Caught In The Whirlwind
Posts tagged 3
3!!!
Sep 21st 2008
This weekend was destined to be dominated by going out to Woodstock, NY to see 3 play a headlining show at the Bearsville Theater. And dominated it was.
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.
But then 3 hit the stage and it was awesome. We were about 2-3 rows back from the stage near the middle (although we got pushed a little right as the show was going). The beginning was a little rough due to the moshing that was going on, but I managed to shield Wassy from the worst of it and didn't get hurt so we stayed there through the whole show. We were just on the edge of where the mosh pit was located. The show was great though. Good setlist, including a little acoustic solo spot in the middle, and an impromptu song with the original bassist and drummer from the band who were in the audience.
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.
Apples, Tea and Metal
Sep 18th 2008
Er…I guess those three things don't go terribly well together. Anyway, this post is about apples and an update on my work Tea situation. Also about music.
First the apples. It's fall, which means apple season! Since my friends live closer to the orchard than I do, I've had an agreement in place with them that when the apples come in, they grab me a bag of Honeycrisp apples because they're darn good and they go so fast. So the apples came in and I got my bag and…mmm…apple-y goodness. I am enjoying my apples very much and will work as an alternative to unhealthy snacking that I have a habit of doing. At least for as long as the bag lasts.
Back to the tea situation. It seems that my grandmother ended up with the eventual solution. It's not quite an electric kettle (as was suggested by maura) but close enough. I didn't want to get a cheap electric kettle because I keep hearing things about the water tasting plasticy these days after using them with the cheaper plastics in use these days. But my mom mentioned that when my grandmother goes away on trips, she doesn't want to use the in room coffee maker for hot water and instead brings her own little Sunbeam Hot Shot Hot Water Dispenser. It heats up 16oz of water to boiling in about 30seconds-1 minute, and then dispenses it. The heating chamber is metal too, which avoids heating the water in direct contact with the plastic. So I'm going to try that out today.
And finally, tomorrow is the day when I'm going to drive out to Woodstock, NY with Wassy to go see 3 in concert. It'll be the first time we see them headlining which is going to be really cool. And I get to leave work a 3 because we have to drive out to woodstock, so double bonus! I think it'll be a really good show.
Progressive Nation 08 – Albany, NY
May 19th 2008
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.
Returning to Washington DC!
Feb 8th 2008
I'm just a bit psyched right now. For around five months now I've been patiently awaiting the announcement of the tour dates for Dream Theater's Progressive Nation 2008 tour. And they finally came yesterday. The news arrived while I was in my Stats class taking a test. Wassy (who was having a lot more trouble waiting than I was) sent me a very excited e-mail that there were tour dates and there was also a show in Albany.
However, it turns out the venue in albany was probably going to be General Admission and that the venue was more of a basketball arena that can also hold concerts. But by the time I got home, she had scouted out the other dates and determined that Washington DC was the way to go.
So off to DC we go. At the moment we're (myself and Wassy that is) planning on going down on Saturday, May 24th a couple days before the show, so that we have part of that saturday and sunday to do some sight seeing. The concert is on the 26th, which also happens to be memorial day. The venue is the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall, right down near the white house so it'll be easy to find when the time comes. Hopefully all of the memorial day parade activities will be cleared out by the time we need to go through. The parade runs close but not exactly near the venue.
The plan is to head home on the 27th, tired and happy. Now all we need is tickets to the show which haven't gone on sale yet. This wait until the end of May is going to kill me.
Albums Of The Year: 2007
Dec 4th 2007
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.
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Porcupine Tree – Fear Of A Blank Planet
Porcupine Tree – Nil RecurringWhat 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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??
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Porcupine Tree!! An Excursion To Albany
Oct 19th 2007
Last night was the show, and although I'm very…very tired right now, I'm going to write up my review anyway. I also must warn you that even though I do have pictures, my cell phone camera does not do well in dark areas or when there's a lot of motion. So a lot of the pictures of the actual show are very blurry. Passable, but blurry.
The plan was for me to head out to my friends apartment where we would make sandwiches to eat on the way and then head out. When I got there, I was standing near the bedroom door when Jason walked out…wearing pretty much the exact same thing I was. "Yeah…you're going to have to change…"
After we cleared that up, we left their apartment around 5pm and headed out to Albany. We arrived on the scene after one slightly snafu driving in that we got off I-90 at the wrong exit. There was a little confusion when I-90 split off into I-90 and I-87. We were supposed to stay on I-87 for a little while,but our directions had us going I-90 and never mentioned 87. Oops. Thankfully that didn't end up being a huge problem because a helpful thruway toll taker pointed out that we could get there just as easily if we kept on going, we'd just be coming in at a different angle. So we ended up getting there all right.
