Dr. Dave's Journal
Journal Entry 020411:
Review: The Beginning, Pt. II:
Menacing guitars,
tortured vocals, acoustic passages, slick powerful drumming.
The Beginning, Part II by
Mobday, delivers and delivers
them well. Alex O’Connors
bass is definitely out front with Ryan Nickerson’s vocals, but don’t
diminish the guitar parts either.
They are excellent in the softer passages and sound downright
haunting when they go up against O’Connors ominous bass.
Compliments to Jordan and Zack (guys I wish I could tell your
parts apart, but I just couldn’t).
Love the drummer,
too. Johnny P. isn’t exactly
Neil Peart, but he sounds like a student, and smacks the skins hard
enough to please John Bonham, even from beyond the grave.
“The Beginning”
is something of an instrumental, mostly just music, and when there are
vocals, they are tortured screams from Ryan Nickerson.
It does pretty well set the stage for the rest of the album.
“Save Me”
is an uptempo rocker in the spirit of Rob Zombie,
“Forsaken” reminds
me of Godsmack at first, but when the vocals kick in it seems more
reminiscent of Slipknot.
This one is also a high energy rocker.
“Everything Good,”
explosive drums and crunchy guitar on this one, along with throat
rending vocals and harmonies, on a song about losing everything.
“The Vow”
rocks even harder, and features some great harmonies, something you
don’t hear a lot of in today’s metal.
Best candidate for a single on the album (“it’s got a great hook,
man.”).
“Wax”
takes a slower pace, more powerful pace.
Cool phasing effect on the guitar.
Sounds like there’s also a vocal effect on Ryan Nickerson’s mike,
but it compliments the song well.
This song comes across like a modern take on an old Sabbath song,
but it clearly stands on it’s own.
“Family Man”
is a bit of a mess. Not as
strong melodically or vocally as the previous two songs, but still rocks
hard. Perhaps it’s just a
bit of filler.
“Behind These Eyes,”
isn’t a “Who” rip off at all.
In fact, it’s more reminiscent of Slipknot.
“Porcupine,”
the album closer is a haunting rocker, that recalls the “Twilight Zone,”
theme. How appropriate in
Rod Serling-town.
The Beginning, Part II
isn’t really the second part of anything.
For Mobday, it
IS the beginning.
The part about it being Part II...is nothing more than an “in”
joke amongst the band, and those that know better.
It’s more like their second attempt at their first album.
Funny, once you know about it, confusing for everybody else.
If you like Five
Finger Death Punch, Slipknot, Godsmack and hard hitting modern metal,
this is the album for you.
The debut Mobday album is
heavily influenced by their heroes and you can hear it in their music.
That’s not a bad thing, because they’ve turned an obvious labor
of love into something that melds them all, together but isn’t quite
it’s own, yet. Give them
time. It sounds as if Mobday
is finding their way just fine.
(btw, for those of
you that think I had anything to do with this album, sorry.
That’s another Dr. Dave being credited with mixing & mastering,
co-production, engineering and album artwork.)
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Journal Entry 112410:
CD Review:
A Deep Breath-Lo-Fi
Resistance
All singing and all
guitars (except those guest musicians listed below),
Randy McStine
Drummer
Nick D’Virgilio of Genesis & Spocks Beard (except for tracks 4 & 10)
Rob Weinberger Flute & Saxophone on “Too Simple.”
Lloyd Landesman, keyboard & electronics wizrds whose worked with Clarence Clemons,
Manhattans, Deep Purple, etc.
Dave Meros,
bass on “Too Simple”
dug pinnick
from Kings X, contributed
vocals & end lyrics on “Moral Disgrace.”
A Deep Breath by
Lo-Fi Resistance, sounds like
band leader, Randy McStine’s
attempt to make sense of the world he’s grown up in.
A world where the media is dominated by religious fanatics,
violence and mud-slinging politicians.
These are recurring themes within the album.
Inspite of the
artists insistence that “A Deep Breath” is not a concept album, I keep
hearing it as such. It’s
opens with a media montage called “The Grand Design,” where all of the
albums underlying themes are introduced.
Musically the
playing on “A Deep Breath” reminds me a lot of the
Tarney-Spencer Band from
around the “Run For Your Life,” album, in 1979 (Am I the only one that
remembers them and their minimal hit, “No Time To Lose?).
