I’ve been cleaning off my hard drive and it’s crazy some of the MP3s I’ve run across. I’ve got a problem where I get these MP3s and it sounds like a good idea at the time, but then I never listen to them and yet I don’t want to delete them just in case.
Some of the crap I found:
- A poor quality Dream Theater bootleg. I’ve got a couple of their legitimate live albums that I never listen to so why do I have this? Delete this one.
- Alternate versions of the songs from Paul McCartney’s second solo album which I don’t even own. What was I thinking? Frozen Jap? Really? Delete.
- Jani Lane, Jabberwocky. A Jani Lane solo album? I’ve never listened to it, it never made it to the iPod, and yet it stays.
- Fastway’s first album featuring the singer from Flogging Molly. It stays for just that reason.
- Girls Got Rhythm! An album of songs by all-female tribute bands, such as the Ms. Fits and The Iron Maidens. Interesting concept but not interesting enough to keep.
- Low quality Asia bootleg, probably on their first reunion tour. The thing about Asia is that outside of a couple of singles their songs just blend into a great mass of mediocrity. Dump it and meditate on why I had it in the first place.
- Heaven, Where Angels Fear to Tread. I once saw them in an odd show in El Paso. A buddy’s band was supposed to be playing but they got kicked out once the owner found out Heaven was in town with no gig. They played a handful of their songs then started playing covers as their singer got more and more drunk. Keep this for sentimental purposes.
- One of those homemade Chinese Democracy bootlegs where someone compiled all the songs from live performances. I didn’t like the real Chinese Democracy so dump this.
- Oh but now we have the best for last. “One Tin Soldier” from Billy Jack. You know this one’s a keeper.
“One Tin Soldier” - Coven
It’s one of those songs I loved as a kid (along with the movie). The memory is so strong that I can’t listen to it objectively.
Nostalgia tours are always a dicey thing. You always run the risk of seeing a group where someone (usually the singer) has completely lost it, making you embarrassed to be there. This is why I was on the fence about seeing Ratt and Extreme at the outdoors Crossroads venue in Kansas City this past Thursday. I think it was the summer of 2001 when I went to go see a “Voices of Metal” show at the Missouri State Fair that had Stephen Pearcy in the lineup. It was bad - possibly the worst show I have ever seen.
On the other hand I saw Extreme twice during their heyday and they were really good. I don’t think I would have gone to just see Ratt, but the chance to see Extreme again convinced me.
The venue itself isn’t too bad. It’s attached to a restaurant with a great beer selection so I was able to grab a piece of pizza and a beer before the show started. I think I read somewhere that the concert area holds around 1500 people, so it’s a decent size. I would estimate around 700 people were there that night.
One of the interesting things about these ‘hair metal’ shows is that you get a lot of people dressing up like they did 20-25 years ago with varying results. A few guys still had their long hair and the women brought out their tight fitting outfits and ultra-high heels. The floor of the venue is covered with wood chips so it was amusing to watch them try to walk with their heels on. The other thing is that a few people brought their kids which I always hate - it reeks of a dad trying to prove to his kids how cool he is.
Something nice about Crossroads - things were priced incredibly reasonable. Sodas were $2.00, my slice of pizza was $3.75, beer was $3.00. I’m so used to being screwed when I go anywhere these days it’s nice to see something like this.
Anyway, the show started around 8:00 with openers Swirl, a hard rock band from LA and whose sound fit in nicely with the rest of the nice. They were still a little rough around the edges, but they had a lot of good songs. They were good enough to warrant picking up the album.
They played maybe around 40 minutes and after a quick stage setup Extreme took the stage. Despite the relatively small size of the crowd, they put on an incredibly good show. Their sound was great and they put a lot of effort into putting on a good show. Gary Cherone’s voice still sounds as good as it used to and Nuno hasn’t lost a step in his playing. Based on my memory, here’s what they played (not in order):
Decadence Dance
It(’s a Monster)
Star
More Than Words
Play With Me
Rest in Peace
Am I Ever Gonna Change
Cupid’s Dead
Hole Hearted
Take Us Alive
Get the Funk Out/Wanna Be Startin Something
Pretty good set list and the highlight was the cover of “Wanna Be Startin Something” at the end of the set. It’s one of those things that wasn’t expected and the band just nailed the song. ”Take Us Alive” was another unexpected but great choice since it’s probably the best track on their latest album.
Extreme’s set went a little over an hour and Ratt went on stage. The first couple of songs (”Tell the World” and I don’t recall the other) were really rough. Stephen Pearcy’s voice sounded terrible and it was down low in the mix. However, after that rough start the sound improved quite a bit. That being said, the sound didn’t get that much better. The band as a whole was pretty sloppy and Pearcy’s voice is in pretty rough shape.
Some of the songs I remember them playing:
Tell the World
Lay It Down
City to City
I Want a Woman
They also played the entire Out of the Cellar album in order, except for saving “Round and Round” for last. Their entire set lasted about an hour and a half. Their performance wasn’t as bad as I expected, but not as good as the last time I saw them as a band (maybe around 1999 opening for Poison).
I’m glad I went, but I doubt I’ll be going to see Ratt again unless they have another good opener. It’s too bad because they have a lot of great songs and there’s potential there for a great show.
Today I noticed that CNN has devoted 11 AM - 3 PM (Central) today to the Michael Jackson memorial service.
Four hours. On a network supposedly devoted to news. This is why the cable news networks drive me up a wall.
It got me thinking though - I can’t imagine any other current musician/pop star getting this kind of coverage if they died.
Paul McCartney? I don’t see it.
Dylan? Nope.
Bono? Maybe more than any other, but not even in the same ballpark.
To me, this just confirms that people’s interest in Michael Jackson isn’t really in his music. It has to do with his celebrity and his weirdness. The circumstances behind his death contribute to this too. I think the interest in his music is just something to try to legitimize the obsession over him.
Anyway, speaking of weird, I saw this Flickr set on Boingboing a few months ago. I’m not sure what I got out of it, it’s more of a trainwreck thing.
When Dimebag Darrell died in 2004, people started calling him one of the greatest guitarists that ever was, ranking him with Hendrix and EVH, then someone had to take it further and compare him to John Lennon. Let’s face it, the guy was a great metal guitarist, but comparing him to the all time greats is just a little much.
The same thing is going on with Michael Jackson. Even though it typically wasn’t my sort of thing I owned a cassette of Thriller back in 1983 and with the exception of the horrible song “The Girl is Mine” it’s a pretty solid album. That being said, he’s now being compared to Elvis and the Beatles and that’s just not right. I lost the link to the guy, but someone on Twitter made the claim that his work would one day be analyzed the same way Michelangelo’s is today.
Really?
At the end of the day, Michael Jackson was just a pop singer. Thriller (which is what I’m guessing is his best album) is good, but it’s not exactly Revolver or Pet Sounds. I sometimes feel that people are desperate to cling to something from their generation as significant and if they keep saying it long enough it will come true - these are the people you see on the news who make the statement that they’ll always remember where they were when they heard Michael Jackson was dead. Saying this on the day that it happened sounds phony to me - it’s something you come to realize as time goes on.
Anyway, with all my complaining about this, there’s a pretty good chance that I’ll buy myself a new copy of Thriller. The cassette I had back in 1983 is long gone and I’m wondering how it will sound to me today.
