Lewis Black Coming To Rochester!

By Eric | April 29, 2005 3:42 pm

So maybe I was out of the loop on this, but tickets go on sale TOMORROW for Lewis Black at the Rochester Auditorium Theater, on Saturday, June 25, 2005. $32.50 a pop. I know some of you are Lew fans, so take heed!!

And speaking of shows, here’s the latest list of stuff I’m either going to or thought would be interesting to mention:

Tomorrow 2pm – Tony C and the Truth @ RIT Spring Festival (on the lawn, FREE!)
Sunday May 8 – Mike Doughty (the guy from Soul Coughing) @ Milestones
Thursday May 12 – Chevelle / Dark New Day @ Water Street (I got my ticket)
Tuesday May 17 – Chevelle / Dark New Day @ Sphere (Might go again, dunno yet)
Sunday July 10 – Def Leppard / Bryan Adams @ Frontier Field (ha! what a show! hehehe)
Saturday August 27 – ZZ Top @ Finger Lakes PAC (I’d like to see them!)

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Music Television… playing Music?

By Eric | April 29, 2005 10:30 am

So I’m going to try to get back to real posts, and not crappy updates on the state of the site.

First off, as I was flipping channels this morning, I was confused. Horribly, horribly confused. MTV was playing videos. Of music! And it wasn’t hip-hop or rap! I could scarcely believe my eyes as I saw not only one, but TWO videos back to back! 8 minutes of programming before the commercial onslaught again. And dare I say, decent videos? The new System of a Down track, “B.Y.O.B.”, and then the new Weezer track, “Beverley Hills”, which I have to admit is kinda catchy.

We have been instructed at work to use discretion when congratulating a customer on a Jackpot win. We actually had someone complain that they were congratulated, because this miserable woman “spent way more than this trying to win something”. Boo freakin hoo. Be gracious, say thank you, and go dump it all back in the machines.

People will complain about anything, and if they’re getting it for free, that’s no good either. Thursdays are free coffee and soft drink days, and you’d think people would be happy about that. But noooooo… they bitch and moan even more than they do when they have to pay! (I know, it should be comped anyway, but its not.) Oh, we’re giving away scratch-off lottery tickets? Complain that you didn’t win. Loudly. So as to embarrass yourself.

By the way, Congratulations!

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The Impossibility of Ascendancy

By Eric | April 22, 2005 12:58 pm

And so your hero went to the big metal show in Buffalo last night. Chimaira, Stemm, Trivium, and The Killing played at the Icon, and this is one of the most fun shows I’ve been to in quite awhile, beating the Soulfly show hands down. I’ll do the full review on the concert page later, but suffice to say that all the bands sounded great, and even though I wasn’t too keen on The Killing, the other bands shredded. Trivium was even nice enough to let Stemm play direct support in their hometown. RAWK!

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04/21/2005 Chimaira, Stemm, Trivium, The Killing (Buffalo, NY @ The Icon)

By Eric | April 21, 2005 11:59 pm

What a show. Chimaira announced the dates for some warm-up shows before their big summer run on Sounds of the Underground back in early March, and I salivated over this show for almost a month and a half. It was totally worth it. The Killing were up first, and they were okay. Didn’t tickle my fancy, but they certainly didn’t suck either. But the next three bands were the whole reason for going.

Since this show was in Buffalo, Trivium and Chimaira were gracious enough to let Stemm have the direct support slot, therefore Trivium was up next. Probably one of the youngest groups to hit the metal scene, the boys from Florida came out and rocked the spot. They’re every bit as good in person as they are on the albums. They came out to the instrumental opener “End Of Everything”, and kicked right into “Rain”. I don’t remember the order after this, but they did “Drowned and Torn Asunder”, “Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr”, “Suffocating Sight”, “A Gunshot To The Head of Trepidation” and closed with “Like Light To The Flies”. There may have been one more, I can’t remember. Regardless, the crowd was certainly into the band, and the band was into the crowd as well. Just an all-out tight performance.

