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https://vsmusick.wordpress.com/2023/...eview-8-10-23/
I saw Mastodon and Gojira on Thursday, this was the fourth time I've seen both of them and I've been going to their shows since I was 15 years old. The review is long and has a lot of videos I shot from it.
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I saw Flaming Lips last night at the zoo. I've been into the Lips for a long time & this was a really good show. They started with the whole thing of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots complete with 4 giant pink robots & a rainbox onstage. Followed by a break then another set of various stuff. Really excellent. Always There in out Hearts, Waiting for Superman & Borderline (Madonna) were especially good. All in all they played for about 2.5 hours. I took my friend who had never seen them & she was really impressed. We're kind of a new thing & I turned her onto the band. We had seats in the disabled section, which at the zoo is right in front of the stage off to the side. We got hit by plenty of confetti haha. They are such a great band. I would love to see what Steve Drodz could come up with working with Trent & Atticus.
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Copped a 20 dollar pit ticket for Corey Taylor in Cincinnati next weekend since I saw he pulled out a stone sour deep cut that I never got to see live. Gonna be weird seeing him sing some slipknot tracks without the mask, but whatever. He’s been awesome at every solo show I’ve seen him do.
other than that, I have avenged sevenfold in Fort Worth next month coming up. Also trying to hit up the Friday of louder than life to see tool and Corey taylor with my mom.
Throbbing Member
whats the best way to buy tickets for sold out concerts (in amsterdam)?
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Saw Cat Power / Modest Mouse / Pixies in Indy on Tuesday. All were good, Modest Mouse's kick drum was way off on low-end sound, so I couldn't hear them very well. I was really looking forward to seeing them too, very intense but the sound was off.
I'm not a big Pixies fan but they are fucking awesome live. Very impressed, full of energy and tight as hell.
Bite me
We recently saw Boz Skaggs. G wasn’t all that thrilled about it, but was blown away by Boz and his STELLAR touring band; said it was one rare time he was pleasantly surprised. Boz is nearly EIGHTY and still sings and plays great!
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Went to see Electric Callboy in Portland a few weeks ago and it was an amazing show. There were people from so many different walks of life and it was so much fun. You had people in their 50s/60s, you had punks, you had families (the kids had earphones on for safety!), and you even had some metalheads. On top of those good vibes the music was just fun for an entire 90 minutes. Sure they mostly played songs from the new album because that's why they're touring the US anyway but also they switched singers and so mostly kept to the new stuff for that reason as well.
a highlight was the drum solo while the rest of the band were changing*:
It's not a change like Taylor Swift or Beyonce, it's more of a "we know you really liked that video we did for that one song". Also I forgot to mention that the number of people who were dressed up was extraordinarily high, like more than half the audience. And it was all different, so some people were dressed up like a Spaceman, some were dressed up like 80's Jane Fonda workout videos, and some were dressed up like a weird cupid. I'd do links to each video but the youtube links always inline the video instead of linking and that would be a lot to stare at.
The only bad thing I would say is that the sound people at the venue had no idea how to do the mix. The opener was Conquer Divide and it was a drum heavy mix. I saw two people playing instruments other than drums and two singers but I mostly heard BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM. Even during what was clearly viewed as a guitar solo, BOOMBOOMBOOM and no guitars. The second band I had never heard of - Solence - and they were alright for that. Keyboard/keytar drums guitar and a singer. Also mostly BOOMBOOMBOOM but apparently the sound booth had been given some direction because I could hear the guitar and keyboard better. The weird part of that band though was that the guitarist looked like Dexter Holland circa his long braided hair phase and the singer looked like he was doing a side gig from his boy band. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The sound was cleaned up a bit more for the final act thankfully, though it was hard to hear when the two vocalists were talking at times.
The most interesting thing is how small the crowd was. I mean it was a packed house, don't get me wrong, but compare the size of the crowd in that drum video to the size of the venue in Portland. you could fit at least six of them in that one building with room to spare. Guess that's the difference of a home-town crowd vs. one an entire ocean away where you get no radio play.
