07/21/2017 Primus, Clutch (Rochester, NY @ Dome Arena)
By Eric | July 22, 2017 10:11 am
Clutch in my backyard at the Dome? Yes! I got tickets to this as soon as they went on sale. And then I ended up having throat surgery scheduled for the day before… meaning I would be on voice rest. Complete voice rest. Everyone was asking, “Are you still going to go?” Uh, I didn’t have surgery on my ears! Of course I went. Got right down front too. I didn’t really have to talk to anyone anyway. This being my third Clutch show, it was the first that had any semblance of a mosh pit. They did skew old-school towards the end of the set (Immortal, Peterbilt, Spacegrass (which I finally got to see!)) and people predictably went nuts – a lot of people came out of mosh retirement! They also played three new songs, including the live premiere of Bubonic Blues. Tons of fun, even though I couldn’t sing along this time.
Clutch Setlist:
—————
Crucial Velocity
Cyborg Bette
Earth Rocker
Promoter (Of Earthbound Causes)
Firebirds!
Vision Quest (new song)
Sucker for the Witch
A Quick Death in Texas
Immortal
Bubonic Blues (New song, live premiere)
The House That Peterbilt
Spacegrass
D.C. Sound Attack!
We Love a Good Fire (new song)
Electric Worry
X-Ray Visions
Cyborg Bette
Earth Rocker
Vision Quest
Quick Death In Texas
The House That Peterbilt
Spacegrass
We Love A Good Fire
Electric Worry
I retreated to the back to hang out with Brett and his buddies for Primus. I had always been sort of interested to see them, and now having seen a show, I’m not any more of a fan. Perhaps its because I didn’t know a lot of the songs save for the hits (Wynona, My Name Is Mud, Jerry Was a Race Car Driver), but the set felt overly long, and I just wasn’t that interested. So it was okay, they sounded good, however it didn’t do a whole lot for me. I can say I’ve seen them!
Primus setlist:
—————
Seas of Cheese
Spegetti Western
Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver
Sgt. Baker
Too Many Puppies / Hello Skinny (The Residents cover)
American Life
Over the Falls
Lee Van Cleef
Candy Man (Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley cover)
Mr. Krinkle
Drum Introduction / Eleven
On the Tweek Again
My Name Is Mud
Jerry Was a Race Car Driver
Seven
Southbound Pachyderm
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 07/21/2017 Primus, Clutch (Rochester, NY @ Dome Arena)
Tags: 2017, Clutch, Dome Arena, Primus, rochester
07/13/2017 Warped Tour – GWAR, Hatebreed, Sick Of It All, The Acacia Strain, blessthefall, Candiria, Beartooth, Emmure, CKY, Watsky, Hawthorne Heights, Alestorm, Anti-Flag, Save Ferris, Separations, After The Burial, Feeki, Silent Planet (Darien, NY @ Darien Lake Performing Arts Center)
By Eric | July 14, 2017 10:48 am
Every year I check the Warped Tour lineups, and every year it’s two bands I want to see and a bunch I either don’t or have never heard of. This year there was a whole bunch of stuff that looked interesting – Hatebreed, GWAR, Candiria, Sick of it All, Save Ferris, among others. Plus Jamey Jasta was doing live podcast tapings at each stop, so that combined with the lineup pulled me out of Warped retirement. I hadn’t been to Warped since 1998 at LaSalle Park! Neither had Hatebreed for that matter, but they didn’t play Buffalo for some reason. I was curious to see how it compared nearly 20 years later.
The weather almost didn’t cooperate. The morning of this show it was POURING. I ran around to practically every store in Batavia looking for a light windbreaker / raincoat before finally finding one at K- Mart. I rolled into Darien and miraculously the rain stopped pretty much as I arrived. Apparently they were shovelling water out from the front of the main stage right up until doors. I got in not too long after that, milled around a bit, and the first band I stopped to actually watch was Silent Planet. Pretty decent. Milled around some more, hit up the American Villian tent and talked to Jed for a second, and then caught some of After The Burial over on Mutant South because that was right near the tent for the workshops. Time to sit in on the Jasta show podcast taping!
A bunch of the Warped artists had workshops that fans could buy tickets for, and Jamey’s was his podcast with fans sitting in. Given that this was the Buffalo show, the guest was Andy Williams from Every Time I Die. Given how hot and sticky it was outside, the fact that the taping was in one of the air-conditioned artist rooms backstage was much appreciated. The taping was fun, the podcast was entertaining as always, and pictures as proof are always in order!