Next up were the hometown boys, Stemm. I think they got better even from when I saw them with Soulfly. The crowd went bezerk for them, and I think they fed off of that, plus the fact that they’re showing off for the Chimaira boys. I’m pretty sure they played everything off the EP, and especially sweet was the fact that Mark Hunter (Chimaira’s singer) came out and did his part on “13 Years”, and rather enthusiastically I might add. Stemm finished up their set with Monster, and the crowd went nuts, plus the bass player did a stage dive (bass and all) at the end, which only fired everyone up more. Then an extended lull before the mighty Chimaira.

Everyone jammed to the front, and they let everyone blow their wad right away, opening with “Pure Hatred” then right into “Severed”. Chris came out from behind his rig for some screaming, and then proceeded to stage dive practically right on top of me! Good thing he ain’t that heavy. 🙂 Then they came back with the first three tracks from TIOR in order, “Cleansation”, “The Impossibility of Reason”, and “The Pictures In The Gold Room”. Those three sound great together. A quick pause, then “Let Go”, “The Dehumanizing Process”, and “Eyes of a Criminal”. Then Mark tells us that as a treat, we’re gonna get some old stuff. We got “This Present Darkness”, and then as Mark put it, the rarest of the rare Chimaira tracks, a song they’ve only ever played once prior, “Gag”! Talk about awesome. As if that wasn’t enough, we got a new song too! “Nothing Remains” had not one, but two solos in it! “Jade” was next, and then the anticipation for the closer… “Power Trip”. TJ from Stemm came out for the closer as well, so we got double the intensity and screaming. It was a hell of a show, and I think I lost a couple pounds in sweat, but it was totally worth it!

[flickr-gallery pagination=”0″ mode=”tag” tags=”2005-04-21″ tag_mode=”all”]

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What A Tool

By Eric | April 15, 2005 10:44 am

We’re trying for more than one entry per week here. We just might make it.

I put my mp3 receiver into the new car last night. What should have taken 20 minutes took about an hour and a half (counting intermission). Here’s some highlights.

The trim piece surrounding the climate controls and the radio pulls right off of the dashboard (this is even easier than the 2001 was, no screws this time!), disconnect the wiring harnesses, and then its 4 screws to take the radio out. Easy as pie, right? I got three out… and the 4th one just did not want to go anywhere. After nearly destroying any and every phillips head screwdriver I had, and cursing a blue streak (or four or five), I called time-out and went shopping with Tiff.

Time out? Shopping? What the…? You WUSS! GET BACK IN THERE!

She had to pick some stuff up at Target, so I accompanied her, and then went to the only place that could help me, Chase Pitkin. One right angle screwdriver later…


This thing saved the day (and the neighbors ears).

…we were back, and by the glow of only the dome light, I took out the screw securing the bracket to the radio, and got the radio out. I then proceeded to wrench on the bracket until I got it free from the remaining screw (yay for slots!), and finally got the screw out.

Since the wiring harness didn’t change from 01 to 05, all my existing work was able to be used again. I didn’t even need the mounting kit from the old car either. The brackets screwed right to the radio, and in it went. Popped the trim piece back on, and we in bidness!

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Death by Soulfly

By Eric | March 4, 2005 10:16 am

I’ll have the review up shortly, but the Soulfly show last night was a good time, much better than the hed p.e. show last week. Max and the boys rocked the spot, God Forbid was pretty good, and Stemm (the local Niagara Falls boys) have come a long way since I saw them like 4 years ago. I guess getting in tight with Chimaira did them some good 🙂

The other opener however, Death By Stereo, suffered from what I like to call OLSTWTHTSTHHS. (Our Lead Singer Tries Way Too Hard To Show That He’s Hardcore Syndrome) It’s an affliction that a lot of bands have when their music isn’t that great, or in this case, passable but boring. Thank God for earplugs.

