Friday, June 27, 2008
Los Autenticos Decadentes- "La Guitarra" June 19 2008 Falls Church Virginia State Theatre (DC)
SO who says the DC area can't get a good crowd? Check this out! Sorry for shaky camera work but I was having too much fun...
Los Autenticos Decadentes concert June 19 2008 pictures (Falls Church, Virginia [DC})
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
howie epstein
wow learn something new every day...
what is so very interesting and sad is that in the liner notes for johnny cash's album unchained from 1995/6- which i reread today as it had been so very long since i'd looked at them- cash talks about howie epstein and his dog and how usually cash and recording artists had a rule about no pets in the studio but epstein brought him to the studio and said "oh he always comes when i record" and how howie talked about the trouble he had with people giving his dog leftovers they shouldnt..cash goes on to say how he gave him some of his veggie burger...well check out the wikipedia section on epstein's death:
Death
Epstein died of complications due to drug use; but not an overdose as has been reported. Investigators were told Epstein had been using heroin. Howie was driven to St. Vincent Hospital by his girlfriend, who described him as "under distress."
Epstein was taking antibiotics for an illness, and he had recently suffered from flu, stomach problems and an abscess on his leg, friends said.
"Apparently he passed out in the bathroom, and (his girlfriend) drove him to the hospital," Madrid said.
He died on February 23, 2003 at the age of 47. Reportedly he was extremely despondent over the death of his 16 year-old German Shepherd a few days earlier. In recent interviews, Tom Petty admitted that Epstein's behavior had become unpredictable: "He was just degenerating on us to the point where we thought keeping Howie in the band was actually doing him more harm than getting rid of him. His personal problems were vast and serious." He was interred at Second Home Cemetery in Greenfield, WI.
----------------------------------
also its fascinating and must be a unique case that ron blair who was the original heartbreakers bassist from 1976 to 1982 replaced his replacement- howie epstein- in 2002 when the heartbreakers felt he could no longer continue..blair is the guy who is currently their bassist.... you read alot of crap about how the heartbreakers are not the same without epstein and the original drummer...but blair IS the original bassist......
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
A few words about life...
The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is
tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of
it? A Death! What's that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all
backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live
in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get
a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you're young
enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you
get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid,
you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you
go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating …and
you finish off as an orgasm.
—
George Carlin (1937-2008)
tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of
it? A Death! What's that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all
backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live
in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get
a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you're young
enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you
get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid,
you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you
go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating …and
you finish off as an orgasm.
—
George Carlin (1937-2008)
Los Autenticos Decadentes June 19 2008 Falls Church Virginia
THis is absolutely one of my favorite bands and their concert this past Thursday was probably the most fun I've had at a concert in eons....I'll be posting more but I wanted to put up the final video I took by which point I'd gotten real close.. I managed to use Windows Maker to rotate it too which is something...
Monday, June 23, 2008
The man who makes people laugh laughs no more
i had the privilege of seeing george carlin a few years ago at the warner theatre and the man was sharper than a tack, more lucid than the aurora borealis, and saltier than a whorehouse full of sailors on leave during wartime...
the picture is a shot of part of the front of the cover of George Carlin's debut LP from 1967.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Iron Maiden June 18 2008 Concert Review
This really was the show that had it all......... thats how I will remember it anyways.... from the minute we stepped into Merriweather- a venue Iron Maiden has been hitting since the early 1980s- (early for once) you could tell there was a certain electricity in the air that I've rarely seen at shows in the Washington DC area... it had that feeling of excitement and expectation that you get at an arena show during the break before the Rolling Stones take the stage... we walked in and people were gobbling up 45$ iron maiden black t-shirts like skittles... the opener- Lauren Harris- (Maiden bassmaster and head song honcho Steve Harris' progeny/daugther) in a way was a little over the top but on another level gave the metal crowd what they wanted..a loud rock out performance.. and when you think about it thats the only type of opener that would work for Maiden....certainly John Hiatt folkies would not work.. in any case we made our way to the pit and started to worry - needlessly as it would turn out- about a pit that seemed overpacked..the seats in the first rows behind us began to look tantalizingly comfortable and safe.... after Lauren was finished with what I thought was a pretty good set of balls out rock I made my way to the restrooms where I noticed for the first time that the crowd at the show did seem a little scruffy, long haired and maybe even worse for the wear.. this weren't trust fund kids