07.29.06 Capitol Hill Block Party

Today's show was a road trip down to lovely Seattle for Capitol City Block Party, which is basically as it implies. They close down the street and have 3 stages of music. Sounds good especailly when its also open taping. We got on the road at around 11:30-12. Spent about 1+ hour at the border. Ridiculous. I'm guessing it had to do with the shooting in Seattle the day prior. But on with the show.

Big line ups to get in. Missed Smoosh, who my friend was convinced they were going to bring out Eddie Vedder. I wonder if they did or not. Caught the last bit of Silverstein Pickups. They were... meh.







Next up were Minus the Bear. Pretty good showing, Had seen them in the past and this was definitely one of the better ones. They also added a new keyboard player. Usual tapping antics were prevalent. Pretty good setlist. Highlight of the set was "Thanks for the Killer Game of Crisco", which I haven't heard before. Set was about 45 minutes.







Black Angels followed playing their blend of Stoner Rock? with a bit of "big band" elements thrown in. Lots of trippy sounds. They didn't suck, but I wasn't as impressed as I thought i would be. (I've heard some really good reviews) They played an hour w/ most of the members switching instruments with one another at one point or another, except for the keyboardist.

Next was Common Market who I'm guessing is a rapper from Seattle. Not bad, had a few good flows. I'm not usually a fan of rap, and this didn't really change my opinion but I was impressed that he was able to do his set for almost an hour. Midset he asked for some young people to come up on stage and free-style. They didn't. In fact, one of the kids that came up was just fuckin around. I'm guessing he's a local rap star, which explains his slot.





Then came the not so suprise headliner, emerald city's own, Murder City Devils. I've never seen MCD before, other than from a few bootlegs. And they, like Big Business, like to bring the worst kinda crowds. The rowdy, drunk kind. I literally felt like I was going to die up front. I can't imagine how the guy in the wheelchair, beside me, was doing. Thanks to Douglas for letting me borrow his cam, despite the fact footage was... well not worth writing about. This is what happens when you don't get the big guns passes *i'm looking at you jim*. That being said, MCD is a fun band. Just not at a big show. True they were sloppy as you can get, and the soundman looked very confused a lot of the times. But what can you expect for 6 year hiatus. Overall they played a little over a hour including encore. Oh and they're playing Sunday at the Showbox. So is the hiatus over?

$20/$15 (it was open taping/festival; however including transportation and parking... $20/$50)

uh ohs well not really

hmm either oink is down or i just let another 'leet mp3 community membership expire on me. oh well i didn't really use it that much anyways.

07.25.2006 Broken Social Scene/The Stills/Jets Overhead

-deer lake park is actually a really cool place to see concerts. smaller than t-bird, better than the forum.
-helpful tip for ya. if you forget to bring your ear plugs and the vendors don't sell any, ask the first-aid ppl. i did and ears are very thankful.

-jets overhead -> *shrugs* meh.

-stills not too shabby. definitely in the top 20 canadian indie bands.

-at one point in time, you were almost garuanteed to hear bss close the show w/ lover's spit. i guess those days are gone? or maybe they don't do that during headlining shows. ended w/ it's all gonna break instead
-kevin drew looked pretty uninterested during the first 45 or so minutes. but later started to feel the music/crowd
-lisa l. still at the bottom of the broken social girls pecking order, just less annoying now as she looks more comfortable on stage than last time i saw bss. aside from julie penner she as the only bss chick there. (again)
-played about 80-90 min. standard fair.
-soundman fucked up the kick drum.
-hey bros, shut up.
-hey hos, shut up.
-where's k-os
-where's almost crimes?
-where's lover's spit

$27/50/$30

soof yun stee funs

kinda undecided as whether or not i like him or not, but i figure if i change my mind i can always unload the ticket. so i went down to scratch as SwAk's website says everyone else was sold out. when i got there there was no sign up, usually meaning the show is sold out/they have none on hand. somewhat disappointed, i still asked if they had any tickets for sale. the counterlady said that zulu came around and stole them and i should go there. and that's what i did. there was about 20 or so left when i got there.

Dresden Dolls show status

Well, after doing a little research, it looks like there isn't going to be a Dresden Dolls Vancouver art house show. Originally they had it planned to do art house shows called Fuck the Back Row, I suppose as penance for touring with Panic at the Disco. However, it looks like the tour dates have been up for a while and no Vancouver date. Not that I'm too sad, but if I were to see DD at all, this would have been the kind of show I'd have want to seem them at. meh.