Most of everyone I wanted to see was later on in the day, save for a couple I would have liked to see that were playing during the podcast (Knocked Loose, I Prevail, Municipal Waste). I caught a little bit of Attila to see what all that fuss is about (I think I’m too old to get it), and a hockey player buddy of mine was touring with Separations, so I checked them out. I was interested to see Save Ferris, as I’d never seen them. Much like Hatebreed, they had played Warped in 1998 but they either didn’t play the Buffalo date or I didn’t see them. Either way, it was fun hearing the old songs, including, of course, Come On Eileen. Apparently its lead singer Monique Powell with a whole new band, but no matter to me. I picked up the new EP and got a pic with Monique at the merch tent too – I told her it was my first time at Warped since ’98 also!
After Save Ferris, I caught little bits of CKY, a lot of Candiria (hadn’t seen them since Showplace in 2001!), another buddy of mine has toured with Beartooth so I watched most of that set and was very impressed, a little bit of Emmure (same idea as Attila – I don’t get it), and then camped out in front of the Mutant North stage – watched the end of blessthefall, and all of The Acacia Strain on the other stage in preparation for my main attraction of the day – Hatebreed!
They ran through a half-hour sprint of most of the hardest and crowd-participatory songs in the catalog, and boy was that fun. I was right up on the barrier and had a blast. It’s always a good time when Hatebreed comes to town.
Hatebreed setlist
—————–
Last Breath
Looking Down the Barrel of Today
To The Threshold
In Ashes They Shall Reap
Everyone Bleeds Now
As Diehard as They Come
Destroy Everything
Perseverance
Driven by Suffering
I Will Be Heard
So after that I ran over to the main stage to catch the last song from Sick of it All, then came right back for GWAR. I don’t think most of the kids in attendance were ready for what they saw (or got sprayed with haha), however, they put on the usual hilarious spectacle. After GWAR I milled around a little more, ran into both Wayne and Florida Frank (Hatebreed’s guitar players) for a brief moment, and caught a couple more bands before calling it a night. I don’t know if the show sold out, but there were a good number of people there, and the kids seemed to be into it. Every single band looked like it had at least a bit of a dedicated following to go along with all the passerby (such as myself in most cases).
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 07/13/2017 Warped Tour – GWAR, Hatebreed, Sick Of It All, The Acacia Strain, blessthefall, Candiria, Beartooth, Emmure, CKY, Watsky, Hawthorne Heights, Alestorm, Anti-Flag, Save Ferris, Separations, After The Burial, Feeki, Silent Planet (Darien, NY @ Darien Lake Performing Arts Center)
Tags: 2017, After The Burial, Alestorm, Anti-Flag, Beartooth, blessthefall, Candiria, CKY, Emmure, Feeki, GWAR, Hatebreed, Hawthorne Heights, Save Ferris, Separations, Sick Of It All, Silent Planet, The Acacia Strain, Warped Tour, Watsky
07/08/2017 Fuel, Unwill (Rochester, NY @ The German House)
By Eric | July 9, 2017 10:29 am
[American Acid was first band on, didn’t see them.]
This show was early. Like, Fuel came out on stage around 8:30 on Saturday night early. I was dumbfounded, and thankfully I didn’t do my usual “put the kids to bed first” routine, or I would have missed most of it! I wonder if the lack of ticket sales led them to just say the hell with it and get it over with, as there weren’t too many people in the place. Definitely sparse for the openers. Unwill is a local Rochester band, and were almost a bit too heavy to be opening for Fuel, but no matter, they were pretty decent for their half hour.
Regardless of what time they came out and the size of the crowd, Brett and the new set of hired guns put on an excellent show. Just like old times at the start, with Untitled into Jesus or a Gun. Mary Pretends was back in the set as well, but this time we got two covers (Fly Like An Eagle and Mary Jane’s Last Dance), and only one new song in Puppet Strings. I would have liked more originals rather than the covers, and Cold Summer or Time For Me To Stop from the new album would have been cool. In any event, it was still a really fun show, a trip down memory lane, and I got back home early!
