Entries Tagged 'Reviews' ↓

The last time I saw Kiss live was on their 1996 reunion tour and I was hugely disappointed. Despite being fairly early in the tour the performance was completely lifeless (with the exception of Ace Frehley’s two songs) and it seemed like a by-the-numbers performance. After that I wasn’t really interested in seeing them again.

However, with the release of the excellent Sonic Boom I thought I would give them another chance. I was hoping that the addition of Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer would revitalize the band. Based on their performance at the Sprint Center, that’s exactly the case. Their performance reminded me of their better shows I’ve seen, with an energy I haven’t seen since they put their makeup back on.

The night started off well between finding two dollar parking across the street from the Midland Theater and then buying tickets with a $75 face value for $40 from a scalper.  This is the first time I’ve gotten cheap tickets from a scalper right before a concert.  I’m thinking I might try it again for AC/DC in April.

The set list was about what they’ve been sticking to for the past few years (standards like “Strutter” and “Deuce”) but with a couple of surprises thrown in (most notably “Parasite”, one of my favorite Kiss songs). Unfortunately a couple of my favorites, “God of Thunder” and “Firehouse”, were given the boot but they didn’t play any song that I absolutely despise.

The stage set up was impressive. In addition to the large video screens there were several smaller video screens across the stage with a different set of images for each song. The other usual things you expect at a Kiss concert were there too - a lot of pyro and Gene Simmons’ standards like spitting blood and blowing fire.

I’ve read a lot of complaints about Paul Stanley’s voice and while it’s true that his voice isn’t as strong due to his age, I don’t think it impacted the show too much. The overall quality was good and more than made up for any vocal shortcomings. That being said, I purchased a CD of the show and listening to it the weak vocals are more evident on repeat listenings.

Setlist:
Deuce
Strutter
Let Me Go, Rock ‘N’ Roll
Hotter Than Hell
Shock Me
Calling Dr. Love
Modern Day Delilah
Cold Gin
Parasite
Say Yeah
100,000 Years
I Love It Loud
Black Diamond
Rock and Roll All Nite
———————
Shout It Out Loud
Lick It Up
Love Gun
Detroit Rock City.

As I texted my wife, the crowd was mainly my fellow middle age burnouts, a lot of whom brought their kids.  Normally I cringe when I see kids at concerts (like Ratt…really, you have to bring your kids to Ratt?) but for some reason this seemed like a good one for them.  Paul Stanley’s stage rap hasn’t changed much since I was young, but it’s definitely toned down from their non-makeup days.

I absolutely love the idea of being able to buy a recording of a show.  They were available for the Metallica concert last year and the set from Kiss is pretty nice.  It was pretty reasonable at $20 because I figured that this is one of those things they would try to gouge you on.

Lawrence’s own The Dead Girls opened up the show. Despite being an odd match for the Kiss crowd they put on a great performance. I’m completely ignorant on the local music scene but definitely plan on checking them out in the future.

Slayer is one of those bands - like AC/DC - where you have a general sense of what you’re getting when you buy one of their albums.  They’ve got their sound where you immediately know it’s them when you hear it.  When a band has such a distinctive sound that they’re sticking with, the main variable from album to album is the quality of the songs.

With World Painted Blood, Slayer has put together one of the best collection of songs in a long time.  It’s their second album since reuniting with original drummer Dave Lombardo.  Their previous effort, 2006’s Christ Illusion was a step in the right direction, but some of the songs on it didn’t deliver.  World Painted Blood feels like a continuation of the previous release, but with a vast amount of improvement.  Sure the usual things are present - Tom Araya’s ominous vocals and the monster guitar playing of Hanneman and King - but they’ve also come up with a group of memorable songs that rank with their best.

I wouldn’t rank World Painted Blood with my personal Slayer favorites Reign in Blood and South of Heaven, but this will probably end up being one of my favorite releases of 2009.

I had originally planned on reviewing the actual Can’t Slow Down studio album but that CD is AWOL in a pile somewhere and instead I watched the live DVD that came with it.

First thing’s first:  I’m not a big Foreigner fan.  It’s not that I dislike them - there’s a handful of their songs that I really enjoy - it’s more that I don’t care about them.  Their songs have been overplayed so much on classic rock radio that it’s mostly become background noise to me.

So why sit through a DVD of live performances?  Mostly it’s that I’m intrigued by bands that replace key members.  In this case Kelly Hansen of Hurricane replaced previous singer Lou Gramm, although their Wikipedia entry reports that Mick Jones is the only original member remaining.  I’m always curious what route the band takes when replacing someone like a singer.  Will they be replaced with a clone (like Journey) or will they attempt to change the band’s sound (oh let’s just pull out Motley Crue for this)?