We arrived extremely early though, which was better than being late. We walked around the Empire State Plaza and checked out all of the pools and saw the capitol building and all that (which is, not surprisingly, still under construction.) The Egg itself is pretty cool. All of the theaters are located up in "The Egg" part and are accessible by elevators. Our elevator operator for the ride up at 7 was pretty entertaining in that he had some problems with the buttons he had to push to get us going.
Once we got upstairs, we had even more waiting in the lobby of the theater. After a quick stop at the merch stand (where I managed to avoid buying anything for a change) we went and had a seat in the comfy chairs in the lounge area and admired some…interesting art.
7:30 rolled around and we were let into the theater, getting the first view of where we were going to sit. All the way down. Right next to the stage. Yeah, I need to talk to my dad about those tickets (he bought them since I couldn't get to the ticket buying site at work for some reason) because they were horrible! I mean, you could just reach over and touch the equipment on stage. Who would want to sit there? My only (actual) complaint is that our tickets were near where the giant boxes of subwoofers were set up. That can't possibly have been good for our ears. Mine seem all right at the moment though.
The opening band 3 came on at just after 8pm and they rocked, very hard. Their sound mix was also very, very good which is surprising for an opening band. They played for about 45 minutes and just as I had heard, they rocked live. They had a percussion/drummer/keyboardist guy in addition to their actual drummer and he was rocking out those maracas like nobody I've ever seen before. I'm definitely going to have to buy more of their albums after seeing that show.
Then the wait began. 3 had to break down their equipment and set up Porcupine Tree's stuff which took around 15-30 minutes. I wasn't really counting. I was still coming off of the awesomeness that was 3.
Then finally, Porcupine Tree hit the stage. Overall, I had a blast watching them play. But…I need to get a few issues out of the way first. First up, the crowd sucked. Nobody was standing through the set and the people who actually were standing (My friends and I and several people in our immediate vicinity) were told to sit down by the ushers. Oh well…not much you can do about that. Secondly, Porcupine Tree's mix was VERY bass heavy. I would have thought it was because we were sitting next to the subwoofers, but 3's mix was fine. A lot of times, it was hard to make out the music due to the overabundance of bass drowning out everything else.
But other than that, the show rocked. The setlist was good, the band was on…Steven Wilson was himself. At one point a guy in the crowd yelled out "ALBANY LOVES YOU!!!". Steven Wilson replied "Oh, so you speak for everyone then?" Of course, everybody cheered. SW came back with "Well, England loves you too!". The best part of the show, hands down was the encore though. Because everybody was actually standing for once and we were able to get right up next to the stage. Again, I apologize for the blurry picture over there. The encore contained Blackest Eyes, Trains and Halo, which happened to be three of the songs I wanted to see.
The encore was also cool because Steven Wilson's keyboard was removed from the stage so he could come over and visit our side, standing only inches away, rocking out right there. This may sound silly, but I'm just in awe of Steven's musical ability and his creativity. I've yet to hear anything he's done that wasn't incredibly well done. So it was very cool to be able to see him that up close and personal and actually have eye contact and stuff while he was doing his thing up there.
All in all, it was a pretty good show. It didn't top the recent Dream Theater show for pure awesomeness, but it was up there. I'm really glad I finally got to see another one of my favorite bands live.
The show ended around 11:30 and we got back to their place around 1am. After that it was another 25 minute drive back to my place for me. Well, it would have been 25 minutes had I not decided to make a stop at McDonalds to see if they sold hot chocolate. Their convienent 24 hour drive though window was the slowest operation I've ever experienced. They didn't even have what I wanted, so I had to settle for orange juice. Despite the setback, I obviously managed to get home OK.
Update: As Wassy mentioned in the comments, right after Porcupine Tree came back out for the encore, Steven Wilson was mentioning that he was happy that we were all standing up because it feels odd when he's on stage head banging and everyone is sitting in their seats with their arms crossed. She yelled out that we were told to sit down and Steven said "I know, I'm sorry…that was my fault. It's all my fault." So yeah. That was pretty cool.
Update #2: Also during the encore, whenever Steven Wilson wandered over to our side of the stage Wassy would go nuts. As we were walking out after the show was over, Jason (not me…the other Jason, her husband) said "How come you never do that for me??"
Also, since we didn't want to wait for an elevator we decided to take the stairs back down to ground level after the show. The staircase was never ending! It was a rotating series of 6-7 steps then a 180 degree turn and 6-7 more steps. Over, and over, and over, and over…There were far too many steps for the amount of actual distance we had to cover, so I'm not quite sure what that extra distance we were traveling was… hmm…
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