Untitled
Jesus or a Gun
Empty Spaces
Mary Pretends
Bad Day
Sunburn
Fly Like An Eagle (Steve Miller Band cover)
Shimmer
Bittersweet
Mary Jane’s Last Dance (Tom Petty cover)
Puppet Strings
Hemmorhage
[Innocent was on the setlist but didn’t get played]
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 07/08/2017 Fuel, Unwill (Rochester, NY @ The German House)
Tags: 2017, Fuel, German House, rochester, Unwill
06/29/2017 Our Lady Peace, Collective Soul, Tonic (Buffalo, NY @ Albright Knox Art Gallery)
By Eric | June 30, 2017 10:33 am
This was essentially my 20th anniversary concert – give or take 2 weeks, but seeing the same band in the same city where it all started was pretty special. My first ever show was Our Lady Peace at the Tralf in June of 1997, and the only thing that would have made this show even more complete would have been to hang out with my high school friend Christine, whose mom drove us to that first show. As it turned out, she almost came to this show, but was at Darien Lake seeing Third Eye Blind instead. Since I ran into another old co-op friend in Katie at this show, I did get to say hi to Christine via text through her, which was kinda cool. It all comes full circle!
So as for the show itself, I was still in line outside the grounds (the stage and crowd area were in the front parking lot of the museum) when Tonic started. Couldn’t really see them, but heard them perfectly, and they sounded good. I liked that even with a short set, they play some of the more rockin tunes that weren’t necessarily singles, like Liar and Top Falls Down. Jon, Laura and Art met me in line just as we were about to get in, and once we did, it was off to stand in line after line for beer tickets, beer, and then food. We finally got our stuff and staked out a spot just as it was time for set change.
[Randomness]
During this set change, in something peculiar and interesting only to me, over the PA they played, among other things, Emphatic’s “Get Paid”, which while a song that I like, made zero sense in the context of this show and/or any of the bands. I must have looked like the RCA Victor dog when it came on as I went “They’re playing this? Here? WHY?”
[/Randomness]
Tonic
—–
Open Up Your Eyes
Liar
Top Falls Down
You Wanted More
Sugar
Mountain
If You Could Only See
You Wanted More
It was about this time I ran into Katie, so I caught up with her all through set change and most of Collective Soul’s set as well. CS sounded terrific, and they’re one of those bands that you forget how many hits they have until they play them all back to back. It was the 90’s all over again for sure!
Collective Soul
—————
Simple
Heavy
Better Now
Shine
December
The World I Know
Contagious
Right as Rain
Where the River Flows
Run
Someone put a couple of song clips together:
So after another beer run and food run, we settled in for OLP. And after watching this band for 20 years, in all manner of venues and places, this show was… weird. They opened with Innocent, and the setlist selection was varied and somewhat interesting, but yeah. I don’t know. I’ll admit that I have some huge gaps as far as seeing them (2003 @ RIT, then 2009 Lockport, 2010 Clumsy in NT, and then this one) so I don’t know what they’ve normally been playing. I’ll probably never be happy with a setlist at this point. Is Anybody Home and One Man Army were nice to hear, and the new Drop Me In The Water is pretty good. I guess In Repair and Not Enough are the only songs I could really do without, but I’ll forever complain when Starseed is the only song off Naveed. Ah well. The band sounded good, Raine was okay, not stellar. Now that Taggart isn’t in the band anymore either it’s even more not the same as it was back in the day. Despite all that, I really did have a good time, was very happy to be there, and it put me in a nostalgic mood considering all the history with OLP over the last 20 years.
And oh yeah, of course I wore the shirt! (From what I could see, I was the only one with said shirt too!)
Our Lady Peace
————–
Innocent
Is Anybody Home?
