No post this week

too much chaos. I will try to maybe post on friday, but I"m not sure I'll make it.
Sorry, folks.

Music Wednesdays(the acually on Wednesday edition):Music, crowds and Influence

I keep thinking back to the feeling I get whenever I go to a big, high-energy show. Staring out over the fray it always takes me aback watching how obedient a crowd is. The artist says jump, they jump, the artist says “get your fists in the air” they do it for a good artist. A strong artist has a huge amount of power over the crowd for that few hours, but that power can be fragile. The crowd also has an extraordinary amount of power. If you've gone to enough concerts, you've seen the crowd turn on a band at least once. The artist say for does something the crowd really doesn’t like (’m not talking about a clumsy song. I'm talking out right bad things) there is a rumble in the crowd and then the quiet happens. When a show is going we’ll, the crowd has a pulse of its own. You can feel it. Even if you don't believe in anything supernatural, there is an unmistakable, palpable surge when the right song plays. A roar. Like with large predators, when the roar goes quiet is when you worry. Now a good artist can sometimes recover some of the energy, but most of the time the artist has shot himself in the foot for that night, longer if it’s a really explosive problem. Hell, if it’s on video it might last decades like the time Axel Rose beat up a fan for recording his show. What artists do up there has a huge amount of impact. It is madness and magic.

I can already hear the anti-rock and roll voices saying, “But If music is so powerful, can’t it also have a bad influence?” As an audiophile, I can say that yes, it can. However, its not how you think. Violent lyrics don’t make people violent, in fact it  is often how people release  the pent up anger that might otherwise spill over and actually hurt someone. If someone flames music as their influence for harm, then they were already going to hurt someone, they just had a way to put it into words.

Remember what I said about the crowd above? They aren’t completely blind. Where music becomes weaponized is when something has been ticking in our cultural, or social hearts and someone finally puts into words that with we cannot. When someone speaks up on behalf of those who are muffled. Suddenly, the people who didn’t think they had any allies have someone and they look around and see that they are not the only ones cheering, and it spreads like a wildfire. It’s a weapon against the darkness, a weapon against our own demons. It’s solidarity, not murder.

Marilyn Manson didn't cause Columbine, but the right artist might have been able to stop it.

Q87.7FM Presents.. Sick Puppies with 10 Years and Charming liars at the House of Blues, Chicago

The Venue: I’ve reviewed the House of Blues something like 9 times. Coming to the House of blues is like seeing an old friend after years. I hadn’t been their in a long while and it is far and away my favorite venue, if not my favorite place in Chicago period. It was a second home when I first started to go out to concerts on my own and it still feels like it.

Charming Liars (2/6): The instrumentation saved this band. The drum work was solid and the guitar work was pleasantly showy in places. Their sound was very much in keeping with the rest of the evening--bitter alt. rock with a slightly hardened edge. The frontman made a diligent effort to get the crowd pumped, but they were having none of it. Given that he took half the set to warm up and had a mediocre voice in the first place, it was understandable. The energy and edgy, bitter lyrics were enough to salvage the set, but on the whole they were sub-par.

10 Years (3.5/6):  10 Years was a very pleasant surprise. I’d heard these ages ago, and they didn’t make much of an impression then. It took me until they played “Fix Me”(their big radio song) to even recognize them they’d improved so much. 10 Years  has come a long way as a band. Their bassist is wonderful and has a striking look in addition to his wonderful talent. With, rippling shoulder and waist length dreadlocks and wild head banging, he had more presence than even  the front man. He also attacked the bass with a rare fervor that gave their sound extra fire.

Their drummer was solid as can be and even got a chance to show off a little with  a short solo. Their guitarist wasn’t half bad either.

Their vocals were interesting. On the one hand, their lead vocalist was really good and had a very distinctive sound that really meshed with their overall sound perfectly.
While he was very talented on the guitar, their screamer fell decidedly flat. If you’re going to take the scream-o angle, you need to really go hardcore. There is no middle ground for screamers. In addition to being a mediocre screamer, he had a horrible attitude. Even their front man seemed taken aback when he flat out insulted the  crowd.  He literally compared them to his excrement because they were a very subdued crowd.

That attitude almost made me regret purchasing the album. However, I support the rest of the band whole heartedly and wish them nothing but success.

