50 posts tagged “music”

The first full week back at work after you've been on vacation is...not fun. But I'm very glad I made it to friday. Not much actual stuff to report this week as I've gotten really heavily back into City of Heroes again and I've been playing pretty much all my spare time to get one of my villain characters up to level 50 so that I can explore some of the new content that came in with the last update. That happened Wednesday night so now I'm laying back a little bit and recharging.

Wednesday was also the day of the new Opeth album, Watershed. Well, it was technically released on Tuesday, but I didn't listen to it until Wednesday evening because Wassy and I had planned on hearing it for the first time together.

All in all it's a very solid effort. I doesn't top Ghost Reveries for me, but I think it's tied for second place with Blackwater Park. And it keeps getting more and more of a hold on me every time I play it again. The only song I really don't get is "The Lotus Eaters" because it's a little...strange. The rest of the disc though is just top notch. I'm really glad this release didn't dissapoint because I was looking forward to it a lot.

It's kinda strange hearing Opeth on CD though, since at the Albany prognation show I was within 5 feet of them when they walked past the meet and greet line. It's the same with Dream Theater and Three now. It's weird hearing people you've stood next to and exchanged a few words with playing music on a CD on your iPod. It just makes them feel more...real.

Anyway, I hope I'm able to make it through to the end of today all right. A bunch of bad storms swept through the area overnight and kept waking me up. That was combined with a couple of bad dreams, so I'm operating on very little sleep right now. And I have a headache. Blah!

Yesterday was quite a day. If you would recall, I've been planning on attending the Progressive Nation 08 tour which consists of 3 of my favorite bands (3, Opeth and Dream Theater) and one band I don't care for (Between the Burried And Me). And, as you may also recall, I had intended on going to the Washington DC show because, although Albany was closer, it was a general admission venue and I prefer seated venues to standing room only.

We had originally intended to go out to albany yesterday anyway to attend a Mike Portnoy in-store meet and greet appearance. Then Wassy was contacted by a member of the mikeportnoy.com forums. He had purchased a platnium package but couldn't make use of it because, it seems, his brother was going to the show and he didn't want to leave him hanging, so he gave it to us. $300...per ticket. We were pretty nervous that things weren't going to work out because the logistics of the situation were very unsure. We wouldn't know until after the show for sure. I had originally intended to bring a poster to have the band signed, but I was worried that it wouldn't make it through security. Which it didn't. Oh well, it would have been cool, but it wasn't the end of the world. I threw it back in my car and went in without.

Once we got in, our friend handed us his laminate back stage pass, told us where to go and it seemed like we were all set. The actual concert was very awesome. 3, the band was very cool live, as always. The sound started off pretty bad but got a lot better as it went onwards and they have a huge stage presense. It was really cool watching the number of people in the crowd cheering them on increase dramatically as the set went on. I'm glad they're getting a lot of exposure out of this show.

After their set we hightailed it over to the merch tables so that I could purchase my backup plan for signing (a paperback copy of Lifting Shadows, the official Dream Theater biography book) as well as get some 3 swag, I bought a nice t-shirt. We also hung around and Wassy bought a copy of Wake Pig and had it signed by the band. I'm planning on picking up a physical copy of The End Is Begun next week and getting that cover signed. as well.

We went back up to the tiered seating to stake out a good place for Opeth while listening to Between The Burried And Me. I really like them musically, but their screaming vocals really turn me off. Needless to say, I was happy when they had left the stage.

Next up was Opeth which was a band I had always wanted to see live. And they rocked the house. The sound was a little muddy to start with where I was at but it was adjusted pretty good by the middle of the first song. They're a really awesome live band as well, with lots of energy. Mikael Akerfeldt, their front man/main creative force is also very funny on stage between songs. I can see why his banter is considered to be stuff of legends. I liked it just as much as I liked the actual songs. They played a new song off their upcoming album which sounded really cool.

After Opeth, the wait for Dream Theater began. I was starting to get excited about the meet and greet. And getting tired because there had been much rocking out that was going on for the past couple hours and it was starting to catch up with me. But DT hit the stage and it all went away. We had a really awesome setlist, including Strange Deja Vu, Though My Words and Fatal Tragedy, the new version of Surrounded and Take The Time. Even though we had already seen about half of it at the last tour, the new stuff was very awesome.

And then came the moment of truth...the meet and greet. Would we be allowed in? Would everything run smoothly? We grabbed our stuff and headed to the meeting point while the crew was disassembling the stage. Jenny, the meet and greet rep came out and grabbed all of the VIP people and took us backstage, to a very scary looking hallway that appeared as though might have been used as a secluded hallway in the past for "taking care of" people who you never wanted to hear from again. It was also where they kept the fallout shelter.