Lyrically the album has some heavy lyrics, about all the over
mentioned themes and more.
On “Hello New
Star,” it seems McStine is looking for a sign from above (…or perhaps
from someone in authority).
“Embrace,” seems to
extols the virtues of a touch when you’re beaten, heart broken and
“…sinking in sand.”
Track 4 is called
“speck” by many fans, (from the lyric line, “…forsaken speck from a god
below,” even though it’s title is nothing more than a bold type period.
In “speck” McStine sings about loneliness, anger and alienation,
but rather than resolving any issues, it just leaves us waiting for them
to resolve themselves.
In “How It Works,”
McStine seems to be exploring the creative process.
Love the angry bass.
“Simple” and “Too
Simple,” explores the hypocrisy of “god-fearing” people and lies in the
face of truth. The song
features and extended bridge with some exceptional musicianship.
An extraordinarily “Pink-Floydesque” keyboard solo from Lloyd
Landesman and both a haunting flute solo and an outstanding sax solo
from Rob Weinberger that sounds like it was inspired by Magic Dick from
the J. Geils Band.
Underneath it all some very menacing bass work by Dave Meros.
“All We Have,” is
pivotal, as the album takes on a more positive perspective here.
The instrumentation and the lyrics are more uplifting as McStine
sings, “when everyone has left you down I’ll be the only one who doesn’t
let you down.” Okay, so he
rhymes down with down…who hasn’t done that?
“On My Own” opens
with some frenetic and ultimately uplifting instrumentation as McStine
sings of leaving religion behind and being his own person.
“Moral Disgrace,”
is perhaps the heaviest song on the album.
It deals with imposing your point of view on others, bigotry,
hate and speaking your own mind.
Lyrically, it is the albums finest point.
It also features some excellent closing vocals and lyrics from
dug pinnick of Kings X.
“Wasted” is the
albums title track and final chapter and is fittingly about moving on,
which maybe hard to do because once your done with this album you’ll
want to go back and listen to it again, with the lyric sheet.
It’s a thinker, and it does grow on you (personally I think it
goes down better if you start on track #2, but that’s just me.).
The songs are
strong and satisfying. Quite
impressive for McStine’s first go-round.
We all knew he could play guitar…but check it out, he can write
songs with depth and character, too.
Having said that,
it’s still only an 8 out of ten on the perfect album scale, but it’s an
incredible start that bodes well for the future.
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Journal Entry 041310:
CD Review: Friday Night Lights-Zarni de Wet
I know I’m way overdue on this, but to be honest I live in an entirely different world. For the most part, I deal with pop and rock artists, a much simpler world. It’s not that I have never experienced an artist like this before, it’s just that it requires a totally different mindset, than the one I’m normally in. Having said that, I’ve recently decided to force myself to find the time to listen to this album several more times and put on my jazz hat.
Here goes:
If Steely Dan and Sarah McLachlan had a child (which is somewhat impossible since Steely Dan is a band and not a person, but you get the idea) the result might well be Zarni de Wet. Zarni is a child of the world. Born in South Africa, she came to our small town, Binghamton, NY after her parents broke up and her mom got married again. How fortunate for us that this genius child was allowed to be part of our community…at least for a time, because I don’t believe we could hold her even if we wanted to.
If you’ve ever had the good fortune to meet Zarni de Wet, you’d think she could be Miley Cyrus older sister. She’s not though. De Vet’s music seems to flirt with the down side of life a lot of the time.
Her music is like Steely Dan in the sense that it’s very jazzy. She employs a ton of jazz breaks and riffs. She often uses dissonance to her advantage, which also seems to make the album less happy. De Wet skats a bit on the album, too.
Unlike Steely Dan in that it’s more piano driven, then guitar driven. Zarni’s voice is nearly perfect. At times a bit breathy, sometimes a bit thin-yet still tender. Mostly it’s strong and pitch perfect.
The subject matter of the songs isn’t about scoundrels as Steely Dan’s are, but much more introspective. This is an artist that wears her heart on her sleeve. She examines life, relationships, marriage, divorce, sex…in short the album, Friday Night Lights, is light years ahead of most artists her age, who are by this time just getting their feet wet and discovering their own musical voice.
