Ticketmaster STILL hasn’t gotten any better. Last four concerts I’ve bought tickets to through Ticketmaster:
Today… I get a pre-sale offer for the Doodlebops show coming to the area. A waste of bandwidth!
I’ve been to a lot of concerts featuring a wide range of genres of music, from Judas Priest to Peter, Paul and Mary. And out of the more than 140 concerts and 200 artists I’ve seen perform, I don’t think that there is a single better song to open a concert with than "Welcome to the Jungle" to open a Guns n’ Roses concert. The initial riffs of the song are a rock idiom that are instantly recognizable and signals the seething power that lies in wait behind the rest of the song. In concert, those echoing notes are repeated over and over, teasing the audience into a frenzy, making them want the release that only Axl Rose’s wail and screaming guitars can bring.
Last night was the second time I’ve seen Guns n’ Roses. I’ve never seen them with the original lineup, but fortunately, both incarnations I’ve seen have delivered a great and entertaining show filled with classic songs. When a band has a catalog as small as Guns n’ Roses, it is remarkable that they do have so many songs considered "classics" and so many that are just so good. I don’t need to inform you of the fact that we’ve been waiting for years for the new GnR album, Chinese Democracy and who knows if we’ll actually ever see it. Luckily, in concert, they concentrate on Appetite for Destruction, playing 9 out of the 12 tracks on the record.
Axl hasn’t gotten over his own self-importance since the last time I saw him back in 2002 – the band came on stage around 11:45 p.m. and played until two in the morning. No complaints about the set list or the length of the concert, but it is the epitome of inconsideration for their fans who have to work to pay the money they spent to see the band in concert. Good thing the show is good!
The only major complaint is that there were simply too many guitar solos that went on for too long, including a disturbing rendition of Christina Aguileria’s "Beautiful" which is an odd choice for a guitar solo at a Guns n’ Roses concert, to say the least. A better choice was the other guitarist’s (I seriously don’t know who’s who any more in the band line-up…) solo guitar rendition of the GnR song "Don’t Cry" which was a great way of showing off good guitar work and fitting in another well-loved song.
A few new songs were played, but they were presented unusually. Typically, when a band plays a new song, they introduce it as such, telling the audience the name of the song and perhaps the name of the album it is off of – a little free advertising to a captive audience of the band’s biggest fans. Since no one knows when – of if – the new GnR album will be released and the songs have been leaked onto the Internet for so long, they don’t even bother – they just play them as if they have been around for 20 years.
Instead of playing these new songs, I’d love to hear them play a few more deeper cuts off of Use Your Illusion I or II, albums that still regularly make it into my listening rotation and often stay there for a while. "Breakdown," "Bad Obsession," "Pretty Tied Up," "Perfect Crime" and "Dust n’ Bones" are among my favorites that would be fantastic to hear. As it was, it was a nice surprise to hear them play something off of The Spaghetti Incident, an album that I think is somewhat underrated by many people. "Down On The Farm" sounded great live, complete with Rose’s affected British accent to complete the punk image (does anyone know who originally did this song? I don’t have the CD here and can’t find anything online!).
In the end, it was a long, late night but well worth it to hear so many great songs – some of the best hard-rock and heavy metal songs ever written – performed live. Axl sounds great, even though he had technical issues. He may be showing some signs of maturity for actually working through the issues and now storming off stage and inciting a riot. The band sounds good, though those more attuned to the technical aspects of the original riffs and guitar solos might notice slight differences from the sacrosanct original versions of the song. If you’re in the market for a great rock n’ roll show complete with lots of lights, explosions, fireworks, loud rock and a great front man, then it is tough to beat Guns n’ Roses.
Too many people in America take the right to vote for granted. I’m always amazed when a developing country goes through its first democratic process – often you see lines of hundreds and hundreds of people turning out to vote.
Here, even though there are some very decisive issues at play right now, you could vote easily and with no wait at all. That is something that we should appreciate.
Turns out that it was still a good year for voters, especially young ones, who turned out in droves. I’m an ardent supporter of registering to vote and then putting it into action, and I’ve been involved with Rock the Vote before, so this makes me very happy.
Those folks up in Maine are a creative bunch, ayup! From the land of exploding Diet Coke bottles comes Hit and Run art, a nifty little film with a cool soundtrack.