It was at this point we realized that this was actually going to happen. Jenny started handing out DT swag, including a DT bandana and a guitar pick. We then got some snacks and candy to hold us over while the band was eating their cheesecake factory supplied food (We saw the guy walk through with a bunch of cheesecake factory bags. Somebody yelled out "They get cheesecake factory??" and he said "You already got your stuff!" and kept right on going). Jenny went over the rules. No grabbing the crotches of the band members was the one that stood out.

Then we waited some more, and while we were waiting, we got another surprise. The members of Opeth appeared and walked through our little gathering, so we got to say hi and I happened to be in the right spot to shake Mikeal Akerfeldt's hand. Then the guys appeared. We started taking pictures with them, with Wassy and myself doing ours together. She stood by James LaBrie and was all excited when he put his arm on her shoulder. She's a James LaBrie fangirl, you see.

We went back in line to get ready to do the meet and greet. Wassy had brought some art of hers to gift to the band as a thank you for the music and such (pictured to the right there), so she did that and got a copy signed for herself. I didn't really have much to say as I was kinda in awe being 3 feet away from the guys that really launched all of my current musical taste. I basically just did a lot of "Really awesome show, thanks for the music" stuff. I thanked Mike Portnoy for doing all the stuff he does for the fans, and told James LaBrie that I really loved his voice.

As we walked through, Wassy got some attention from the meet and greet manager who wanted to know more about the art and what she had done to make it. And then after that there was a manager of a production company hanging out who wanted to see it and gave her his card and told her to send him an e-mail with some more contact information.

All in all it was a very awesome night. Spoiled slightly because of the fact that we had some massive vending machine troubles on the Thruway during the return trip. We needed something to drink and first the vending machine wasn't taking dollars...then it gave me back my change in nickels, then another machine took 2 of Wassy's dollars when everything was sold out and only gave her back one...but eventually we semi-sorted it out..except for that lost dollar.

I'm still coming down off the high of meeting the band, and Opeth and everything going as well as it could have gone. And now the pressure is off for the DC show to be perfect. We're just going to go relax and have a good time that weekend, get out of town for a little while and decompress.

I leave you with a shot of my signed copy of Lifting Shadows.

 

The IRS has decided that it would send me my stimulus payment yesterday. So I went about stimulating the economy like a good little citizen.

As I've mentioned in the past (although it was a while ago), I've always wanted to learn how to play some kind of an instrument. I used to know how to play trumpet from my elementary school days, but I dunno if that really counts. I decided that I needed a new hobby, something that was more constructive than hanging around and playing video games. So I decided to buy myself a keyboard (well, a MIDI controller actually) so that I could learn more about music and how to play stuff.

It's always something I've been interested in doing, but I never got the motivation to go out and do it. But now I'm going to try to change that. So I ordered myself up a Korg K61P after doing some research. Now I just have to figure out how I want to go about the learning process. I don't think I want to take a class or lessons right off the bat anyway. I'm not terribly interested in making this a formal thing that starts feeling like work. I may do something down the line, but right now I just want to kinda mess around with stuff. Probably not the best way to go, but I'm not one for one on one lessons in most cases anyway. We'll have to see.

As you may reall, I'll be heading down to Washington DC in a couple weeks to catch Progressive Nation '08 which consists of Dream Theater, Opeth and Three. Well, there's another band, but I don't particularly care for them. Anyway, what I didn't plan on was heading out to Albany to catch another show of the same tour the weekend before. But here we are.

The story starts last monday. I returned home from work to a message from Wassy simply stating "!!!!". I asked what was up and she quickly informed me that she had just recieved a message from a guy that's a regular on the Mike Portnoy.com forums that I visit often. He bought platnium tickets for the show, which means he spent $300 per ticket to get let in early to get up front, as well as get backstage passes to meet the band, get stuff signed and take a picture with them. However, it seems he doesn't want to do the meet and greet thing...so he's offering his two backstage passes to us, for free.

We had originally intended to go to Albany that day anyway because the drummer (Mike Portnoy) was going to be having an in-store apperance and we wanted to go. But now we're going to the show too. Can't pass this opportunity up, that's for sure as I don't think I'd ever be able to justify spending $300 per ticket to go backstage.

So needless to say, I'm extremely excited at the chance to meet the band that pretty much opened my eyes to all the good stuff that's out there underground, even if they're not my favorite band anymore.