1.) Hollow is funky, somewhat upbeat and even a little fun…even if it is a put down of a seemingly empty person. The songs lyrics actually define de Wet in a personal way. Especially in the chorus, “do you think I’m crazy for living in this small town, living with my walls down.” If Zarni ever had any walls up, you’d never know it by how comfortable she is on stage and how revealing these songs are. She often shatters personal walls in her lyrics, unafraid to expose herself for the sake of writing a great song. I know she rhymes home with home a lot in this song, but somehow against the laws of the “lyric police” she makes it work. After the first few listens you don’t even notice it.
2.) Better the pace and the tempo come down on this one. Seems to be about healing.
3.) Always Wanting More an unusually upbeat song about an unsatisfying relationship.
4.) Making My Way melancholy. may sound like it’s about a lover, but it’s really about missing her mom while she’s away at Berklee.
5.) Down N’ Dirty is about a jealous boyfriend who just doesn’t trust her.
6.) Whatever The Weather Is a great love song. Not sappy, not upbeat—just a cool declaration.
7.) Grey seems to be about a relationship that went bad and the difficulty of leaving it behind.
8.) On And On, is about how life gets away from us, it just goes on, “with or without you,” whether you’re ready for it or not.
9.) Tell The Kids is about divorce, the holidays and how to break the news to the kids.
10.) You Always Wear Me On Your Sleeve boy wears girl like a tattoo, but not in his heart.
11.) Turning Hand Of Gravity about how quickly life speeds by.
12.) Spaceman don’t know what this one is about, but it’s the most fun song on the album with a wonderfully kooky hook.
13.) Time Of My Life, wondering about an unknown future leads to reminiscing about a great time in the city..
14.) To The One That Got Away, morbidly obsessive song about comparing all your current boyfriends to the man she misses. She even compares their imagined futures to the one she wants with the lover denied her. It really forces you to look at your own relationships, especially if they’re not that good.
15.) Friday Night Lights this song wrestles with doubt and whether or not you should let it force you to stay home and be lonely, or finally as the song resolves, get out and enjoy the night.
The only thing this album needs is a lyric sheet, because it takes several listens to discern the words, and thereby their meaning.
Although, the album does get better with each listen. It has a maturity and sophistication that are impressive and you really owe it to yourself to hear this young master of her art.
I can’t imagine that Zarni de Wet won’t get better with age, but I can’t imagine how. Still, I’m anxious hear where life takes her and how it surfaces in her music.
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Journal Entry 031009:
---Kinks founder, singer, songwriter and guitar player, Ray Davies didn’t play to a sell out crowd Tuesday night (3/9) at the Forum, but he did get a vocal reception from an enthusiastic audience who knew Davies music well and understood his importance to the world of music at large.
Davies played more than 90 minutes worth of both familiar and rare gems from The Kinks and his own solo albums. The head Kink seemed very happy to be back on a stage and appeared playful and engaging. He took the time to explain some of his songs and tell funny stories about how people perceive them.
Most telling was a moment when a fan started making duck calls in the audience, which prompted a call for a truly obscure Kinks song, “Ducks On The Wall,” which Davies immediately acknowledged, even if he didn’t play it.
Perhaps most of all, Davies seemed most at ease with a full band behind him. At the conclusion of the show, opening act “the 88” came back out to accompany the King Kink on Low Budget and Lola. It was on these numbers that Davies got off of his seat and strutted around the stage.
The 88, also distinguished themselves during their portion of the show, as solid performers, with some equally promising songs. I’ll be following them a little more closely now for sure. If you want to get an immediate impression of them however, I’d suggest that their look was a combination of “The Cars” and “Weezer,” circa the Buddy Holly video. Their music also seemed to be heavily influenced by Weezer.
I loved the keyboard player the most for his visual impact as much as his deft playing. He was very striking as he hunched over his instrument as if he couldn’t see the individual keys otherwise.
All in all, a very satisfying show, which could have been only made more so if more fans had bothered to get tickets, well that and it was hard to hear much of Davies monologue. Don’t know if that was due to the acoustics of the Forum, the audience being a bit loud and rowdy (which they were at times) or Ray is sounding more and more like Ozzy Osborne in his old age.
