60 posts tagged “music”
Progressive Nation 2009 was VERY awesome. As I mentioned before Wassy and I went off to Albany to catch one of our most anticipated concerts of the year. The bands were Scale the Summit, Bigelf, Zappa Plays Zappa and, of course, Dream Theater.
We left for Albany around 3:30 and aside from one small hitch (some local construction had closed one of the lanes of a 2 lane road for 2 freaking miles why the paved it. Totally unnecessary...) we arrived at the parking garage on schedule. We grabbed some sandwiches and headed over to the venue a few blocks away.
Wassy grabbed a ridiculously overpriced t-shirt (seriously...$40 for very thin shirt?? Add $5 if you're XXL) and we settled in for the show.
First up was Scale The Summit which I liked well enough. They were a pretty dorky looking band, honestly. One of the guitarists wore his guitar so high it looked like a necklace. They had good music but it was a little same-y for doing a setlist like that. There's definitely instrumental bands that I like better. After they had their set, we decided to go see what beers they had on tap. They happened to have newcastle which was one of the ones we like (we're kinda picky about beer) and so off we went.
Bigelf started soon after we got back to our seats and man, they blew me away. I liked their studio CD but seeing them live really made the whole thing "click" for me. Very high energy show and their main vocalists is...scary looking. Complete with top hat and a coat with a long beard. I am definitely going to have to pick up more of their stuff.
Zappa Plays Zappa...eh. I had high hopes for this band as it's the sort of music I might enjoy. And sure enough the first couple songs were really good. But then it got...weird. Too weird for me. I need a little song structure in my songs. So instead I spent an hour and 15 minutes being bored.
However, about halfway through the ZPZ set, two obviously huge older Zappa fans came and sat in front of us in matching tshirts and one pair of binoculars. It should be noted at this point that we were sitting in the 9th row. Binoculars at this point seem a bit unnecessary. But use them they did. In fact they sometimes fought over them so they could watch the individual fingerings of the flute/sax player I guess. Anyway, despite being huge zappa fans and practically bouncing up and down through the entire set, they got up and left before ZPZ was finished. They confused the crap out of me...but it gave me something to watch.
After Zappa Plays Zappa, the main wait for DT arrived and, man was it worth it. They have a totally badass way of opening the show this year. Their stage setup is also really cool with a new upgraded video show and some neat stuff that Jordan does with a HDTV behind his setup that has a computer animation of him playing that's synced with the song as he's playing it.
The setlist was A Nightmare to Remember, A Rite Of Passage, Hollow Years, Erotomania, Voices, Prophets of War, The Count of Tuscany and with an encore of Metropolis pt 1. Pretty much the perfect setlist.
Wassy and I were praying that we were going to get Voices this time as it's one of our favorite Dream Theater songs and we thought we'd get it in Washington DC last year, but ended up not getting it. So the moment the first note of Erotomania was played, we went kinda crazy. My throat hurts this morning... But it was so worth it. Voices! It still feels a little like maybe I imagined it. Those were all the songs that I was expecting to hear and even the extended soloing bits in Metropolis pt 1 were pretty cool. Sometimes they can go on too long, but the band was interacting and having a lot of fun which kept things interesting.
James LaBrie was good last night, but I've heard him better. I've also heard him much worse. He hit all the right notes but had a little trouble in Metropolis which is a hard song to sing at the end of the night anyway. He was totally on in the showmanship department. Interacting with the crowd...lots of energy and it looks like he's in better physical shape than he has been in the past few tours too. I was particularly impressed by Jordan and John Petrucci during the introduction to Hollow Years where they had a really neat extended introduction solo that was just the right mix of technical and melodic stuff.
I'd put this as one of the best DT shows that I've gone to (this is my 8th DT show). I do enjoy going to concerts with Wassy as it seems like she has some sort of concert karma that makes the show extra awesome. And going with a friend who's as into it as you are is much more fun than going alone.
