tickets.tops sucks!
By Eric | September 26, 2001 10:13 pm
The Tops in Henrietta is always a source of amazement and wonder. Tonight, I strolled in to pick up a handbill for the Family Values Tour, for which tickets go on sale Friday afternoon, it took the people behind the counter at least 10 minutes to crank one out for me and figure out what the hell I was trying to get, much like the people when I got the Pledge of Allegiance handbill… Tickets.com sucks, I hate a handbill policy, I despise ticketbastard just the same, but as Mary said, if you want to camp out for tickets, be my guest. It works much nicer that way. You snooze, you lose. I’m probably going to be the only one buying tickets there anyway, just like for Pledge, making the whole process a moot point, but I’m throwing a fit this time if I get seats and not floor. No being nice this time like I was last time, I was so exasperated I just wanted to get out of there. But whatever.
Sara sent me this weird eye thing, it worked for me, its kinda cool….
Fun? Wow.
I’m half-heartedly doing my Multimedia and DataComm homework, its nothing that requires immediate action, mainly because I’m reserving tomorrow for studying for my DataComm quiz… which I already have a 5 point head start on due to my team finishing 2nd in our “Jeopardy” style game we played last week Thursday. Go us!
Current Mood: slightly agitated, but cooling off
Song: Cold – Superstar
Shirt: for the hell of it, the Free RIT college of business one I procured today!
Topics: Blog | Comments Off on tickets.tops sucks!
Tags: family, NT, Work
pledging allegiance to Lewis Black
By Eric | September 22, 2001 4:29 pm
Hi kids! Gather round for the next round of meaningless updates from the World of Woopop. The week ended, Friday me and Dan bummed around, and then we caught Lewis Black in the Gym. He was pretty funny, I was impressed. We left, cuz we could care less about Jimmie’s Chicken Shack (I found out that they were responsible for that “Do right” song, and I said, I’m outta here. We found George there, so we ultimately went over to his house, and then to a nifty bar on Monroe Ave called Acme. AWESOME WAFFLE FRIES!!! That, and 2 dollar Heineken’s help!
I woke up pretty early this morning to get my ticket for the Pledge of Allegiance tour in Buffalo on October 18th. Too bad the incompetent clerk at the counter didnt know what she was doing. It took FOREVER, and when she finally produced a ticket for me, It’s in Section 105, which didn’t dawn on me till I got home that IT’S NOT ON THE FLOOR LIKE I ASKED! I promply came home, went online and got a floor ticket, so whoever wants a Section 105 seat to see Slipknot, System of a Down, Rammstein and Mudvayne can contact me. It’s yours for $40 (face value).
Anyway, we brought Jeff and Jason out on the CD/Thrift run today, which brings us to now. Dinner is lookin like Sloppy Joe’s… mmmmm!
A quick ad seen on a billboard. We need more ads like this! So what was her original color (colour?) anyway? 🙂
Current Mood: existing, just chillin
Song: Live – Take My Anthem (Mental Jewelry)
Shirt: Deftones / White Pony
Topics: Blog | Comments Off on pledging allegiance to Lewis Black
Tags: Buffalo, funny, house, NT
09/14/2001 Godsmack, Saliva, Luxx (Darien, NY @ Darien Lake Performing Arts Center)
By Eric | September 14, 2001 11:59 pm
This show sticks out for a number of reasons, in large part due to it being one of the first concerts anywhere after 9/11, and also because this was the legendary “tour bus show”!
This was three days after 9/11 happened, and we weren’t sure they were even going to hold the show. Originally, we also didn’t care about this one so much, because Joe and I were going to go to see Nickelback at UB instead. However, Joe calls me the night before, and tells me that he got tickets for Rick for the Godsmack show, and by doing that got him entered into the grand prize drawing. Well, by luck of the draw, Rick won the grand prize: 6 people get to ride on a tour bus to and from the show, backstage passes, and front row tickets! So I’m pretty stoked that I got to go with them. We all convened at Rick’s place about 4:00 that Friday afternoon. The bus pulls up at about 4:45, with a huge Godsmack logo plastered on the side of the 45-foot long home-on-wheels. Michelle from the Edge jumps out, we take a couple pictures, and jump on the bus to Darien Lake!
En route, Godsmack’s wonderful tour manager Renee filled us in on what we could and couldn’t do, how the day was going to go, etc. We got to Darien Lake, pull in next to all the band buses, got off the bus and ate in the backstage catering area, among members of Luxx, Saliva, Godsmack and all their crew. Saliva was out playing basketball while we ate. At about 6:00 Godsmack came over to the bus area for the meet and greet, we got autographs, chatted a little, and got picutres next to the bus (see below).