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Is it just me, or does anyone else notice how American bands come to Europe less and less each year?
Maybe my band sample is too small for a good analysis, but... Pumpkins: no Euro tour post-covid. NIN: very short tour, just UK + Hellfest. QOTSA: pretty short tour. Deftones: pretty short tour and mostly just festivals.
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It's got to be due to expenses. Lots of UK/European bands are having issues too.Originally Posted by fillow
tempus est umbra in mente
just saw Pixies w/ Modest Mouse and Cat Power at the Hollywood Bowl. It was a decent show, but Pixies' set list was weird. They played Wave of Mutilation twice (once slower), they played a bunch of new songs... that I wasn't very into... they ended their set w/ a Neil Young cover... I dunno, it felt really strange.
They sounded great though.
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Converge - 9/29
Better Lovers - 10/15
The Armed - 10/19
Botch - 12/8
Maynard's Birthday jam - 4/18 and 4/20
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Last two shows I saw recently were fun road trips. Saw Death Grips for the second time this year, but this time in Nashville and celebrated my wife and I's second anniversary of marriage this past week with a trip to Vegas to see The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie 20 year celebration of Give Up and Transatlanticism.
Coming up:
10/11 - Model/Actriz
10/14 - Dan Deacon
10/20 - luxury elite
10/26 - Kontravoid, the Mall & JEFF in Leather
11/4 - The Hotelier
11/7 - My Morning Jacket
12/1 - Depeche Mode & Young Fathers (in Vegas!)
12/13 - Kenny G
____
03/23 - HEALTH & PIXEL GRIP
Stubby Member
Only one show coming up for me:
10/17--Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade
Je suis Batman
This weekend I ventured out to a local dark scene (i.e., unapologetic goth/industrial/adjacent in the European mold) mini-festival - https://www.theunconventionnj.com at QXT’s in Newark, NJ.
Main draw for me was a pair of headlining sets by scene legends Covenant and Haujobb, who I’ve caught multiple times in the past but not recently. Nostalgia would have allowed me to excuse subpar showings from either, but fortunately both deserve praise as veteran acts not just aging gracefully on stage, but actually improving. I love it when that happens!
Also appreciated were some discoveries farther down the bill, like Silver Walks (https://silverwalk.bandcamp.com/. I’d been aware of the project at least in part due to some NIN connections - e.g., remix by Chris Vrenna - but I hadn’t been aware of their direct ETS connection via guitarist and long-time poster @tricil .
@tricil - I was too shy to say hello and great job (with Silver Walks and jumping in with The Russian White and Haujobb), so this will have to suffice! You’ve also given internet immortality to my terrible dancing during the DSTR set, but I think I can live with it. Perils of hanging out in front of the stage all night, LOL!
Last edited by roolfdriht; 10-09-2023 at 09:36 AM. Reason: trying to fix mentions
xScott
Skinny Puppy is it for me guys, let's hope it actually pans out this time
Throbbing Member
Holy fuck!
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Saw Botch Saturday night. The openers were Psychic Death and Help, both of which put on pretty great sets themselves.
Psychic Death is a three piece and the singer - Audrey Gore - is the drummer. Really surprised everyone that she was able to play at that speed and technical proficiency while also doing vocals. Like, after the set everyone around me were talking about how badass that was. I had checked out the bandcamp before as the band was one of the local (ish) band recommendations in a reddit thread for Portland and so I knew what the music was going to be like, I just didn't know that the albums sounded weak compared to the live experience. Also it was kind of funny that near the end of the set one guy went into the standing crowd throwing arms/legs because he was feeling it. One old guy was looking at him like he had lost his mind and I couldn't help but think, "why are you here if this surprises you?" lol
Help I'd seen twice previously in Portland so I knew what to expect there but the audience totally didn't. A lot of people standing and staring while the band was up there. Their drummer, Bim Ditson, is a large man - he apparently does chainmaille in his off time? - and he pounds the shit out of his drums. The guitarist / vocalist, Ryan Neighbors, interacts with the crowd a lot, to the point of joining the audience with mic in hand. He handed his guitar to someone in the front at one point and just jumped right in while singing. They played one or two new songs so I guess there's another album coming soon.
