Last Friday I went to a hardcore show at the Vault here in Temecula that ended up being a big deal for reasons that have nothing to do with the bands or music. And not in a good way.
I arrived when local band Oh Dae Su was finishing their set. I've written about them before, in the In This Moment review, and I like them. Real good metallic music with cool groovy mid-paced parts. I only saw one full song which was called "Great Like Me" or something like that, something "Like Me." Their friends up front did like last time and were moshing during parts where it would seem like hardcore dancing or 2-stepping would normally take place. Which is cool but this time it seemed like a smaller group and like people weren't feeling it. The singer had a really screechy high pitched scream this time around, which I really liked, but was a little off-putting as well.
I had come to this show alone and remained alone the whole time. I just don't really know people in the hardcore scene, I love going to the shows but I rarely know anyone. So in between bands I just cruised back to my car and drank beers.
The next band was Betrayal, who was listed further up the bill but apparently openers Bermuda and Volumes got stuck in traffic. It was raining like a bitch this particular weekend so that makes sense. Betrayal is like metallic hardcore with alot of breakdowns, almost a constant breakdown it seems sometimes. I don't really like their albums much because it's kinda the tough-guy type stuff I don't usually like anyway, but they put on a really good show. The pit was hard as shit and there was clearly a group of friends who were violently regulating that place. At one point this skinny kid in a white shirt came swinging backwards to where I was standing and I lightly kicked him forward. He turned around pissed as shit and got into it with the guy next to me, thinking he had done it. Even though I was saying like "Hey man it was me sorry bro" the guy who he was yelling at started getting all defensive so there was almost a fight because of my kick that wasn't gonna involve me. Weird. I'm pretty sure there was a fight towards the front of the stage at one point and maybe another one too. It was a very aggressive atmosphere.
Next up was It Prevails, who were supposed to be the 'headliners' of this show but since the other 2 bands still hadn't arrived they just went next. It Prevails is drastically different than all the other bands who played tonight because they don't have any trace of tough-guy hardcore and they are actually pretty melodic. Like they were still a hardcore band, but a real "emotional hardcore" band somewhat in the vein of Boysetsfire, Verse, softer Bane songs, etc. They had a cool guitar thing going on where the rythm guy was playing the harder power chord type stuff but the second guitarist was mainly doing little melodies on the higher strings to offset it. Really, I liked them alot, but I can tell they're the kind of band that might bore me on CD because although I like this style there are alot of bands who play it. For most of the set people were just standing around but then 2 dudes kinda opened up the pit and it went weak for the rest of the set. This really wasn't like moshing hardcore it was listening hardcore.
Bermuda was the next band up, and they really played good. I liked them alot, they had obvious metal things like cool blast beats going on, but they were undeniably hardcore with alot of power in the performance. Unfortunately this is where things went awry for me. I had been getting in the pit from time to time all night, and during one particular breakdown I went in with a bunch of my karate shit and as I got closer to the front of the crowd, I got roundhouse kicked HARD to my abdomen. It must have been Chuck Norris himself who hit me because I have never been injured like this before. It's almost a week later and I legitimately think my ribs might be broken or at least bruised and my liver is probably bruised or inflamed too because it took the brunt of the hit. I pushed my way through the crowd making ridiculous gurgling scream sounds that I truly could not help but yell out as I half-collapsed holding my stomache. I forced my way out the door and just started screaming and leaning over to recover. Some guy was out there on his phone and he was just like "Oh shit some dude just came out all hurt" but kept on his convo. After probably 3 to 4 minutes of complete agony the likes of which I truly cannot remember experiencing before, I walked back inside and stayed near the back so I could dodge anymore hits. Nevertheless I got caught up in a crowd-bash and got my chin punched but that was the least of my problems. For the rest of Bermuda's set I just couldn't think of anything else but this horrible pain.
For most of the show there had been this little Asian kid (I'm talkig LITTLE, short and skinny and young) with a Suicide Silence shirt on who had been going in the pit doing really shitty sloppy hardcore dancing. For the most part everybody was kinda laughing at him but nobody was aiming for him; he got hit by SOMEBODY in the Bermuda set, however, and just got knocked the fuck out. The security guys had to put him on their couch and guard over him, and surprisingly most of the main mosher people including the ones who appeared to be assholes came up to offer condolences and see if he was okay. Bermuda just kicked everybody's ass.
After their set I called up a few friends to confirm that they were all hanging out at David's like we planned and to vent about my injury. A couple people looked at me like they had seen how hard I got hit but nobody came up and asked if I was alright etc. Hardcore people are hella nice.
The final band tonight was Volumes, who I had heard about before but never actually heard. For this one I staked out a place towards the back near the water fountain so I could see everything but stay out of harm's way. I just couldn't take anymore tonight but I wasn't about to miss part of the show; aside from my injury the bands had all been pretty good. Volumes is a kinda tech-death-core type band a bit in the vein of After The Burial, Veil Of Maya, etc. They have 2 singers who are both pretty competent and an interesting rythm section that kept the set interesting. It's not music I've never heard before but they had strong grooves and hard-as-shit breakdowns, and appeared to have a pretty good response from the crowd. It wasn't as violent as Bermuda's set, but people seemed to know the songs pretty well. Also their lead guitarist busted out a tasty solo at the end of one of their songs that was a welcome addition. If you like the bands I listed above or stuff like them, Volumes is probably right up your alley and I think they said that they have an album coming soon etc.
After the show I went and hung out with friends and tried not to complain about my abdominal pain but it was feeling pretty shitty. It's definitely the worst injury I've sustained at a show, if only because it involves internal organs and because it hasn't subsided since the show but actually gotten worse I think. It makes me re-evaluate my pit-going tendencies; maybe I should stay put when I can tell there are some violent motherfuckers here.
Love the music, hate the scene.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
CLUB SHOW REVIEW: DJ Aero with Tommy Lee/Mr. White @ Club Voyeur in San Diego, February 10 2011
Full disclosure: Up-and-coming progressive dubstep DJ Skrillex was the headliner for this particular event, but for reasons that shall be explained herein, I did not see him perform so I'm not listing him on the event heading.
Me and some friends drove down to San Diego this fine Thursday afternoon very excited for the show and bumping beats all the way down there. The girls had gotten a suite at the Gaslamp Hilton (or maybe it was the Hyatt? I can't remember) which was nice but the entire hotel was non-smoking which meant no balcony for me to blaze on. Also there was no refridgerator in there which seemed a bit weird but we made due.
Some of the friends had a reservation at Voyeur to have dinner there before the show and then get their tickets for a bit cheaper. So they took off and a bit later the rest of us walked down to the club. I was already drunk at this point because we had been hanging out taking shots for like an hour or so by this point. I was pretty loud and annoying in the line I think, but it really only goes downhill from here.
We get in the club, which was kinda small but really nice with a great lit-up stage area. There was an upper level that I never went up to. The place seemed pretty nice but there wasn't any real dress code, I mean I went in there in a T-shirt and jeans forchrissake. There was a dude in the bathroom giving you paper towels, which I've always found to be weird, and bottles of water cost $4. These are the facts.
As soon as we got there I foolishly got another drink although I had been complaining about not having had dinner or anything before the show started. I chugged it down and then chewed up one of the kandys I had like I was just on a mission to get super fucked up as fast as possible. Looking back I literally have no idea why I wanted to rush everything like that because I knew it would be a long night. But what can I say I'm a fool.
First up was a DJ called Mr. White who played some cool dancey shit but nothing really too interesting. Sometimes you don't need to be interesting, however, and I remember thinking he put on an alright show for an opening act nobody at all cared about. I managed to find my way to the front of the stage but soon relinquished it when I realized how thirsty I was getting. I broke down and bought a $4 waterbottle but I was beginning to feel a little loopy.
I made it back to the front of the stage, but I think I kinda pushed my way up as if I was at a metal show or something and that may have been the first warning sign. I was in the right corner of the stage kinda leaning in between the stage itself and the bar guarding between the normal dancefloor and the VIP area. Although the first pill had only just began to start hitting me, at this juncture I took the second one like a goddamn idiot.
