself for that. Amazing what some Romex and a book will do for ya!

And I’ve been bitten by the concert bug once again. As you see from the review, last Thursday was the big Nine Inch Nails show here in Rochester, and just last night, he-who-never-wins-anything actually won something. Earlier in the week, I got an email from the Sabres Insider mailing list that I’m on (put out by the team, weekly updates, ticket offers, etc.) offering a contest to win tickets to Queen Plus Paul Rodgers. I entered on a whim, and imagine my surprise when I got an email Thursday night saying I won 4 tickets! The review will be forthcoming, but suffice to say that it was a pretty awesome show, and now I can say I saw Queen!

So now it’s a matter of waiting for the weather to break, and we’ll start to attack the outside of the house, but until then, it’s more little interior stuff, and just living in the place!

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03/17/2006 Queen + Paul Rodgers (Buffalo, NY @ HSBC Arena)

By Eric | March 17, 2006 11:59 pm

This show has a pretty good backstory to it. I didn’t pay for this show, rather, I won the tickets through the Sabres Insider mailing list that I’m on, in a simple email contest. Ya know, the kind you always enter and never win. 🙂 So anyway, I won four tickets, so obviously Tiff and I went, I bought Carlo, Tiff brought Wendy, and we piled in the car to head down the 90. Smooth sailing until we hit the 33, Best St. exit, where some ricer cracked his car up pretty bad. Traffic comes to a grinding halt. Ever do a 360 on a highway? We did! The guy behind us got sick of waiting, does a 180, and tries to go up the on-ramp the wrong way. A couple more people did it, and it looked like a decent escape route. And I’m like, hey, why not? So I get in line, and traffic starts to move again. Hell, another 180, and we’re heading the right way again. Good thing too, because we saw flashing lights at the top of the ramp… don’t wanna know what the cop was telling those folks. Didn’t stick around to find out!

Anyway, on to the show! We had seats in the far right corner, but every seat was good. They didn’t open up the 300 level, so it was just the lower bowl that was populated. No openers either, just two hours of Queen! Obviously, Freddie Mercury has left us, so they tapped Paul Rodgers (of Free/Bad Company fame) to sing for them, and as such, they did a couple of his tunes over the course of the night. The show sounded excellent, the light show was pretty damn cool, and since this is the first time Queen has toured the USA since 1982, it was awesome to see the excitement in the older folks who were fans when the band was at their peak. We all had a great time, but I can only imagine how cool it was for people that are actually true Queen fans. It was mostly a greatest hits type show, but they threw in some more album cuts that were crowd pleasers as well. Paul Rodgers knows how to command a stage, that’s for sure. He also knows how to change his clothes apparently, because he did just that about six times! Both Brian May and Roger Taylor had guitar and drum solos, respectively, and Taylor, the drummer, also sang lead on two songs. They closed off the with the mass sing-along, We Are The Champions, and on this night, Queen were the champions. The setlist was as follows:
The setlist:
1. It’s A Beautiful Day (Remix(Tape))
2. Lose Yourself (Eminem(Tape))
3. Reaching Out
4. Tie Your Mother Down
5. Fat Bottomed Girls
6. I Want To Break Free
7. Take Love
8. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
9. Love Of My Life
10. Hammer To Fall
11. Feel Like Makin’ Love
12. Under Pressure
13. Let There Be Drums
14. I’m In Love With My Car
15. Guitar Solo
16. Last Horizon
17. Bad Company
18. Can’t Get Enough
19. Another One Bites The Dust
20. Dragon Attack
21. These Are The Days Of Our Lives
22. Radio Ga Ga
23. The Show Must Go On
24. Bohemian Rhapsody
25. We Will Rock You
26. All Right Now
27. We Are The Champions
28. God Save The Queen (Tape)

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03/09/2006 Nine Inch Nails, Saul Williams (Rochester, NY @ Blue Cross Arena)