After the show got done, a quick walk back over to the parking garage and an easy drive out completed the evening. We ended up making an emergency stop at a McDonalds in Herkimer since we were both pretty hungry after the show and couldn't find anything good on the thruway.
All in all, a very enjoyable evening and well deserving of the anticipation
This morning is one of the longest mornings ever because in an hour I get to leave work. And then 3 hours after that, my friend Wassy and I leave for Albany to catch a show on the Progressive Nation 2009 tour. As I mentioned earlier.
It felt a little weird last night since it didn't really seem like we were going to be going to a concert today, but here we are. I've got my ear plugs ready and the GPS all programmed and I'm ready to go. Just need to get out of work so I can run my errands and get everything all set for the trip out.
Didn't report much on the goings on of this weekend because it was a lot of relaxation. It was double XP weekend in City of Heroes so Wassy and I (Jay's been really tired recently so he excused himself from the festivities) did some CoH-ing. It got me more interested in playing the game so I've been dabbling back in from time to time since. We also did some Rock Band/Guitar Hero which has been a long time in coming. Nothing much interesting to the outside observer I suspect, but some much needed relaxation for me.
I hope to post again tomorrow with a ProgNation update.
So in the apartment recently, we've been working on battling one of the scourges of summer: Ants. I know why they decided to visit us (we haven't been as good about cleaning up the kitchen as we really should be...but we're getting better on that now) but these things are like mutant ants.
We finally figured out where they were coming in yesterday when, due to the accidental spillage of some sugar on the counter they had formed a decent line going to and from the spill, feasting mightily. So we've repositioned the ant traps and we're hoping that they show some interest in them some day. I tossed some new traps out on our balcony as well since they've been out there as well.
We will defeat the ant incursion or die trying. Or something like that.
Lets see, other stuff that has happened...
I can't believe it's less than 2 weeks to go to see Dream Theater on the Progressive Nation tour in Albany. I'm extremely excited about this show considering the new album was pretty darn awesome. Looking forward to seeing them live again. it's been quite a long time since the last concert I've been to.
Also I can't believe that I'm actually going to be going back to school for something starting pretty soon too. My course in digital typography starts pretty soon (end of august) and I'm going to be actually paying them shortly for it. Just feels kinda surreal. I'm pretty excited about exploring this direction right now, so I'm hoping something good comes out of it. Doesn't hurt to try in any case.
I've been working on designing a personal portfolio type site as an exercise first and I really would like to have just a place on the internet that's a hub of stuff I'm doing and where to find me elsewhere. Not that many people really care, exactly, but it's something to do. My mom also wants to set up a website for her crafting stuff so I'll be going over there next week to talk details.
Doesn't seem like I'm running short on projects that I can tackle to help develop my skills.
The iPod Nano 16GB has arrived...and dear lord is it small. I knew it was going to be small, but seeing one and really holding it on your hand are two different things. I'm sorta afraid I'm going to stick a piece of paper over it and totally lose it.
First of all, I have to say I'm really impressed by Apple's refurbished products. The nano is in perfect condition. No scratches on the case or the screen, looks like new, works exactly like it should.
I'm really enjoying the updates to the iPod interface from my 4th gen standard iPod. Things like being able to turn the shuffle mode on and off from within the playlist are awesome. And it sounds like the sound quality is a little bit better than what I had before. Also, really liking the Cover Flow teacher more than I thought I would. Basically it lets you tilt the iPod to the side and it pops up a line of all of your album covers which you scroll through and can pick songs to listen to that way. It works way better on the iPod than it does on iTunes.
Overall, very happy with the purchase. Well, not that I had to make it, but now that I have it, things worked out pretty well. Just need to tweak my playlists a bit so I get the right subset of my 25GB library onto the 15GB of storage it has. I got it close, but it looks like I missed a few things when I was setting it up.