Now it was the second performer, DJ Aero with Tommy Lee. I've never heard DJ Aero before but I'm a big Motley Crue fan so I was looking forward to seeing Tommy Lee, but I actually thought he'd be doing live drums to the DJ stuff like he used to do with DJ AM. This was not the case, he was spinning as well, but it was really really dope. From all accounts I've heard from, "he killed it."
Unfortunately this is when I started fading out. The last thing I really remember is that some singer chick with like shoulder length hipster-looking black hair came out on this platform area in the wall above the 2 DJs and everybody started tripping out so I got it on video. I actually got great footage since I was so close, but I straight up don't even know who she is so I don't know what to label it on YouTube. (Once I do load it I'll edit this post and put it on here cuz its really good quality at least visually.)
Watching the footage back, however, it starts to get kinda disturbing around the 10 minute mark or so because the camera all the sudden just kinda collapses onto the stage, and thats exactly what happened with me. I was just too fucking high, I took too much too soon and my system overloaded and I guess I just like passed out there on the stage. Security had to like come take me away and shit, which I have very vague recollections of but cannot really reconstruct too well.
Upon being thrown out of the club I must have had my shit together enough to not be walking around fucked up out of my mind and taken to jail, or thrown out of anywhere else that I can discern. From the looks of my bank statement, I went to a pizza place for some food and then to Friday's for a beer. I do kinda remember being at Friday's because I remember several of my crew getting kicked out as well. I was sitting there at the bar and one by one different members of the party crew came stumbling in because none of us had the room key to get back in until we found the girls.
As it turned out, Stephanie had the worst night of all of us because she got whisked away to the hospital really early on by some strangers who I guess just thought she was too fucked up. Out of a group of like 15 people I think like half of us missed Skrillex.
So yeah, moral of the story, don't get all fucked up past recognition at a club shit's different than at a rave. Pace yourself, don't take it all at once. Overall I look back on this night with a ton of regret because of the total cost of the damn thing and I hardly remember anything at all. It makes me want to stay away from kandy, at least in too small of a setting like that club. I get too buckwild.
Me and some friends drove down to San Diego this fine Thursday afternoon very excited for the show and bumping beats all the way down there. The girls had gotten a suite at the Gaslamp Hilton (or maybe it was the Hyatt? I can't remember) which was nice but the entire hotel was non-smoking which meant no balcony for me to blaze on. Also there was no refridgerator in there which seemed a bit weird but we made due.
Some of the friends had a reservation at Voyeur to have dinner there before the show and then get their tickets for a bit cheaper. So they took off and a bit later the rest of us walked down to the club. I was already drunk at this point because we had been hanging out taking shots for like an hour or so by this point. I was pretty loud and annoying in the line I think, but it really only goes downhill from here.
We get in the club, which was kinda small but really nice with a great lit-up stage area. There was an upper level that I never went up to. The place seemed pretty nice but there wasn't any real dress code, I mean I went in there in a T-shirt and jeans forchrissake. There was a dude in the bathroom giving you paper towels, which I've always found to be weird, and bottles of water cost $4. These are the facts.
First up was a DJ called Mr. White who played some cool dancey shit but nothing really too interesting. Sometimes you don't need to be interesting, however, and I remember thinking he put on an alright show for an opening act nobody at all cared about. I managed to find my way to the front of the stage but soon relinquished it when I realized how thirsty I was getting. I broke down and bought a $4 waterbottle but I was beginning to feel a little loopy.
I made it back to the front of the stage, but I think I kinda pushed my way up as if I was at a metal show or something and that may have been the first warning sign. I was in the right corner of the stage kinda leaning in between the stage itself and the bar guarding between the normal dancefloor and the VIP area. Although the first pill had only just began to start hitting me, at this juncture I took the second one like a goddamn idiot.
Now it was the second performer, DJ Aero with Tommy Lee. I've never heard DJ Aero before but I'm a big Motley Crue fan so I was looking forward to seeing Tommy Lee, but I actually thought he'd be doing live drums to the DJ stuff like he used to do with DJ AM. This was not the case, he was spinning as well, but it was really really dope. From all accounts I've heard from, "he killed it."
Watching the footage back, however, it starts to get kinda disturbing around the 10 minute mark or so because the camera all the sudden just kinda collapses onto the stage, and thats exactly what happened with me. I was just too fucking high, I took too much too soon and my system overloaded and I guess I just like passed out there on the stage. Security had to like come take me away and shit, which I have very vague recollections of but cannot really reconstruct too well.
Upon being thrown out of the club I must have had my shit together enough to not be walking around fucked up out of my mind and taken to jail, or thrown out of anywhere else that I can discern. From the looks of my bank statement, I went to a pizza place for some food and then to Friday's for a beer. I do kinda remember being at Friday's because I remember several of my crew getting kicked out as well. I was sitting there at the bar and one by one different members of the party crew came stumbling in because none of us had the room key to get back in until we found the girls.
As it turned out, Stephanie had the worst night of all of us because she got whisked away to the hospital really early on by some strangers who I guess just thought she was too fucked up. Out of a group of like 15 people I think like half of us missed Skrillex.
So yeah, moral of the story, don't get all fucked up past recognition at a club shit's different than at a rave. Pace yourself, don't take it all at once. Overall I look back on this night with a ton of regret because of the total cost of the damn thing and I hardly remember anything at all. It makes me want to stay away from kandy, at least in too small of a setting like that club. I get too buckwild.
SHOW REVIEW: Irie Society @ The Vault, February 4th 2011
A few weeks back my good friends in Irie Society opened up for a random show at the Vault. Their reggae singer/freestyler Ethan is a longtime friend of mine and I try to check out his stuff whenever I can, we even used to play back-to-back acoustic sets all the time. Up until tonight, however, I had never seen Irie Society even though they had played at a few parties I was even at. I've heard their CD and it's really good; they actually burned the initial copies of it here in my bedroom on my CD duplicator. So it was about time I finally caught a live set.
Tonight a bunch of homies rolled out to support and I came with KP and Brian, showing up around the midway point of the first song. I saw some homies towards the left side of the stage so we cruised there and greeted everybody before paying real attention.
Irie Society plays like Cali hip-hop strongly influenced by reggae and beach music. Ethan's background is playing in several reggae projects but for this he mainly just sings and freestyles in his funny reggae way. He sounds like Brad from Sublime alot of the time, and does alot of random scat stuff like Barrington Levy does. Really his singing is much better than his freestyling because sometimes his freestyling goes on a bit long and veers towards the direction of being a ramble. But his contributions are kind of what make Irie Society what they are, otherwise it would just be 2 dudes rapping over kinda-reggae beats. Ethan makes it seem like a party.
My homie Jimmy makes the beats and man o man are they good. I'm not one to really describe that kind of stuff because I have no background in making beats, but his stuff flows really nicely, has a good danceable stony feel to it, and more than anything his beats sound really clean and like professional. There are so many layers it seems, it's not just a standard beat and melody there are all sorts of flourishes going on. Good stuff.
Both of the MCs, I like Chasen's rhymes more than Trevor's but both are really good. It seemed like they knew what they were gonna say because the flows were so tight but I talked to Ethan's brother Nick after the show and he said that everything was freestyled. I can believe that, because every time I ever seen Chasen at a party he's rhyming about something or other, but they were never as together as what I heard when they all played live. Maybe it's because they have more time to think when they're onstage than when they're trying to battle off-the-cuff or make shit up when they're drunk at a party, but both of them were holding it down the whole show it was really cool.
I had run into an old homie, Mike, partway through the performance and we talked for a quick minute before watching again. After one of the songs Ethan says "You guys wanna hear some live music?" and everybody cheers and I see Mike, who had just been right next to me, walking onstage towards a drum set that had been set up in the background. Sneaky! Jimmy picked up a bass and they fiddled around with the bass amp and Ethan put on a guitar and they fiddled around with that. It looked like the old band they had been in together, who I can't remember the name of right now but was the shit a few years back. Before you know it they were rocking out some smooth smooth jams while Chasen and Trevor kept it real on the mic. It seemed like they didn't have a whole lot of practice recently on the live instruments because Ethan and Jimmy seemed off a few times, but it was cool as shit and especially at a party or something it would have been off the hook.