We pretty much could go wherever backstage, save for a few restricted places, so we jetted out into the amphitheater, checked out our seats, checked out the merch, ran into a couple of Rick and Joe’s friends, and went back to the bus. As we’re sitting on the bus, Renee was holding a fistful of unused tickets, we asked about them, and she mentioned how she was going to go out onto the lawn and distribute the remaining front row seats to the hardcore Godsmack fans she found out there. Rick mentioned his 3 friends out on the lawn, and she gave him 1 ticket, when he mentioned the other two friends, she goes, sucks for them! smiled, and gave him two more. Al and company were elated to get the tickets, to say the least!
We got to our seats just as Luxx was getting out on stage. They’re from NYC and as such were especially fired up about performing, as this was the first show back since the World Trade Center disaster. They had a chick lead singer, and they sounded okay, nothing great, but not terrible either. The girls voice was actually strong, which usually doesn’t happen. Next was Saliva, who got the crowd into it right from the start, opening with Click Click Boom. They ran through a good chunk of the album, including Doperide, Superstar, and After Me, had lots of energy, and really had the crowd going for their entire set, closing with their big hit, Your Disease.
Before Godsmack hit the stage, Bull from 103 came out, and had everyone sing the Star Spangled Banner, and there were quite a few people with American flags and such. The Godsmack boys came out after their requisite cartoon ended, and ripped into Sick of Life. The set was almost the same as Rochester and Utica, with Sully talking in-between sets about how this was very emotional for the band, and how the band “needed this just as much as you the fans did”. About this time, a fan threw a bandanna up on the stage with an American flag on it, and Sully wore it for the rest of the night. At one break, he had everyone join hands and hold them up high, and they turned the house lights on so everyone could see everyone else, a very cheezy but special moment. For me, one of the highlights was Get Up Get Out, and an especially cool extended version of Keep Away. To start the encore, Sully came out by himself to sing the last few bars of America the Beautiful, and let the crowd finish. Say what you want about Sully and the band, but that was a moment that won’t be easily forgotten. They did Voodoo, and closed with Whatever, but not before they stuck a couple other songs in, fittingly, Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, then Kiss’ “Rock n Roll All Night”, and finally whipping the crowd into a frenzy with Pantera’s “Walk”, before closing the song.
Given the setlist from every other show on that tour, I can safely say ours was the same:
Sick of Life
Vampires
Bad Religion
Bad Magick
Spiral
Greed
Awake
Mistakes
Trippin’
Moon Baby
Get Up, Get Out
Keep Away
Encore:
America The Beautiful
Voodoo
Whatever
We headed backstage once again, chilled on the bus for awhile until we saw a large group of fans being escorted over to the catering tent. We got off the bus and followed the crowd, with our laminates doing the talking to get us into the tent as well. Sully, Robbie and Tommy came out and signed our ticket stubs and chatted for a few minutes. After that was over, we got back on the bus, pulled out and headed home. The show was great, the ride was great, and it was an awesome excursion!
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 09/14/2001 Godsmack, Saliva, Luxx (Darien, NY @ Darien Lake Performing Arts Center)
Tags: 2001, Darien, Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, Godsmack, Luxx, Saliva
09/02/2001 Cold, Dope, Lifer (Rochester, NY @ Water Street Music Hall)
By Eric | September 2, 2001 11:59 pm
We got there pretty early, hung out in line for awhile, Joe, Janet and Nick met us, and Karl and Dave showed up later. Got inside, waited a bit, and Lifer came out. These guys were terribly boring, pretty ironic considering thats the name of their first single! Then Dope was on, and boy do these guys suck. I’m ashamed to admit that I still own this CD, they were freakin terrible. White Trash in the truest sense of the word, how these guys got a fanbase, let alone a record deal is beyond me. So for the last song, the lead singer, Edsel Dope (what a name, doomed to failure!), puts his big-ass foot on the barrier, right in front of Mary. Now I don’t want her getting kicked in the head, so I put my hand on his foot… he wants to come forward, so I start pushing his foot back (he’s only got one on the barrier, the other one is on the stage). He gets pissed and starts smacking me on the head, trying to take my hat or something…. it was kinda funny. Jason was behind me, catches my hat, so I start waving it around and yell, “I STILL HAVE IT MOTHERFUCKER!!!” So he comes over and spits water at me… ooh…. you’re a tough man. He’s so skinny I could probably take him! Anyway, they got their sorry asses off stage, and after a brief delay, Cold comes on. They ripped into Give, then into End Of The World, Confession, and then Terry brought out the acoustic and they played Ugly. Mary had made a sign that said “Superstar”, and Scooter acknowledged it, but they unfortunately didn’t play it. 🙁 After that, No One, Send In The Clowns, Witch, and It’s All Good followed. At this point, I yelled out for Goodbye Cruel World, (proving again I’m psychic!) which they ripped into! They closed the main set with Just Got Wicked. For the first song of the encore, Terry had the acoustic again, and Scoot sang Bleed. The rest of the band came back out for She Said, and closed with Go Away. The show was great, the crowd was decent, and it would seem that Cold’s first headlining tour is on its way to being a success.