Yesterday could be described only as dreary. It was the kind of day where you wake up, look out the window and just get depressed because everything looks so gray. Even the clouds felt like they were pressing in, crowding out everything else. It was very...blah. And very windy. VERY Windy. when I was shoveling the snow off of my porch I just had to push it over the stairs and the wind would pick it up and carry it at least to my neighbors yard. Kinda lost track of it after that.

 The weather was made up for though by the fact that Wassy came over last night and we hung out a bit, playing some Guitar Hero and listening to music (Nevermore and Nightwish, specifically) while she worked on one of her drawings (which is turning out very nicely).

It was a fun time, and I learned that I apparently make a pretty good cup of tea which is nice because it was the first time I brewed a cup for somebody else. Or made anything for a person other than myself for that matter. I don't trust my cooking ability enough to subject other people to my food. But the tea turned out pretty well, so I hear.

The only real down point of the evening was the fact that my apartment was freezing again due to the high speed cold winds blowing at my wall. I should get thicker curtains for the windows. I think that would really help keep the cold out.

I've got what looks to be a backlog of stuff to talk about that I should have mentioned earlier in the week, but as you  might be able to tell, I didn't. So the next couple posts are going to be me catching up.

Earlier in the week I came to the conclusion that I wanted to try a new hobby because the stuff that I traditionally enjoyed doing with my free time wasn't really interesting me anymore, aside from video games and wandering around, wasting time on the internet. I kinda felt that I was wasting my free time (moreso on the countless hours spent just visiting internet forums and not as much on the video games) and that I could spend that time doing something a little more productive.

I keep telling myself that I'd like to learn how to play some kind of instrument and I think I should stop thinking about it and actually do something about it. So I've been toying with the idea of picking up a decent, but still affordably priced entry level MIDI Controller/keyboard thingy for myself that I can hook up to my MacBook and mess around with. I think it might be fun to learn. I had toyed with the idea of a guitar as well, but I dunno. I think I'll give the electronic stuff a shot and if that doesn't keep me interested, try guitar out.

I just feel like I haven't learned anything new in quite some time and I'm too boring as it is since I don't really have any hobbies aside from video games. Don't get me wrong, games are fun, but they don't offer the feeling of personal fulfillment that I'm looking for.

I probably should have posted this yesterday but I wasn't feeling terribly motivated to do any writing. But you're going to be getting it today so...deal with it! Anyway, I went over to my friends place on Saturday to hang out. We watched Robot Chicken, some MST3K Then Wassy made some strawberry daiquiris with an awful lot of rum. Then, we did the only thing we could do while we were a bit tipsy...played trivial pursuit. Yes, I know we're freaks. I also know that the game gets about 100x more interesting when there's some type of drinking involved.

I was also over there to watch the new Dream Theater video on MTV2. I'm not a huge fan of music videos honestly, but this time I was interested. The video (at the right) was done in a very stylistically cool way, with some great animation.

It also follows the story of the song pretty well. Except for the vampire spaceship thing...that's kinda weird. But overall I was pretty happy with the end result.

I wasn't really happy about having the listen to what passes for "metal" these days though. Ugh, I really hate screaming vocals. REALLY hate them. The video was on about an hour into the show and was almost the first one without entire screamed vocals (Skid Row was #1)

Last night was the long anticipated Trans-Siberian Orchestra show. This was my second time seeing them, but they managed to exceed my already high expectations for the show. It also helped that we got pretty good seats too. My parents and I ended up sitting on the floor, about 10 or so rows back. I was concerned that our seats were pushed off to the right a bit, but that ended up not being a problem for enjoying the light show (which we were basically sitting in because stretched out directly above us was a bunch more lights). They didn't seem to care about camera phone usage for taking pictures, so I managed to snag some. Crappy camera phone picture disclaimer applies, as usual.

If you've never been to a TSO show, you need to go. It doesn't matter what kind of music you like, if you like christmas or hate it...just go. TSO has the best stage show out there right now. Period. Their main lighting rig for this show consisted of 10 square frames suspended above the sage. with all sorts of lights on them, along with some towers in the back of the stage with additional lights as well as the lights that extended above the audience. The square frames were movable, so they reconfigured themselves during the songs or even danced around, performing waves and such during certain sections. And, as always, there were lasers and pyrotechnics.

They started out playing a song I didn't recognize but them moved into playing their first album Christmas Eve and Other Stories in its entirety, complete with a narrator and everything. During First Snow, we were sitting close enough where we got fake snowed on. That song is cool because they make it "snow" from the ceiling on the first few rows. And then...when the lasers come in, it makes all the snow in the air sparkle when the lasers hit it. During this song, I realized that our seats were going to actually end up being pretty cool because the lasers and everything were still very visible where we were at.