The Vault sound guy had announced before they played the first live song that they had like 7 minutes left, which I think they went longer than, but clearly they wanted to play more than that and had planned on more songs. All the homies shuffled out and really we were most of the crowd that night. When the next band, some halfrate radio rock band called Betawolf, played I went back in with KP and Brian and it was just really lame. Nobody was in there but a few families and like the members of bands who were gonna play after. I don't know why the Vault promoters put Irie Society on this bill but it worked to fill the place for a few minutes.
Irie Society is badass live, they're great for parties, and they're the homies. Look'em up.
Tonight a bunch of homies rolled out to support and I came with KP and Brian, showing up around the midway point of the first song. I saw some homies towards the left side of the stage so we cruised there and greeted everybody before paying real attention.
Irie Society plays like Cali hip-hop strongly influenced by reggae and beach music. Ethan's background is playing in several reggae projects but for this he mainly just sings and freestyles in his funny reggae way. He sounds like Brad from Sublime alot of the time, and does alot of random scat stuff like Barrington Levy does. Really his singing is much better than his freestyling because sometimes his freestyling goes on a bit long and veers towards the direction of being a ramble. But his contributions are kind of what make Irie Society what they are, otherwise it would just be 2 dudes rapping over kinda-reggae beats. Ethan makes it seem like a party.
My homie Jimmy makes the beats and man o man are they good. I'm not one to really describe that kind of stuff because I have no background in making beats, but his stuff flows really nicely, has a good danceable stony feel to it, and more than anything his beats sound really clean and like professional. There are so many layers it seems, it's not just a standard beat and melody there are all sorts of flourishes going on. Good stuff.
Both of the MCs, I like Chasen's rhymes more than Trevor's but both are really good. It seemed like they knew what they were gonna say because the flows were so tight but I talked to Ethan's brother Nick after the show and he said that everything was freestyled. I can believe that, because every time I ever seen Chasen at a party he's rhyming about something or other, but they were never as together as what I heard when they all played live. Maybe it's because they have more time to think when they're onstage than when they're trying to battle off-the-cuff or make shit up when they're drunk at a party, but both of them were holding it down the whole show it was really cool.
I had run into an old homie, Mike, partway through the performance and we talked for a quick minute before watching again. After one of the songs Ethan says "You guys wanna hear some live music?" and everybody cheers and I see Mike, who had just been right next to me, walking onstage towards a drum set that had been set up in the background. Sneaky! Jimmy picked up a bass and they fiddled around with the bass amp and Ethan put on a guitar and they fiddled around with that. It looked like the old band they had been in together, who I can't remember the name of right now but was the shit a few years back. Before you know it they were rocking out some smooth smooth jams while Chasen and Trevor kept it real on the mic. It seemed like they didn't have a whole lot of practice recently on the live instruments because Ethan and Jimmy seemed off a few times, but it was cool as shit and especially at a party or something it would have been off the hook.
The Vault sound guy had announced before they played the first live song that they had like 7 minutes left, which I think they went longer than, but clearly they wanted to play more than that and had planned on more songs. All the homies shuffled out and really we were most of the crowd that night. When the next band, some halfrate radio rock band called Betawolf, played I went back in with KP and Brian and it was just really lame. Nobody was in there but a few families and like the members of bands who were gonna play after. I don't know why the Vault promoters put Irie Society on this bill but it worked to fill the place for a few minutes.
Irie Society is badass live, they're great for parties, and they're the homies. Look'em up.
SHOW REVIEW: Fueled By Fire/Dred/Witchaven/Spectre/Xpulsion @ The Vault, January 29 2011
Once again I'm several weeks behind in writing this review; its getting worse and worse, I need to pick up my game. This show is one that I can review probably as good now as I could then, however, because it was a thrash metal show. In my experience, most thrash metal shows feature bands that blend into each other pretty solidly so it's like one long night of the same riff. That's not even a denigration to most thrashers either, that's like what they're going for. So I will review each band's set as well as I can with the warning that even during or directly after the show I had trouble distinguishing the bands completely.
I showed up a bit late for this one and missed the opening bands Monolith and Devastation. Both of those bands are not the legendary bands you're thinking of, they're local kids who are putting their ignorance of thrash on display by using the names of already-established decades-old worldwide-known metal bands. For shame. It would be hard for me to like them even if I had seen them with that kind of lameness.
The thing that really struck me about this show was that it was the first time that I really felt old in the crowd. So many of the opening bands were high school bands that half the crowd or more were high school kids, and for once I really felt like an out of place old bastard at only 22 years old. These kids are still just discovering metal and punk and don't know which one to pick and they're stubborn about outside influence and...they're like me in high school!! It's like I identify but I no longer identify. I remember but I don't wanna be that kid anymore and it's weird to be surrounded by a bunch of them sometimes. Luckily my homeboy Evan from the Coltranes was there and we hung out for the night but he's in high school too he's just already my homie so it felt a little less awkward. I don't get this old-piece-of-shit feeling at most hardcore or indie or art punk shows but local thrash and punk in particular is very high school oriented and I guess that makes a ton of sense but it feels weird for the first time.
I arrived towards the end of local band Xpulsion's set, who I've seen before when my own shitty local metal band Melting Corpse opened up for them at some backyard show. The circle pit was going and kept going for pretty much the entire rest of the show; what more can you expect at a thrash show? You think they're gonna change it up? Nah, circle pit that shit. Last time I had seen Xpulsion I didn't really like them because they struck me as yet another sloppy generic thrash band, and while in a way they still kinda are that, this time they seemed alot more together and the songs just seemed cooler. Their lead guitarist is a real short kid who seriously looks like he's 13 or 14 or something but he shreds it! The singer, who also plays either bass or rythm guitar, is a real cool guy as well and has good stage presence for this type of band. The last song they played was a really long instrumental song that had alot of clean guitar and was a bit tedious but a welcome break from the constant thrash. They were releasing their demo "Pizza Incision" that day and I picked one up for $2; I later talked to one of them about it and they said they ended up making like $250 from demos and patches and stuff. Wow.
The next band up was called Spectre, and they appeared to have a more professional sound set-up; I can't remember what it was about their set-up that made me think that, I guess it was the drums or maybe big nice amps, I can't remember I just got that feeling. They were extremely similar to Xpulsion except I would argue their vocals weren't as good or at least not as audible. They kept it fast and predictable the whole time and the pit was average. I really didn't walk away thinking much about them really, but I got a copy of their demo and it was pretty good as far as local demos go. Nothing super special but not a sloppy mess like all the bands a few years back were.
After them was Witchaven, who was ostensibly the band I came to see. I'd heard an album of theirs before and liked it pretty good, but their live set was just alright. I guess it's part and parcel of having just seen 2 similar throwback thrash bands but Witchaven's set just didn't stay with me very much. The singer appeared to be pretty drunk and was saying random obscenities and insults etc. in between songs, which is all good and well, but got a little tiresome for me. I couldn't really make out most of the solos, which is oftentimes a problem at this venue, but I did like the mid-tempo parts they threw in. Sometimes these thrash bands keep the same super-fast quasi-punk beat going their whole set and never break it down for some headbang/mosh parts. Witchaven delivered on that front.
The next band was called Dred, and I had never heard of them before seeing their name on the flyer before the show. I had wondered why they were listed above Witchaven, who I had heard of many many times, but Evan later told me that all the thrasher kids at his school wear their stuff all the time so I guess they have a bit of a local following. To be honest I don't really follow new thrash anymore so I'm well out of the loop on who the new up-and-comers are. All I can say is that Dred was fucking awesome, maybe the best band of the night. Of note was the singer's high-pitched, Bruce Dickison-inspired singing which was a stark contrast to the Slayer or D.R.I. influenced vocals all the other bands had. The guy was really wailing too, he wasn't doing like shitty highs his parts were really cool. And the music was kinda upbeat, almost like the less-dramatic parts of power metal mixed with classic thrash. Power thrash. I really enjoyed their set alot and especially after 3 very similar bands it was a nice little change-up.
