Archive for the ‘ Music ’ Category

A Wacken Update

I may as well start this thing again! This is a comprehensive outline of Wacken preparations. For last year’s list of things I did as well as a short explanation of Wacken Open Air and why I have to go, click here.

Well, first off, you have to sacrifice something big enough for He-With-No-Name to take note and allow your credit card to be accepted at Metaltix. My Amex credit card kept getting rejected (something about a transfer not going through), and Metaltix did not deign to reply to any of my pleas or queries. Finally, I just used my Visa debit card and within days I got an e-mail informing me that my ticket was shipped. An agonizing month later I got my Wacken ticket (as well a set of bewildering coupons to a German McDonald’s), in the mail. Good thing too, since Wacken has been officially sold out since 3/8/08.

This year is going to be astonishingly good X 2, because I’m not going by my lonesome — fathful d42 got her ticket too. Good things have been happening for W:A:O also. They got the Live Entertainment of the Year Award this year which only confirmed their awesomeness. Now I’m just sorry I didn’t get an extra ticket since selling it on E-bay would probably pay for the plane ride there.

Transportation to Hamburg: So, I have my ticket, great. But that’s only half the battle. Now I have to afford plane tickets from NYC to Hamburg, and finally get from the airport to the festival grounds. The sites that have been more helpful with(cheaper) plane tickets so far are sidestep.com and studentuniverse.com. Continue reading →

2008
03/26
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CATEGORY
Conventions/Festivals
Music
Random
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Rocking Out PhD Style: A Stone Document Quickie

stone-document.jpg

Stone Document, which is comprised of Dennis Tirch, PhD (that’s right, a doctor!) and Mike Roze (not sure what his dayjob is) put on an amazing show on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at Fat Baby.

Despite being the opening act that night, they played a 45 minute set at this SOHO venue comprised of a lounge/bar upstairs and a small venue (the size of Mercury Lounge), downstairs. Although Stone Document have limited fans currently, I can see a following already in the works. How do you know if you’re a Stone Document fan? If you prefer the experimental rock of the 70’s and 80’s combined with the progressive rock of the 90’s and 2000’s, you can enjoy Stone Document. If you’re still unclear, just check out their myspace page and take a listen for yourself. Continue reading →

2008
01/28
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CATEGORY
Music
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Rob Zombie Returns to The Chance

Rob ZombieThe Rock and Roll lifestyle inflames the imagination and depletes the body, little by little. It isn’t easy, and many rockers are husks of what they once were, forced back on stage by poor financial decisions after years of playing the same song over and over. Rob Zombie is not one of these men.

This most recent tour, due to no new album, but I suppose to celebrate a new film venture, has paired Zombie with Ozzy Ozbourne and he has been selling out arenas. Just recently, d42 and I decided to pass on his Madison Square Garden engagement. Every time we have seen him, after expanding a certain amount of force, we were able to get close enough to check out his latest shiny pants. At MSG we would have to shell out hundreds on E-bay to get close, and then we’d be sitting down. In seats. Unspeakable! Unthinkable! He has gotten too big, and was no longer the man we loved for his freedom of action and creativity. And then we found out Zombie was going to break away from Ozzy for a day and play The Chance, in Poughkeepsie, NY.

I saw my very first show at The Chance over a decade ago. I remembered being kept on the mezzanine by the guy who brought me, looking down at the mass of bodies before the stage which wiggled and undulated as one. I’ve never seen the floor looking like that since, but this past Saturday–the 5th of January–d42, Dazvsemir and I found out just how such a phenomenon comes into existence. Continue reading →

2008
01/06
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CATEGORY
Music
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Do Not Fill Up At The Generic Music Buffet: Vains of Jenna Break it Down

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From http://www.discaffinity.com

November 2, 2007. Jacki Stone (drummer) met me by the back door of Roseland Ballroom and Nicki Kin (lead guitar) escorted me to the Vains of Jenna dressing room where Lizzy DeVine (vocals, guitar) and JP White (bass) huddled in their respective sweatshirt and leopard print coat, cursing the chill weather.