By Eric | March 9, 2006 11:59 pm

Sara was kind enough to get me a Spiral (NIN fan club) ticket for this show, thus letting me get in line with said fan club members, thus letting us get in a half hour earlier than the rest of the general public (through a different entrance!). I got to the arena at about 2pm (after having worked the whole night before, love those game changes!), and met up with Sara, Adrienne, and the rest of Sara’s NIN touring partners. We amused ourselves until about 6, when they let us into the lobby/concourse of the arena, and then onto the floor. Most of our crew was lined across the barrier, Sara was dead center, I was about 6 people to her right. Saul Williams came on, and did a half hour set of rap/hip-hop/spoken word, along with his DJ. It was decent, not really my scene, but far better than some openers I’ve seen. Only heightened the anticipation for NIN. So as we’re waiting, the security guards at the front actually ask everyone if they know what they’re in for, and made it a point to tell the guys about pushing back against the bar if they have to pull someone out. That’s the first time I’ve ever had security that was that conscientious about the crowd! Anyway, the lights drop, the curtain is draped across the front of the stage, and we hear the first rumblings of The New Flesh, into Pinion. The band appears, and Love Is Not Enough kicks us off. The curtain is raised, and there is Trent and the band in all their glory, ripping into You Know What You Are. Terrible Lie follows, then The Line Begins To Blur. At this point, the crowd is pretty warmed up, so why not March Of The Pigs? And why not have guitarist Aaron North do a crowd dive, with guitar, right over my head? Freakin awesome. He totally cleared me by about 6 people! After he gets back, they finish, and right into Piggy. Trent comes down into the security pit, and practically right into the arms of Adrienne and Sara. As if they weren’t having a good time before. A bit of a cool down period with The Frail, which leads into The Wretched. The crowd pleaser, Closer (with a nifty “The Only Time” insert!) was next, followed by a personal favorite, Burn, and Gave Up. They slowed it down again, with Eraser, Right Where It Belongs, and Beside You In Time, all of which were behind the curtain, using said curtain as a projector screen. The curtain was back up for The Day The World Went Away, and the place got nuts again with Wish. At this point, Trent makes a small speech about how he met someone backstage that he hasn’t seen since the last time NIN played in Rochester, back in 1994, and how grateful they were that they were both still alive, and that NIN can still pack arenas, and how Trent was thankful for that. Only was next, so the crowd was all literally dancing! This was followed by Every Day Is Exactly The Same, in which Trent plays Mr. Tambourine Man, and when he;s done with it, tosses it right to Sara! Now that’s a souvenir if I’ve ever seen one! Next up was Suck, Hurt, The Hand That Feeds, and the last one of the night was Head Like A Hole. It was a hell of a show, and everything, from the show itself, to the fans around me, to the security, to the logistics of getting us in, was top notch. I don’t think I’ve been to this well organized of a show in a good long time. Trent and Co. did not fail to impress in any fashion, and I had a most excellent time!

A quick YouTube Search will yield a bunch of clips from this show.

[flickr]72157632021487085[/flickr]

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My MP3 Player Can Beat Up Your MP3 Player

By Eric | December 5, 2005 1:45 pm

This the new toy I’ve been playing with for the last couple weeks. Behold the Archos Jukebox 6000 MP3 player. Produced in 2001, it’s not exactly cutting-edge technology, but that’s exactly why I got it. The facts that I picked it up for $40 on Ebay, and it has a 6GB drive in it notwithstanding, there’s a handful of reasons why I chose this over an iPod or other similar players.

First off, unlike most all (if not all) current mp3 players, the Archos doesn’t have any DRM (digital rights management) whatsoever. This means that I can freely copy music off the player back on to any other computer with no problem, while all the other players only let you copy back to your own machine. Add that to the fact that I’m not tethered to iTunes or some equally craptacular music program, and I’m a happy camper.

Which brings me to the second thing it has going for it. It works as a standard USB hard drive, and since my makeshift case has room for a USB cable, I have storage anywhere and everywhere!

Thirdly, since the original firmware that came with the Jukebox wasn’t all that great, some enterprising coders came up with replacement firmware called Rockbox, which added all kinds of features and customizable screens. Pretty nifty.

And now to the best reason for getting the Archos. That aforementioned 6GB drive? It’s a standard 2.5″ notebook hard drive, which means…. yep, you guessed it. It can be swapped out. For something much bigger. MUCH bigger. Like 100GB bigger. All I have to do is format the thing with FAT32 (NTFS won’t work, and based on the Archos architecture, there’d be no performance gain anyway), and I’m ready to rock. After Christmas, it’ll be out with the 6 and in with the 100, and the entire music collection will roll with me everywhere. 🙂

Throw in the FM transmitter I picked up, and I have everything at my fingertips in the car also. With more flexibility and far less money than an iPuke, this Archos works for me. I’ll trade a little bit more weight (and I do mean just a little bit) and a little bigger footprint for all of the aforementioned features.

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Saving My Bandwidth

By Eric | November 13, 2005 12:41 pm

A couple posts ago, I mentioned how I reworked my archive pages so my bandwidth doesn’t take such a hit. The google image search isn’t killing me anymore, but I had to fix my next biggest problem (which compared to the google thing isn’t *that* big).

My next problem is MySpace. Not the site itself, but most of the inhabitants. (Note: Bands that use myspace because of the ease of showcasing their music are cool by me. It’s great for that. DISCLAIMER: I actually have a myspace page, I created it awhile ago, and I don’t really use it. There’s next to nothing on it.) Myspace is a haven for middle and high-schoolers (or those of that mental persuasion) to hear themselves talk. It’s worse than a blog, because it’s nothing but people listing their interests with terribly-designed page with tons of unecessarily huge graphics.

My problem is that, in the process of displaying their 573857845 favorite bands’ album covers, I have over 200 idiots that hotlink to the albumcovers off this site. *HOTLINK* being the key phrase, meaning that every time someone loads their shitty profile page, I take a bandwidth hit for the image they have on their page. This adds up. Go ahead and save them to your harddrive, I could care less about the credit, but don’t steal my bandwidth to do it. But I suppose it’s asking too much for these jerk-offs to find a dedicated image hosting company. There’s tons of free ones out there, so it’s not like they have to spend money.

So in response to this, anytime I get a request from a myspace.com address for an image, the request is filled with a replacement gif image (whose file size is only 2.5k, as opposed to an average of 10.5k for an albumcover). I figure it ought to get their attention when this shows up on their page:

Moral of the story: Don’t hotlink me!

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