Sick Puppies(warning, flash): (5/6): These guys have successfully earned the second highest rating I give out. They were absolutely fantastic as always. I was a little nervous about this show as their new album has some pretty serious style changes and is decidedly not sure of itself. I should have had more faith in them. Over the years they've grown from the first line of a four set show to a headliner. They’re a powerhouse of hard-edged rock seeded with inspiring ballads and wonderfully hopeful rock songs. Between Shim Moor’s wonderful vocal control and his brilliant dynamic with the audience, he was wonderful. his guitar work has dramatically improved and he is absolutely frantic on stage.
However, it is very obvious this band is a close-knit team, especially with Emma Emma Anzai’s popularity and her increased partition on the vocals. She has brilliant stage presence, outside of her warm, bell-like voice and her mean bass work. She is far and away the best bassist I’ve seen live.  She is also one of the very few bassets I’ve seen with such popularity among the fans. She is wonderfully gracious and vulnerable yet unbelievably strong. Her playing was the driving source of Sick Puppies’ set.
 I couldn’t talk about sick puppies without touching on their charismatic drummer, Mark Goodman. He is the good humored, subtle yet amazing heart beat of the band and his smile alone is just beautiful.
Overall they impressed yet again and it was a pleasure.

Another genre rant: Metal (part 1)

Metal is often seen by non- metalheads as a loud, angry genre with lots of screaming and not a lot of content.  And yes, metal deserves some of that reputation, however, it is also one of the most diverse, complex genres I’ve listened to. It’s sound ranges from symphonic to grinding  by way of disturbing*(Beware clown phobic people, contains creepy clowns!) and haunted. And thats just the very tip of the iceberg.

Ask three metal fans and they'll tell you three different ways to categorize metal and what sub-genres/bands count and do not count. This will provoke an impassioned debate that may or may not devolve into four letter words.

With all these differences, it is hard to find what makes metal metal. One could make the argue that it is the use of down tuned power cords, or the drum work that you can feel deep in your chest or even the signature growls that come with the genre.

To me all of these things are part of metal, and I could analyze them for the next millennium.  However, what makes metal what it is for me is the energy and tone.  Metal is often teaming with brooding, raw emotion. It is a hard genre. This emotion propels a primal energy that is a force unto itself.  Even in the symphonic metal or the softer songs, this energy is palpable. It’s obviously strongest live, in a good metal piece, it shows through like nothing else.
This energy is what defines metal.

*Yes, I am including nü metal, I know it’s contended, but In my view it has the same core tenants as other metal.

Wherein I Swear Gratuitously

Blog post *tomorrow* or late today. My dog is sick.
Some weeks I swear...

Tomorrow

My brain is a day off, new post tomorrow!

Hail To the King (Tour): Avenged Sevenfold with The Deftones at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, IL

Venue: I’ve reviewed the Allstate Arena before and it hasn't changed

The Deftones (2/6): I enjoyed the show immensely. There is always a pleasure in a band that takes you back into you childhood. Sadly, the front man’s voice has not aged well. Between  his voice cutting out and breaking on every high note and their needing to do the sound check on the fly, the show was lackluster. Once “My Summer (Shove It)” played. they woke up a lot, however they never got really good.

The vocals were downright bad. Twenty years of screaming into the microphone has not been kind to lead vocalists Chino Moreno’s vocal cords and it really shows. He had a lot of trouble with the whispery high notes he’s known for and definitely needed the autotune that is so common on the albums. In their case, autotune is a good thing and really first their song.

TO give credit where it is due, the guitar work was solid, but that was effectively the highlight.

Avenged Sevenfold(4.5/6): Avenged Sevenfold was utterly fantastic on stage.  They have really evolved as a band in the past five years. I feel like the death of their drummer James “The rev” Sullivan in ’09 really woke up their passion. They've  risen  from a good, if generic , alt-metal band to a band with fire and a brilliant command of the audience that will no doubt have staying power for many years to come

Front man, M. Shadows, has an intense presence and drive that commands attention. While not the most articulate of vocalist, his powerful, well-coordinated growl is both distinctive and surprisingly versatile. It felt right in both the slower song and the thrashing fast ones.  Shadows never stopped moving for the entire show. It wasn't the breathless running around many artists do. Fists pumping, Shadows strode from one side of the stage to the other the embodiment of power.

His versatile was highlighted when performing “Fiction,” in tribute to their late drummer. There is something about hear a hardened, fearless man’s voice shaking and crack during a song about losing a friend that really hits the listener’s heart. The performance really spoke well of Shadows as both an artist and a person.

Dueling guitarists, Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates, were both absolute powerhouses turning out  both brilliant solos and finger tearing duets they tore up the stage like wild animals with  devilish skill.

Drummer Arin Elljay was flawless. Two full drum sets is a lot to manage and Elljay had huge shoes to fill stepping in for Rev. But Elljay was a delicious madman on that stage with a wonderful sense of when to throw down an insane solo and when to keep the beat subtle.

I could not leave the review without commenting the screen work and the pyro. The effects have come a very long way over my lifetime and they were used with perfect sync to the music. Deafening explosions with frequent but not overdone blasts of exquisitely timed pyro from multiple sources on the stage, several set changes that happened without interruption and judicious use of cinematic but not distracting screen work made for a quite a show. 

Overall these guys killed it. 

Wednesdays

So, obviously I missed a wednesday or two.  I gotta be honest, depression is currently kicking my ass. I have a review coming up tomorrow/friday.

Sorry guys.