thats for sure....made it back to the pit and proceeded to count down the 14 minutes or so until Maiden would take the stage....the sun was just about to go down as they did so at 8:40.... we heard the strains of winston churchill's "we shall never surrender" speech and the band came out firing on all cylinders with Aces High.... the first thing you noticed was the frenetic stage presence of Bruce Dickinson.. not having seen them before I had not realized Dickinson was sort of a metal jagger or metal mick who acted as if the show was a workout between some of his fencing matches... also although aware I would see a triple guitar attack (plus harris triplet bass style) I had not realized just how racuous and frenetic it would prove to have four guitar gunslingers running around on stage.... at the beginning i focused on Steve Harris who was the classic picture of a metaler.... these guys delivered the poses and metal looks in pardon the redundancy spades.... behind the drum kit- nikko- was completely unvisible as he would remain during the entire show save for when he came out for the introduction towards the end of the show... dickinson underwent costume change after costume change as he moved around the stage like a tiger.... the stage itself featured some great scenography or "sets" .. the trooper for example was performed with dickinson largely singing- costumed as a british military officer/recruit- right in front ot a large magnificent Eddie the Trooper backdrop while holding and waving the union jack... what became noticeable from the first strains of aces high following through two minutes to midnight/revelations and the rest of the "hits" laden set list was that this crowd was HUNGRY for maiden, was lapping it up and was giving Dickinson and company a reception the likes of which you simply do not see in this part of the country.. the crowd was screaming, yelling and taking pictures like they had front row seats on the apollo landing on the moon... usually crowds in what i like to call the mid-atlantic region (DC area) are fairly introverted and shall i say "lame"? but this was not the case here... Dickinson sounded wonderful just like on the records with that trademark operatic wail of his mixed in with the more traditional gruff metal overtones.... he gave us a great rant about telling european MTV what they could do with their offer to have madien re-launch their european headbangers ball: "they never did anything for us.. we told them to stick it up their ass!"... of course i must also add there is something to be said for hearing Dickinson yell to you and thousands of other maiden fanatics "SCREAM FOR ME BALTIMORE!!!!!!!!" although I will never know why he picked to call us baltimore...anyways we screamed.. a lot....songs went by and set changes accompanied them... through egypt... then appropriately for the show's highlight some sort of ship for the Rime of the Ancient Mariner.. the guitarists alternated their locations on the stage and gave us more guitar hero poses than a heavy duty rock fan has a right to....the newer guitarist Janek or some such in particular added a lot the stage show....Eddie made two appearances first as a mummy and then as the gun toting character on the cover of the somewhere in time album.. powerslave was a highlight with dickinson wearing some crazy monster-ish outfit.... the set's one lowpoint in my mind was "Can I play with madness" which sounded flat and semed to be missing the songmaking guitar riff.... But basicaly this was an incredibly solid meat and potatoes metal show that gave you pretty much everything you could have asked for including pyrotechnic effects...these guys earned their money..
extraneous thoughts: and they did give evidence of a certain "we do it on our own"..Bruce highlighted the fact that they were now getting young fans that had never before seen them perform these hits which were being reprised from their 1980s glory days....Bruce also made a point to give a shout out of deep appreciation to their fans on the lawn who could not afford to be up front like the "fat cats"....certainly iron maiden seemed to make a point to identify with their more working class roots... . well this review has not veered off any sort of organization but I think have summarized it.. for me watching Steve Harris play that tan ta ra tan ta ran tan bass triplets was quite the treat....
Saturday, June 21, 2008
New layout
Hope you like it.. I know its kind of bare bones but its the only blogger template that seems to allow for fully fitting the videos.... As always comments are welcome...
Friday, June 20, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Even more Sloan
More Sloan pictures from the Black Cat in DC
The band had a strange thing going with a "Dj" or something at the Merch table having his comments piped in between songs where the band members switched off instruments..hadn't seen that before and while a bit cheezy/discomforting at times it was also different... Sloan has really invested in DC playing regularly going all the way back to 1992...Rich Bindle Bindell was telling me he saw them open up for Guided By Voices ..now that would have been a great bill.. for some reason I was not at that one....Anyways for some reason Sloan keeps coming to DC- and we appreciate it- but the crowds are smaller than one would expect...
Sloan June 17 2008 the Black Cat Washington DC
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Monday, June 09, 2008
Sheryl Crow May 28, 2008 Columbia, Maryland Merriwether Post pictures
have a bit more fun than the crowd and put in 100%...she mixed up the
classics with a few cuts from the new album.. she said she's having
trouble getting new single "out of our heads" on the radio because its
interpreted as too political...I was struck by how drop dead gorgeous
she looked.. she looks absolutely wonderful and motherhood is clearly
suiting her well.. as is getting rid of that idiot lance armstrong..
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Bristow, Virginia (more pictures/photos)
jam with Steve Winwood on Gimme Some Lovin'.... great crowd too...no
Tom Petty top hat! Too hot for that...