The Year in Review

Hello my friends, I wish you a hardy "How ya doin'?". Tonight's blog entry is basically a recap and a listing of the best and worst shows and artists seen this year. I immediately preface that this blog is again strictly of my own opinions, and void of emotional feelings. These concert reviews are not influenced by the company kept by me at these events. Alright, now with the political disclaimer out of the way, lets get to the nitty-gritty.

First catagory is going to be best bass players. I saw quite a bit of talent this year on the bass, and heres my top five.
5. Ross Valory (Journey)
4. Justin Street (Airbourne)
3. Lemmy (Motorhead)
2. Geddy Lee (Rush)
And the winner should be no shock, as I went to see this band mainly to hear him.
1. Steve Harris of Iron Maiden. Steve was phenominal, and is one of the tightest and melodic bass players you'll hear in rock.

Next catagory is worst opening act. There were some good ones and some real bad ones seen this summer.
3. Testament (Metal Masters Tour) They weren't that bad but had a major miscue on stage.
2. Lauren Harris (Iron Maiden opener) She is the daughter of Steve Harris. She wasn't that bad but seemed confused and scared. Her backing band sucked
1. Endeverafter (Airbourne) These guys were just plain bad, from ripped off guitar licks, and acting like guitar hero wanna-be's, I had little patience for these guys.

To Follow up, here are the three best opening acts seen.
3. Testament (Metal Masters Tour) I know I listed them as third worse, but they weren't bad except for the onstage missed entrance and actually showing frustration over it.
2. Stone Riders (Airbourne) These guys pretty cool and seemed kind of original
1. In This Moment (Ozzy Osborne, Rob Zombie) This band has the most hardcore chick you'll ever see on stage. I know they have been touring with Ozzfest and stuff, but really, these guys tore it up. Probably the most professionally sounding opening band I've heard.

Next up is best drummer.
5. Mike Bordin (Ozzy Osborne) He really showed he was listening when he was adjusting tempi to keep with Ozzy who was having monitor issues
4. Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden)
3. Mikkey Dee (Motorhead)
2. Deen Castronovo (Journey)
1. Neil Peart (Rush) Neal is a drumming God. I can't describe what it was like to watch him and hear him play. Hes a percussive symphony orchestra.

So the next category is what I call "The Most Bang for your Buck". This is what concerts I considered the best bargains.
5. Rob Zombie/Ozzy Osborne, $39 (before fees). The seats we had were just off the floor, towards the back, and rocked hard, considering they had the best opener, and amazing multimedia presence of Rob Zombie, then Ozzy with Zakk Wylde. The caliber of talent in the building was amazing for that amount of dough.
4. Rush, $29 lawn seat. Rush was probably the most sound and solid band I heard this summer, with amazing virtuosity. $29 for a lawn seat and two full sets of Rush. Couldn't ask for much more.
3. Metal Masters Tour, $17.50 lawn seat. Testament, Motorhead, Heaven and Hell (Which just about completed my Black Sabbath fun pack), and Judas Priest. Amazing, long, tight show from four veterans of the metal universe.
2. Airbourne, $10 general admission. $10 to see and rock out to the next AC/DC. These guys rocked hard. Their antics and stage presence looked like these guys had been doing it for twenty years.
1. Cheap Trick, Heart, and Journey, $25 lawn. Every one of these bands made you theirs. All of them tight, fresh, and inspiring. What a good time this show was.

Next catagory is the best lead guitarists heard this summer
5. Nancy Wilson (Heart)
4. Tony Iommi (Heaven and Hell)
3. Dave Murray (Iron Maiden)
2. Neal Schon (Journey)
1. Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osborne) This guy is just bad ass, and his bluegrass banjo upbringing brings a level of technical skill never seen on electric guitar.

