The Black Crowes & Metallica 10/3 & 10/4/09

No, they weren't on the same bill.  I saw the Crowes on Saturday night and haven't written anything because there wasn't that much to tell.  Once you have seen a band 14 times, it gets harder for them to surprise you.  They did their consistently good sounding show but with few frills, partially because Chastain has a curfew.  There were no cover songs that I can remember but they introduced songs from their new album Before The Frost and one tune off the downloadable-only second half Until The Freeze.  They are slowly falling away from good ole hard rock to Appalachian hillbilly rock that damn near sounds like country, although I like to think of it as funk-try.  One notable occurrence was that Rich got to show off his singing ability with "What Is Home?" and nailed it much like on the latest album, which was recorded in its entirety live in front of a very lucky crowd in Levon Helm's barn/venue in Woodstock, New York.

 On to the Sunday night service with Metallica.  I wasn't planning on going to the show, what with their last two albums not impressing me at all, the debacle the last time I went to see them years ago at the Dome without lead singer James Hetfield, but my buddy Adam talked me in to it, and I'm glad he did.  I've never been the biggest fan but those boys know how to put on a show, even in their forties.  If Philips wasn't sold out, it was damn close with metal energy surging through the massive crowd of all ages.  I was told by Adam that they played a handful of songs off the new album Death Magnetic as well as a lot of familiar older tunes.  The stage was set up in the very middle of the arena and had mikes set up all around for them to conveniently move around to be able to face everyone in the house.  Lars had his drum set on a rotating pedestal so we could see from every angle his flurry of arms and sticks.  Kurt happened to be in front of us for his seemingly effortless yet stunningly technical solo during "One" so we could see his left hand race up and down the neck of his axe.  Most bands are content with fire and pyrotechnics in their show, but we're not talking about most bands.  We are talking about arguably the biggest band of my generation, like 'em or not.  Metallica insists on having multi-colored flames choreographed with their music.  We had pretty decent seats that weren't right up front but the heat from those explosions was enough to make you break a sweat.  I can't imagine what it was like for them on stage.  During the encore, various sized black orbs with Metallica written on them in their signature font (that's when you know you have made it big when you have your own font) started cascading from the ceiling.  They ended the 2+ hour set with "Seek And Destroy" and very graciously thanked all of us for all the loyalty through the good times and the bad.

After 3 shows in 3 nights, I'm tired and going to bed.  Peace

The Dead Weather 10/2/09

A lot of you are probably saying "what the hell band is that?"  Well, its yet another band from my rock God, Jack White (no, not Lacey's dad).  I would say you may have heard their song "Hang You From the Heavens" except that Atlanta radio is unbelievably horrible.  This time however, Mr. White was on drums instead of guitar and lead singing.  He employed Alison Mosshart from The Kills to take over vocals, and that, my friends, she accomplished.  Weighing about 80 pounds soaking wet with a voice and presence like Goliath, she's by far the sexiest front"man" I've ever seen.  The fact that she can thrash with the most aggressive rock stars around is hopefully going to give me some of the sweetest dreams I can imagine.  Hearing her panther growl all the way to her high pitched squeal while moving to the music in a strobe light-heavy performance was hypnotic.  They played all of the songs from their debut album Horehound with scattered covers throughout except for the instrumental "3 Birds."  Jack came out from behind the skins to jam for a couple of songs just to remind us how obliterating and erratic his guitar can be when in his hands.  They saved two of the most powerful, in-your-face tunes, "Treat Me Like Your Mother" and "New Pony" for the encore which left us all with adrenaline pumping and longing for more.  Thanks to my buddy Steve Alexander, I got a little more.  Steve knew the singer from the opening act, Imaad Wasif, who got us back stage passes.  I still can't believe it.  But, to quell your wondering, we didn't get to meet the ever reclusive JW.  It was pretty chill back there and we were two of the very few fans allowed.  The fact that we were anything but young, attractive, women probably didn't make easier our plight.  However, bassist Jack Lawrence and guitarist Dean Fertita did walk by us straining to not make eye contact with everything they had.  So, maybe its better that I didn't meet Jack White, because if he had acted like that, it would have surely broken my heart.  Ahhh, the life of a Rock Star...