P.S. I hope Davies superfan, Chris Kocher, of the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, set Ray straight about the ultimate fate of Pat Mitchells. It’s great that such a Binghamton landmark should be remembered by someone of Davies stature, even if most of us have never had a strawberry malted milkshake. I’ll bet Mitchell would have been proud that 30 years later Ray Davies would still be mentioning how good that milkshake was, which he did more than once during the show.
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Davies set was so deep that I didn’t recognize everything, but I did managed to jot down notes on most of the set, which are listed in order below with only a few exceptions…
Ray Davies set list (more or less):
This is where I belong
You really got me
I Need You
Where Have All The Good Times Gone
‘Til The End Of The Day
In A Moment
Victoria
20th Century Man
?
Dedicated Follower Of Fashion
The Tourist
Apeman
Alcohol
Two Sisters
?
See My Friends
Kinks Movie Medley: I’m Not Like Everybody Else/ Nothing In The World/ Too Much On My Mind
Sunny Afternoon
Postcard From London
Tired Of Waiting For You
All Day & All Of The Night
You Really Got Me
?
David Watts
Low Budget
Lola
---Rock on!
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Journal Entry 091409:
Been awhile since I've written in this space. If you've been waiting for something new...I apologize, but I'm posting here now to let you know that I'm slowly catching up.
Yeah, I know I've been slow the last couple of months...it's amazing to me how much having the kids at home can slow you down, so now that they are back in school, I'll be working twice as hard to get the site back to pumping on all cylinders.
I have posted some recent music news stories that I hope to further flesh out in the next few days...charts, which I'm two weeks behind on, will start to pop in as the week rolls on and in a few weeks I anticipate all the concert entry's will be up to date.
I might have gotten more done today, but I actually spent an hour at "lues On The Bridge," which featured two excellent bands, "Beard Of Bees," and "Terry Walker Project," during my time there. More about that later however.
Rock On!
--Dr. Dave
Journal Entry 121608:
Album Review: Beyond The Gray-Jared Campbell
There’s a saying that you can usually tell how a musician’s life has been over the last year by looking at the list of song titles on his or her latest album. Usually the more turbulent, the better…not so for Jared Campbell, who has had a blissful time falling in love and getting married. Fortunately, that works out just fine because the Binghamton based singer/ songwriter has used those good feelings to craft an hopeful, insightful and reflective collection of pop songs…yeah, that’s right…pop songs!
I know Campbell would rather be known as an indie artist, but on this album, he’s wearing his heart on his sleeve and showing it off…to his advantage. Not only that, but if a major label ever gets ahold of this album, Jared Campbell will be the next John Mayer. In fact, Mayer might get a little jealous.
“Beyond The Gray,” is just as well played, sung and produced as was Jared’s debut album, “Rest Out,” but the difference is that more of the songs on “Gray” have something that the collection on “Rest Out” lacked…hooks!
The album opens with the song that’s supposed to define the album, “Beyond The Gray.” It’s a good song, but this song belongs at the end, not the beginning. If there’s one way to make this album better, I think I’d put it at the end. It’s a better summary than a pace setter.
It’s followed up by several strong potential singles, “Teach Me To Love,” “Memories,” “I Do,” and “Music Man,” with it’s nice sax solo. The last time I heard any album make as good use of the saxophone it was “The Stranger, “by Billy Joel. This album doesn’t have Joel’s dramatic broadway-like flourishes, but it doesn’t need them. In fact, it would probably suffer from them.
“Teach Me To Love,” is easily the most purely pop song on the album, and honestly, doesn’t every girl want to hear their man say these words? Jared bares his sensitive side with an urgent melody.
“Memories,” (not the Cats song) is about slowing down, appreciating life and “putting away the past.” Maybe not the best guitar work on the album with song, but the guitar is most prominently featured here.
“I Do,” is the best argument for a lead single on this album. It almost struts and preens during the verse, and is restrained exultation in the chorus. Restraint is something Jared employs well on the entire album…never getting over the top, always staying grounded and honest. Seriously guys doesn’t the chorus of this song make for better vows that the traditional ones?
The happiest moment on the album however is “Music Man,” where Campbell pays tribute to his first love, music.
The second half of the album isn’t as poppy, but still has pleasant nuggets. It begins with “My Queen,” a song Campbell obviously wrote to his new wife. If this album becomes as big as it should, it will be sung at weddings for decades. It’s followed by “Worth The Wait,” which recalls “All I Wanna Be (Is By Your Side),” by Peter Frampton in it’s jazzy (often soulful) vocals and sparse instrumentation.