Superman’s Dead
One Man Army
Paper Moon / Life
Somewhere Out There
Drop Me In The Water
Not Enough
In Repair
Clumsy
Heavyweight
4am
Starseed
Starseed
Compilation of a bunch of songs:
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 06/29/2017 Our Lady Peace, Collective Soul, Tonic (Buffalo, NY @ Albright Knox Art Gallery)
Tags: 2017, Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, Collective Soul, Our Lady Peace, Tonic
Papa Roach – 2017 – Crooked Teeth (Deluxe)
By Eric | June 12, 2017 6:00 pm
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Artist: Papa Roach
Title: Crooked Teeth
Label: Eleven Seven
Released: May 19, 2017
Packaging: Digipack
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Deluxe Edition
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#Break The Fall
#Crooked Teeth
#My Medication
#Born For Greatness
#American Dreams
#Periscope (featuring Skylar Grey)
#Help
#Sunrise Trailer Park (featuring MGK)
#Traumatic
#None Of The Above
#Ricochet
#Nothing
#Bleeding Through
#Intro (Live at Fillmore, Detroit)
#Face Everything And Rise (Live at Fillmore, Detroit)
#Getting Away With Murder (Live at Fillmore, Detroit)
#Between Angels and Insects (Live at Fillmore, Detroit)
#Where Did The Angels Go? (Live at Fillmore, Detroit)
#Broken Home (Live at Fillmore, Detroit)
#Burn (Live at Fillmore, Detroit)
#Forever (Live at Fillmore, Detroit)
#Scars (Live at Fillmore, Detroit)
#Lifeline (Live at Fillmore, Detroit)
#Infest (Live at Fillmore, Detroit)
#Kick in the Teeth (Live at Fillmore, Detroit)
#Broken As Me (Live at Fillmore, Detroit)
#Still Swingin (Live at Fillmore, Detroit)
#To Be Loved (Live at Fillmore, Detroit)
#Last Resort (Live at Fillmore, Detroit)
Review:
https://open.spotify.com/album/4KTUNKma9YpiSbioeui4pW
Topics: CD Collection | Comments Off on Papa Roach – 2017 – Crooked Teeth (Deluxe)
Tags: 2017, Deluxe Edition, Digipack, Eleven Seven, Papa Roach
Chris Cornell – 2011 – Songbook
By Eric | June 12, 2017 6:00 pm
Artist: Chris Cornell
Title: Songbook
Label: Universal
Released: Nov 21, 2011
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#As Hope and Promise Fade
#Scar On The Sky
#Call Me A Dog
#Ground Zero
#Can’t Change Me
#I Am The Highway
#Thank You
#Cleaning My Gun
#Wide Awake
#Fell On Black Days
#All Night Thing
#Doesn’t Remind Me
#Like A Stone
#Black Hole Sun
#Imagine
#The Keeper
Review:
Topics: CD Collection | Comments Off on Chris Cornell – 2011 – Songbook
Tags: 2011, Chris Cornell, Jewel Case, Standard, Universal
20 Years Of Concerts
By Eric | June 11, 2017 8:00 am
June 11th, 2017 – 20 years since my first concert. Where does the time go? It was only yesterday that… No. No it wasn’t. It was 20 years go. You’re old, Eric. Get over it.
Anyway, since I’m a dork I thought it would be fun to run the numbers on the Concert Chronology and look at some basic stats:
* 355 shows over 20 years. It works out to an average of 17.75 shows a year, or a shade under one and a half per month. This doesn’t include the countless local bands / bar bands either, just the major stuff. I’m not even hazarding a guess as to dollars spent. I don’t wanna know,
* 2001 was the banner year – 37 shows, and 2009 was right behind that at 33. 1997 only had 4 (I was just starting!) and 2006 had a lowly 3, all in March (Thanks to the year of weddings and bachelor parties. Literally, they all happened that year.)
* 587 different artists at 101 different venues, in only 3 different states/provinces (PA got a handful). I even accounted for name changes! (Same building = same venue. Looking at you Marine Midland / HSBC / First Niagara, and also Milestones / High Fidelity / Flour City.)
* Bands most often seen: The Tea Party and Sevendust are tied for first at 17 shows apiece, Our Lady Peace is right behind at 16, Staind at 12, Theory of a Deadman and Cold at 11 each, and Econoline Crush and The Tragically Hip are at 10 each. Inexplicably, I’ve suffered through Velour (even when they tried to disguise themselves as the Turnstones) 10 times as well.
* “Weirdest” artists seen would probably have to be Wang Chung and/or Vanilla Ice (during his nu-metal phase). Can’t think of any others that are that LOL-worthy.
* Venues most visited: Water Street Music Hall (RIP) runs away with this one – 48 shows, with another 6 on the club side. Montage is next at 21, Darien Lake had 20, Town Ballroom had 19, Showplace Theater had 18.
* Rochester beat Buffalo 141 to 109. Darien was a distant third with 20.
* There’s no way in hell I could do any kind of ranking, not even of just “memorable” shows. There’s simply too many.