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 09/02/2001 Cold, Dope, Lifer (Rochester, NY @ Water Street Music Hall)
Tags: 2001, Cold, Dope, Lifer, rochester, Water Street Music Hall
08/26/2001 Edgefest 2001: Our Lady Peace, Cold, Snapcase, Finger Eleven, Last Conservative, Reveille, Stereomud (Buffalo, NY @ LaSalle Park)
By Eric | August 26, 2001 11:59 pm
Acutally made it out of the house at 9AM, got to the park at 10:15, waited in line till 11:30, Stereomud started at 12:30. These guys rocked! They played Closer Now, What, Don’t Be Afraid, Steppin Away, Leave (Back Up), and Pain. Didn’t seem like too many people knew who they were, but at least people were into it. Saw part of Reveille’s set as I was in line for Stereomud autographs, they sounded pretty good, the guys voice is kind of annoying though. The guys in Stereomud were real nice, I got the CD cover signed. Headed back out and since I wasn’t going to watch Sum41, I wandered over to the local stage and caught Last Conservative. They put on a rockin good show! Milled around some more after their set, got food, etc, and waited till Finger Eleven came on. Got right in the middle of the pit for F11, they sounded great as usual, but I was too busy bouncing around in the crowd to really watch them. Opened with Above, then First Time, Suffocate, Quicksand, Tip, and Drag You Down. Rick didn’t have his hair up, it looked kinda weird… Waited till the Shelia Devine were done with their set and I got up front in anticipation of Cold. Listened to Snapcase, who were on the other stage, from what I heard they sounded pretty good, the crowd seemed to be really into it. Then the mudpeople started throwing shit at everyone waiting at the 2nd stage. It was hot out, so the Buffalo Fire Department was spraying a hose into the middle of the crowd, which is fine, except it made a giant mud pit. Again, fine, until they started throwing it at us! Bastards! Anyway, Cold was on as soon as Snapcase finished, and rocked through their usual festival set: Give, End of the World, Confession, Witch, No One, Send In The Clowns, and Just Got Wicked. Sam got really pissed at the end of the set and knocked over half his drumkit. I ended up with a pick and the setlist from a really cool security guard, which I subsequently got signed at the Autograph booth. All the guys were awesome as usual, Jeremy, Kelly and Sam remembered me, and Jeremy actually asked about Mary as well! OLP started while I was in the tent, and I caught a couple songs of theirs. The setlist was nothing out of the ordinary: Middle of Yesterday, Mafia, Automatic Flowers, Birdman, Superman’s Dead, Whatever, (the only new song) Naveed (Interrupted and aborted due to some idiot crowdsurfer falling on his head), Is Anybody Home?, Clumsy, One Man Army, Julia, Starseed. I actually skipped out during One Man Army and heard the last two songs as I was walking to the car, to (successfully) beat the traffic out of the place. In all the show wasn’t bad, but I still don’t like festivals.