I have been woefully lax in in reporting a major piece of cultural news: the closing of Tower Records, and the closing of a few major Virgin Megastores.
The closing of Tower Records is a particularly sad item, as it marks the end of a era for not only music retailers but for music lovers, independent musicians and music geeks like myself. There’s been a fair amount of talk about it already, and two of the best articles are this one from Reuters which focuses on the effects on independent musicians and this one written by Mike Dreese, founder of Newbury Comics, now truly my favorite music store.
I suppose this makes me a bit of an old fuddy duddy, but dammit, I like going to a record store. Yes, iTunes and their online brethren are handy and inexpensive, but I still like the experience of flipping through the CD’s, creating a stack that you think you may want and then culling it down (or not…). Then getting home, opening each up and exploring the album. Not just jamming it onto a MP3 player, and waiting for it to come on in the shuffle mix, but really listening to it, reading the liner notes, reading the lyrics and the thank you’s from the artist, seeing who wrote what songs and who’s playing what on which tracks.
Not that I have anything against portable MP3 players – I think it is great that it has made a wider range of music available at more times than ever before. But the more I think about it, the more I think people aren’t really appreciating the music, but just using it as background noise or the soundtrack buried in the back of their lives.
A couple of things that caught my eye today:
I haven’t seen it yet, but apparently the new Jay-Z video features a gold bottle of champagne, and conveniently enough, it will be available before the holidays this year. I’m sure all the 13 year olds watching MTV will appreciate that.
There is a Ford commercial that I have seen a few times and the first couple of times I said "wait… was that what I thought it was?" and sure enough it is. A car commercial that shows the typical American family: dad hanging out with his ex-wife and kid on the weekend. Of course, he had them drop him off at a nice condo, but what they didn’t show was dad walking 30 minutes back to the half-way house where he and his buddies Jack, Jim and Johnnie help him to cry himself to sleep as he dreams about the cars and houses he used to own before the divorce.
Interesting article about how the iPod just isn’t that big of a deal. I kinda get his point, but at the same time, I think the article ignores a few other things. First of all, the iPod was a major part of enabling the current demand for music. Yes, it started with MP3’s in general, but it also put it into the hands of the common people, not just the geeks. Apple’s simple design made it possible for everyone to convert a digital sound signal to a compressed Moving Pictures Expert Group 1, Layer 3 file and transfer it via Universal Serial Bus connection to a click-wheel controlled portable 60 gigabyte high-speed hard drive – even if you have no idea what I just said. Plus, how did the Walkman serve as a plot device in Ghostbusters, Back to the Future and Goonies? Did I miss something?
And last but not least… Pop Culture Gangster was at the forefront of this, having been at the world premiere of the original Eepybird film, and it continues to expand. Coca-Cola has a contest for combining Coke and candies.
Which is bad for a blogger, I know… but how else are you supposed to describe this other than just having you see it:
http://www.eepybird.com/exp214.html
I am proud (is that the right word?) to say that I was at the world premier of the original film in Buckfield, Maine. Now that’s an epitaph if I ever heard one…
A few years ago I began to really get into classic horror films – the classic material going back to the 1930’s, including the original Dracula, Frankenstein, Mummy, etc. I’ve become quite the fan, amassing a respectable collection of the best Universal and Hammer films released. I still have a long way to go both in terms of my horror classics education and collection, but for a fan of just a few short years, I’ve gotten a good start.
The other day while carving pumpkins for Halloween, a friend’s 13 year old son said that he had seen the original "Halloween" and didn’t think it was scary. I found this strange, since I saw the movie for the first time two years ago and it had me on the edge of my seat. He continued to explain that it wasn’t scary because they didn’t "show anything" – and by "anything" he meant "blood and guts."
The whole debate about "slasher" vs. "suspense" has been argued since the first horror movie was released, so I have no delusions that I might put it to rest here. While the blood and gore has its place in horror movies, the best thing is still the suspense, mystery and unknown that is inherent in nearly all great horror movies.
To me, it is the difference between nightmares and being able to fall asleep in the first place. Any good horror movie can give you nightmares. A REALLY good one will keep you from falling asleep in the first place. There is something far scarier not knowing what might be lurking in the dark than seeing someone’s guts spewed all over the place.