Up next is what I call the achievers category. These are the bands or members that I gained the most respect for after seeing them live.
3. Motorhead - I had heard Ace of Spades before of course, but after seeing their act live, I really found I enjoyed their other works too
2. Neal Schon - Journey never really had a prominent guitar voice in their mixing, but after their new album and seeing them live, Neal Schon can definitely shred. I understand now why his parent slet him drop out of high school to play with Carlos Santana
1. Rush - I was mainly going to this concert as a gift for my friend Steve. I mean I had recently come to respect their style, and interesting voicing. But seeing them live and hearing the intricacies of songs like Tom Sawyer, Limelight, and YYZ, I consider myself a major fan of Rush.

The next category up is best set construction.
5. Judas Priest - Nice retro, Flash Gordon looking two tiered stage
4. Heaven and Hell - Smoke, Trees with Gargoyles, and insane lighting
3. Rush - Simple flat stage, but amazing video clips tying into the music to complete the sensation
2. Rob Zombie - B movie clips, dancing girls, drumming robots and a giant alien attack Zombie himself.
1. Iron Maiden - There was pyro, there was changing backgrounds for album covers of songs, two-tiered stage with plenty of room for Bruce to run around. Bruce donning costumes, and top it all off, a 30 ft tall Eddie with glowing eyes.

Next is best set list
5. Airbourne - Did everything from their one album, plus an encore track thats only on the import version of the album, not to mention its a cover of AC/DC. Melt your face.
4. Ozzy Osborne - Can't go wrong closing with "Momma I'm Coming Home" and "Paranoid"
3. Journey - great mix of old and new, but why close with "Anyway You Want It"?
2. Heart - The cover of Love Reign O'er Me still rings in my ears, along with the encore of "Crazy On You"
1. Rush - They did all their big songs in a tasteful order, programmed two sets perfectly building to Neil Peart's massive drum solo. Not to mention, no other band I saw has the courage or talent to do so many instrumentals in a set, including ending the encore set with one (YYZ).

Best lead singer witnessed.
5. Arnel Pineda (Journey) - Arnel is the new sound of Journey, that allows them though to keep to their great hits of the 80's. Arnel's voice needs to do a little more maturing and gain a bit more experience, and he will rival Steve Perry one day.
4. Ozzy Osborne - The Prince of Darkness is always going to be on this list.
3. Geddy Lee (Rush) - His unique stylings were initially my criticism of Rush, but after further analysis, I can't hear any other styling of his voice to carry "Tom Sawyer".
2. Ann Wilson (Heart) - A beautiful and powerful voice, that is incredibly versatile. She can charm you into a hypnotized state, or make your toes curl with passion and energy, just with her pipes.
1. Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) - Bruce. Wow. I said it before and I'll say it again. He's the Freddie Mercury of Metal. There's nothing this man can't do, and nothing he can't sing. (As a side note, the Cheap Trick Greatest Hits Album I bought yesterday was produced by none other than Bruce)

I am going to refrain from picking a favorite concert, as I enjoyed all of them so much and I saw so much talent, I can't compare and contrast, and rank the entire shows. My final list for the night though will be the top ten songs that need to be witnessed live.
10. Fear of the Dark (Iron Maiden)
9. Crazy On You (Heart)
8. YYZ (Rush)
7. Don't Stop Believin' (Journey)
6. Breakin' the Law (Judas Priest)
5. Number of the Beast (Iron Maiden)
4. Stand Up for Rock 'n' Roll (Airbourne)
3. Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) (Journey)
2. Love Reign O'er Me (Heart)
1. Momma I'm Comin' Home (Ozzy Osborne)

Well my friends, that pretty much covers my personal opinions of the shows I saw this summer. I hope you guys had as much fun as I have had this summer. Thank you readers for being loyal, and thanks to those of you who went to a concert with me this summer. Music is a very intimate part of my life. With me, there are actions, emotions, and music. Thank you for being willing to share something so personal to me as witnessing the creation of music. I hope to continue to write to you about my music life and hope you will keep reading. Good night.