I was at work yesterday going to listen to some music on my iPod while I did some boring type stuff and, come to find out, it looks like the headphone jack is busted now :(
I only get sound out of the left speaker of whatever I plug into it. The right speaker works if I push the jack it a certain way, but it doesn't keep working after I stop pushing. I don't recall dropping it recently so I'm not entirely sure what happened to it. This one's lasted me about 3 years which is 2 years longer than my previous iPods. So that works out pretty well
Needless to say, this is some pretty bad timing since my hours are getting cut next week. Thankfully May is also a 3 paycheck month, so I have that little bit of extra money floating around.
After doing some calculating, I'm thinking about picking up a refurbished 16GB iPod Nano just to toss my essential songs on it, along with a smaller random playlist so I can listen at work/at the gym/in bed to drown out the next door neighbor's subwoofer. Music is pretty important to me, so I'm willing to toss some other stuff to work this into the budget.
It's probably going to be my one big leisure expense coming up and I'll put the rest of the extra cash into savings to try to offset any unforseen varriations while I'm dealing with my reduced income.
What do you always say you will do but never actually get around to doing?
Submitted by Beautifully Broken.
I would really, really like to have the time to spend working on learning how to play piano/keyboard. I even went and bought one last year, but more important learning things came up regarding my career and I never really progressed much beyond the very basic basics of things.
It's something I would really like to do though...there's just not enough hours in the day to fit everything that I want to do in, and not go totally crazy due to lack of relaxation time.
It's that time again...the time where I look backwards and reflect upon this years new musical offerings. In order to be eligible for this list, the album must have been released in 2008. I might post a best new discoveries list later detailing the non-new music that I've stumbled across this year.
As far as new albums go, 2008 was a fairly slim year. Not a lot of new stuff that I was interested in getting (although I still have to check out other people's top music lists to pick up the things I totally missed through the year) but what it lacked in quantity, it made up for in quality. There's some really awesome releases this year. So without further delay...let's get right into this.
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Opeth - Watershed
My top album of this year, without any doubt is Opeth's Watershed. If anyone isn't familiar with Opeth, they're claim to fame is blending death metal elements (growled vocals, heavy riffs) with much lighter elements (clean vocals, acoustic guitars, keyboards, etc) to create music that's all about contrast. Everything has a purpose, particularly the growling which isn't overused and adds emotional impact to the songs.
Watershed is their first album after losing 2 out of the 5 members and replacing them, so I was a little worried about the direction it would go. As it turns out those worries were totally unfounded. This album is totally Opeth, but it's something different too. They're progressing their sound while maintaining the elements that make their music special and unique.
Probably the best part of this release is it's composition. It plays really well for listening as an album. It's very heavy up front (after a short acoustic introduction) followed by a very mellow couple of songs and then returns to heavy territory towards the end of the album. Heir Apparent has quickly become my favorite Opeth song.
So, in conclusion, this was far and away my favorite release of the year. - Ayreon - 01011001
This was the first new album I bought in 2008 and I knew it was going to end up on the list as soon as I had my first listen to it.
For those not familiar with Ayreon...this band is the brain child of Arjen-Anthony Lucassen, a man who can do pretty much everything. he plays all the instruments on this release except for some guest spots, the drums and most of the vocals. In fact, Ayreon really is all about the vocalists...17 vocalists in this case. All of Ayreon's albums are concept albums, part of a much broader story. The music is very eclectic, pulling heavily from the progressive rock genre, but there's also a lot of electronic and folk influences as well leading to an interesting mix of sounds.
This album's story weaves it's way through all of the previous Ayreon albums, referencing past efforts and story events, becoming a thread that ties the massive storyline together. Interspersed into the main storyline are several songs that seems to be disjointed, referencing the doings of current humans, seeming to try to send the point that we're all trapped in our own little worlds and that we should look up and see what's really around us more. These sections are my only real complaint about the album as they don't really fit in with the rest of the storyline.
