Concerts, Shows, Big Events.
Having just posted about concerts below I'll go ahead and spat out a couple of mental mementos regarding some concerts I've bothered to go and take part in observing.
Blues Travler
Quite a surprise to be honest. I've had friends make no mention of how unbelievably talented these guys are. It was like listening to free-form jazz for 3 hours. They played a couple of their staple hits to warm up the audience and after that it turned into a mad house of improvisation. Each band member looking at the other toss around the solo/lead buc. The organ player seemed to be the maestro queuing to each player, "ok buddy it's your turn to take this song by the horns". Probably the best show I've seen in a couple years and for 15 bucks! The venue was Ashburn, VA - "Loudoun Summer Music Fest". A bit of a trek but well worth it.
Dream Theatre
While not a fan, previous co-workers invited me to join them as they had a spare ticket. I got to admit, I tried. I tried a lot and I just wasn't sold on these guys. Individually they are all very talented (though the vocal department could use a little work) I wasn't sold. I had hit my double-bass quota for the evening just as the show started and I dunno. It would probably have helped me if a) I knew the songs and b) I liked the band. I caveat this by saying I'm not a hard core Blues Traveler fan but when you can go to a show like the one I saw previously and be completely held in a type of awe for 3 hours and then go to a show like this under similar circumstances and not have that happen...it's kinda hard to apply a tasteful thumbs up to the efforts of the band in question. Yes, I reckon' this show just wasn't for me.
The video drop behind them of each band member fighting off a monster hearkened to the Metalocalypse episode "Skwisklok". It was hysterical; I about lost it laughing during the show but I had to temper my inner beast of humor to accommodate the hard core fans I was viewing this display of dorkishness with.
They Might Be Giants
Another excellent show. I've wanted to see these guys for years and I've managed to finally pull it off. I did this with my sister as a birthday present as a) she knows very little about music beyond top 40 and b) to introduce her to what I recall was a child hood favorite from a cartoon series we used to watch.
I had a blast we were at the Rams Head and I managed to get a second level perspective on the show. After a few beers the crowd warmed up and it was rolling. Though I have to admit the 1 hour transition time between the opening band and TMBG was a bit of a cooler for the audience. That was the tough part. We were primed and ready to go where TMBG wanted us to go but, there was this freakishly long dead space time between sets that kinda killed the buzz. In spite of that the boys from boston rallied the crowd and we returned to our former state of fervor in short order.
Sky diving
I was invited to jump out of a plane in order to experience 2 minutes of free fall recently. Well I did it and it was pretty awesome. We went to a small airport just outside of Maryland into Pennsylvania and while waiting for ever for our chalk to take off I had a blast and everyone else in the party had a great time taking the leap.
Horatio Sans
Quite a disappointment. I had expected more from this guy than sophomoric sex humor and to be quite frank the show consisted of him with 5 of his buddies hanging out on the stage trying really hard to be funny. They succeeded a couple of times but for the most part it was very flat-faced humor. There was some heckling but overall not really what I'd call a culminating point of the evening. Heck the beer wasn't even enough to push these guys into champions of comedy.
Henry Rollins
Another ball hit out of the park. I only recently stumbled on his TV show via-vis a coworker. He's a pretty amazing guy. It was a spoken word show so picture one of your best friends getting on a stage and talking with you about their life-experiences for 3 hours...ok that sounds borish...but imagine if your friend was a godfather of american punk music and oh by the way had visited many of the samethat you have. He provided an insight to global affairs that was impressive, told some stories about his trip to FOX News, talked about singing a benefit show with his favorite punk band "The Ruts"...all in all, it was fantastic. If only I had spent more time hanging out at the Birchmere *after* the show ended I could have swung some chat time with the guy.
Blues Travler
Quite a surprise to be honest. I've had friends make no mention of how unbelievably talented these guys are. It was like listening to free-form jazz for 3 hours. They played a couple of their staple hits to warm up the audience and after that it turned into a mad house of improvisation. Each band member looking at the other toss around the solo/lead buc. The organ player seemed to be the maestro queuing to each player, "ok buddy it's your turn to take this song by the horns". Probably the best show I've seen in a couple years and for 15 bucks! The venue was Ashburn, VA - "Loudoun Summer Music Fest". A bit of a trek but well worth it.
Dream Theatre
While not a fan, previous co-workers invited me to join them as they had a spare ticket. I got to admit, I tried. I tried a lot and I just wasn't sold on these guys. Individually they are all very talented (though the vocal department could use a little work) I wasn't sold. I had hit my double-bass quota for the evening just as the show started and I dunno. It would probably have helped me if a) I knew the songs and b) I liked the band. I caveat this by saying I'm not a hard core Blues Traveler fan but when you can go to a show like the one I saw previously and be completely held in a type of awe for 3 hours and then go to a show like this under similar circumstances and not have that happen...it's kinda hard to apply a tasteful thumbs up to the efforts of the band in question. Yes, I reckon' this show just wasn't for me.
The video drop behind them of each band member fighting off a monster hearkened to the Metalocalypse episode "Skwisklok". It was hysterical; I about lost it laughing during the show but I had to temper my inner beast of humor to accommodate the hard core fans I was viewing this display of dorkishness with.
They Might Be Giants
Another excellent show. I've wanted to see these guys for years and I've managed to finally pull it off. I did this with my sister as a birthday present as a) she knows very little about music beyond top 40 and b) to introduce her to what I recall was a child hood favorite from a cartoon series we used to watch.
I had a blast we were at the Rams Head and I managed to get a second level perspective on the show. After a few beers the crowd warmed up and it was rolling. Though I have to admit the 1 hour transition time between the opening band and TMBG was a bit of a cooler for the audience. That was the tough part. We were primed and ready to go where TMBG wanted us to go but, there was this freakishly long dead space time between sets that kinda killed the buzz. In spite of that the boys from boston rallied the crowd and we returned to our former state of fervor in short order.
Sky diving
I was invited to jump out of a plane in order to experience 2 minutes of free fall recently. Well I did it and it was pretty awesome. We went to a small airport just outside of Maryland into Pennsylvania and while waiting for ever for our chalk to take off I had a blast and everyone else in the party had a great time taking the leap.
Horatio Sans
Quite a disappointment. I had expected more from this guy than sophomoric sex humor and to be quite frank the show consisted of him with 5 of his buddies hanging out on the stage trying really hard to be funny. They succeeded a couple of times but for the most part it was very flat-faced humor. There was some heckling but overall not really what I'd call a culminating point of the evening. Heck the beer wasn't even enough to push these guys into champions of comedy.
Henry Rollins
Another ball hit out of the park. I only recently stumbled on his TV show via-vis a coworker. He's a pretty amazing guy. It was a spoken word show so picture one of your best friends getting on a stage and talking with you about their life-experiences for 3 hours...ok that sounds borish...but imagine if your friend was a godfather of american punk music and oh by the way had visited many of the samethat you have. He provided an insight to global affairs that was impressive, told some stories about his trip to FOX News, talked about singing a benefit show with his favorite punk band "The Ruts"...all in all, it was fantastic. If only I had spent more time hanging out at the Birchmere *after* the show ended I could have swung some chat time with the guy.
posted by ct @ 5:23 AM
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