[flickr]7082281139[/flickr]
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 08/26/2001 Edgefest 2001: Our Lady Peace, Cold, Snapcase, Finger Eleven, Last Conservative, Reveille, Stereomud (Buffalo, NY @ LaSalle Park)
Tags: 2001, Buffalo, Cold, Edgefest, Finger Eleven, LaSalle Park, Last Conservative, Our Lady Peace, Reveille, Snapcase, Stereomud
08/21/2001 The Tea Party (Thorold, ONT @ Arizona’s)
By Eric | August 21, 2001 11:59 pm
We got there about 6:45, because the doors were supposed to open at 7pm. We met up with Joe, Rick, Janet, Sara and Danielle, and waited till about 7:30 for the doors to open. Then we got in and waited a whole lot longer, as the opening band didn’t start until 9:00. I didnt catch their name, and it really didnt matter, because they should have been called a finger eleven tribute band, as their sound was a DIRECT rip-off of F11. They sounded okay, but the originality was sorely lacking. After they finished about 9:30, we waited another entire hour before the Tea Party came on. Thank God the Tea was awesome as usual, or we’d have been pretty pissed off. They played just about the same setlist as the friendship festival, except we got 3 new songs, those being Lullaby, Requiem, and one I hadn’t heard yet, Cathartik (which was awesome). Jeff Martin brought out the Oud (but he didn’t say it!), and did Zahira/Favorite Son as the intro to Halcyon Days. They stuck the guitar solo from The River into Temptation, Kashmir into Save Me, and Paint It Black in the middle of Sister Awake during the encore. The show was great, but the crowd was a little lame, it seemed as if everyone was just standing there. It’s usually great, cuz we’re not getting killed, but no one seemed into it, most likely due to the extended wait we endured. And if for some reason the screaming girls behind Karl and Sara are reading, SHUT THE HELL UP NEXT TIME!
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 08/21/2001 The Tea Party (Thorold, ONT @ Arizona’s)
Tags: 2001, Arizona’s, The Tea Party, Thorold
orbiting the knot
By Eric | July 26, 2001 6:49 pm
The slipknot review is up, and what a show that was. Got my new David Usher – Morning Orbit CD from HMV, its pretty good, has a handful of guest stars on it, including Jeff Martin! Not too much other stuff going on at this point.
Current Mood: Full from dinner
Song: Matthew Good Band – Flashdance II (Loser Anthems)
Shirt – Korn / Blue Cartoon
Topics: Blog | Comments Off on orbiting the knot
Tags: NT
07/25/2001 Slipknot, Papa Roach, Linkin Park, Disturbed (Rochester, NY @ Blue Cross Arena)
By Eric | July 25, 2001 11:59 pm
We got there about 6:45, thinking we’d miss some of Mudvayne. Turns out their singer messed up his throat, so they didn’t show. So we missed half of Disturbed’s set instead. They were much better this time than at UB, but still not amazing. We sat in the seats for this one, we weren’t about to get killed on the floor. So yeah, Disturbed was okay, nothing too special. Next up was Linkin Park. These guys sounded good, they were obviously having a blast on stage, and really got the crowd into it. They came out to their DJ spinning GNR’s Welcome To The Jungle, then kicked into With You. They played everything off of Hybrid Theory, closing with One Step Closer, and the crowd went bezerk. Lotsa energy, Chester and Mike were constantly in the crowd, singing, surfing, whatever. Damn cool!
Points of Authority
One Step Closer
Papa Roach was after them, and while the band was into it, and the crowd was too, the performance wasnt anything super special. I like the album, but they didn’t make it any more interesting when they played it live. Coby at one point was in the crowd on the left hand side of the stage, then attempted to surf all the way over to the other side. He only made it about half way before security pulled him out. They sounded good, but the performance overall was just kinda ehhh… Then it was time for Slipknot. One explosion later, they ripped into People=Shit, then right into Eeyore. Then another new song, Disasterpiece, followed by the song that really got the crowd into it, Purity. The stage was pretty big, with 9 guys jumping around it has to be. They had the fire going on at the back of the stage, and a lighting truss that moved up and down. Shawn’s (6) drums were on hydraulics, and he’d jump on top of them, going up and down. The guys are insane. They kept diving into the crowd. Next song was Gently, then Eyeless got the pits really going again. Two more new songs, New Abortion and Heretic Song were up next, and during Heretic Song they had two giant “666” light up signs on the speakers. During Spit It Out, in the middle of the song, Corey (8) got everyone in the crowd to kneel down, and then as the song kicked back in, had everyone leap up. It was one of the coolest things I’ve seen at a show in a long time! The whole crowd sang for Wait and Bleed, then for the encore, Sid (0) played a loop which led into 742617000027, which naturally kicked into (sic). Then for the last song of the night, the place went nuts as the intro to Surfacing was played. As the song ended, the whole place was screaming. What a spectacle!
