05/11/2007 Mike Doughty (Rochester, NY @ Lilac Festival Stage)
By Eric | May 11, 2007 11:53 pm
Matt and I had wanted to check this out, and I was quite surprised that it was just him with one accompanying player. I kinda thought he’d have a full band behind him, but no matter. We got there a bit late, so I’m not sure what was played before we got there, but once we got there, among other things, we heard Bottom Of A Well, Unsingable Name, Madeline and Nine, and Circles, along with some tunes off of Skittish/Rockity Roll that I quite frankly don’t know. Even by himself, it was entertaining, the crowd was into it, a lot of them were there for him (as opposed to just being there because it’s the Lilac Festival and it’s free). Not bad for nothing! Found the setlist: Busting Up A Starbucks, Tremendous Brunettes, Janine, Your Misfortune, Put It Down, True Dreams Of Witchita, Shunned & Falseified*, Circles*, Thank You Lord For Sending Me the F-Train, Grey Ghost, Madeline And Nine, 27 Jennifers, Looking At The World From The Bottom Of A Well, St. Louise Is Listening. Audio is available at archive.org, here
Circles
Your Misfortune
27 Jennifers
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Tags: 2007, Lilac Festival Stage, Mike Doughty, rochester
Keep Those Updates Coming
By Eric | April 19, 2007 2:05 pm
So as you can see, I’m trying to be a bit more prolific on here, compared to months past. As per usual, I don’t have a hell of a lot to say though. Work is work, home is home, and the Sabres just keep winning… 🙂
Concert updates:
There’s a couple more shows that I may or may not be going to, depending on interest, cash, timing, etc.
Friday May 11th, Mike Doughty @ Lilac Festival, Rochester, NY ($Free)
Friday May 18th, Breaking Benjamin, 3 Days Grace, Puddle of Mudd @ RIT Fieldhouse, Rochester, NY ($35)
Monday June 11th, Deftones @ Dome Theater, Niagara Falls, NY ($30)
Apparently Godsmack is in Buffalo at Shea’s on Sunday, May 27th, but no openers have been listed yet. If the openers are good, I may consider that one too. The Tragically Hip are going to be at Artpark on Saturday June 30th and Sunday July 1st, but I just saw them and unless I get free tickets, $35 for lawn seats just ain’t happening. Warped Tour is Friday August 10th at Darien Lake, but considering that I’d only want to see Killswitch Engage, I don’t think I’ll be doing that one either.
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Tags: Buffalo, house, NT, rochester, sabres, Work
04/04/2007 Aaron Lewis (Buffalo, NY @ SUNY Buffalo Center For The Arts)
By Eric | April 4, 2007 11:59 pm
This being the 2nd time I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Aaron Lewis perform acoustically, I sort of knew what to expect this time around. It didn’t make it any less enjoyable! Carlo and I managed to score 4th row seats, off to the right of the stage. In other words, damn close! Just like the Turning Stone show in ’04, he started with So Far Away, but the similarities pretty much end there. Excess Baggage was next, and then Fill Me Up. He entertained some requests from the crowd, and chewed out some girl in the front row that was trying to video the show. That ended rather quickly! He then played Zoe Jane, Please, an unreleased Staind tune called Something Like Me, Devil, and then a new song called Sleeping At The Wheel. Aaron mentioned that he wasn’t sure if the song would end up on the next Staind disc, or perhaps his solo album. Next up was Schizophrenic Conversations, and then Black Rain, complete with the backstory to the song (how it was written back in ’93, he played it for Fred Durst, who played it for Jordan Schurr, who gave them a record deal, and how he was supposed to have played Black Rain as opposed to Outside on the Family Values Tour). Epiphany was next, and then he brought out his friend Chris Ballini (of J-Cat fame) to accompany him. Together, they did a new song called Angel, then a bunch of covers, including Pearl Jam’s Black, the J-Cat tune Bonghits For Breakfast, AIC’s Nutshell, STP’s Plush, and AIC’s Angry Chair. We then said goodbye to Chris, and Aaron launched into Everything Changes, followed by Tool’s Sober. After a short break, he came back out for an encore of Right Here, Outside, and the closer was It’s Been Awhile. The crowd was into the show the whole night, Aaron was into the show the whole night, and seemed to be having a great time up on the stage. He was joking around the whole night, and it made for an awesome evening of music. Certainly a far cry from the first couple times I saw him with Staind, where he’d sing facing the wall the whole night!