“Maybe With Me,” another relationship song starts with a guitar line reminiscent of “Silent Lucidity” by Queensryche, but the comparisons end there, when a driving bass line kicks in. The guitar work here also sounds a bit like The Edge from U2. Not bad company to be in.
“Everything To Gain,” is about taking comfort in each other. An “us against the world,” ditty, which sports a nice banjo riff.
“House Of Cards,” should be a blues song, but stays optimistic. It almost makes ones lack-of-foresight seem romantic, but it’s still a song about failure, which reinforces my argument that “Beyond The Gray,” the albums title track makes a better end. It’s more uplifting and sees the listener getting through the foggy hurdles of life, despite it all.
It take four or five listens to realize that this album is the closest to perfect yet from any performer to come out of our “Valley Of Opportunity,” and something for Jared and his band to be proud of.
Yeah, I’d still put the title track at the end and move both “I Do,” and “Music Man” to the beginning, but having said that, all the songs on the album are strong and go down easy. They tackle themes of love and life that most can relate to. This is Campbell’s strongest statement yet and should be his break through.
If this album doesn’t get big, Jared could still make money by selling these songs to the James Taylors and John Mayers of the world to record. Any rock balladeer could record these and they’d be huge, as they deserve to be and with any luck will be.
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Dr. Dave’s Journal (081608):
---Haven’t written a journal entry in awhile…because of vacation at first, then I started putting concert reviews in the Music News page…so I guess this page will become a commentary on new releases and CD Sales…such as they are.
---Gotta tell ya, I love observing trends in music. That’s one of the cool things about charts. They aren’t always an indicator of good music as much as they are an indicator of music trends among young adults.
Having said that, I’ve seldom seen a more reactionary town than the greater Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre area. They not only love rock & roll, they love a great rock & roll concert even better and when the Vans Warped Tour rolled through town a few weeks ago featuring dozens of bands, well the citizens went crazy buying their CD’s!
On our Top 25 chart last week for Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton there were 18 new entries! Out of those only three weren’t on the Festival.
As you might guess, the week after the festival played Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton reverted back to their old habits! This time there were 17 new entries onto the chart (Scars on Broadway the only hold over), and most of them were albums from bands that had been on that very same chart two weeks ago, but were knocked off my the Vans Warped Bands!
You can see that very same chart by skipping over to the Charts page and checking out the Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton chart!
---Another town that loves to rock is Chattanooga, TN! I know first hand because I spent 5 years there, a year-and-a-half of which I jocked at KZ-106 (WSKZ-FM). So, seeing that Kid Rock is celebrating his 16th week on top of their rock chart this week is no surprise at all!
What is surprising is that they have 3 catalog albums back on their rock charts and doing very well, two of them are by Disturbed, “Sickness” and “Ten-thousand Fists.” The other is the debut Evanescence CD, “Fallen.” Could this be a trend? Is new rock not enough for Chattanoogans? We’ll keep an eye on it.
--Rock On!
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Journal Entry for 070508:
See the music news page for my review of the Gavin Degraw show.
Otherwise, I’ll be late posting some of the charts due to the long weekend. Binghamton and Scranton are online now. The rest will come Wednesday.
Hope you all had a great Fourth! Rock on!
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Journal Entry 062908:
Highlights of the final stop of the Jagermeister Tour @Magic City Music Hall on Sunday 6/29:
---Roadie who worked the whole night in full Kiss make-up (looked just like Gene Simmons)
---Ace Frehley’s solo album played on speakers between acts (one of the Kiss live albums, too)…didn’t realize how good the Ace album was before…
---Bands tried to fling Frisbees into the crowd, but the ceiling @ MCMH is so low that some of them bounced off of the light rack which hangs from it right in front of the stage…and it really doesn’t hang down that far!
---Lizard man. Made a great MC for the tour. Unfortunately, despite his urging most of the women in the crowd kept their tops on. Liz also helped one guy in the crowd propose to his girlfriend. She said yes. Lead singer for Hatebreed (Jamey) joked that they should change their name to Lovebreed…at least for the night, in their honor.
---Doesn’t the voice of the Peter Steele, lead singer of Type O Negative remind you of the guy from the Crash Test Dummies? Does anyone even remember who the Crash Test Dummies were?
