Stranger Than Fiction Week 26
I’ve got nothing but I won’t leave you with nothing. It’s been a crazy week for most of us I’m sure as the site has been hardly updated. Last I spoke to Fake he’s busy and Half Baked, well, who cares? Sorry HB, I’m just digging for filler. So as my steam updates, I give you:
TIPS ON OUTDOOR SHOWS THAT DON’T REQUIRE STANDING
So up in my neck of the woods this weekend, there was a jazz festival. We came later in the day but still managed to catch the likes of Jason Ricci and the New Blood, Coco Montoya, Jimmy Bowskill and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. However, I had a hard time enjoying myself at this outdoor show, on our lovely marina. Why you ask? Well, the format of the festival is an outdoors, sit in rows and enjoy the show. Not everyone was here to do that. So here now are my tips.
Tip #1: Sit The Fuck Down!
Half of this show was ruined for me because people were constantly standing up but not for standing ovations. I couldn’t see the damn stage at all and I didn’t want to get up and ruin it for the people behind me. Listen, you may think this isn’t a big deal but if I wanted to hear Kenny Wayne Shephard live, I would have picked up their new live DVD. I came to see Kenny Wayne Shephard live.
Tip #2: Shut The Fuck Up!
Coco Montoya had a lovely, soft jazz ten minute jam that I couldn’t hear because Asshole McGee in front of me wouldn’t shut up about his latest sexual conquest with cougars. Have the common sense to tone it down if there’s a soft part, is that too much to ask? Again, I came to hear Coco Montoya and not your stupid ass.
Tip #3: Put Out Your Cancer Sticks!
I don’t care if you smoke. Truly I don’t, but if you’re at a concert beside a lake where the wind is active, don’t fucking smoke in the crowd! I was surround by at least five people blowing smoke all night long. One woman smoked six during Coco Montoya for fuck’s sake!
That’s it for that, on to my next piece.
WHY QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE?
I think I’ve explained this in an album review which I’m sure we lost in the WordPress conversion, but I’ll explain it again. A friend of mine were one day in class talking about the finer points of bands like Dead Kennedys, Led Zeppelin and Slayer when our professor asked us, “Isn’t there something from your generation that you can talk about like that? Shouldn’t there be a band from your generation that you can talk about that?”
It’s a good question. In an age with Soulja Boy Tellem’s, Godsmack’s and Fallout Boys’, you can’t help but think the music scene is sort of sliding downwards (No, not going on a downward spiral). So I ran through my CD collection that day once I got home and stumbled upon my copy of QOTSA’s “Songs For The Deaf”. I had only bought because I heard “No One Knows” and loved it. After a while of listening to one song though, I put it away. So I picked it up again and listened from front to back and tried to take the album in and really enjoy it. And I did. So really, it’s become the thing I talk about the most music wise and it is my favorite band.
While I’m talking about the band, I’d like to say how annoyed I am with people discussing how they’ve lost their energy without Nick Oliveri for Dave Grohl in the band anymore. Granted the bass lines haven’t been the same, that band is mainly about guitar. Fuck yes, the guitar. So those who says Queens is dead, I say “Bah!”
And that’s all! Sorry I didn’t have anything substantial or relevant for you this week, back to music industry sillyness next week!
July 7th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I think the only album I had to chance to experience as it happened, something I could qualify as being a special release from a special band, was Tool’s “Lateralus”.
I find Tool have a few similar points with bands like Zeppelin, though maybe with less commercial exposure.
It also felt special to listen to Radiohead’s “Ok Computer” as it came out.
I was too young to be there when Metallica’s early stuff or Nirvana’s “Nervermind” came out and that, as a music lover, simply sucks.