Finally it was time for the headliners Fueled By Fire, who played excellently. They had a good dual-guitar attack thing going on and unlike Witchaven I could actually hear the solos pretty well. I spent alot of time in the pit for them, which I hadn't expected to do, which means both that I was digging it pretty hard but also that my memory of the setlist is pretty hazy. They did a good job, like Witchaven, of mixing up their tempos more than the local bands who had come before did. On the whole, however, a thrash band is usually a thrash band for better or for worse and my having spent the whole time in the circle pit means I don't really have much more to say about their set than thrash.
It was cool and I had a fun night for sure, but none of these bands really offer anything new and are all actually kinda blatantly doing throwback 80s-thrash stuff. I get it because I love throwback 80s-hardcore usually but I dunno, it seems predestined that some of these kids, especially the younger ones who haven't really allowed themselves to travel outside the realm of their friends or older brother's tastes in music, are in a phase of mindless, shameless Metallica reproduction that will be short-lived. There will always be older cats who keep on keepin it real but that same circle pit gets boring after awhile.
I showed up a bit late for this one and missed the opening bands Monolith and Devastation. Both of those bands are not the legendary bands you're thinking of, they're local kids who are putting their ignorance of thrash on display by using the names of already-established decades-old worldwide-known metal bands. For shame. It would be hard for me to like them even if I had seen them with that kind of lameness.
The thing that really struck me about this show was that it was the first time that I really felt old in the crowd. So many of the opening bands were high school bands that half the crowd or more were high school kids, and for once I really felt like an out of place old bastard at only 22 years old. These kids are still just discovering metal and punk and don't know which one to pick and they're stubborn about outside influence and...they're like me in high school!! It's like I identify but I no longer identify. I remember but I don't wanna be that kid anymore and it's weird to be surrounded by a bunch of them sometimes. Luckily my homeboy Evan from the Coltranes was there and we hung out for the night but he's in high school too he's just already my homie so it felt a little less awkward. I don't get this old-piece-of-shit feeling at most hardcore or indie or art punk shows but local thrash and punk in particular is very high school oriented and I guess that makes a ton of sense but it feels weird for the first time.
I arrived towards the end of local band Xpulsion's set, who I've seen before when my own shitty local metal band Melting Corpse opened up for them at some backyard show. The circle pit was going and kept going for pretty much the entire rest of the show; what more can you expect at a thrash show? You think they're gonna change it up? Nah, circle pit that shit. Last time I had seen Xpulsion I didn't really like them because they struck me as yet another sloppy generic thrash band, and while in a way they still kinda are that, this time they seemed alot more together and the songs just seemed cooler. Their lead guitarist is a real short kid who seriously looks like he's 13 or 14 or something but he shreds it! The singer, who also plays either bass or rythm guitar, is a real cool guy as well and has good stage presence for this type of band. The last song they played was a really long instrumental song that had alot of clean guitar and was a bit tedious but a welcome break from the constant thrash. They were releasing their demo "Pizza Incision" that day and I picked one up for $2; I later talked to one of them about it and they said they ended up making like $250 from demos and patches and stuff. Wow.
The next band up was called Spectre, and they appeared to have a more professional sound set-up; I can't remember what it was about their set-up that made me think that, I guess it was the drums or maybe big nice amps, I can't remember I just got that feeling. They were extremely similar to Xpulsion except I would argue their vocals weren't as good or at least not as audible. They kept it fast and predictable the whole time and the pit was average. I really didn't walk away thinking much about them really, but I got a copy of their demo and it was pretty good as far as local demos go. Nothing super special but not a sloppy mess like all the bands a few years back were.
After them was Witchaven, who was ostensibly the band I came to see. I'd heard an album of theirs before and liked it pretty good, but their live set was just alright. I guess it's part and parcel of having just seen 2 similar throwback thrash bands but Witchaven's set just didn't stay with me very much. The singer appeared to be pretty drunk and was saying random obscenities and insults etc. in between songs, which is all good and well, but got a little tiresome for me. I couldn't really make out most of the solos, which is oftentimes a problem at this venue, but I did like the mid-tempo parts they threw in. Sometimes these thrash bands keep the same super-fast quasi-punk beat going their whole set and never break it down for some headbang/mosh parts. Witchaven delivered on that front.
The next band was called Dred, and I had never heard of them before seeing their name on the flyer before the show. I had wondered why they were listed above Witchaven, who I had heard of many many times, but Evan later told me that all the thrasher kids at his school wear their stuff all the time so I guess they have a bit of a local following. To be honest I don't really follow new thrash anymore so I'm well out of the loop on who the new up-and-comers are. All I can say is that Dred was fucking awesome, maybe the best band of the night. Of note was the singer's high-pitched, Bruce Dickison-inspired singing which was a stark contrast to the Slayer or D.R.I. influenced vocals all the other bands had. The guy was really wailing too, he wasn't doing like shitty highs his parts were really cool. And the music was kinda upbeat, almost like the less-dramatic parts of power metal mixed with classic thrash. Power thrash. I really enjoyed their set alot and especially after 3 very similar bands it was a nice little change-up.
Finally it was time for the headliners Fueled By Fire, who played excellently. They had a good dual-guitar attack thing going on and unlike Witchaven I could actually hear the solos pretty well. I spent alot of time in the pit for them, which I hadn't expected to do, which means both that I was digging it pretty hard but also that my memory of the setlist is pretty hazy. They did a good job, like Witchaven, of mixing up their tempos more than the local bands who had come before did. On the whole, however, a thrash band is usually a thrash band for better or for worse and my having spent the whole time in the circle pit means I don't really have much more to say about their set than thrash.
It was cool and I had a fun night for sure, but none of these bands really offer anything new and are all actually kinda blatantly doing throwback 80s-thrash stuff. I get it because I love throwback 80s-hardcore usually but I dunno, it seems predestined that some of these kids, especially the younger ones who haven't really allowed themselves to travel outside the realm of their friends or older brother's tastes in music, are in a phase of mindless, shameless Metallica reproduction that will be short-lived. There will always be older cats who keep on keepin it real but that same circle pit gets boring after awhile.
Monday, February 14, 2011
ART SHOW REVIEW: The Machine Shop "Covered Walls" show at Community/Space, January 28 2011
A few weeks ago I went on a San Diego trip with the homies because Mark had heard of an art show in downtown. A good enough reason to make a little SD trip when none of us had anything to do. We arrived early enough that we could get some dinner at this dank Mexican food place in old town SD and walk around there for a few minutes. Really we just walked into the main plaza area of old town and hung out in the park briefly because everything was closed but it was fun nonetheless.
So we drove to downtown and found a place to park near the Padres stadium and walked to the venue, which I'm pretty sure is called Community/Space, with the show itself called The Machine Shop "Covered Walls" show from the flyer I found online afterwards. It's off 15th Street in East Village, really not the most savory place in the world but the venue itself was really cool. You walk down an alleyway and about halfway down there's like another where they rigged some lighting. At the end there's an opening into the building to the left where they had the gallery and a small upstairs area for hanging out. Its kinda small but most art galleries are and this one had a really good vibe going on. It was obviously a converted industrial space, like the founders had noticed the potential for this unused space and did something creative with it. I like that. Bout it bout it.
One of the really awesome aspects of this particular experience for us was that on our way there we didn't really know what to expect because I guess Mark had just read an article in like a local SD weekly mag but couldn't remember much on details. We weren't even sure if there was a cover charge or what, assuming there wouldn't be I guess. We get there and not only is it free and in this cool place, but there is free alcohol!! 2 kegs and what appeared to be endless bottles of red wine = I can work with that. None of us were exactly trying to get smashed but it was definitely cool especially because it was unexpected. There was a DJ there called DJ Slowhand who was playing some cool grooves. I can't exactly remember everything he was spinning because I wasn't intently paying attention, but I do remember him throwing in some vintage groove in there and everything was a pleasurable mix.