Be Good To Yourself

Good day friends, I come to slightly overhung and under the weather, but happy. I hope you're feeling good too. Last I attended a concert for the ages. This was the highly anticipated Cheap Trick, Heart, and Journey "trifecta from heaven" show as I was calling it to myself.

This concert showed up early on the radar, and boy was I glad we bought tickets early. Nissan Pavilion on this dreary, drizzly night was packed to the limit. After making excellent time there, we of course did some light tailgating with some rum and cokes, and some beer. We then shuffle into the show.

We find a solid good spot in the center of the lawn. Cheap Trick hits the stage. They do their normal carrying-on, introducing themselves repeatedly to the point that its comical. Lets not forget their entrance, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the best band in the world, CHEAP TRICK!!!" Cheap Trick hit us with their line up of "Dream Police", "If You Want My Love", "Surrender", and "I Want You to Want Me". Along with the great songs, they pulled out their marvelous gimmicks including Tom Petersson's 12-string bass and Robin Zander's 5-neck guitar. Though gratuitous, its amazing. And to top off Cheap Trick's set, Deen Castronovo* and Jonathan Cain of Journey came out and did a song with them.

After about 15 minutes and time to get a drink and t-shirt, the lights dropped and out came Heart. Don't be fooled by the soft name, or the beautiful two front women, Ann and Nancy Wilson. These chicks will rock your fillings loose. This is the first performance at a rock concert that gave me goosebumps. I got chills when they covered "Love Reign O'er Me" by The Who. Ann has "the pipes". Her voice can bring you to your knees. Recordings and videos do no justice to the power they bring to you in person. After a powerful and moving set, the crowd was electric and rowdy demanding an encore. After making us wait close to five minutes, they came and delivered an encore version of "Crazy on You". One more thing that helps is that these women, even at their age are good looking, then with the talent they bring, I'm not going to lie, are drop dead sexy to me.

At this point, I'm already starting to suffer fatigue. Heart brings such a well rounded, almost perfect music production to the stage, its hard to fathom that they were not the featured act. They were coming up. There was a rarely experienced sense of energy and anticipation in the air as Journey was being set up on the stage. So much energy that before Journey hit the stage, "Back in Black" by AC/DC is played on the PA and everyone stood up and danced, as if AC/DC just took the stage.

Finally, Journey hits the stage hard with "Never Walk Away" from the new album, "Revelation". The first three notes sang by the new lead singer, Arnel Pineda, demonstrated that he was for real, and that Journey truly is back strong and not going anywhere. Journey's set was a mix of new songs, including "After All These Years" and "Where Did I Lose Your Love" and old hits like "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Open Arms". A big highlight was hearing "Separate Ways" performed live. I won't lie, with the assistance of the alcohol and the adrenaline boost from Heart, I went nuts, absolutely nuts, for this song. Journey also did a song that no one seemed to recognize, something about being a secret agent. It was pretty cool, but the crowd kind of took a breather for it. Journey closed the set with "Be Good to Yourself". They did come back out for an encore for which the hoarse crowd was chanting. "Anyway You Want It" slammed into our ear drums and drove everyone into a frenzy never before seen. I will admit this is my least favorite song by Journey, but live, and a little tipsy, the song contains a ton of energy that is hard to believe coming from a band that just did a seventy minute set of vocally grueling songs.

One of Journey's secret talents in the band, is their drummer, Deen Castronovo. Not only is he a great drummer, that has helped bring Journey's sound into modern times with his heavier style, his backing vocals really help support Arnel's lead vocal efforts. Many times you could hear Deen's voice belting through and its definitely nice.