Pride Tv.

Just an interesting thing that happened today. I was getting ready to go to work today and for some reason, I get the urge to turn on the tv only to find a handful of scruffy looking guys on the morning news. Upon further inspection, I realize that it is indeed, Vancouver's own Pride Tiger. THey showed a couple of live clips and did a little interview bit. They definitely didn't look like the most polished band in terms of PR answering questions etc. But in their defence they probably haven't been in too many of those situations before. That and it was live tv.

updates, thoughts, etc.

since someone asked, the setlist for the slayer show in order.

South of Heaven
Silent Scream
War Ensemble
Blood Red
Cult
Disciple
Mandatory Suicide
Seasons in the Abyss
Chemical Warfare
Eyes of the Insane
Dead Skin Mask
Raining Blood
Hell Awaits
Antichrist
Angel of Death

Despite a lot of national rock acts skipping over Vancouver, a lot rap acts do like to hit up Vancouver. If I was a rap fan I'd be very happy. Fat Joe, Boyz to Men, Chamillionaire, Lupe Fiasco, Mike Jones and MIA have all rolled through or going to roll through. And these aren't giant ass stadium shows, some of these are the intimate club shows. THen again I also hear tix are on the $$$ side and sets are generally on the 1/2 hour side.

Also gonna head off to Capitol Hill Block Party next week. Should be fun. Murder City Devils is apparently going to do a reunion gig.

07.13.06 Unholy Alliance Tour

Well Slayer is back in town. Another packaged tour starting relatively early. So after rushing from work got to the uh... queues to get in. The floors entrance was suprisingly empty. No wands, metal detectors. phew. got in just in time for the last little bit of Thine Eyes bleed. Who are apparently Canadian. I could swear, they were messing up their solos... Oh did I mention. The whole show was being filmed for the Unholy Alliance DVD. hrmmm.

Next band up was Children of Bodom. Not bad, I expected worse to tell you the truth. Had a heavier Dream Theater feel to them. Well solely on the fact they have a keyboard player. They played a bit under 40 minutes. Could really hear the European influence in their music. Nice opening set I suppose.

Mastodon followed. Wasn't really too impressed. Could never really get into their albums. Don't get me wrong they're a technically proficient band. Maybe their Isis like vocals don't work for me. They played about 40 minutes with 1 or 2 new songs.
I'm pretty sure they cranked the mains after this set too.

Lamb of God followed. I've seen them before and this time they looked a lot tighter for whatever reason. Had a nice Mesa wall of sound. Crowd (whom I abhore) was really into them. Played mostly what you would expect them to play. Did a new song 'redneck'. How fitting. Did I mention that probably 2 out of 3 people were smoking something?

Slayer was next. Did I also mention how I hate people who go Whoooo yeaaa and sing along to songs throughout the show. Not even during between songs, but during songs and solos. ugh. Slayer was impressive as usual. Their stage show now has stacks that are setup to resemble upside-down crosses. Setlist didn't vary too much from when I saw them the last two times. They did open with South of Heaven which was interesting. Played a couple of new songs. Both which were kinda bleh. not even as good as Disciple. Setlist (more or less, no order): South of Heaven, War Ensemble, Mandatory Suicide, Chemical Warefare, Disciple, Cult, Criminally Insane, Cult, Dead Skin Mask, Raining Blood, Angel of Death. Interestingly enough, Tom sounded like he was going to introduce Payback, but the crowd reaction wasn't all that great. Maybe they did an audible and switched to Mandatory Suicide? The end of the song on the screens, had the word payback on it.

I hate arena shows.

Capital slays

Looks like I'm going to be about 80-90% going to Capital Hill Block Party, mostly for the Minus the Bear and Murder City Devils set. Should be pretty good I guess, not that I necessarily like the drive down to seattle, or the late drive back, but yea....

Slayer tonight too. Will it be another successful op? or a blemish on my history with slayer. Find out tonite!

Isis opens up for Tool.

Apparently this got announced. Does it make it more worth while? Probably. Is it still going to cost me 100$ well yea...

Also didn't go to foos. Was interested solely on the acoustic/first day of tour/maybe it'll be as cool as acoustic opeth. But then again, I don't really like Foos all that much. Plus I'd have to go the scalper route again.