As far as the actual art goes, I liked pretty much everything in there but the different artists on display had drastically different styles. The artist Mark had heard about, Kyle Boatwright, is a graffiti artist from Imperial Beach who apparently got arrested for over 200 counts of vandalism and spent time in jail for it, paid $83,000 for it, and now he doesn't do it on the streets he does it in galleries. Lesson learned I guess. But he was doing a live wallsize piece at the back of the outside part of the venue and all night his piece just came together more and more. It was like this twacked out guy in a straightjacket breaking out his arms to spraypaint the word "Sain" (I think) all crazy next to him. The outline of the image and words was already done when we got there but all night he was doing crazy shading and coloring and watching it live you really take appreciation for how much work making any type of art like that takes. It's unfortunate that this guy had to learn the hard way that the illegal street stuff would catch up with him eventually, but at least he continues on with his talent with people now actually taking notice of him etc. Cool story.
The art inside was all over the place. Each artist had drastically different styles, with one of the artists, Max Mcilwee, displaying different styles amongst his own works. Most of Mcilwee's pieces were sort of urbanized caricatures with prominent African features, but a piece of his called "Karli" was entirely of a different strain. It was a painful-looking old tree with a bright but sad desert-tone background, all painted on what appeared to be an old wooden window shutter. The whole effect was pretty strong, lots of apparent emotional content I'd say. Also this Mcilwee guy had a really cool business card that was like grafted onto a piece of sheet plastic or something, more interesting than your average card.
The artist who was featured the most prominently, or at least it seemed that way because his pieces are so big and bright and because they were the ones featured on the biggest wall in the gallery, was named Monty Montgomery. He has a really hyperactive, neon pop art thing going on that at once I like to look at but don't see the depth in. It's cool bright stuff and his figures are clear, and the collage effect does allude to some sort of intended reaction, but for me it's merely a visual feast that doesn't make me think really.
I'd say my favorite artist featured at this event was Eric Borja, whos works are like spastic yet refined scribble works that create like disjointed human figures, or in of the pieces, the semblance of a city map. At first glance it looks like colorful chaos but if you take it in it's like the random colliding strands of life clashing. I don't have the proper artwork terminology to accurately describe or critique these artists, obviously, but this guy's work appeared to me to be the closest to the kind of thing I used to see in art books and stuff back in high school. But in a good way.
Two other featured artists were Ryan Warnhoff and Carrie Hudson, both of whom titled their works as "Untitled" and both of whom represented the darker works in the gallery, both literally in terms of the colors used but also in the subject matter or emotional tone. Warnhoff's piece was like a noisy but abstract moonlight scene, focused on shadowy circles like orbs in a dead sky. It looks like a Mogwai song, if that helps you out. Very cool and if he had more pieces featured he might vye with Borja for my favorite artist of the night. Hudson's two pieces were of identifiable objects like an old sailship in a storm or a looming elephant, both depicted as though from a quiet nightmare. The elephant in particular has like a strained, weathered look to it that and both of her works had an almost alarming feeling to them as opposed to Warnhoff's somewhat subdued beauty.
There were other artists featured, maybe one or two more that I didn't end up taking pictures of their works so looking back I don't remember. One of the other artists was a photographer who had 3 pieces on the main wall on the tiny upstairs level, of like SoCal summer type imagery. It was nice, but for me it was nothing special and I didn't want to take a picture of it. I know that my friend Ryan Novak, however, had told me that one of these photographs was his favorite of the night. Another artist had a 3-D piece on one of the downstairs walls that was like a bunch of origami frogs facing one direction on the outside of a paper box with one faced the other direction and a different color than the others fixed to the inside visible through a square cutout from the front. To me this was almost like too amateurish to even be displayed at a gallery even a more rugged one like this, so it didn't keep my interest. I'm surprised it even came back to me weeks later.
After going through the gallery, getting a beer, watching the graffiti guy for a bit, getting another beer, going back in the gallery to re-examine and get my pictures, and probably getting another beer, I got a phone call from Sarah saying that we were gonna be on our way. I'm not sure how long we were there but it was definitely a good time and I'd recommend that place to anybody when there's an event there. We had an unexpectedly good time especially considering the unexpected free beer.
So we drove to downtown and found a place to park near the Padres stadium and walked to the venue, which I'm pretty sure is called Community/Space, with the show itself called The Machine Shop "Covered Walls" show from the flyer I found online afterwards. It's off 15th Street in East Village, really not the most savory place in the world but the venue itself was really cool. You walk down an alleyway and about halfway down there's like another where they rigged some lighting. At the end there's an opening into the building to the left where they had the gallery and a small upstairs area for hanging out. Its kinda small but most art galleries are and this one had a really good vibe going on. It was obviously a converted industrial space, like the founders had noticed the potential for this unused space and did something creative with it. I like that. Bout it bout it.
One of the really awesome aspects of this particular experience for us was that on our way there we didn't really know what to expect because I guess Mark had just read an article in like a local SD weekly mag but couldn't remember much on details. We weren't even sure if there was a cover charge or what, assuming there wouldn't be I guess. We get there and not only is it free and in this cool place, but there is free alcohol!! 2 kegs and what appeared to be endless bottles of red wine = I can work with that. None of us were exactly trying to get smashed but it was definitely cool especially because it was unexpected. There was a DJ there called DJ Slowhand who was playing some cool grooves. I can't exactly remember everything he was spinning because I wasn't intently paying attention, but I do remember him throwing in some vintage groove in there and everything was a pleasurable mix.
As far as the actual art goes, I liked pretty much everything in there but the different artists on display had drastically different styles. The artist Mark had heard about, Kyle Boatwright, is a graffiti artist from Imperial Beach who apparently got arrested for over 200 counts of vandalism and spent time in jail for it, paid $83,000 for it, and now he doesn't do it on the streets he does it in galleries. Lesson learned I guess. But he was doing a live wallsize piece at the back of the outside part of the venue and all night his piece just came together more and more. It was like this twacked out guy in a straightjacket breaking out his arms to spraypaint the word "Sain" (I think) all crazy next to him. The outline of the image and words was already done when we got there but all night he was doing crazy shading and coloring and watching it live you really take appreciation for how much work making any type of art like that takes. It's unfortunate that this guy had to learn the hard way that the illegal street stuff would catch up with him eventually, but at least he continues on with his talent with people now actually taking notice of him etc. Cool story.
The art inside was all over the place. Each artist had drastically different styles, with one of the artists, Max Mcilwee, displaying different styles amongst his own works. Most of Mcilwee's pieces were sort of urbanized caricatures with prominent African features, but a piece of his called "Karli" was entirely of a different strain. It was a painful-looking old tree with a bright but sad desert-tone background, all painted on what appeared to be an old wooden window shutter. The whole effect was pretty strong, lots of apparent emotional content I'd say. Also this Mcilwee guy had a really cool business card that was like grafted onto a piece of sheet plastic or something, more interesting than your average card.
The artist who was featured the most prominently, or at least it seemed that way because his pieces are so big and bright and because they were the ones featured on the biggest wall in the gallery, was named Monty Montgomery. He has a really hyperactive, neon pop art thing going on that at once I like to look at but don't see the depth in. It's cool bright stuff and his figures are clear, and the collage effect does allude to some sort of intended reaction, but for me it's merely a visual feast that doesn't make me think really.
I'd say my favorite artist featured at this event was Eric Borja, whos works are like spastic yet refined scribble works that create like disjointed human figures, or in of the pieces, the semblance of a city map. At first glance it looks like colorful chaos but if you take it in it's like the random colliding strands of life clashing. I don't have the proper artwork terminology to accurately describe or critique these artists, obviously, but this guy's work appeared to me to be the closest to the kind of thing I used to see in art books and stuff back in high school. But in a good way.