Looking forward to the weekend. Just because. 🙂

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03/03/2005 Soulfly, God Forbid, Death By Stereo, Stemm (Buffalo, NY @ The Icon)

By Eric | March 3, 2005 11:59 pm

Twas a night for the rock. I got into the place just as Stemm was starting, and these guys have come a long way since the last time I saw them, interestingly enough opening for Soulfly in Rochester back in 2002. They only played a handful of songs, but they rocked hard, and sounded quite good. I picked up their 5 song CD after the show, and it sounded great.

Stemm setlist: My Own Blood, 13 Years, Incomplete, Till I Die, On The Surface, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Monster

So after Stemm, we were treated to Death By Stereo. I use treated lightly. These guys SUCK ASS. This band suffers from what I like to call OLSTWTHTSTHHS (Our Lead Singer Tries Way Too Hard To Show That He’s Hardcore Syndrome). Jumping out into the crowd with a corded mic and nearly strangling people isn’t exactly the way to gain any fans. Boring riffs, boring songs, etc. Thankfully God Forbid was after them, and totally made up for it. They played an energetic set, got the crowd into it. I only knew about two or three songs, but that didn’t matter much, they rocked.

Then it was time for Soulfly. Max, Bobby Burns (of Primer55 fame), Marc Rizzo and Joe Nunez came out and ripped it up. Opening with Prophecy, into Seek and Strike, Living Sacrifice, Born Again Anarchist, and Downstroy before finally taking a breather. They alternated between the Sepultura and Soulfly with Spit, Jumpdafuckup/Bring It, Refuse/Resist, and Execution Style. Another breather, then a Nailbomb track, Sum Of Your Achievements, a new song called Frontline, Porrada, then another new song with Max’s stepson Richie, Stay Strong, into Tree of Pain. Another break, then Defeat U, Mars, Back to the Primitive, and Brasil. Back for a two song encore, with the crowd pleaser No, and closed the night out with Eye For An Eye. A fun show, a fun night, it sounded great, and the crowd was awesome too, hardly any idiots.

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The MP3 Survey

By Eric | February 28, 2005 9:31 pm

have Itunes? have time to waste?
Well, not Itunes per se, but enough mp3s and enough time to waste… lets go!

How many songs total?
11,702 songs, 1179.66 hours, 62.6 GB

Sort by song name – first and last:
$300 – Soul Coughing (yay for symbols!)
Zumbi – Soulfly

Sort by Artist – first and last:
12 Stones
ZZ Top

Sort by Time – first and last:
0:04 – Vanilla Ice – Yo Vanilla!
17:02 – Iron Butterfly – Innagaddadavida
(I have a couple full concerts that I’m not counting)

Sort by Album – first and last:
1000 Yard Stare – Doubledrive
ZZ Top’s First Album – ZZ Top (yes, thats the title!)

I’m assuming these are in the titles:
Find “sex,” how many songs show up? 19

Find “death,” how many songs show up? 19

Find “love”, how many songs show up? 252

Find “peace”, how many songs show up? 266 (only 11 of which were not Our Lady Peace songs)

Find “rock”, how many songs show up? 131

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NIN!!! (oh, and Music Scandal City!)

By Eric | February 27, 2005 8:35 am

Nine Inch Nails is playing the Kool Haus in Toronto on May 9th and 10th! Presales start March 1st! YAY!!!!

So there’s a couple more scandals now… Tripp Eisen from Static-X loves underage girls, although it didn’t seem like Static-X was doing much lately anyway, but at least someone was!

And then Fred Durst got his homemade porno stolen from his computer. I saw the video, and while I guess it meets the definition of “hardcore”, it aint that great. Fred needs some help with his camera work methinks.

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Breaking up about Hed-ing to Lewis Black

By Eric | February 25, 2005 11:30 am

The review of the hed pe show will be up shortly, suffice to say it wasn’t nearly as good as it’s been in the past.

I did just find out though that Lewis Black is coming to the Riviera Theater on Friday March 18th. And I’m certainly going to that, which means I have a ticket to get rid of for the Breaking Benjamin, Theory of a Deadman, Exies show at Infinity in Williamsville the same night. Anyone want it? I’ll get rid of it dirt cheap!

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