These photos are from an album I found on Webshots… they are not mine!
Aaron Lewis acoustic solo tour
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Tags: 2007, Aaron Lewis, Buffalo, Center for the Arts, SUNY Buffalo
03/31/2007 Stone Sour, Lacuna Coil, Shadows Fall, Stemm (Niagara Falls, NY @ The Dome Theater)
By Eric | March 31, 2007 11:38 pm
Adam and Sara joined me for this one, and it was nice to have someone to talk to during all the down time! After standing out in line (switching lines once because we were allegedly in the will-call line, and we had our tickets), we finally got in. Adam had the bright idea to head upstairs to the balcony, and it was a good thing, because we ended up on the 3rd tier, leaning on a rail, the bar right behind us! Much like the last Jagermeister tour I went to (Slipknot, Fear Factory and Chimaira in ’05), the Lizard Man came out to warm up the crowd in-between sets. After his mildly entertaining schtick, Stemm was up first. The hometown boys ripped it up, only getting to play 4 songs, but they made the most of it. The place was bonkers right from the get go for them, and when they closed with Monster, the place really rocked. Shadows Fall was up next, and while I was excited to see them, the fact that their levels were just a bit too loud kinda made the rest of the performance seem flat. What I could hear did sound good though, and they mixed it up a bit. They played Redemption and one other off of the new Threads of Life album, “The Light That Binds” and “What Drives The Weak” off of The War Within, and “Stepping Outside The Circle” from the Art of Balance, along with one or two others. We got the Lizard Man again, then Lacuna Coil. Sara was all hyped to see them, and then was kinda disappointed as six of the seven songs were off of the new album, which she doesn’t care for. To me, they were good enough, but the male lead singer (as opposed to their female lead singer) looked kinda goofy and could have sounded better. Seeing them didn’t make me like or dislike them any more than I already did.
One more round with the Lizard Man, and then it was Stone Sour time. They came out to Europe’s “The Final Countdown”, which kinda made the show, in and of itself! They opened with 30-30/150, which whipped the place into a frenzy right off the bat. They kept it up (and this may not be in order) with Come What(ever) May, Take A Number, Made of Scars, Reborn, Your God, Monolith, Inhale, and Sillyworld. They then took a little break, and just Corey came back out with a guitar, and started covering Chris Issak’s “Wicked Game” before starting Bother. He then continued the sing-along with a cover of Sweet Home Alabama, bringing the entire band back out for Through Glass. They picked it up a couple notches again with Tumult and Blotter. A short hiatus later, the encore started out with Hell & Consequences, and the final song of the night was Get Inside. Now, I already knew (having seen Slipknot twice) that Corey knew how to work a crowd, but he was in fine form on this night. The rest of the band was right behind him, and sounded amazing. The Dome was packed, and everyone seemed to be singing along and really getting into the show. Some of the pits were quite impressive. Being the old farts that we are, it was nice to spectate from the balcony! Helluva show though, I’d have no qualms seeing Stone Sour again.
Stone Sour – 30/30-150
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 03/31/2007 Stone Sour, Lacuna Coil, Shadows Fall, Stemm (Niagara Falls, NY @ The Dome Theater)
Tags: 2007, Dome Theater, Lacuna Coil, Niagara Falls, Shadows Fall, Stemm, Stone Sour
03/25/2007 Lamb Of God, Trivium, Machine Head, Gojira (Rochester, NY @ Harro East)
By Eric | March 25, 2007 11:38 pm
So after waiting for about 40 minutes in the will call line, I missed all of Gojira’s set. Ah well. Got in, got a beer, and headed up to the balcony to watch Machine Head. I know they’ve been around forever, but I never really got into them, and thus didn’t know any of the material. They were definitely pretty good though, and there were a bunch of people there to see them, which helped. Setist.fm says their setlist was: Clenching the Fists of Dissent, Imperium, Aesthetics of Hate, Old, Davidian.