Two other featured artists were Ryan Warnhoff and Carrie Hudson, both of whom titled their works as "Untitled" and both of whom represented the darker works in the gallery, both literally in terms of the colors used but also in the subject matter or emotional tone. Warnhoff's piece was like a noisy but abstract moonlight scene, focused on shadowy circles like orbs in a dead sky. It looks like a Mogwai song, if that helps you out. Very cool and if he had more pieces featured he might vye with Borja for my favorite artist of the night. Hudson's two pieces were of identifiable objects like an old sailship in a storm or a looming elephant, both depicted as though from a quiet nightmare. The elephant in particular has like a strained, weathered look to it that and both of her works had an almost alarming feeling to them as opposed to Warnhoff's somewhat subdued beauty.
There were other artists featured, maybe one or two more that I didn't end up taking pictures of their works so looking back I don't remember. One of the other artists was a photographer who had 3 pieces on the main wall on the tiny upstairs level, of like SoCal summer type imagery. It was nice, but for me it was nothing special and I didn't want to take a picture of it. I know that my friend Ryan Novak, however, had told me that one of these photographs was his favorite of the night. Another artist had a 3-D piece on one of the downstairs walls that was like a bunch of origami frogs facing one direction on the outside of a paper box with one faced the other direction and a different color than the others fixed to the inside visible through a square cutout from the front. To me this was almost like too amateurish to even be displayed at a gallery even a more rugged one like this, so it didn't keep my interest. I'm surprised it even came back to me weeks later.
After going through the gallery, getting a beer, watching the graffiti guy for a bit, getting another beer, going back in the gallery to re-examine and get my pictures, and probably getting another beer, I got a phone call from Sarah saying that we were gonna be on our way. I'm not sure how long we were there but it was definitely a good time and I'd recommend that place to anybody when there's an event there. We had an unexpectedly good time especially considering the unexpected free beer.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Playlist for January 2011
1/1/11
Modest Mouse - "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank"
1/2/11
Funeral Oration - "Communion"Funeral Oration - "Shadowland" EP
Heart - "Greatest Hits"Bob Dylan - "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan"Call The Cops - "Never Underestimate the Kids" demo CD
Damcyan - "Diabolical Indignation" EP
(most of) Hopesfall - "No Wings to Speak Of" EP
TV On The Radio - "Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes"
1/3/11
(most of) The Whyioughtas/Nothing Substantial - "So What?" split CD
Killwhitneydead - "Hell to Pay"Myotonia - S/TR.E.M. - "Reckoning"
(most of) Shut Up Donny - "No News is Good News"
Aphex Twin - "Drukqs" Disc 1
Iron & Wine - "Our Endless Numbered Days"
1/4/11
Black Kids - "Partie Traumatic"
(most of) Gin Blossoms - "New Miserable Experience"
Pantera - "The Great Southern Trendkill"
The Velvet Underground - "Gold" Disc 2
1/5/11
Los Olvidados - "Listen to This"
Corrosion Of Conformity - "Deliverance"
Blue Scholars - "Bayani"
1/6/11
The Mothers Of Invention - "Freak Out!"
Carnifex - "Dead in My Arms"
Sigh - "Ghastly Funeral Theatre" EP
Phobia - "Grind Your Fucking Head In"
The Gaslight Anthem - "Sink or Swim"
Cannibal Corpse - "Gallery of Suicide"
Drunk Injuns - "From Where the Sun Now Stands I Will Fight No More Forever"
1/7/11
G-Spot - "Radical and Shout" EP
The Dictators - "Go Girl Crazy"
Stretch Arm Strong - "Rituals of Life"Roy Orbison - "16 Greatest Hits"The Night Marchers - "See You in Magic"
External Menace - "The Process of Elimination"
Woody Guthrie - "Immortal Classics Pt. 2"Lye By Mistake - "Arrangements for Fulminating Vective"
1/8/11
Funeral Oration - "There is Nothing Left to Laugh About" demo
DTAL - "Time to Die" EP
The Coltranes - "Ugly Aldous"
The Black Lips - S/T
(most of) Q & Not U - "Power"
Dying Fetus - "Purification Through Violence"
1/9/11
Burning Image - "1983-1987"
DTAL - "Time to Die" EP
Man Lifting Banner - "The Myth of Freedom" EP
Cannibal Corpse - "The Bleeding"
1/10/11
Gorgoroth - "Pentagram"
V/A - 2005 "New Music Sampler" from Vanguard/Sugarhill Records and Harp Magazine
1/11/11
Peace Corpse - "Quincy's Lament" EP
Dizzy Gillespie - "Hall of Fame" Disc 2 - 'Cool Breeze'
(most of) Type O Negative - "Bloody Kisses"
Pig Destroyer - "Phantom Limb"Big D & The Kids Table - "The Gypsy Hill"
The Effigies - "Reside"
Ignite - "Best Of '94-'04"
Despised Icon - "Consumed By Your Poison"
Roni Size/Reprazent - "New Forms" Disc 2
1/12/11
Rise Against - "Siren Song of the Counter Culture"
Napalm Death - "Scum"
Anthrax - "Persistence of Time"
Underage - "Africani, Marrochini, Terroni" EP
Ima Robot - S/T
Black Star - S/T
A Life Once Lost - "Open Your Mouth to the Speechless...In Case of Those Appointed to Die"
1/13/11
Children Of Bodom - "Are You Dead Yet?"
Confuse - "Contempt for the Authority, and Take Care of the Lie" EP
Louis Armstrong - "the Definitive Collection"
Evergreen Terrace - "Burned Alive By Time"
(most of) J Dilla - "The Shining"Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - "Of Natural History"
Tool - "Lateralus"
V/A - "No Lip Vol. 1" Mohawk Records compilation CD
Warbringer - "Walking Into Nightmares"
All Time Low - "So Wrong It's Right"
Dimmu Borgir - "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant"
1/14/11
No Age - "Weirdo Rippers"Cosmic Gate - "No More Sleep"
Propagandhi - "How to Clean Everything"
Taking Back Sunday - "Tell All Your Friends"
(most of) Taking Back Sunday - "Where You Want to Be"
1/15/11
The Skulls - "Therapy for the Shy"
(most of) Onlyone - "Police Brutality"
1/16/11
Los Campesinos! - "Hold On Now, Youngster"
Have Heart - "The Things We Carry"
Underoath - "Cries from the Past"
Jets To Brazil - "Orange Rhyming Dictionary"
The Yardbirds - "Ultimate" Disc 1
V/A - Fueled By Ramen/Decaydance summer 2007 sampler CD
The National - "Boxer"
Sodom - "Obsessed by Cruelty"
Faith No More - "Angel Dust"
1/17/11
Rammstein - "Mutter"
New Found Glory - "Coming Home"
1208 - "Feedback is Payback"
Doves - limited edition bonus disc from "The Last Broadcast"
Parkway Drive - "Horizons"
The Weakerthans - "Reunion Tour"
Bright Eyes - "Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground"
1/18/11
Melt Banana - "666" EP
The Haven - 2-song demo CD
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - "Lift Your Tiny Fists Like Antennae to Heaven"
Flogging Molly - "Alive Behind the Green Door"
Tar Babies - "Face the Music" EP
Autechre - "Amber"
1/19/11
Terror - "Lowest of the Low"
Battalion Of Saints AD - "Cuts..."