The other highlight was the rendition of Promises To Keep. Since they don't have a children's choir hanging around, they play a rocked out version an incredible woman on vocals. I just love her voice and I'm glad she's still on the tour since we saw it 2 years ago. That was one of the things that I was looking forward to hearing again. I'm having trouble remembering her name right now though. Bah...anyway, she's incredibly good and very powerful. I sorta wish that version of the song appeared on the album. Or was released at all.

During then during the second half of the show, they pulled out some of my favorite songs that I wasn't expecting to hear.. Christmas Nights In Blue was played (with the vocalist that appears on the CD which is always a plus). Christmas Cannon Rock was also played which was the big surprise for me. I wasn't expecting that one at all.

 

They also did a lot of non christmasy songs, including a couple from their new upcoming album ("Ok guys, what do you think will happen first? A McDonalds on Mars...or...the release of the long awaited new TSO album Nightcasle?") and a lot of classical inspired pieces from their Beethoven's Last Night CD. There was also a really cool version of Flight of the Bumblebee with a franticly paced laser light show.All in all, it was an excellent show, lasting around 3 hours long. We got home pretty late (around 1:30) so I basically just synced my phone to check out if my pictures turned out ok and then plop into bed. I'm definitely going to try to go next year. Maybe they'll have a new album out. Yeah right! They were promoting the new album coming out the last time I went 2 years ago. Hah!

I just got back from the christmas party thrown by my dad's side of the family. As I've said before, sometimes this party can be a little...less than entertaining. Mostly due to the people there I don't really know and/or get along with. This year though, it was pretty fun. Everybody was cool, lots of good conversation and food and stuff. We walked in to the spectacle of one of the dogs (there's usually a TON of dogs at this party) wearing a reindeer costume and looking very pathetic. All the other dogs were picking on him and it kept flopping in front of his face so he couldn't really see all that well. Pretty entertaining for a bit, but they took it off him quickly.

The highlight of the event though, was Rock Band. One of my cousins (her husband actually) has Rock Band and he brought it over so we could play it at the party. We played for a couple hours, with various people rotating in and out. I managed to play all of the instruments and sing some as well. I started out at guitar and played that. I was going to play drums after that, but my sister accidently bumped the difficulty on her bass part to Expert so I swapped with her quickly.

Then I got talked into singing. I picked War Pigs as the song and apparently I knocked it out of the park because people were commenting about it for the rest of the night. It's probably because I'm known as the quiet guy who doesn't talk much. Of course, I can also sing pretty decently (if the song is in my range) so I probably ended up surprising some people. I also ended up doing vocals on Tom Sawyer and Enter Sandman.

Just a mini Rock Band review. Pretty fun game for parties. I like the way Guitar Hero handles the guitar parts more than how Rock Band does it, and I also like the feel of the Guitar Hero controller. The drums were pretty fun, but hard to get used to because of all of the stuff you had to do at once when playing them. Overall, two thumbs up, but I probably wouldn't want to pay the full price for the set unless I was going in on it with other people.

All in all, a good way to kick off the Christmas party season. It finally feels like Christmas time to me. 

Well, since the end of the year is closing in and Vox hasn't done this as the question of the day yet (watch, it's going to show up tomorrow) I decided that I'd do it myself. 2007 was a pretty good year for music barring some disappointments. I'm looking at you Dream Theater. But to balance out the fact that the album I was looking forward to most was generally "meh", I made a whole lot of new musical discoveries this year. Radiohead, Epica, Riverside, Redemption, Little Atlas, just to name a few. Inspired by a thread on the mikeportnoy.com forums, I think it's time to rank my favorite albums of the year like I did last year. Except if I could do last year's again, I'd put the Frost* album on top. I don't know what I was thinking with that one. But anyway, onwards to the list.

1. 

   Fear of a Blank Planet

   Porcupine Tree
   Porcupine Tree - Fear Of A Blank Planet
   Porcupine Tree - Nil Recurring
   
   What can I say about Steven Wilson? He turns everything he touches to gold and this release was no exception. I'm including Nil Recurring in here too since it was originally intended to be part of the album.
   
   Porcupine Tree continues to impress with Fear of A Blank Planet, continuing the evolution they began with In Absentia. This album sounds like Porcupine Tree, but it has a different feel from their previous works, a trait which Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson have carried through the bands entire discography.
   