---Singer for “3 Inches Of Blood” sounded so much like Bruce Dickenson from Iron Maiden.
---No one was more pumped than Jamey Jasta, the singer for Hatebreed…He was so full of energy, pumping his fists, flailing his arms and jumping and running up and down the stage…
---a Roadie during a mike check reminded the crowd that condoms are cheaper than child support.
---in a crowd full of tattooed moshers the stand out was a Sarah Jessica Parker look alike with ribbons in her hair, wearing a dominatrix outfit, fish net stockings and dancing like she was at a Dead show. Who could have guessed that in room full of freaks that she would be the most noticeable?
---Rock On!
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Journal Entry for 062208:
Who says Southern Rock is dead? Certainly, no one who was at the Outlaws show, last night (6/22) at Magic City Music Hall will say so.
Surviving members Henry Paul (lead singer/ rhythm guitar) and Monte Yoho (drummer) have fashioned a 6-piece traveling unit that would have done the missing original members proud.
New to the band is Keyboard player Jon Coleman, who proved he can not only play honky-tonk style boogie woogie like (Lynyrd) Skynyrd’s Billy Powell, but he can also flip into a free-form/ jazz-style/ jam band solo ala Gregg Allman.
In addition to Coleman, the band also includes bass player, Randy Threet and twin lead guitarists that would make Molly Hatchet envious, Chris Anderson and Billy Crain.
The band wasted no time getting right out of the gate with its most recognizable hits, “There Goes Another Love Song,” and “Hurry Sundown.” They filled the middle of the set with more hits and some tracks from their first three albums that, if possible, sound even better today than they did originally, including:
“Song In The Breeze”
“Knoxville Girls”
“South Carolina”
“Freeborn Man”
“Stick Around For Rock & Roll”
“You Are The Show”
“Gunsmoke”
Henry Paul even told a nice story about how he co-wrote “Gunsmoke” in south Central Park one night after a show. Paul wasn’t flamboyant, but a sincere spokesman for the band. He spoke from the heart and left the flashy-ness for the guitar jams.
The band also included a song from later in their career—their remake of, “Ghost Riders In The Sky.” By the time “Ghost Riders” was recorded the only original member of the band left in the Outlaws line-up was the late Hughie Thomasson, but these “Outlaws” certainly made this song their own with precision playing and tight 4 part harmonies.
Also included in the set was a song called “Feel The Heat” and another from the Henry Paul Band’s debut album, “Grey Ghost,” which was originally intended as a tribute to Ronnie Van Zant, the former Lynyrd Skynyrd singer who died after the tragic plane crash in 1977. Sadly, the song has since become a tribute to it’s late members, former guitarist Hughie Thomasson, who died just last year, bass player Frank O’Keefe and guitarist, Billy Jones, both of whom died within a month of each other in 1985.
Of course, they closed the set with their most famous jam, “Green Grass and High Tides.”
All-in-all a satisfying night at Magic City Music Hall, which way too many people missed. Those that were there will be talking about the show for a long time.
Rock on!
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Journal Entry 060708:
---OK, better late than never. Fact of the matter is that I had to go to the hospital last week for a routine medical test. Problem is that I underestimated how much the medication would effect me, so after losing 2 days of work, you can see that I’m still playing catch-up, but feeling a TON better…thanks for asking. It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a journal entry, mostly because I haven’t been to any new shows lately, but I have a feeling that will all change soon.
Looking forward already to “The Outlaws” on the the 22nd @ Magic City Music Hall in JC, as well as Gavin DeGraw on July 6th, also at the Hall, Then, The Bravery on 7/13, once again @ MCMH, and then Blue Oyster Cult on Spiedie Fest Sunday, 8/3. Why these shows? Well truth be told between working 2 jobs and chasing 4 kids I don’t get many days off, so I have to see what’s available when I can…not to take anything away from these great bands. Gotta get my live music when I can, and after all what’s life without music right?
Rock on…
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Journal Entry 020408:
Just got back from the Killswitch show at Magic City Music Hall. I have to confess that as an old metal head I’m still learning the newer bands, but even without knowing the songs, it was a ton of fun. Here’s what happened, as best as I can recall (well, I was having too much fun to take notes)…
Got to actually see the last three bands on the bill tonight, although Amy (daughter #3) and I could hear most of Parkway Drive’s set from the parking lot at the Small Mall while we were waiting in line to pick up our tickets from Will Call. Btw, thanks to Mike Benson from Clear Channel’s KGB-FM for getting me tickets.