Anathema - "The Silent Enigma"The Smiths - "Meat is Murder"
1/20/11
Street Dogs - "State of Grace"
Control Denied - "The Fragile Art of Existence"
Ministry - "Psalm 69"
1/21/11
V/A - Victory Records pop sampler 2010
Dead To Fall - "Villainy and Virtue"
1/23/11
(most of) A Static Lully - S/T
Arsonists Get All The Girls - "Portals"
Syn Assasyn - 4-song demo CD
Reason To Believe - "The Next Door" EP
1/24/11
Dr. Know - "HABILY: What Was Old Is New Again"
Isis - "Panopticon"
Lucero - "Tennessee"
Tech N9ne - "Absolute Power"
1/27/11
The Black Dahlia Murder - "Miasma"
The Absence - "Riders on the Plague"Atom & His Package - "A Society of People Named Elihu"
The Crucifucks - S/T
Otep - "Sevas Tra"
(most of) Tomahawk - "Anonymous"
1/28/11
Coalesce - "'Give Them Rope,' She Said"
1/29/11
Spectre - 4-song demo CD
Xpulsion - "Pizza Incision" demo CD
NOTES:
- I love Funeral Oration so much I am gonna one day record a double- or triple- album of reinterpretations of their music
- "Bayani" is one of the best hip hop albums I have heard in a very very long time
- I didn't realize that Drunk Injuns was just Los Olvidados with a different singer til after the fact but I coincidentally listened to both bands on back to back nights. It's a small world.
- Woody Guthrie just ain't my thang
- Lye By Mistake will blow your mind
- I hate to say it but Dying Fetus kind of fucking sucks
- I listened to that DTAL EP twice trying to like it and it just wasn't meant to be
- My Type O Negative CD is all fucked up :(
- That original female singer from Despised Icon had crazy ass vocals I can understand why they wanted a more traditional scream to get bigger but damn that shit is weird
- Roni Size was making dubstep look stupid way back in the late 90s, kids
- I remember A Life Once Lost and The National sucking, but I guess not
- "Are You Dead Yet?" is great by any standard but its not the worst piece of shit ever made like everyone acts
- Old Dimmu Borgir is so much doper than the polished newer stuff
- We listened to Paramore and Taking Back Sunday on the way back from Riverside and Nando looked like he wanted to kill himself
- The Skulls suck
- "Cries from the Past" by Underoath is a SHITTY album
- As far as Sodom albums go, the first one sucks but the second one is really good
- "Angel Dust" by Faith No More is one of the best metal albums ever recorded, one of the best albums from the 90s in general
- "Reunion Tour" is alright but far and away the worst album by the Weakerthans
- Man o man does Ministry rip it
SONGS OF THE MONTH:
"Float On" by Modest Mouse
"All Mixed Up" and "Priest Alley Song" by Red House Painters
"50,000 Strong" by Blue Scholars
"On the Outside" by Oingo Boingo
"Cockroach" by Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
"The Headmaster Ritual" by The Smiths
"A Letter From Janelle" by Chiodos
"Tightrope" by Janelle Monet ft. Big Boi
"The Shooting Star That Destroyed Us All" by A Static Lullaby
"The Golden Age" by Cracker
"Me and My Black Metal Friends" and "180 Lbs." by Atom & His Package
"Be My Lady" by Rick James
"This Monkey's Gone to Heaven" by the Pixies
"Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" by Bob Dylan
"More Than Words" by Extreme
"Surfin USA" by the Beach Boys
I also saw Oh Dae Su, Service Interruption, The Black Path, In This Moment, Jandek with Mike Watt and BJ Miller, Sour Stems, Xpulsion, Spectre, Witchaven, Dred, and Fueled By Fire perform live.
Modest Mouse - "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank"
1/2/11
Funeral Oration - "Communion"Funeral Oration - "Shadowland" EP
Heart - "Greatest Hits"Bob Dylan - "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan"Call The Cops - "Never Underestimate the Kids" demo CD
Damcyan - "Diabolical Indignation" EP
(most of) Hopesfall - "No Wings to Speak Of" EP
TV On The Radio - "Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes"
1/3/11
(most of) The Whyioughtas/Nothing Substantial - "So What?" split CD
Killwhitneydead - "Hell to Pay"Myotonia - S/TR.E.M. - "Reckoning"
(most of) Shut Up Donny - "No News is Good News"
Aphex Twin - "Drukqs" Disc 1
Iron & Wine - "Our Endless Numbered Days"
1/4/11
Black Kids - "Partie Traumatic"
(most of) Gin Blossoms - "New Miserable Experience"
Pantera - "The Great Southern Trendkill"
The Velvet Underground - "Gold" Disc 2
1/5/11
Los Olvidados - "Listen to This"
Corrosion Of Conformity - "Deliverance"
Blue Scholars - "Bayani"
1/6/11
The Mothers Of Invention - "Freak Out!"
Carnifex - "Dead in My Arms"
Sigh - "Ghastly Funeral Theatre" EP
Phobia - "Grind Your Fucking Head In"
The Gaslight Anthem - "Sink or Swim"
Cannibal Corpse - "Gallery of Suicide"
Drunk Injuns - "From Where the Sun Now Stands I Will Fight No More Forever"
1/7/11
G-Spot - "Radical and Shout" EP
The Dictators - "Go Girl Crazy"
Stretch Arm Strong - "Rituals of Life"Roy Orbison - "16 Greatest Hits"The Night Marchers - "See You in Magic"
External Menace - "The Process of Elimination"
Woody Guthrie - "Immortal Classics Pt. 2"Lye By Mistake - "Arrangements for Fulminating Vective"
1/8/11
Funeral Oration - "There is Nothing Left to Laugh About" demo
DTAL - "Time to Die" EP
The Coltranes - "Ugly Aldous"
The Black Lips - S/T
(most of) Q & Not U - "Power"
Dying Fetus - "Purification Through Violence"
1/9/11
Burning Image - "1983-1987"
DTAL - "Time to Die" EP
Man Lifting Banner - "The Myth of Freedom" EP
Cannibal Corpse - "The Bleeding"
1/10/11
Gorgoroth - "Pentagram"
V/A - 2005 "New Music Sampler" from Vanguard/Sugarhill Records and Harp Magazine
1/11/11
Peace Corpse - "Quincy's Lament" EP
Dizzy Gillespie - "Hall of Fame" Disc 2 - 'Cool Breeze'
(most of) Type O Negative - "Bloody Kisses"
Pig Destroyer - "Phantom Limb"Big D & The Kids Table - "The Gypsy Hill"
The Effigies - "Reside"
Ignite - "Best Of '94-'04"
Despised Icon - "Consumed By Your Poison"
Roni Size/Reprazent - "New Forms" Disc 2
1/12/11
Rise Against - "Siren Song of the Counter Culture"
Napalm Death - "Scum"
Anthrax - "Persistence of Time"
Underage - "Africani, Marrochini, Terroni" EP
Ima Robot - S/T
Black Star - S/T
A Life Once Lost - "Open Your Mouth to the Speechless...In Case of Those Appointed to Die"
1/13/11
Children Of Bodom - "Are You Dead Yet?"
Confuse - "Contempt for the Authority, and Take Care of the Lie" EP
Louis Armstrong - "the Definitive Collection"
Evergreen Terrace - "Burned Alive By Time"
(most of) J Dilla - "The Shining"Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - "Of Natural History"
Tool - "Lateralus"
V/A - "No Lip Vol. 1" Mohawk Records compilation CD
Warbringer - "Walking Into Nightmares"
All Time Low - "So Wrong It's Right"
Dimmu Borgir - "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant"
1/14/11
No Age - "Weirdo Rippers"Cosmic Gate - "No More Sleep"
Propagandhi - "How to Clean Everything"
Taking Back Sunday - "Tell All Your Friends"
(most of) Taking Back Sunday - "Where You Want to Be"
1/15/11
The Skulls - "Therapy for the Shy"
(most of) Onlyone - "Police Brutality"
1/16/11
Los Campesinos! - "Hold On Now, Youngster"
Have Heart - "The Things We Carry"
Underoath - "Cries from the Past"
Jets To Brazil - "Orange Rhyming Dictionary"
The Yardbirds - "Ultimate" Disc 1
V/A - Fueled By Ramen/Decaydance summer 2007 sampler CD
The National - "Boxer"
Sodom - "Obsessed by Cruelty"
Faith No More - "Angel Dust"
1/17/11
Rammstein - "Mutter"
New Found Glory - "Coming Home"
1208 - "Feedback is Payback"
Doves - limited edition bonus disc from "The Last Broadcast"
Parkway Drive - "Horizons"
The Weakerthans - "Reunion Tour"
Bright Eyes - "Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground"
1/18/11
Melt Banana - "666" EP
The Haven - 2-song demo CD
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - "Lift Your Tiny Fists Like Antennae to Heaven"
Flogging Molly - "Alive Behind the Green Door"
Tar Babies - "Face the Music" EP
Autechre - "Amber"
1/19/11
Terror - "Lowest of the Low"
Battalion Of Saints AD - "Cuts..."
