Posts Tagged ‘ Music ’

Neil? Yes, Amanda? – Performances and Q&A with Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer

Show date: June 3, 2009
Venue: Housing Works Book Store Cafe
Guests: Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer

d42 was having a fan girl fit. Neil Gaiman, best selling novelist, comic book writer, tireless blogger, as well as Amanda Palmer, singer, musician, icon, and recently deceased, were going to be under one roof at the Housing Works Book Store Café! These two beloved icons gathered with us this night to promote Who Killed Amanda Palmer Photo Book for which Gaiman provided the text.  Kyle Cassidy, photographer (also in attendance, but on the sidelines), provided excellent pictures of Palmer bloodied and stuffed into a shopping cart, floating in a pond, as a gorgeous statue, and in various other poses, all having a lack of life in common. Continue reading

So, I like the Bee Gees?

Show date: April 3, 2009
Venue: B.B. King’s Blues Club and Grill, NY
Bands: Brendon Small and the School of Rock All Stars, Tragedy, Misstallica

Tragedy. Entertainment Factor -- Check!

Tragedy. Entertainment Factor -- Check!

Another Friday night spent at good old B.B. King’s, yet again hosting a night of peculiar musical stylings of combination comedy and metal.

The evening opened with a Q&A with Brendon Small. A small crowd of fervent admirers pelted him with questions which he answered informing and abusing simultaneously. Continue reading

Wacken 2009 Info

wacken-ticketI’ve got the golden tickeeeeet! And I hope you do too, because Wacken 2009 is SOLD OUT and if you still want to go you will have to deal with E-bay. This year is Wacken‘s 20th in the metal business, and also my third partaking of said metal. I wrote up some sort of an update or list every year, so I think I’ll stick to that. You can check out previous articles (links are at the bottom), but the most updated links and info will be here. Continue reading

Pagan Knights Walk the Highline

Show date: March 29, 2009
Venue: Highline Ballroom
, NY
Bands: Tyr, Alestorm, Suidakra
paganknights

Odin must have been smiling as three of the best Folk Metal bands around took the stage. Suidakra, Alestorm, and Tyr once again pillaged NYC.

The first of the night was a lesser-known (at least to me) band by the name of Suidakra. Hailing from Western Germany, Suidakra kicked things off with “War Tunes”, from their album The Arcanum, and didn’t let off of the throttle for the rest of the set. Unfortunately, the crowd didn’t seem as enthused as I, or my partner for the evening was. They opened to a small crowd; which did grow as the set went on, but seemed mostly uninterested in what they were hearing. Arcaduis (lead vocals) did manage to get a “wall of death” going, though it was rather lack-luster.
Continue reading

Cradle of Filth Brings Hundreds of Fans to Times Square

Show date: February 25, 2009
Venue: Nokia Theatre, NY
Bands: Cradle of Filth, Satyricon, Septic Flesh

“No, we’re not all waiting for The Lion King,” I told a little old lady clutching her husband’s arm and looking warily at an enormous line of leather clad, spike-covered, black-eyeliner-smeared Cradle of Filth fans. It took close to an hour to get into the venue, but thankfully the Nokia Theatre accommodated the huge number of attendees and started the show a half an hour later than scheduled. Good thing too, or I would have had to kick myself stupid for missing Septic Flesh.

septicflesh

from septicflesh.net

Continue reading

Music with That Human Element: How I learned of Swallow The Sun

Show date: February 15, 2009
Venue: Highline Ballroom, NY
Bands: Soilwork, Darkane, Warbringer, Swallow The Sun

Björn "Speed" Strid on vocals

I always think of bands as combinations of musical talent that create music which I love, but I never really try to get to know them or see them as regular people. This outlook can’t change overnight, but the process began when I saw Swallow the Sun, Warbringer, Darkane, and Soilwork.

d42 and I were a little late (my fault for thinking a cross town bus is in any way an effective mode of transportation) and therefore missed the beginning of the Swallow the Sun set. It only took a few songs for this Finnish melodic death metal band to become one of my favorites, however. And a few songs is all they played, because I believe I heard what must have been a part of “Losing the Sunsets / Plague of Butterflies / Evael”. This one song is technically over a half hour long. The Plague of Butterflies EP is their latest effort. Continue reading

Amanda Palmer Defines Intensity

Show date: January 1, 2009
Venue:
Bowery Ballroom
Bands:
Amanda Palmer and the Danger Ensemble, Emelyn Brodsky

Amanda Palmer as the base of this human pyramid

Amanda Palmer as the base of this human pyramid

In the first few hours of 2009 we were stuck waiting for the 6 train. By the time we made it to Bowery Ballroom it was almost 3am. What the hell were we doing there? Testing our concert-going endurance.  That, and seeing if Punk Cabaret could be awesome.

Amanda Palmer was playing a show that was supposed to start at about 2 in the morning, which was an unusual slot. It was apparently a bit of a surprise to Palmer as well, who, instead of eating pizza alone at midnight, threw a party in the Bronx where she interacted with a group of 60 or so closest strangers. We didn’t go. We had to celebrate Communist Gift Exchange first. Later (earlier?), when I was lounging around in the downstairs area, hanging out with a man bearing an uncanny resemblance to Father Time, I found out that she did her best to make eye-contact with all these people, at least once, but this only left them feeling needier. Continue reading