But overall, this is one of my favorite Ayreon releases and I'll be playing it in heavy rotation for some time to come - Frost* - Experiments In Mass Appeal
I wasn't sure if I would get this album in time to include it on the list, but thankfully, it arrived just in the nick of time about 2 weeks ago.
As the last two picks, I'll explain the band a bit...Frost* is the result of a Pop music producer and songwriter Jem Godfrey. While spending his days writing and producing jingles and theme songs for various things, his free time is spent working on progressive music that sheds many of the traditional cliches that one associates with the prog rock genre.
Their latest album is different in feel than their first, but it has the same Frost* undercurrent running through it. A little off-putting to me at first, I quickly came to terms with the new, slightly more pop oriented sound and really got into the album. Jem's hallmark is a very busy "wall-of-sound" sort of production on his albums. There's a TON of stuff going on in there, but it's mixed in such a way that it's never confusing and never becomes just a bunch of random noise.
It's not quite as unique as their first effort was, and overall I like Milliontown better, but this is a very solid effort that went a little too far into standard pop structures. I also prefer Jem's vocals to the new vocalist, but Jem still does nearly half the vocal lines on th is one, so it's not such a big downside. - Porcupine Tree - We Lost The Skyline
Ok, so this is the part of the list where I start reaching for albums. I told you this year was pretty slim. This album is a live album, of an in store appearance of part of Porcupine Tree, performing for about 30 minutes.
What makes it really interesting is that because it's only 2 members of the band (Steven Wilson and John Wesley), they did a stripped down acoustic set with just the two guitarists, which lead to some really interesting and unique arrangements of the songs. Some work better than others, but overall, it's a very solid album and I'd like to see some of these get studio treatment, maybe as a B side somewhere.
The best part is hearing Normal played live and hearing Steven Wilson talking about how hard it is to play on guitar. And in fact, he messes up once and starts the song over to do it right. - Apocalyptica - Worlds Collide
The only thing you need to know about Apocalyptica is contained in the opening sentence of their wikipedia page: "Apocalyptica is a Finnish cello metal band." All of the music is created with the cello and, these days, drums. They got their start working on metallica covers but eventually they started writing their own material. This album is almost entirely original material from the band, aside from a cover of David Bowie's Heroes done in German.
The band shines on their non-vocal tracks, creating really heavy riffs and emotional melodies in a very unique way. Songs like Dreamer and Peace really showcase their beautiful melodic side whereas songs like Ion are really all about being very heavy. It can be hard at times to tell that all of the music is done with the cello and not an electric guitar, but...it is.
The downside of this release is the vocal tracks. They lean very nu-metal and are my least favorite part of the album. They could really do something special with vocal tracks but instead when vocals are introduced into the mix the music automatically swings into the generic nu-metal spectrum. The lone standout is the cover of Heroes which ended up quite nice.
While I really like this album, the vocal tracks dent it's awesomeness enough to where if there was anything else released this year that I had purchased, it would probably get dumped off the list.
If you may recall, my last blog post mentioned the fact that Wassy and I were going to attempt to head out to Albany to catch a TSO concert on Sunday, but we were worried about a stomach bug that was going around. As it turns out, we were both fine to go to the show.
Then we (I) was worried about the weather as we were supposed to get some really nasty winter weather about when we were going to be driving out. So we ended up leaving at 11am (for a 3pm show, 1.5 hour drive in good weather giving us plenty of buffer time). The plan was to go eat lunch at place that we ate at before when we went to see Dream Theater in Albany (Jackbit and Joltz, an "australian" sandwich place), then head to the show, then to Chili's afterwords.
The title of this post contains the words roller coaster because that's exactly what yesterday was. The drive up was nice...no weather problems at all. We got to Jackbit and Joltz to find they had closed, but we weren't too worried about that as we has 2.5 hours thereabouts to find somewhere to eat. We ended up chosing a KFC that was of questionable quality (especially their Dr. Pepper), but at that point it was just adding to the experience.