Neal Schon, former guitarist with Santana, was of course amazing, and definitely on his A-game in his soloing this night. His performing has to be seen live. He is in the top tier of guitarists I've seen live now. The order of preference of guitarists I've now seen live would be:
1. Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society, Ozzy Osborne)
2. Neal Schon (Journey)
3. Dave Murray (Iron Maiden)
4. Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath)
5. John Petrucci (Dream Theater)
6. Chris Scholtes (Several Species)
7. Nancy Wilson (Heart)
8. Joe Perry (Aerosmith)
9. Glenn Tipton (Judas Priest)
10.Phil Campbell (Motorhead)

Well my friends, I think this blog entry has become long enough. In a few days I do plan to have a ratings entry for all the acts seen since January. True, I do have at least two more concerts planned for the calendar year, one is a three-peat and the other is "The Who". That one gets to stand on its own. Have a good weekend, friends.

*Thanks Anonymous for catching that error. Too much partying I guess ;-)
**Yes, I edited my guitar player list. I kinda forgot about John Petrucci, who is amazing

A Lesson in Metal

Hello friends and thanks again for reading. Its hard to believe I'm already at 31 entries. Tonight's entry is touch again on the topic of Heavy Metal. This is because of two reasons. The first was this past Thursday, some friends and I attended the second stop of the Metal Masters Tour. The second reason is because several people lately have made some insulting comments about metal, and my taste in it. These people though are, well for a lack of better wording, ignorant, in what metal is and its roots.

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that came out of the rock and blues movement in the US and UK. Its defined by virtuosic guitar solos and driving beats. It developed out of the progressive psychedelic rock area. Some of the earliest metal bands are Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Iron Butterfly. That's right, so if you like Kashmir, Paranoid, Smoke on the Water, or In-na-godda-da- vita, you like some metal. These bands spurred off bands such as AC/DC which drives the blues aspect of metal, Judas Priest who dropped the blues feel and pushed the power chord and epic sound, and Motorhead, who added the element of punk rebellion to metal. Iron Maiden and Judas Priest developed the epic metal and the concept of British Steel. In the 1980's glam-rock was a cover really for metal bands such as Guns n Roses, Motley Crue, Dokken, and countless others. Metal gets a bad rap because of the sometimes dark or rebellious tones of the songs. The problem is that a lot of the imagery used in the darker metal comes straight from the book of revelations in the bible, from famous works of literature( Rime of the Ancient Mariner used by Iron Maiden), or right from society and the history books. At no point have the mainstream metal bands every sung for you to kill yourself, your mother, your dog, your neighbor, or your goldfish. If anyone really wanted to pay attention they would realize that most of the lead singers of the big metal bands are quite educated and are extremely fan oriented. Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden is a trained airline pilot and a historian. Rob Halford of Judas Priest has a three and a half octave vocal range. Ther'es serious skills there and amazing song writing occurring in metal. The only demonic, hate-filled music in metal is being made by the white supremacists or the dark, too serious for their own good thrash metal bands.

With that out of the way, I go into the Metal Masters Tour show last Thursday at the Nissan Pavilion. The line up was Testament (an American Thrash metal band from the 1990's), Motorhead (British metal band, some times referred to as biker metal or punk metal, formed 1975), Heaven and Hell (a reunion of Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio), and Judas Priest (British metal group, formed in 1970).

I must say Testament sounded a bit rusty but they started to get themselves going by the time their half hour set was up. I wanted to hear more of them. Not much else I can say about them.

Next up was Motorhead. I've not heard much of Motorhead, but I respect Lemmy (Lead vocals and bass) to no end. Motorhead came out and rocked the house and thats when the first bit of crowd behavior started becoming an issue. Motorhead put a solid hour long set together, featuring their big song, Ace of Spades. This is when things got loud.

The next band was Heaven and Hell. Their staging was quite elaborate with demons in the trees breathing fog and red eyes. Also lots of lighting effect, including turning Dio completely red. Tony Iommi, lead guitar, totally still tears it up after all these years. They chose to call themselves Heaven and Hell for this tour instead of Black Sabbath to not cause any confusion with the fact that Ozzy is doing a solo tour currently (which I attended back in January).