first ever back stage pass

Eddie Vedder 6/23-24/09

I wasn't sure what to expect from the front-man of Pearl Jam on his own.  What I got was 2 nights of him almost completely by himself playin a Hell of a guitar.  I knew he could play but I didn't know he could play that well.  He ranged from solo work to PJ tunes to an array of covers from various artists from Pink Floyd to Springsteen to Dylan and more.  He even pulled off "Lukin" by himself - not kidding, he really did.  There was a minimal stage set-up with different back drops throughout the night and a small, thin, wooden box that was amped up to use for percussion with his heavy boot.  Probably the strangest thing was a chair that looked like the bottoms of two feet with the heels arched forward making up the surface on which to sit.  No one sat in it until on the second night as he was walking off stage for the first encore break, he tried to jump on and over it.  His surfer balance failed him and he went reeling.  He made up for it when he came back out on stage and did the reverse and ended up violently sitting upright in a very sinister pose, all while smokin a cig.  The witty banter with the crowd was entertaining, seeing as how a handful of people were very annoying hollering out ridiculous requests and over all just being rude.  Even "Freebird."  I guess there's one in every crowd, huh?  But Eddie answered back "Hey, I don't walk into Kinko's and tell you how to do your fuckin job!"  Nailed 'em!  After his roadies, adorned all night in lab coats, brought out opener Liam Finn's drum set with his female counter part Eliza Jane, the three ended both nights with "Hard Sun."  Now he just needs to end the excruciating drought and bring Pearl Jam back to Atlanta.

Weezer 10/25/08

You can call them "geek rock" if you want to... so long as you don't forget the ROCK.  Weezer came out on stage wearing all white cover-alls and frontman Rivers Cuomo adorned a white terrorist-like shroud and opened with "My Name is Jonas."  They weren't pulling any punches with this being the last show of the 08 tour.  After a handful of songs the band stripped off the the white clothes and were all wearing red jump suits.  Playing rarities like "Susanne," which you can only find on the Mallrats soundtrack, was just really cool.  Sharing the vocal duties with the rest of the band, Rivers seemed relaxed and free, sporting a 70s porn stache and breaking out some knee slides whenever he felt the urge.   They dropped all of our jaws and did a cover of Pink Floyd's "Time" with Rivers on drums.  Truly amazing, of all the bands I know, Weezer covering Floyd was a totally surprising surprise.  But that was just the beginning.  Previously, while we were tailgating, my buddy Justin Shelton was chosen to play his harmonica on stage with the band along with about 25 to 30 other random musicians that had instruments ranging from guitars to brass to windpipes to a pretty hot tap dancer.  They all played "Island in the Sun" and "Beverly Hills" with the band.  Unbelievably cool.  Hopefully Justin will tell us first hand about the experience.  After the gracious temporary band members were ushered off stage (Justin was NOT leaving the stage without shaking Rivers' hand), there was a record player brought on stage that played "Heart Songs" while the band took a short break.  That is until Rivers came out, kicked it over and did Nirvana's "Sliver."  Following that cover was "Undone (The Sweater Song)" and then ending the night with "Buddy Holly" which was completed with the same drum ending from Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll."   UUUUUUUWEEEEEUUUUUUU, I'd like to see Weezer again soon.  Oh, oh, and your Mary Tyler Moore.

The Raconteurs 10/1/08

I've been patiently waiting since September 20th, 2006 for their return.  They must have known because they blew my eyelids back by opening with my two favorite songs off of the new album, Consolers of the Lonely:  the song "Consoler of the Lonely" and "Hold Up."  Brendan Benson took over most of the singing as the awe inspiring Jack White was having throat problems, what with this being the last show of the tour.  No problem, he was well up to the task.  JW got off to a rocky start when he had to switch out his guitar for an acoustic during the first tune, and I will say that there seemed to be a lot more communication on stage than I can remember seeing from other performances which led me to believe that the throat problem was unexpected.  I was happy to see bassist Jack Lawrence acting less like a statue and more like a rock star, thrashing his head with his jet black hair that couldn't be straighter, even if it were defining the shortest distance between two points.  They had a nice intermingling of songs from their first album with the new.  Some of which I had almost forgotten about since I've been OD-ing on COTL.  They ended the first set with the murky "Blue Veins" and started the encore (as Brendan Benson rode out on his BMX bike) with their first hit "Steady as She Goes."  They asked the female half of the the opening band, The Kills, to come up and help the ailing Jack White to sing which proved to be a mistake.  She couldn't have missed more queues and lyrics if she had been bribed.  She and White were kind of play pushing each other around during the song but maybe towards the end he was pushing her out of frustration.  Who the Hell could blame him???  The Kills (who are in desperate need of a drummer instead of pre-recorded beats) did slightly impress me with their stage presence.  I'll admit, I kinda dug their swagger.  They both played guitar, they both used their body to emphasize key points in their songs, and the male half of the duo had a specter way of gliding across the stage that had to be all ankles.  Anyway, after shooing her off stage, The Racs played  "Broken Boy Soldiers" and ended with the lyrically genius murder ballad "Carolina Drama."  Describing the boyfriend in this song as "a triple loser with some blue tattoos that were given to him when he was young, and a drunk temper that was easy to lose, thank God he didn't own a gun" is, to me, incredibly creative.  The "blue tattoos..." line is a sympathetically poetic way of saying he was physically abused as a child; the blue tattoos being a metaphor for bruises that he will never forget and have the permanence of being inked even after they healed, in my opinion.  JW makes me feel almost sorry for the antagonist of this darkly written folk song.  If that is the intended translation, Mr. White must not sleep well with all the creativity gushing from his soul like Niagara Falls.  Have I mentioned I'm a huge fan???