After their set, I made my way down to the floor, as Trivium was up next. I was excited to see them, and apparently a lot of the crowd was too, judging from the number of Trivium shirts and hoodies I saw in the crowd. Once they started however, I have to admit to being somewhat underwhelmed. The set was only seven songs long, but they mixed it between the two albums. My memory, combined with what was posted on their message boards leads to a setlist that looks something like this: Entrance of the Conflagration, To The Rats, Detonation, Like Light To Flies, Unrepentant, Anthem, Gunshot, Pull Harder. It wasn’t even the setlist that made the set so blah, it just seemed that the crowd wasn’t particularly jumpy, and I was standing there thinking, I should be more excited, but I’m not. The band sounded good, looked like they were into it, but something was lacking.
Not the case however with LoG! They came out rip-roaring from the start, and never let up the whole show. The crowd didn’t really let up much either. Since this was my first time seeing them, I figured I’d be up front for this one, so I was about three people back from the barrier off to the right hand side, and I had a blast. The band sounded extremely tight, they were completely into the performance, Randy was wandering around the stage all night, and the crowd was giving it right back to him. They played most of the favorites (What I’ve Become woulda been cool, but I’m not complaining!) and played the balls out of them. The setlist was damn close to this: Hourglass, Again We Rise, Walk With Me In Hell, Ruin, Pathetic, Laid to Rest, More Time To Kill, Descending, Blackened the Cursed Sun, As The Palaces Burn, 11th Hour, Bloodletting, Now You’ve Got Something To Die For, Vigil. Encore: Redneck, Black Label. I definitely would go to see LoG again!
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 03/25/2007 Lamb Of God, Trivium, Machine Head, Gojira (Rochester, NY @ Harro East)
Tags: 2007, Gojira, Harro East, Lamb of God, Machine Head, rochester, Trivium
03/08/2007 The Tragically Hip (Rochester, NY @ Harro East Ballroom)
By Eric | March 8, 2007 11:00 pm
The only thing better than seeing The Hip is not having to wait through an opener to get to them. And the only thing better than a Hip only show, is watching it from the balcony of this wonderful venue, and sitting on a ledge off to the left side so you can see and hear everything, with no one interfering with your enjoyment of the show! Such was the case on this night, as it was just the Hip, and armed with the new World Container album, they rocked the house yet again. Opening with The Lonely End of the Rink, and then continuing right into the raucous New Orleans Is Sinking, they got the crowd into the swing of things early (and often!). The Drop Off, Daredevil (which I hadn’t seen live before!), and In View followed, with the crowd singing along with much of Ahead By A Century. Gord asked, “Fight? Or flight…. This is Fly!” which got the crowd excited for a moment, as I think most (myself included) thought they’d be playing Fight instead. Poets got everyone back on board, then World Container, before slowing it down for Fiddler’s Green (another one I’d never seen). The tempo was back up for Luv (Sic), the always entertaining breakdown of 100th Meridian, and then Pigeon Camera. One of my personal favorites off of the new album was next, that being The Kids Don’t Get It, followed by the biggest singalong of the night, Grace Too, Wheat Kings, Yer Not The Ocean, Blow at High Dough, and the main set closed with Family Band. After a slight encore break, Das Hips came back out slowly with Pretend, Escape Is At Hand For The Travellin’ Man, and closed the affair with Fire In The Hole. The boys have never put on a bad show that I’ve been to, and this was no exception. The crowd, as usual, was completely into it, made up of a lot of our friends to the north, and had a generally awesome vibe. Thanks to their liberal taping policy and the wonders of the internet, I downloaded a copy of the show not more than three days later, continuing my good fortune of having copies of each of the 4 Hip shows I’ve attended.
Entering the Stage
Lonely End Of The Rink (clip)
New Orleans Is Sinking
Poets
Wheat Kings
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Tags: 2007, Harro East Ballroom, rochester, The Tragically Hip
Coming up on 10 Years of Concerts
By Eric | March 1, 2007 3:15 pm
I did go to see Killswitch Engage, DragonForce and Chimaira last Sunday in Niagara Falls, which had it’s share of fun driving coming home. I’ll save the show review for the review, but as far as the people? Gotta love seeing that random dude that has tattoos all over his face. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, and the only thing I could think of when I saw him was, “And you’re going to find meaningful employment WHERE?“. Unless you work at a tattoo parlor or something similar, not too many places are going to hire you. Talking with one of the IGT guys at work here, who has a multitude of tattoos (none on his face, mind you), even he agreed that getting them in places that are hard to conceal isn’t going to work if you want to work. And as for the rest of the crowd, it dawned on me that I’ve been going to shows for about 10 years now, and aside from feeling old, I still look at these kids like, just what the hell are you trying to prove with your dress, attitude, etc?! Of course, I wondered it back then too. I guess it boils down to this: I like the same music you do, and go to the same shows you do, but I don’t dress/act like a retard to do it. (For more on this subject, see the corollary to this statement: Nothing is any good if other people like it.)