We had an awful lot of time before the show, so we headed out to Crossgates Mall to wander a bit. Wassy stopped by the Apple store and played around with the new multi-touch touchpads on the MacBook Pros in Photoshop CS4. She was sufficiently wowed by it. It did look really neat. We also discovered that there's an IMAX theater in albany. Which made us wonder why we drive to Rochester for our IMAX movies (it takes about twice as long to get there than it does to get to Albany).
After wandering for a while, we headed back out to the show where we hit a really huge snag in the form of INSANE traffic. I-787 was a parking lot so we ducked out at an exit and tried to navigate the streets of Albany to get to the parking garage. This was extremely slow going. Tensions and frustrations were rising and it was starting to look like we wouldn't be able to make the show in time. I eventually navigated down some side streets with the use of the GPS to attempt to circumvent most of the gridlock and we ended up in sight of the venue just before 3pm, still stuck in traffic. I told Wassy that she should hop out and head in because it might be a while before I find a parking spot and she hadn't seen the show before, so she went in and I was left to get to the garage. we were there late enough where I had to park on the garage roof.
By the time I got there it was after 3pm. I didn't want to wait for the elevator down so I sprinted down 6 flights of stairs and all the way across the parking lot building and the length of the times union center to where I could get in. As it turned out there were having some issues with one of the lighting pieces and that delayed the start of the show, so we were able to catch the whole thing. After the horribleness that was the ride in, the show was totally awesome.
I've said before, and I'll say it again. If you have not gone to see TSO, you need to go. Because nobody does a show like these guys. Case in point:
See?? Wassy took some very aweome pictures during the show so that's where all these images are coming from. As per usual, the lighting was set up on movable trusses that reconfigured themselves as the show went along depending on the song. They added a lot more uses of laser and pyro through the entire show and it was really nice. The new string master (female violinist, first name is Anna...but I'm blanking on her last name) was running around the stage and really getting into it and rocking out. At points she slid across the floor on her knees and bent over backwards to play on her back, and one time she took center stage and bent over backwards while still playing. She's very very nimble.
The first half of the show was the normal Christmas Eve and Other Stories set, which is enjoyable enough. It kinda lulls in the middle due to the presence, chiefly, of the song Old City Bar. it grinds the momentum of the show to a halt. We were in the PERFECT seats for First Snow. We It was "snowing" all around us and the lasers flashing off the falling snow was awesome.
The second half of the show was much more high energy and they threw in a lot of songs that they don't normally do which is nice for people who have gone to the show year in and year out. I really prefer the second half of the show to the first every year and this year was no exception. The new songs from Night Castle were good too, and I'm looking forward to that album. 2009 is looking to be a good year for music.
Before I get off the topic of the show, I just wanted to add this final picture from the grand finale. THIS is how you end a show:
This part of the roller coaster ride was where it finally started to go up again. We had a really nice dinner and Wassy really enjoyed her margaritas. Not so good waitress, but we got our food and it was good. The car ride home was fun as well except for the part where we got stuck behind a snow plow for about 4 miles. But after all the stop and go traffic of the day, I was happy to just be moving.
So overall not the major relaxing day that we had both hoped we'd have, but the concert was awesome, the stuff before and after was good. The traffic kinda canceled it all out though. Next year: Going to a show in a city that isn't playing 2 shows in 1 day. Going to a show with a parking lot instead of a parking garage. Not going to the Times Union Center again.
It started off kinda rocky though. I was supposed to do the driving, but 20 minutes before I left to go pick up Wassy, I stepped on my glasses. Despite trying frantically to put them back into a usable state, I failed and we had to re-arrange plans to where she would do the driving and we'd take her car which wasn't really an optimal situation since she didn't want to drive at night.
So I accelerated my packing and managed to grab everything important in the 5 minutes I had left to pack and then headed out to her place so we could head out. On the way I stopped by wallgreens to buy another glasses screwdriver and some extra screws. And while we were driving up, I managed to get them back into some sort of a working condition, although they're a bit crooked.