In this case it’s somewhere in the middle.  Hansen doesn’t sound exactly like Lou Gramm but close enough to see why he was picked for the Foreigner gig.  However he brings enough of his own vocal style to give the current version of Foreigner some kind of identity.

As for the performance, with the exception of a terrible acoustic version of “Say You Will”, the songs sound pretty good.  The energy level of the band is decent, not phoning it in but not putting on an amazing performance either.  I suspect that if I were more of a Foreigner fan this is exactly the show I would want - they do a good job playing their hits without forcing too much new or unknown material on the crowd.  As far as my personal feelings, it didn’t make me any more or any less of a Foreigner fan.  It was interesting to watch once and that’s plenty for me.

I’ve never been a huge Neil Young fan.  He’s one of those artists whose greatest hits get played so much on classic rock radio that you’re completely sick of them and I’ve also heard a lot of his stuff that I just don’t care for.  I do, however, love Harvest Moon and Arc-Weld for reasons that escape me since they’re not really that much of a departure from his other stuff.

The concert movie Rust Never Sleeps has always piqued my curiosity though.  The tour that this performance is from was once named one of the top concert performances by Rolling Stone.  If you’re unfamiliar with it, on this tour the roadies were dressed like Jawas from Star Wars and the stage had props like amplifiers whose size was exaggerated so that the people on stage were dwarfed.

The other aspect of this film that had me interested was that it was one of those movies that always was playing at the midnight movies when I was growing up.  By time I was old enough to go to them, the theatre started showing more modern movies so the movies I missed always had a bit of mystery to me.  When I saw the Rust Never Sleeps DVD used  for five dollars I bought it without hesitation.

From a concert perspective the performance is amazing.  A good chunk of the set is solo acoustic which I’m usually not crazy about, but Neil plays songs like “Sugar Mountain” and “After the Goldrush” with a great energy.  The solo songs are so good they almost overshadow his performance with Crazy Horse.  The electric songs are great as well, but based on what I’ve heard before that’s less of a suprise.

From a movie standpoint though it falls flat.  The opening sequence of the roadies shuffling around before the show gets boring after the first 30 seconds.   Same goes for the other interruptions throughout the show - they may have worked for the people in the crowd at the time but sitting through it in the movie becomes aggravating.  The sequence with the Woodstock announcements is beyond boring.

The sound and picture quality aren’t wonderful but for me that’s not an issue considering when it was made.  There is a weird thing about the sound though.  Between songs you can clearly hear Neil’s footsteps on the stage, him dragging the piano bench across the floor, even when he picks up a harmonica out of the glass they’re held in.  I don’t know if that was in the original film or if it’s part of the DVD mixing, or if it was even done on purpose.  It’s just odd.

The bottom line is that Rust Never Sleeps is one of the best concert films I’ve ever seen and I’m not even a big Neil Young fan, although it definitely has made me one now.

“You thought you were dead
Ha! I’m not done with you yet!
I’m going to the morgue to hunt you down
I’m going to the cemetary to find you
I’m going to your grave to dig you up”

- “Ultra Dead”, The Great Kat

In the heyday of shredding back in the late 80s any guitarist not signed to Shrapnel had to do something to make themselves stand out from the crowd.  Which is exactly what The Great Kat did.  The ads in various guitar magazines advertised her hyper-fast versions of classical songs combined with a dominatrix-type personality.

Needless to say, the younger version of me was dying for this album.  Now not so much that I was willing to pluck down however much they were charging to order it via mail, but I kept checking used music stores for it.

Nineteen years later I had a copy of Beethoven on Speed in my hot little hands thanks to my local Half Price Books.  When I paid for it the clerk told me that he had just put it out a couple of hours ago and thought that no one would ever buy it.

“I’ve wanted this for years,” was my reply.  I’m sure the hipsters working there think I’m a dick anyway so what do I care.

Anyway, the album itself is a combination of sped up classical songs like Beethoven’s 5th and Chopin’s Funeral March along with Kat originals such as “Kat-Abuse” and “Guitar Concerto in Blood Minor” (which sounds like something Dethklok would put together).  The whole thing is done pretty tongue in cheek with Kat’s dominating personality coming out in the linear notes (”I’ve got to live with this massive brain 24 hours a day!”).

Unfortunately it’s not very good.  The originals are pretty cookie-cutter and the classical songs lose their novelty after a couple of listens.  That being said I know that there are people who would be completely into this - it’s a very metal album and the guitar work is pretty good.  I think the 1990 me would have liked it a lot more than the 2009 me does.

The Great Kat has a very busy website here.