Topics: Blog | Comments Off on Coming up on 10 Years of Concerts
Tags: Beer, concerts, driving, family, friends, house, music, NT, random, Work
02/25/2007 Killswitch Engage, Dragonforce, Chimaira, He Is Legend (Niagara Falls, NY @ Dome Theater)
By Eric | February 25, 2007 11:48 pm
After fighting some snow on the way in, I got into the Falls at about 6:30, parked and got in line. It didn’t take more than 5 minutes for the doors to open and the line to start moving, which was nice. Once getting inside, I found a nice spot on the left side of the stage, up on the 2nd level, right by the stairs. Perfect view, not getting thrashed on, etc. He Is Legend was up first, and they had a kinda southern-metal feel to them, not completely unlike Down, Seemless, Sixty Watt Shaman, etc. If only they were as good as those bands. They weren’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. Tolerable. The singer’s voice sounded kinda shot, I don’t know if he was sick or whatnot, but it could have been better.
After their half-hour set, Chimaira was on. And they were ON. They opened with Resurrection, then into Power Trip. Mark did a little talking, and then they did Severed, which always gets the crowd moving. Then another song off the new album, No Reason To Live, which kicked all kinds of ass. The crowd did the Wall Of Death on it’s own for The Dehumanizing Process, then came Nothing Remains, and finally Pure Hatred. I actually went down in the pit for Pure Hatred, got it out of my system, and then back to my vantage point for the rest of the night. The Chimaira boys haven’t lost anything being off the road
for awhile, and I can’t wait for them to come back and headline!
Dragonforce was next, and these guys are speed-power metal from England. Almost cheesy, as they sing about warriors and wizards and (duh) dragons. To me, if you’ve heard one song, you’ve heard them all. Technically, they were very good, and the two guitar players could shred with the best of them. The singer sang very high, and personally, it got a little annoying. The crowd went nuts for them though, and I can’t exactly figure out why. It was certainly entertaining, but not my kind of thing. I think Chimaira should have been on the bill ahead of them, but ya can’t win em all. Thanks to YouTube, I found a clip from their set:
Through The Fire and Flames
Finally, it was Killswitch time. They didn’t have Adam D with them, as he was having back surgery, so they had Pat Lachman (from Damageplan) playing guitar, which is not too shabby at all. They opened with As Daylight Dies, and then went into Take This Oath, Life To Lifeless, and When Darkness Falls. Back to the new album with My Curse and Unbroken. Rose Of Sharyn was next, and then a pleasant surprise, the track from WWE Wreckless Intent, This Fire Burns. Another new one, Still Beats Your Name, then back to the old stuff with Breathe Life, Fixation On the Darkness, and A Bid Farewell. They closed out the main set with This is Absolution and
The End Of Heartache. After a brief rest, the encore was My Last Serenade. The band sounded great, and Pat was more than a capable fill-in, but I don’t know if it was me, the lack of Adam D, the crowd, or what, but it just seemed like there was something missing. It wasn’t a lack of enthusiasm from the band, and the crowd seemed sufficently into the show, but I felt like the set lacked that spark that makes you feel like “Damn, why’d this set have to end?”. For me, Chimaira’s set had that, and KsE’s didn’t. And I like KsE a lot, and was hoping to have a “damn” moment. I certainly wasn’t disappointed, but I think maybe I had hyped myself up a little too much for them. In any event, the show overall was great, well worth it, and now I’m psyched for my other upcoming metal shows!
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 02/25/2007 Killswitch Engage, Dragonforce, Chimaira, He Is Legend (Niagara Falls, NY @ Dome Theater)
Tags: 2007, Chimaira, Dome Theater, Dragonforce, He Is Legend, Killswitch Engage, Niagara Falls
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
Topics: Concerts | 2 Comments »
Tags: 2007, Breaking Benjamin, Buffalo, Burden Brothers, Leo, Town Ballroom
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
Topics: Blog | 1 Comment »
Tags: Buffalo, concerts, music, Nate, NT, rochester, sabres