We arrived at Woodstock as the sun was going down which is kinda depressing since it happened at like 7pm. Way too early. One of the highlights of the trip though was a guy standing outside in Woodstock with a GIGANTIC sign that said "The President and the FBI are torturing me!!" which was...kinda strange. There wasn't a protest going on or anything. Just a lone guy hanging out with a sign that's bigger than car.
Finding the venue was a little tricky because it was dark and they didn't really have any signs which pointed out where it was from the road. We managed to find the right place though and it was pretty nice inside. Well kept up, cool bar, nice little place. The first person we saw when we got in was Joey Eppard, pretty much the brains behind 3. Wassy stopped to talk to him and I mumbled some things (I don't do well when I talk to people that I admire) and then we lounged around for a while until it was time for the show to start, had a couple drinks...relaxed. That kinda stuff.
The opening band was Freddy and His Fingers which were ok. They were a bit too pop-y for me and the songs started sounding the same. Aparantly they were big on the college scene as there was a whole bunch of younger kids that were there and dancing (and a couple of female to female makeout sessions to boot) in the front of the stage. By the time they had finished we were ready for 3. Except that we were going to have to wait for around 30-45 minutes while they cleared the stage and everybody working there stopped by and dropped off towels and water bottles and such.
By the time the show was over, it was around 12:30, so we were in for a long drive back. Since I fixed my glasses, I was able to take the driving home. We made a couple stops for provisions (I needed something to eat) but we ended up making it back to her place around 3am. We had already planned to come back late so I had stuff to crash on their couch for the night.
Saturday was just a day of lots of hanging out and lounging around at my friends place (at least for me and Jay, Wassy was doing some arts during the lounging). I had borrowed Mario Kart Wii from my parents which we did later which was a lot of fun. I need to pick up my own copy at some point as it's a great game to play with a group. It also spawned the phrased "Yabba Dabba Doodlemier!" which was exclaimed after some particularly bad things happened in the game...There was some drinking involved too.
After that we watched a thing on the science channel about what if dragons were real which was...a little far fetched, even after expecting it to be far fetched. I left around 10 because I was about to fall asleep and made it back to my place.
All in all, a very good way to spend a friday night/saturday. It was a lot of fun, as happens with good concerts and good company.
I've been busy lately, so blog posting has been to a minimum. I'm starting to come out from under the load though, so I should be able to get going a little more than I have been.
Yesterday though, was the day the Trans-Siberian Orchestra tickets for this year's tour went on sale. This year I'm going with Wassy. Even though she's not into the whole holiday-themed aspects, she got a new found love of going to concerts and there's nothing out there on the scale of TSO, so we're going to a show this year.
Last year, the fan club presale tickets were a total mess. The site was buggy and crashed a lot, you had to wait in long lines and even that was bugged so you were just staring at a page with a little animated graphic and would never go anywhere else. Not to mention some of the seats weren't that great.
This year they were touting a new and improved presale ticket system, to lock out scalpers and get the fans the best seats in the house. They swore that they fixed the problems from last year and that everything would be better!
So...10am rolled around and the site promptly crashed and burned. It alternated from a black screen to telling me that they're unable to process my request at this time. Eventually, I got through and find that I'm waiting in exactly the same endless lines from last year. They even ported over the same animated image, although the trappings were different and cooler looking.
It was exactly the same system! Eventually, after about 30-40 minutes of trying to get through, I managed to snag some tickets. Second row, which I promptly threw back into the pool. If you're going to a TSO show, I would recommend sitting a little further back. That way you can get the full effect of the light show while still seeling the performers do their thing. If you're too close, then you can't really see any of the laser stuff. I decided to get a block of 8 seats to push us further back and discard all but 2. That worked out and now we're sitting around 17th row. Close enough to see the performers and far enough away to see the stage show.
Can't wait for december now!