Judas Priest was the headliner and the act I was most interested to see. They have been in existance since 1970. Rob Halford is one of the biggest and most famous lead singers in rock, not just metal. They were smart and did the a song from the new album first, and then went digging into their back catalog. They even had Halford ride out his big motorcycle and sing Hell Bent for Leather from the back of the bike. Way cool. My only gripe was that they did Breakin' The Law early in the set and Halford did not sing the chorus even once. He had the crowd sing it. Sure thats fun, but damn it, I am there primarily for you to sing, not the drunks in earshot. Over all a great show.

On a side note, I must ask what is the appeal of going to these concerts with the purpose to get drunk? You pay good money only to drink and get in a fight, or ruin someone else's experience. I only say this because we had a group next to us that didn't recognize the area we had staked. We were staked at the front edge of the lawn, right before the 70 degree slope down to the sidewalk. The group next to us kept moving over and stood right in front of us, forcing themselves to keep balance on the hill. It almost seemed intentional, and appeared it was when one member of the group got his wish and found himself in a fist fight with one of his own friends, a guy he was hugging 5 minutes prior to the fight. Now I'm not saying there shouldn't be alcohol. Sure, have a drink or two, dance to the music in your own area, but why the violence? The music doesn't call for it, not even inspiring for violence. I guarantee Lemmy would say "Bloody hell, whats this fuckin bullshit mosh pit?" These bands come out and bow after their sets, they hug kids near the front and give out their drumsticks? You think they want you beating the crap out of each other? The true fans go and listen, have fun and appreciate. You look like an asshole, and a good bet is you are an asshole. Notice I don't even care if you smoke your weed or whatever there, none of my business, and I haven't seen a pothead try to punch his best friend for what seems to be for standing within ten feet of his woman. I have seen a drunk do that. Immature and useless.

Well my friends, I wish you good night. To quote Lemmy "We are Motorhead and we playing fucking rock n roll music, good night!"

Never stopped believin'

Friends I write this blog to you in the light of the new word. This word is of Journey, the new lead singer Arnel Pineda, and their new album Revelation. I did not think this band would ever bring themselves back after Steve Perry leaving ten years ago. His voice and song writing skills were almost on a Freddie Mercury level. With Neal Schon now doing most of the songwriting, the guitar is a little heavier, and their sound has made the jump to the new millennium but they're still 100% Journey at heart. I found myself on the second listen singing along. The CD is a great investment as well. Disk 1 is new material, Disk 2 is Arnel singing classic Journey songs, and then the concert DVD. The DVD is an hour long and contains the new line up performing new and old Journey hits.

On a totally unrelated note, I did attend my first opera about 1 month ago. I saw the Baltimore Opera Company put on Madame Butterfly. I have to tell you I really enjoyed the multimedia experience. I have listened to many operas on the radio and CD but never seen one performed. Its quite an experience. But with that I must present my review.

I enjoyed the overall presentation. They used projections instead of a mostly real set. The projections went from being abstract, pseudo-Japanese art prints (tacky flowered wallpaper), to being overly blunt ( a ship sailing straight at the audience and Butterfly belts her heart out). I will not bash the end of the first act fading to a starry night as Pinkerton completes his seduction of Butterfly. The use of projection was not wise, though. The projections were projected from the house, meaning anyone who stood on the stage were covered by the images, wiping out the quite nice costuming. There were also numerous technical difficulties with the projector, which is not good considering its the last dress rehearsal before they charged ($125 I believe was the cheapest seat) people to see them.

The orchestra, overall, was quite good. There were times where the phrasing could have been slowed for dramatic pause and more chances to allow applause would have been nice. Some tempi seemed rushed. I also had huge issue of only one intermission. They took the intermission after act 1, but not after act 2, and they proceed to still play the prelude to act 3, which felt like an out of place intermezzo for 15 minutes of serious music. It took me about 6 minutes into it to recognize that this is what they did. I did not like that at all.

