Every once in a while things come together so nicely that it would appear that it was simply meant to be.  After some wrangling over which weekend to go to Chicago for our second annual long-weekend trip together, we finally decided on the first weekend of April.

The first night we were there, I picked up a copy of the Chicago Reader, the local weekly entertainment newspaper at the White Hen convenience store down the street from our Hotel.   As I read through it, the name "Beatallica" caught my eye on the listings and I mentioned it to the guys – I was assuming it was a Beatles/Metallica mix-up mash-up of some sort, but they brought up some good ideas on alternatives: dance music versions of Metallica or house music versions of Metallica or even reggae-styled Metallica.

A quick check on a Treo’s web browser however, revealed that the band was indeed a Beatles/Metallica "parody" band that took Beatles songs, re-wrote them as Metallica would, and then played them as Metallica-style heavy metal.

How could we resist?  With plans for Thursday and Friday night in place, this solved the opening left on Saturday night.

After a fairly lengthy cab ride from downtown to Subterranean, we managed to walk in just as the band was starting.  We knew we were in for a great show, as their chops were clearly good enough to pull off the joke and to make for a fun and entertaining evening.

Beatallica is everything that you would hope from a band like theirs – not a Weird Al parody that gets old entirely too fast, bur rather a genuinely entertaining night that also keeps you laughing AND rocking.

They accomplish this by taking the best parts of each of the bands – the harmonious lyrics and melodies of the Beatles, and the raw heaviness of Metallica to create music that both reveres and parodies both bands.  Parody isn’t even the right term, I guess, since they aren’t making fun of either band in a straightforward manner – it is more of a "satire" band, as explained on their web site. 

For example, the tune "Sandman" is clearly based on "Taxman" by the Beatles, but then goes into heavier guitar parts taken from "Enter Sandman" and throws in a few Metallica-worth twists on the lyrics and melodies.  It is really difficult to describe how the end result is ultimately listenable and enjoyable, making for what may be the world’s catchiest heavy metal ever.  Listen for yourself.

Playing to a crowded club, the band kept things lively, light-hearted and fun, without becoming a joke themselves.  They acknowledged the silliness of what they were doing, but they clearly take the quality of their performance and music seriously, as neither wavered the whole night.  They were rewarded with an enthusiastic crowd who fed them plenty of energy back.

Beatallica will never become a number one hit seller doing what they are doing (however, stranger things have happened) but if you a fan of both or either bands, I recommend checking them out.

This is pretty cool.  Thanks to Meghan for passing it along to me.  An advertisement for Virgin Digital features a great painting that supposedly has the names of 75 bands represented in it.  I have found probably half of them… Meghan is holding out on the answer key and I’m not searching for it.  Yet.

I hope that they come out with a frameable print of this, as I think it is a really fun piece of art.

This is a review of last week’s Mötley Crüe concert at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center on March 8th.  I keep putting off doing this, for absolutely no good reason, and even though I should be in bed now, I’m going to go ahead and do it now – quickly.

In a nutshell, the show was awesome.  The "Carnival of Sins" theme was carried throughout the stage show, complete with a big red-and-white striped canvas tent over and around the stage, acrobats (a.k.a. highly-flexible girls nearly naked hanging from ropes), flame eaters and spitters, midgets, and scary clowns.   Truly a demented experience, apropos for the Crüe.

The band sounded great – AND LOUD – even though Vince Neil pretty much just decides to do the best he can, whatever that is.   As he sings the songs you know by heart – that you know EXACTLY by heart, including every note, cadence, and phrasing, and therefore sing along to – you realize that he’s dropping words, and/or not singing it the same way it was on record.  However, it works.  It is Vince Neil, the lead singer of Mötley Crüe.  If you wanna tell him he sucks, you go right ahead.  I think it sounds just fine.

Mick Mars is just a scary looking dude.  The guitarist suffers from a chronic degenerative illness called ankylosing spondylitis and even though he sounded great – and is arguably the best musician on the stage (ok, he’s handily the best musician on the stage), he appeared to be in some pain, as he took the final bow at the end of the show and backed up in a stiff, disconcerting manner.  Of course, as he is dressed in black from head to toe, and spends the whole show lurking about, it is tough to tell if he is in pain or if it is just part of the act.

Vince and Tommy played their parts well – Vince in jeans and leather vest, Tommy in shorts to begin with and then took some clothing off after his drum solo – of course.  Nikki Sixx is an imposing figure on stage, looking like what would happen if Jack Skellington joined the SS Army and sidelined in a punk band. 

Tommy Lee brought back his outrageous drum solos from years past, running through the audience and being tied to a harness which brought him up into the rafters where he drummed on two different platforms suspended from the ceiling.  The drum solo itself really wasn’t that impressive – it is more of an excuse for Tommy to just be Tommy and get the crowd riled up.  At the point of the drum solo, the crowd on the floor turned into sheer anarchy, with any semblance of organization or rows being destroyed as people turned and ran to catch Tommy during the solo.