Last year I had an opportunity to go to CBGB’s in New York City about a week before they were reported to be closing. They managed to stay open for a while longer, but on Monday, it was announced that they are closing for good, but opening a place in Las Vegas. I’m sure the Vegas place will be very cool, but it’ll always be the second generation of a great club that was the birthplace of a lot of great rock music.
On September 22nd, my girlfriend (The Pop Culture Gangsteress) and I headed for Toronto to go watch the Boston Red Sox play the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Center. Back in May when we bought these tickets, we thought that this series of games was going to be an important one. The Red Sox were in first place and the Jays were predicted to be contenders for the division championships. This was the last away series of the year and we figured it could be a division-clinching set of games.
Five months later, things had taken an ugly turn, and the series turned into a battle to stay out of third place. But, being dutiful Red Sox fans and always up for a road trip, we embarked on our journey anyway, determined to make the best of it.
We spent the night in Syracuse and then moved onto Buffalo, NY, where we tried the original buffalo wings at the Anchor Bar. We crossed the border into Canada via the Peace Bridge in Buffalo, with a laughable border patrol effort. We didn’t even have to show our passports – we told them we were going to the baseball game and they let us through. Apparently its a good thing terrorists aren’t baseball fans.
Our first impression of Toronto is that traffic SUCKS there. I mean, really sucks. We were driving into the city in the very early afternoon on a Saturday and it felt like Friday rush hour in Boston. Every time we looked out on the highway, we saw some traffic virtually stopped in some direction. Perhaps they are trying to encourage mass transit or bicycling by not improving things.
Once in the city, we managed to wind our way to the hotel (note to mapmakers: if a street isn’t really a street, but a pedestrian walkway, for the love of god, please mark it as such!), which was a great Holiday Inn just a short walk from the stadium.
The Rogers Centre was made world-famous by its retractable roof, and inside it, the stadium reflects the landscape of the city around it. It is impeccably clean and modern, with clean lines and sleek touches everywhere. It is the opposite of the newer stadiums which are usually retro in their design, tying into the the rehabilitated areas of the city they usually inhabit (such as Baltimore’s Camden Yards and Denver’s Coors Field) with lots of brick, exposed metal beams and natural landscaping, matching the converted old industrial buildings that surround those parks. In contrast, the area surrounding the Rogers Centre is clean and sleek with lots of concrete and the futuristic CN Tower standing tall next to it.
I won’t even get into the games – the Sox lost both games we saw, one by an embarrassingly large number of runs. We took advantage of the lack of pressure to see the games in order to see more of the city. We had the opportunity to see a comedy show, a major attraction in the city thanks to some top-notch comedy clubs. 
We also met up with a colleague of mine who lives in the city and was kind enough to show us around Chinatown and Kensington Market. Chinatowns are always interesting, especially with an experienced guide and Kensington Market was the perfect little funky neighborhood that makes cities unique, with independent stores selling unique wares such as fresh whole spices, independent music, and specialty cuisines.
For the second time, I tried Dim Sum. This was my attempt at really trying to like it, but unfortunately, while I LOVE a lot of Chinese food, I’m not crazy about the steamed texture that the dumplings take on. I can say I’ve honestly tried it, gave it a true try, but alas, I shall not be participating again by my own free will.
We also traveled to the top of the CN Tower, the tallest structure in the world (but not the tallest building… whatever), which was awesome. In one of the most clever ideas I’ve ever seen, they have a "glass floor" which allows you to look straight down underneath you.
On the trip back, we enjoyed two pleasurable stops at Niagara area wineries, picking up some excellent ice wines while there. Then we spent a few hours at Niagara Falls, a natural phenomenon that no photo can do justice. I went about 15 years ago, but unfortunately a malfunctioning camera left me with a bunch of half photo frames. This time I got a chance to take some dramatic photos from the sidewalk and from the Maid of the Mist. 
The ride home was a long one, broken up with a stop in Syracuse again for some Dinosaur Barbecue, which was worth the hassle of getting there. We got home late, but it was a great trip with a lot of great memories – we plan on going next year. You know, when the Sox clinch the pennant next year….