The blocking of the production was quite awkward as well, sometimes there were extras on stage you couldn't quite understand what they were still doing there and looked bored on stage. Then you had off stage singing when the character should have been on stage. Worst of all, Butterfly tells her son to go play in the garden so she can kill herself. He goes to the opposite side of the stage from Pinkerton's American bride who is waiting in the garden. He then proceeds to walk in a circle waving an American flag while his mom kills herself with the same sword her father used to kill himself. It was very uncomfortable to watch.

Though my review sounds negative, it was a positive musical experience for me to witness how an opera is put on live and the singing, overall was quite nice. Just a lot of the issues I had were things that a group with such high standards should have taken care of, since they charge so much. This isn't a community group putting on Gilbert and Sullivan, this is a city's representation and contribution to the arts. I may have too high of standards since i do like to watch the Metropolitan Opera on public television.

I must discuss one more thing. The other night I was giving my close friend Steve a ride home from a party and he asked me a very difficult question, which in the 10 minute ride home I could not fully answer. Since Steve recently embarrassingly admitted to reading my blog, I feel I should use this space to answer him.

Steve asked me, basically, why do I listen to what I listen to? With my odd taste in bands, what draws me to them and not others. Why metal? why progressive symphonic metal? Why AC/DC? Why Journey? There is no simple answer to this complex question and I know he understands this. I will try my best to explain. My love of metal is connected to my love of Romanticism and virtuosity. There is a certain virtuosic thing in symphonic metal combined with a composition level not found in much of pop music. Prog and symphonic metal satisfies the classical music lover in me in a rock 'n' roll way. I hear Wagner, Strauss, and Mahler in the long compositions of Dream Theater and Rush. My enjoyment of AC/DC, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden, and those types of acts, such as Ozzy Osbourne, comes from the ability to listen and enjoy myself without the analysis stage of listening occurring. They're fun acts that have some exact musical influence that hits me deep. For example, AC/DC's guitar riffs are straight out of standard blues riffs but are put in a straight, in your face chest thumping way, along with a very distinct vocal style. Judas Priest touches on the rebellious spirit that I find myself also relating to in the music of The Clash and The Ramones. There are also bands that I listen to because I feel a certain member's talents combined with excellent songwriting skills makes them a must listen. Journey, with Steve Perry's "pipes", as my friend Andy has dubbed them, combined with their song writing and expansive chordal vocabulary makes them a group that you must at least own their greatest hits album. Iron Maiden's bass player, Steve Harris, is a fantastic bass player and does some really cool things you won't hear in other rock bands, such as small bass fills and even sections where the bass is busier than the lead guitar. That combined with some really kick ass lyrics with an in your face approach and beat, and some epic composition skills, makes them worthy of listening and mild fanaticism. These reasons I listed cover pretty much why I like every band that I do like. So to finish that off I will list for you my top 10 favorite bands, in order, for now at least.


10. Judas Priest
9. Black Sabbath (with Ozzy and Dio, but preferred Ozzy)
8. Ozzy Osbourne (solo, with Randy Rhodes, and with Zakk Wylde)
7. Iron Maiden
6. Dream Theater
5. Journey
4. Queen
3. AC/DC
2. The Killers
1. Pink Floyd
Honorable Mention: The Beatles, UFO, The Ramones, The Clash, Deep Purple, Rush, Airbourne, Avenged Sevenfold, The BeeGees, Boston

Another thing I do take into consideration is the use of concept albums, and in my opinion, Pink Floyd combines that with all the items I mentioned above; great composition skills, overflowing virtuosity, driving beats, with a rebellious and independent spirit. And as a side note, on that list, after this summer, I will have seen 6 of those top 10 bands live. I just had to rub that in.

With that my friends I bid you a good night. Remember your blanket for those lawn seats and enjoy the second hand pot.