Vains of Jenna was formed when in a town of Falkenberg, Sweden two rival bands fell apart, bringing their most dedicated members together. The year was 2005. The band was eventually called Vains of Jenna. Dictionaries began arriving in response to the spelling choice, but they were discarded with sly remarks. VoJ, whose influences are Mötley Crüe, Guns N’ Roses, the Rolling Stones, and Aerosmith truly began their career when they played Crufest in Hollywood, in 2005. There, Stevie Rachelle, owner of Metal Sludge and former singer of Tuff, noticed them and quickly became their manager. A week later they were recording in a studio with Gilby Clarke (former guitarist of Guns N Roses). In 2006 they met Bam Margera who signed them to his label, Filthy Note, and they’ve been touring the U.S. ever since supporting their album Lit Up/Let Down.

Back at Roseland, JP and Lizzy are both rubbing their eyes and yawning. Although obviously tired, they are affable guys and after shaking my hand and introducing themselves settle down into their chairs. Torn between the desire to smoke and the intense dislike of the cold weather conditions outside, they eventually lay the cigarette dilemma aside and we launched into our interview.

(JP White and Lizzy DeVine making faces for your amusement) Continue reading →

2007
11/10
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CATEGORY
Interview
Music
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Velocity of Demon Spunk Equals G Times WAR Squared

Friday, November 2, 2007. Oh. Man.

GWAR

The Rockstar Energy Drink Viva La Bands tour, sponsored by Bam Margera (of Jackass), featured Vains of Jenna, an interesting new sleaze rock band from Sweden as opening act, and was headlined by Cradle of Filth, who are pretty uniformly awesome. The tour also featured another band, one that I had heard of, but never seen, and not really listened to. They’re a famously outrageous band, so I had a little bit of a notion of what to expect; I knew it would be fun.

I was so unprepared. I was more unprepared than the proverbial Polish cavalry riding in to face the tanks of WWI. I was more unprepared than you before your Insert-High-Stress-Standardized-Test-Here. I was more unprepared than an extremely unprepared thing.

That last band was GWAR. Continue reading →

2007
11/09
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CATEGORY
Music
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‘UnexpecT’-ed Surprises at Sonata Arctica

The night of September 30th turned out to be a night of surprises at B.B. King’s Blues Club & Grill. Sonata Arctica was in town once again, and although they were the reason I attended, they weren’t the highlight of the evening. I was flying more blind than usual where general knowledge or a deep appreciation of the bands went but that turned out to be a bit of a blessing. It was the start of a night that will not be soon forgotten.

First on stage was a little-known band called UnexpecT. Hailing from Montreal, Quebec, Canada this not so little band blew me away right from the start. They have such a unique sound that my knowledge of metal wasn’t up to par in the arena of classification. The almighty Wikipedia describes them as, ”avant-garde extreme metal…with a unique amalgamation of completely different styles of music, including black metal, death metal, metalcore, progressive metal, melodic heavy metal, European Classical music, opera, medieval music, gypsy music, electro, ambient, noise, circus music, and jazz.”

Continue reading →

2007
10/11
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CATEGORY
Music
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The Triumphant Return of Machine Head

(This article is brought to you in fragments and overlaps by both Dazvsemir and ETL. And sorry, clicking on the pics will just force you to sign into Flicker and then meet with disappointment.)


Rob Flynn (vocals) of Machine Head

Dazvsemir: Before I could even catch my breath after Finntroll I found myself rushing to see Arch Enemy and Machine Head at Nokia Theatre on September 22nd. Unfortunatly, due to a lapse of memory on my part I was delayed slightly and arrived late to the venue. Luckily, I was able to breeze through security without missing any more of the show than i already had.

ETL: Nokia is one of my favorite, but least visited venues. They should play more metal more often. It is spacious, but the floor in front of the stage is still a cozy and intimate battlefield. There are a great many seats in the back which I like to think of as the geriatric and budding metalhead section. There are also waitresses intent on serving drinks and striding through moshpits as if they were full of kittens instead of thrashing guys who look like they might have cortical damage. Continue reading →

2007
10/02
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CATEGORY
Music
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