They also have one of the best shirts: https://helpifuckingneedit.bandcamp....rch/bush-shirt
Botch though...wow. Didn't know about the band while they were active - not really an active hardcore scene in the rural area I grew up - so I had no experience with them other than Minus the Bear, and only then because I was listening to a podcast where they mentioned Botch and said "oh the guy from Minus the Bear". I looked them up as I was really into the guitar sound from MtB so I was like "let's check this out" and I was not ready. Like, not at all.
Anyway, the show was amazing on all fronts but Dave was very clear: "This is the last time we're playing Portland." This tour seems to be it so I'm glad I caught them.
Not so glad that the guy I went with caught covid, apparently? I thought it was just the rain coming in because that usually messes me up but now I'm wondering. Have to take a test when I get home I guess.
Side note: why don't people show up for the bands? I paid for the ticket, I'm going to see everything I paid for.
Also people-watching was interesting, seeing the difference between people who liked the music and the people who live(d) the scene. Like one guy looked like he thought it was a Grateful Dead show but he was rocking out on the front barrier for every band, never left.
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I'm seeing Botch with Cave In and Converge in Boston next month and I can't fucking wait. That lineup is gonna be INSANE.
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Love watching Model/Actriz catch fire. I taught science at the high school where Cole Haden, vocalist, graduated as valedictorian. In our highly conservative community, dude rocked makeup and glitter under his eyes while giving his address to the graduates.
He is a magnetic presence, and absolutely owns any room he enters.
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That's awesome! I sadly had to miss the show as I was dealing with a cold still since getting back in town and didn't want to get anyone sick.Here's hoping they tour again soon!
Throbbing Member
I get to see Model/Actriz in Detroit and Chicago in December opening for The Armed. Speaking of which, flew out to LA from Detroit just to see my boys tear up the El Rey. They even had Justin Meldal-Johnsen on bass for Liar 2. Shit was so fucking cash. Can't wait for the midwest shows.
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Saw Henry Rollins tonight talk. It was as expected he got on and went for a solid two hours with a short vomit break right at the start. I ponied up for the vip because why not. Got to get a photo taken with the man and it was wild standing so close to the dude who when I was younger was an absolute monster. Granted he’s 62 now and still lean and in fair shape but still was a trip to meet him. He did about another hour of answering questions after which was pretty neat.
It’s crazy to think he’s been getting after it for like 40 years. Was also excellent that he still sells his merch for old school prices. Last thing I bought at a show for $20 was a Murder by Death hoodie probably 15 years ago. Even picked up a book while I was at it. All in all was a fun time.
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Get in the van Pillfred.
Throbbing Member
Depeche Mode in Philly last night. I'm sure I don't need to tell anyone here how great they are.
Also, holy shit...the crowd has the worst phone etiquette though.
Head like a head
oh hey, awesome! thanks for coming out that night was a great time. didn't know I would be in Haujobb again until the day of the show when Daniel texted me and asked if I wanted to come jam (uh, yeah, obviously!)
Je suis Batman
Haha, seriously - can't imagine declining an invitation like that (if I had an iota of musical ability, that is)!
That weekend was definitely one of my live music highlights for the year, so thanks again for being a part of it.
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Whoo boy, this might be the worst year of festivals in a long time. What do you guys think? Coachella looks awful, the rest are very uninspired. Still looking forward to Riot Fest though
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No doubtWhoo boy, this might be the worst year of festivals in a long time. What do you guys think? Coachella looks awful, the rest are very uninspired. Still looking forward to Riot Fest though
Active Member
Haha! I would like to see them live once, they would be PERFECT for Riot Fest.No doubt
Active Member
Totally surprised (but glad) No Doubt is coming back together.
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