(515) and People=Shit
Liberate
Eeyore
Disasterpiece
Purity
Gently
Eyeless
New Abortion
Heretic Song
Spit It Out
Wait and Bleed
(sic)
Surfacing
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 07/25/2001 Slipknot, Papa Roach, Linkin Park, Disturbed (Rochester, NY @ Blue Cross Arena)
Tags: 2001, Blue Cross Arena, Disturbed, Linkin Park, Papa Roach, rochester, Slipknot
lax on the reviews
By Eric | July 24, 2001 8:22 am
Finally a little bit of time to do this from over the weekend… I’ve been lazy so the show reviews for Cold, BoyHitsCar and KRockathon aren’t up yet. The shows were great though, the traffic into Vernon Downs was not. But there’ll be more on that later.
I can feel it already, this is going to be one of those days that is gonna drag on forever, and I’m not even at work yet. I slept good, but it wasn’t enough, I’m still tired as hell. Nothings wrong but I feel like shit anyway, I hope I’m not getting sick. 🙁
On a brighter note, I should hopefully have the new cake album today sometime, we tried cheating at the archive yesterday but they didn’t have it yet. Talked to Rick for awhile though, and I’m hopefully going to see Adema saturday at the Penny Arcade with Hate Machine and Eastcide.
Current Mood: Tired, kinda weirded out
Song: Stabbing Westward – Sometimes It Hurts (Darkest Days)
Shirt: Black NIN
Topics: Blog | Comments Off on lax on the reviews
Tags: NT, Work
07/22/2001 KRockathon 6: Crazy Town, Cold, Taproot, Nonpoint, Drowning Pool, Boy Hits Car, Econoline Crush, Adema (Vernon, NY @ Vernon Downs)
By Eric | July 22, 2001 11:59 pm
Sara and Adrienne came up Saturday night, and about 10am the next morning we all rolled out down the 90 to Vernon. We got about within 5 miles of the venue at about noon or so, and traffic came to a complete standstill. It took us over an hour to go 1 mile at one point. We ended up parking in this little hotel/restaurant place for $3, and walked 20 mins to the venue. The guy at the hotel told us it was a 50 minute wait from where we were to the place, and that pretty much turned out to be true. So we got in and saw the very tail end of Adema’s set (we missed Crashpalace and Pressure 4-5). Mary had just seen them open for Staind the day before, and said we didn’t miss anything, my jury is still out. Anyway, Mary and I rushed up front because EC was on next. We ended up right in front of Dan, and he recognized us! All the bands played short sets, Econoline did Sparkle and Shine, Surefire, You Don’t Know…, My Salvation, and Wioked/HLAH. We got out of the crowd right after, and watched Boy Hits Car from the perimeter. Also a short set, they played I’m A Cloud, As I Watched…, Man Without Skin, Rebirth, Lovecore and Benkei, with Cregg climbing the scaffolding all the way up the stage, then climing about halfway down, and jumping in the crowd! The guy is nuts! 🙂 We were waiting in line for the EC autograph booth while Drowning Pool was on, so we only kinda saw them. Nonpoint was up next, so I ventured back in the crowd for them. This was the first time I’d seen them, and they were pretty damn good. People were moshing and stuff, but it didnt seem like too many knew any of the songs. They sounded really good though, and the set was something like: Mindtrip, Endure, Back Up, Victim, Hive, and What A Day. I came back out during Taproot’s set, who we really didn’t watch. We found our friend Rick from Record Archive, who was passing out Adema stuff, so we were talking to him for awhile, when who should appear from behind the merch tent than Cregg from Boy Hits Car! I still had my ticket stub from Friday’s show, so Mary got that signed, and we chatted with him for a minute. What a personable guy! After Taproot was finished, I once again ventured into the sea of ~40,000 people for Cold. I acutally made it all the way up to the barrier just as they kicked into Go Away (which no one knew), then followed by End of the World, Confession, No One, Witch, Send In The Clowns (Aaron came out), and closed with Just Got Wicked. I came out, found Mary, and pretty much walked around for all of Crazy Town’s set. At this point we decided that the merits of getting out while there was still no traffic and getting home at a decent time for work Monday outweighed those of seeing Papa Roach and Staind. The show was pretty good, but too many people for my liking, and I don’t think I’d ever go again. Just another example of why club shows will beat festivals any day.
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 07/22/2001 KRockathon 6: Crazy Town, Cold, Taproot, Nonpoint, Drowning Pool, Boy Hits Car, Econoline Crush, Adema (Vernon, NY @ Vernon Downs)
Tags: 2001, Adema, Boy Hits Car, Cold, Crazy Town, Drowning Pool, Econoline Crush, KROCKathon, Nonpoint, Taproot, Vernon, Vernon Downs