   This release, while not quite as strong as In Absentia to me (but that's a tough thing to live up to, honestly) easily captures my top spot this year. The middle section of Anesthetize is one of the most well constructed pieces of music I've heard in quite some time.
   
   This album was made even better by getting front row seats at the Porcupine Tree concert in Albany.
   
   
2. 

   The End Is Begun

   3
   3 - The End Is Begun
   
   I didn't think I was going to like 3 at first. I heard they were good over at the mikeportnoy.com forums after having opened for Porcupine Tree on a previous tour leg, but my first impression wasn't very good.
   
   It was only after I decided to check them out more after hearing they were going to be opening for Porcupine Tree at the show I was going to and I'm really glad I did. 3 vaulted into one of my favorite bands and this release, and as you can see, to my number 2 spot of the year.
   
   They've got a fairly unique sound to them (like a lot of the bands I'm into actually...) and until I saw them live, I didn't realize they had two drummers which explains some of their sound. The lead vocalist also has a very unique voice.
   
   What's more, they're awesome live. When I saw them with Porcupine Tree...I'm having a hard time deciding if I was happier with PT's show or with 3's. I'm glad they're going to be opening for Dream Theater in the spring.
   
   
3. 

   The Origins of Ruin

   Redemption
   Redemption - The Origins Of Ruin
   
   Another band I discovered because they were opening for a band I wanted to see. Redemption opened for Dream Theater, and thus I checked them out.
   
   I was surprised to learn that Ray Alder was their vocalist. I liked him in Fates Warning, but I think his unique vocal style really works much better in Redemption's format. And the stuff he sings is very well thought out. The lyrics on this album are some of the best I've heard all year.
   
   Fall On You, in particular, is one of the highlights of the album lyrically. I'm glad they played that one live at the show I went to.
   
   Speaking of their live show, it's fairly good as well. Ray Alder was spot on live, even though he had a cold.  I really need to get some of their other albums if they're going to be anything like this one.
   
   
4. 

   Blackfield II

   Blackfield
   Blackfield - Blackfield II
   
   Hey, Stephen Wilson manages to get on the list again! Who would have thought. Well, this release shows off the versitility of the man again. Blackfield is a more pop oriented group than Porcupine Tree is, being a collaboration with Aviv Geffen. Simpler songs rule here with more lyric driven pieces. There's a few weak spots (Miss U, specifically) but overall this album is extremely solid.
   
   The album retains a lot of Stephen Wilson signatures with a lot of vocal harmony parts thrown in. Christenings is pretty much all of the members of Porcupine Tree playing a song on the Blackfield album with Aviv added in, so it's very much a Porcupine Tree sounding song. One of my favorite tracks, along with 1,000 People and Once.
   
   
5. 

   Paradise Lost

   Symphony X
   Symphony X - Paradise Lost
   
   Russel Allen is one of my favorite Metal vocalists out there right now. He's extremely versitle, singing soft, soulful parts as well as powerful soaring vocal lines and even more metal growling type (well, not growling as in death metal...more of a gravely type voice) often in the same song.
   
   The only reason why this album isn't listed higher on my top 5 is because Russel Allen's usage of the more metal type vocals through the entire thing. He doesn't really let loose with the powerful soaring stuff that I like him so much for. They suit the music though, as we'll get to in a moment, but I would have preferred more variety.
   
   Musically, though, this album doesn't disappoint. It's extremely heavy (which is why the vocals are as they are) and well constructed. There's a lot of musical references to their song The Divine Wings of Tragedy, this album being related to it in some way. Still trying to figure out what the connection is, but it's most definitely a concept album.
   
   Symphony X is so delightfully cheesy and they know it which makes them so awesome. I really wish I was able to see them live this tour, but I'm going to have to skip the show, unfortunately.
   

So there you have it. My top 5 of 2007. This marks the first year where a Dream Theater album was released where it didn't get placed on the top spot. In fact, Systematic Chaos didn't even make the list which surprised me a lot. I really wanted to like the album, but I'm getting the feeling that Dream Theater is straying from their roots a bit too much, away from well constructed songs into instrumental wank-fests that do litle to add anything to the song. There's some good stuff on there. Constant Motion, Repentance, Prophets of War and The Ministry of Lost Souls are standout tracks for me, along with Forsaken to some degree, but...the lyrics this time around by John Petrucci really killed several songs for me. They do work really well live though. I'll have to give them that much.

Maybe I'm moving on and DT is moving in a different direction. We'll have to see what the next album brings. Now...where's my music for 2008??