Stone Temple Pilots 8/23/08

Concert number 100, in the books.  STP delivered a solid show at a brand new venue that had great sound and so close to Dahlonega that it seems to good to be true.  It also happened to be lead guitarist Dean DeLeo's birthday.  They took a minute out of the show after a few songs to present him with a cake delivered by his child (gender indeterminate) and we all sang "Happy Birthday."  Scott Weiland was unusually mellow and talked to the crowd very... slowly... in between songs.  He may be on that shit again.  Hope not, but, wouldn't be surprising.  They played all the hits like "Creep," which crept, and a few b sides throughout the night with a graphically impressive screen that stretched the width of the stage behind them.  The real story of the night came towards the end when in the middle of a song, Weiland, while standing on speakers in the middle of the stage, turned around and the flipped off the drummer, Eric Kretz.  Then, about 15 seconds later, decided it was time to do it again.  Naturally, a happy drummer this does not make.  I thought they were going to break up right in front of us, one thing I have not experienced at a show.  When they finished the song, Weiland walked back to the skin set and Kretz angrily pointed around the stage and told him what he thought while Dean acted as mediator and must have reminded them that there were a lot of people there that payed a lot of money to see the show.  Even the t-shirts were $40 at the cheapest (add $5 for XXL, WTF).  This reunion tour seems to be all about the money as I guess most of them are.  So, they played one more song, abruptly left the stage and had the encore break.  They came back and it was Weiland who screwed the pooch and left out a verse during "Trippin on a Hole in a Paper Heart."  After the 3 song encore it was a race between Weiland and Kretz to get off stage that made the Olympians look turtle-ish.  No group bow, no waving, no drumstick throwing, no "thank you's," no nothing.  Dean and his brother/bassist Robert stuck around briefly to say fare the well and left, then Dean brought his kid out on stage to wave goodbye and that was that.  Based on what I've read, Scott must have a real problem with drummers.  I'd like to hear comments from Matt Sorum of Velvet Revolver.  Good luck to the cities ahead on this tour, could be a bumpy ride.

Pearl Jam Columbia, SC 6/16/08

Its been a long time coming, about 4 years anyway, and Pearl Jam knows how to deliver.  Avoiding the southeast on the past couple of tours with the exception of maybe Florida, I can't help but feel a little snubbed but it just felt good to see them again, especially sitting 12th row center (thank you D-Dog).  Eddie was visibly frustrated with his guitars at the beginning of the show and in the middle of a song, took it off and looked over at his tech and shook at him and laid it on the ground.  Later, at the end of  "Present Tense," Vedder started just ripping out the strings and I was half expecting him to smash it on stage.  He then took a breath and explained to us that Saturday night they played Bonnaroo and Sunday hung out with the nights opening act, Kings of Leon, at there place in Nashville and decided to have a contest to see who could be the most hung over.  Well, Eddie proclaimed, "I fucking won!"  So he took the blame for his thoughts of his guitars being out of tune.  After that he seemed to relax and get into a groove and finished out the first set with "Glorified G" and "Do the Evolution" back to back, a couple of my favorite songs to hear live.  But, of course, it wouldn't be a Pearl Jam without a little political preaching from the front-man, which, hey, its a free country and I believe he is more educated about current events and politics than myself and probably an alarming amount of people out there, so he can say what he feels.  Even if his opinion is extremely bias.  There were some people in front of us a couple of rows that had signs requesting obscure songs "W.M.A." and "Footsteps" which they played in the first and second encores respectively which I thought was pretty cool of them.  They played "Alive" to end the second encore and brought the house lights on about half way through the song and left them on for the single song 3rd encore of "Indifference."  They kind of fooled us and the Colonial Center (where the South Carolina Gamecocks play basketball, surprisingly large venue) employees in between those tunes because the house music came on we heard a few notes of a song before it was abruptly turned off and the band returned.  In the end, it was a trek to and from the show but well worth it, especially if they keep overlooking Atlanta.  Sorry this e-mail is later than usual, but I didn't get home until about 4 in the morning and I'm still pretty tired.