I wrote a little piece for 10 years worth of shows, and while most of those sentiments still hold true, however, with age supposedly comes a little bit of wisdom. I no longer wait in lines if I can help it. I now will gladly pay for a VIP meet and greet instead of waiting outside for hours by the bus, mainly because my time is more valuable, but also because that money goes directly to the artist that I’m there supporting in the first place. I’m forced to be a bit more judicious in which shows to go to, so I try to wring a bit more experience out of each one.
Finally, I hope I’m still doing this for another 20 years, hopefully with the boys! Nothing like being the old guy in the back complaining about the “kids these days” and how much better these shows used to be!
Topics: Blog | 1 Comment »
Tags: 10 Years, All, Cold, concerts, Darien, Econoline Crush, music, Our Lady Peace, Sevendust, Showplace Theater, Staind, Tea Party, The Tea Party, The Tragically Hip, Theory of a Deadman, Town Ballroom, Water Street Music Hall
05/30/2017 Tool, Once And Future Band (Rochester, NY @ Blue Cross Arena)
By Eric | May 31, 2017 10:39 am
Imagine everyone’s surprise when Tool announced a short tour in the Spring of 2017, and Rochester got a date! Naturally I jumped on a ticket to this show as soon as it was announced, and so did everyone else – it allegedly sold out in something like 20 minutes. It had only been 15 years since I’d last seen them (August 2002 in Hamilton), and with only one album released in that timeframe, I hadn’t missed all that much! Regardless, I made sure to get a lower bowl seat rather than a floor seat, so as to be able to see all the visuals without craning my neck. There was seats on the floor as well, but my view from the left side of the stage was pretty good (it better have been for a $100 ticket!). I got in just as Once and Future Band was finishing up, and from what little I saw, I didn’t miss much. They were trying to recreate the 70’s prog-rock vibe – not my cup of tea.
Tool *is* my cup of tea though, and when they kicked it off with The Grudge, the entire place predictably went nuts. The band sounded fantastic, the visuals were stunning, and the setlist was interesting. Two songs off Opiate, five from AEnima, four from Lateralus, two from 10,000 days, a new/old song (Descending), but curiously nothing from Undertow whatsoever. Didn’t matter much to me, as what they did play was great. Well worth the ticket price and the wait. I stuck around in the seats for a little bit to let the crowd clear out, and snagged a bootleg tour shirt that someone had left behind!
Set 1:
The Grudge
Parabol
Parabola
Schism
Opiate
Ænema
Descending
Jambi
Third Eye
Forty-Six & 2
Set 2:
Drum Solo
Vicarious
Sweat
(-) Ions
Stinkfist
The Grudge
Schism
Parabola
Opiate
AEnema
Descending / Jambi
Third Eye
46 & 2
Vicarious
Stinkfist
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 05/30/2017 Tool, Once And Future Band (Rochester, NY @ Blue Cross Arena)
Tags: 2017, Blue Cross Arena, Once And Future Band, rochester, Tool
All That Remains – 2017 – Madness
By Eric | May 21, 2017 6:00 pm
Artist: All That Remains
Title: Madness
Label: Razor & Tie
Released: Apr 28, 2017
Packaging: Cardboard
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#Safe House
#Madness
#Nothing I Can Do
#If I’m Honest
#Halo
#Louder
#Rivercity
#Open Grave
#Far From Home
#Trust And Believe
#Back To You
#Never Sorry
#The Thunder Rolls
Review:
Topics: CD Collection | Comments Off on All That Remains – 2017 – Madness
Tags: 2017, All That Remains, Cardboard, Razor & Tie, Standard
Soul Coughing – 1997 – Made Especially For You By Soul Coughing
By Eric | May 10, 2017 6:00 pm
Artist: Soul Coughing
Title: Made Especially For You By Soul Coughing
Label: Slash
Released: Jan 1, 1997
Packaging: Cardboard
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#Suzy Snowflake
#Super Bon Bon (Live)
#Screenwriter’s Blues (Live)
#Collapse (Live)
#Janine (Live)
Review:
Track 2 recorded live on the Howard Stern Show at WXRK.
Track 3 recorded live on Kevin and Bean at KROQ.
Track 4 recorded live at Sonic Studios for Y100 Sonic Session.
Topics: CD Collection | Comments Off on Soul Coughing – 1997 – Made Especially For You By Soul Coughing
Tags: 1997, Cardboard, Slash, Soul Coughing, Standard