Showing posts with label concertReview. Show all posts
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Deliverance........
Posted by
Amazing People,
on
10:01 PM
is alone well worth the price of admission.
Tonight I was in attendance in yet another Opeth concert - never has another band, apart from Iron Maiden, evoked such a string emotional response from me. I've seen them every year starting in Philadelphia from when I scrounged around for a few months to be able to afford the ticket. Their live shows are just pure destruction - they do not use any stage gimmicks, no eye candy, no lasers, no video shows on LCD screens etc but just on the strenght of their mighty music, they draw in the legions. Opeth is the fucking best!!!
Tonight's set was blistering!!! From the opening heavy (and I mean fucking heavy!) brooding "Heir Apparent" to the slower, softer "Hope Leaves" to the hypnotic, psychedelic "Closure" concluding in the staple "Deliverance", Opeth was absolutely the greatest! They played some old songs that I haven't heard them play before - "Godhead's Lament", "The Night and the Silent Water".
The mosh pits were insane - there were two roiling pits of hair, flesh and blood. I managed to survive 30 minutes in one of them but not without some collateral damage - a sore, swollen knee from when a behemoth tackled me, bringing me to the ground and a massive red purple bruise in the small of my back where someone headbutted me. I did some damage of my own too, as they always say at the end of a fight, "You should have seen the other guy!". As far as I could tell, 15 people succumbed to the insanity and intensity of the mosh pit. They were escorted away with bleeding noses and other injuries.
Opeth was absolute dynamite tonight and I was honored to have been part of this ritual.
Tonight I was in attendance in yet another Opeth concert - never has another band, apart from Iron Maiden, evoked such a string emotional response from me. I've seen them every year starting in Philadelphia from when I scrounged around for a few months to be able to afford the ticket. Their live shows are just pure destruction - they do not use any stage gimmicks, no eye candy, no lasers, no video shows on LCD screens etc but just on the strenght of their mighty music, they draw in the legions. Opeth is the fucking best!!!
Tonight's set was blistering!!! From the opening heavy (and I mean fucking heavy!) brooding "Heir Apparent" to the slower, softer "Hope Leaves" to the hypnotic, psychedelic "Closure" concluding in the staple "Deliverance", Opeth was absolutely the greatest! They played some old songs that I haven't heard them play before - "Godhead's Lament", "The Night and the Silent Water".
The mosh pits were insane - there were two roiling pits of hair, flesh and blood. I managed to survive 30 minutes in one of them but not without some collateral damage - a sore, swollen knee from when a behemoth tackled me, bringing me to the ground and a massive red purple bruise in the small of my back where someone headbutted me. I did some damage of my own too, as they always say at the end of a fight, "You should have seen the other guy!". As far as I could tell, 15 people succumbed to the insanity and intensity of the mosh pit. They were escorted away with bleeding noses and other injuries.
Opeth was absolute dynamite tonight and I was honored to have been part of this ritual.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
I shook the hand of.....
Posted by
Amazing People,
on
5:04 PM
A 93 yr old blues legend, David "Honeyboy" Edwards. It was a once in a lifetime experience!
The Venue: Regatta Jazz Bar
Thoughts : A very intimate setting - a smallish stage designed to accommodate a trio (most jazz bands are a trio). Ironically, the audience which was mostly corporate, rich, white American paid good money to see a wizened old black man who at many points in his life lived outside "normal" society as either a slave or in dire poverty in the infamous projects of Chicago. This wizened old black man sang songs about being poor, about cotton picking, about having the "white man" blues and rich corporate white Americans and one brown, relatively poor man paid good money to be there. Figure that one out!
Disclaimer: I do have a romanticized view of the delta blues. So, read the rest taking into account this bias. Also, account for the positive bias coming from witnessing something from another era, something that I probably will not see again anyway.
The Music:
What can I say that hasn't already been said before in better prose that I can ever muster? Delta blues speaks in rustic, earthy tones about a hard life, about the problems of the African American (as they are known now) in a by gone era. Lyrics aside, the simplistic (only to the ear) rhythms and leads of the guitar, the pace and style of vocals are to say the least, endearing. The rhythm, to my ear, sounds identical in all the songs but what rides on it - the vocals and finger picking style guitar - is absolutely fantastic. Closing your eyes and listening to the simple chugging rhythm, heart soaring with woeful vocals or the wails of the harmonica (did I mention that Honeyboy's manager was blowing the horn with absolute mastery?) took me to an altogether different place.
This was a refreshing change from contemporary blues/rock where production (over) emphasizes the music producing a wall of sound. Though this in itself is an absolute art producing "layers" of music that have been the forte of many bands, one of my favorites being Porcupine Tree, Honeyboy's "return to the roots" acoustic music was a very mellowing and peaceful experience.
The Venue: Regatta Jazz Bar
Thoughts : A very intimate setting - a smallish stage designed to accommodate a trio (most jazz bands are a trio). Ironically, the audience which was mostly corporate, rich, white American paid good money to see a wizened old black man who at many points in his life lived outside "normal" society as either a slave or in dire poverty in the infamous projects of Chicago. This wizened old black man sang songs about being poor, about cotton picking, about having the "white man" blues and rich corporate white Americans and one brown, relatively poor man paid good money to be there. Figure that one out!
Disclaimer: I do have a romanticized view of the delta blues. So, read the rest taking into account this bias. Also, account for the positive bias coming from witnessing something from another era, something that I probably will not see again anyway.
The Music:
What can I say that hasn't already been said before in better prose that I can ever muster? Delta blues speaks in rustic, earthy tones about a hard life, about the problems of the African American (as they are known now) in a by gone era. Lyrics aside, the simplistic (only to the ear) rhythms and leads of the guitar, the pace and style of vocals are to say the least, endearing. The rhythm, to my ear, sounds identical in all the songs but what rides on it - the vocals and finger picking style guitar - is absolutely fantastic. Closing your eyes and listening to the simple chugging rhythm, heart soaring with woeful vocals or the wails of the harmonica (did I mention that Honeyboy's manager was blowing the horn with absolute mastery?) took me to an altogether different place.
This was a refreshing change from contemporary blues/rock where production (over) emphasizes the music producing a wall of sound. Though this in itself is an absolute art producing "layers" of music that have been the forte of many bands, one of my favorites being Porcupine Tree, Honeyboy's "return to the roots" acoustic music was a very mellowing and peaceful experience.
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