The first half of the set was filled with their early material – a fantastic treat for long-time and hard-core fans.  They then take a 10-minute intermission, during which some of the most disturbing film footage I’ve ever seen is displayed.

They come back to the sound of roaring motorcycles, indicating the start of "Girls, Girls, Girls," and launch into a second half set that mixes some old with mostly newer tunes, and while it still rocks, felt more like you were hanging out with the band than seeing an arena rock concert.  Tommy and Vince sat on the drum riser while Nikki talked to the audience, and then they pass around the Jagermeister they were drinking (who the hell would drink out of the same bottle Tommy drank out of?  He has hepatitis and lord knows how many groupies he got it from!). 

Highlights musically were the entire first set,  and then hearing "Girls, Girls, Girls" and "Wild Side" live.  "Home Sweet Home" is still one of the most lighter-lighting inspiring songs of all time.  "Primal Scream" was perfect live – possibly my favorite "later" Crüe songs of all time, and of course, "Kickstart My Heart" is just a great metal song.

Even though I can appreciate why they do it, and I do like the song, I swear I do, I don’t get why they insist on closing with "Anarchy in the UK."  Though I have to say that this was a great version of it, with a giant evil clown in the background and all the twisted circus performers of the Carnival of Sins coming out all at once.  That made it much more entertaining.

As I said, the show was great and extremely entertaining.  The tickets we had were on the floor, about 25 rows back, giving us a prime view of the show.

Here’s the set list for the evening (I believe this is right. If anyone has any corrections, please leave a comment):

-Opening-
Shout At The Devil
Too Fast For Love
Ten Seconds to Love
Red Hot
On With The Show
Looks That Kill
Louder Than Hell
Live Wire
-Intermission-
Girls Girls Girls
Wild Side
Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)
Home Sweet Home
Dr. Feelgood
-Tommy’s Drum Solo-
Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.)
Primal Scream
-Tommy’s Boob Cam-
Kickstart My Heart
-Encore-
Anarchy In The UK

Finally!  We get the official answer about Cliff Johnson…  I caved and sent an email to the Hard Rock Cafe customer service department and within an hour got a response back as stated:

Dear Derek,

Thank you for contacting Customer Care and for your inquiry. Cliff was one of our Hard Rock’s beloved Directors. The pin proceeds benefited his family he was survived by.

Please feel free to contact us again if we may be of any help to you in the future.

Love All Serve All!
Customer Care Team
Hard Rock Cafe

So there we go.  Not a lot of detail, but at least it is an answer. 

So we’re making some sort of progress, but not a lot….

Meghan found out that there was a Cliff Johnson who was a retired veteran broadcaster for CBS radio, whose career began in 1934 at radio station KSOO in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

However, the general consensus seems to be that the pin must be for a manager of the Hard Rock Cafe in Memphis and/or Indianapolis.  This article mentions his name. 

Meghan came back from her trip to Amsterdam, Paris and Rome this weekend and I was lucky enough for her to actually still like me enough upon her return that I got a few new Hard Rock Cafe pins.  In addition to pins from each of the cities, she also got me one that says "In Memory of Our Brother Cliff Johnson."

I’m a pretty knowledgeable guy when it comes to music and music history, but this one is throwing me.  The pin is pictured below. 

The best I have been able to find is some references to a Rockabilly musician that has a total of two listings in AllMusic.com, one here and here.  However, there is basically no information for him in the rest of Allmusic.com

One would think that someone who warrants a Hard Rock Pin might have a bit more information availble about him online.  If anyone can help, please give me a few ideas!!

You know, I turn 30 this year, and when you hit a milstone age like that, you begin to wonder if you’re just getting old and out of touch… well, I’m proud to say that I am watching the Grammys right now and when they did the entire list of people presenting and performing, I knew everyone that they mentioned.  I’m pretty happy with myself.

Umm… if I actually have anything of value to add about the Grammys later, I’ll put in in here somewhere.

You really don’t even want to know the story behind how this popped into my head, but will somebody PLEASE – for the love of god, PLEASE – write a parody version of "My Humps" by the Black Eyed Peas and have it written from the point of view of either the Hunchback of Notre Dame and/or Igor the hunch-backed lab assistant from Frankenstein?

That’s comedic gold waiting to be mined right there.  Feel free to leave your contributions below.

Saturday night I went to see a few bands play at T.T. The Bear’s in Cambridge and I just wanted to give a quick reccomendation that people check out two bands:

First up is Muck and the Mires, who sport a great retro-style garage rock sound.  They are probably more of an acquired taste as they are definitely retro sounding.

Second, but definitely not least, is The Mooney Suzuki.  They’ve been around since 1999 from the looks of things, but still practically no one has heard of them, and that’s a crime.  They are fanastic.  They too have a great garage-rock sound, but not as "retro" and with a bit more of a funky sound.  If you like Lenny Kravitz’s more rockin’ tunes (think "Are You Gonna Go My Way", which, let’s face it, is a song that could be played 20 times in row and it would still sound awesome) then you’ll probably love The Mooney Suzuki.  Their stuff is on iTunes, so please check them out.  They get my highest level of approval and reccomendation.