Anathema - "The Silent Enigma"The Smiths - "Meat is Murder"
1/20/11
Street Dogs - "State of Grace"
Control Denied - "The Fragile Art of Existence"
Ministry - "Psalm 69"
1/21/11
V/A - Victory Records pop sampler 2010
Dead To Fall - "Villainy and Virtue"
1/23/11
(most of) A Static Lully - S/T
Arsonists Get All The Girls - "Portals"
Syn Assasyn - 4-song demo CD
Reason To Believe - "The Next Door" EP
1/24/11
Dr. Know - "HABILY: What Was Old Is New Again"
Isis - "Panopticon"
Lucero - "Tennessee"
Tech N9ne - "Absolute Power"
1/27/11
The Black Dahlia Murder - "Miasma"
The Absence - "Riders on the Plague"Atom & His Package - "A Society of People Named Elihu"
The Crucifucks - S/T
Otep - "Sevas Tra"
(most of) Tomahawk - "Anonymous"
1/28/11
Coalesce - "'Give Them Rope,' She Said"
1/29/11
Spectre - 4-song demo CD
Xpulsion - "Pizza Incision" demo CD
NOTES:
- I love Funeral Oration so much I am gonna one day record a double- or triple- album of reinterpretations of their music
- "Bayani" is one of the best hip hop albums I have heard in a very very long time
- I didn't realize that Drunk Injuns was just Los Olvidados with a different singer til after the fact but I coincidentally listened to both bands on back to back nights. It's a small world.
- Woody Guthrie just ain't my thang
- Lye By Mistake will blow your mind
- I hate to say it but Dying Fetus kind of fucking sucks
- I listened to that DTAL EP twice trying to like it and it just wasn't meant to be
- My Type O Negative CD is all fucked up :(
- That original female singer from Despised Icon had crazy ass vocals I can understand why they wanted a more traditional scream to get bigger but damn that shit is weird
- Roni Size was making dubstep look stupid way back in the late 90s, kids
- I remember A Life Once Lost and The National sucking, but I guess not
- "Are You Dead Yet?" is great by any standard but its not the worst piece of shit ever made like everyone acts
- Old Dimmu Borgir is so much doper than the polished newer stuff
- We listened to Paramore and Taking Back Sunday on the way back from Riverside and Nando looked like he wanted to kill himself
- The Skulls suck
- "Cries from the Past" by Underoath is a SHITTY album
- As far as Sodom albums go, the first one sucks but the second one is really good
- "Angel Dust" by Faith No More is one of the best metal albums ever recorded, one of the best albums from the 90s in general
- "Reunion Tour" is alright but far and away the worst album by the Weakerthans
- Man o man does Ministry rip it
SONGS OF THE MONTH:
"Float On" by Modest Mouse
"All Mixed Up" and "Priest Alley Song" by Red House Painters
"50,000 Strong" by Blue Scholars
"On the Outside" by Oingo Boingo
"Cockroach" by Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
"The Headmaster Ritual" by The Smiths
"A Letter From Janelle" by Chiodos
"Tightrope" by Janelle Monet ft. Big Boi
"The Shooting Star That Destroyed Us All" by A Static Lullaby
"The Golden Age" by Cracker
"Me and My Black Metal Friends" and "180 Lbs." by Atom & His Package
"Be My Lady" by Rick James
"This Monkey's Gone to Heaven" by the Pixies
"Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" by Bob Dylan
"More Than Words" by Extreme
"Surfin USA" by the Beach Boys
I also saw Oh Dae Su, Service Interruption, The Black Path, In This Moment, Jandek with Mike Watt and BJ Miller, Sour Stems, Xpulsion, Spectre, Witchaven, Dred, and Fueled By Fire perform live.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
CLUB REVIEW: "Vanity" nightclub in the Hard Rock Hotel, Las Vegas
Alright well I already fucked up in my yearlong quest to go to a show each week. I went to the In This Moment show week 1, and the Jandek show the next day but it counts as week 2 because it was the 8th, but I didn't go to anything music-related for the next two weeks. For that reason I am going to instead review my time at a club in Vegas cuz thats what I ended up doing the weekend of Jan 21, third week of the year. So now I guess the goal/resolution for 2011 is a bit broader, it doesn't necessarily have to be musical but every week I'll go out and do something that warrants a review. I can do that.
Also I fell a full 3 weeks behind in finishing this review even though it's not that long, so that gives you an idea of what this blog is gonna look like after awhile. I'll constantly be playing catch up so the events I'm reviewing are further and further back in my memory and my details will become more generic and shallow. I'm gonna try not let my own cynicism on my abilities to remain current come to reality but hear me now believe me later that's what's gonna happen.
So anyway on the weekend of the 21st I went to Vegas for my first time with close friends Eric and Elisse for another good friend Michelle's 21st birthday. We stayed at the Luxor and on the whole owned the place. Really a good time had by all. But for the purposes of this review I'm just gonna focus on Friday night, in particular the club Vanity at the Hard Rock Hotel.
Me and Eric were both having our first proper visits to Vegas this weekend and we were lucky enough to be in the company of several good-looking young ladies who had some connects in town so we were living it up. After arriving, checking in, reveling in the general feeling of awesomeness that we had, and getting ready, we met up with the girls and got taxis to the Hard Rock. Michelle's group was already at some restaurant there having dinner so we went there and waited while they finished eating.
After awhile some guy came and guided us to the club and put us in a short line as opposed to this other much longer line that had already formed. Our friend Stephanie had said that we were gonna get in for free without waiting, which me and Eric didn't believe at first, but that's exactly how it went down. We're just that fly.
After you pass by the security people you go up some stairs and enter the club. The place wasn't that big but it was alright. We hung out on a long couch with other parties on both sides of us, across from the bar in the back. The dancefloor in the front was almost completely empty when we first arrived but it picked up pretty well. The girls somehow got free bottle service but me Chris and Justin bought drinks at the bar which were like $20 each. So much for free entry, right?
We drank a bit and I'm pretty sure we were the biggest hassle of the night for people working at the club because we spilled shit a couple times, I feel like Elisse or somebody broke something glass but I might be wrong...We were all dancing away from the dancefloor like had our own dancefloor where they are accustomed to walking through so employees were constantly shuffling by us annoyedly. That's how we do. We make dancefloors everywhere we go -------->The music was a pretty good blend of modern Akon-style mainstream hip-pop, 90s gangster rap or New Jack Swing type grooves, and then towards the end of the night more house/club/techno stuff. I would say that the DJ actually did a really good job of keeping everybody dancing and there weren't many down times in terms of beatage for the dance floor to rock to. There was a long table separating the bar area from the dancefloor with poles for drunken girls to go dance on. Always a nice touch.
Some slight criticisms: I will say that I feel like access to the dancefloor was a problem, there was just a narrow stairway on each end to get into it and compared to the club we went to the next night, "Haze" at the Aria, there just wasn't that much going on in terms of lighting, entertainment, overall feeling of dopeness, etc. We had a good time because we were all vibing extra good but the club itself was a bit claustrophobic and I dunno, normal. I feel like the clubs I've gone out to in OC were bigger and cooler than this one in Vegas.
All in all however we had a really fun night and I would go back to this place if I again didn't have to pay or wait a substantial amount of time. The atmosphere was relaxed and fun especially if you are out with a big group of friends.
Here's a picture of the crew I was with, minus Stephanie the night's constant photographer:
This wasn't the only club we went to that weekend, like I said we went to Haze at the Aria the next night, but this review fulfills my basic requirement of one review for each week of the year and just this took me too long due to massive procrastination and unexpected busyness since. You can make up your own version of events in that sick sick mind of yours.
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