Dillinger Escape Plan impressed me as solid musicians and excellent showmen. They were the 1st band of the night to find the top of the speakers, even if their lead singer could only crouch and roll around on them. Their guitar player got up there as well, but had to have the singer hoist his microphone up, so that he could sing the harmonies. Btw, their guitar player get the “Best Hair Of-The-Night” award. Not too long for head-bangin’, not too short to get messed-up and get in his eyes.
Every Time I Die had a great stage presence and started the call-to-arms for every crowd surfer in the county. They weren’t ejecting them from the Hall either. They were let right back into the crowd to continue, if they wanted. This band was obviously influenced by “The Who,” as they mimicked the way Roger Daltrey used to swing the microphone by it’s chord and Pete Townshend’s wind-mill style of guitar playing.
Killswitch Engage, also played an excellent set, and continued to encourage crowd surfing. They even cleared the floor in front of the stage for the moshers about half-way into the set. (lead singer) Jesse got up on the speakers by the end of the set, too. By half-way thru this set at least one woman was drunk enough to get up on her boyfriends shoulders and flash her boobs for the band (…and all the rest of us who were watching!)…before she crowd-surfed her way to the stage, twice!
The whole crowd-surfing orgy got started because one of the stage crew for the tour (named Tim) is himself a fan of crowd-surfing. In fact, both Every Time I Die and Killswitch got him up on stage and sang Happy Birthday to him! It was quite a party all night long!
Rock on!
--Dr. Dave
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Journal Update 120107:
---Still working on the new links page, making sure every link checks out and researching contact info for those I can’t find a link for. In actuality, the page will be more than just a links page, it will be a contact page for as many area bands/ musicians, bars/ nightclubs/ venues and dj’s as I can find out about! The list is still growing, the research is ongoing and it will probably take more than a few weeks to finalize it all, but it will be worth the wait, I promise.
I have to add that it’s really cool checking out everyone’s website’s and getting connected in this way. I had no idea how many local bands there were. I knew we had a lot of great bars, nightclubs and venues…but the number of local artists really surprised me.
Rock On!
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Journal Update 111707:
---OK, I know there’s only one link on our links page, but I am working on building it. Here are the three additional categories I’m working on (I say additional, because when my webmaster created the links page he added his company as a link, which is cool because he does a great job for me, check him out if you need someone to host your webpage!): Local Bands/ Musicians, Local Venues/ Nightclubs/ Bars and Local Independent Music Stores.
Part of the problem is having so much source material and so little time between my two jobs (at Clear Channel Radio and WICZ-TV (Fox 40)), as well as my parenting duties. I only have 7 kids. Fortunately three of them are old enough to take care of themselves. Right now, I really wish they lived with me, so they could help me take care of the other four, but they do make life interesting.
---If you are in a local band, are a local musician, or work at a local venue or independent music store and you want to be added to the links list, please contact me via e-mail at the following address: info@radio2point0.com.
Rock On!
--Dr. Dave
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Journal update for 111307:
---Hey! Just wanted you to know that I already preparing for the day when we’ll be able to have prepared radio shows on our site and ready for you to download. Been preparing our new links page as well. There’s only one link on it right now (which my host and webmaster popped on. That’s okay—he does a great job and if you need a site of your own whether for business or pleasure you should click on it and give him some business), but I’m preparing a whole data base of local bands and venues. The search is leading me to some very cool websites and also some great local music. Thanks to Dena for sending me her releases. It’s been great exchanging e-mails with her for the past week or two. I’ll update you soon on some of the other local acts I’ve stumbled on in my search for bands and musicians from the greater Binghamton area, (previously known as the “Twin Tiers.”)
Rock On!
--Dr. Dave
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Journal Entry for 092207:
Hi again! Just wanted you to know that I’m working harder than ever to make this website perfect for you, the Binghamton area local music fan. Made some contacts today with some local venues to try and improve local concert info.
Also, for those of you who may visit the local charts page and instead of a chart for Binghamton, you see charts for other cities, let me explain that I will also be actively inviting any of my fans from other towns (who may or may not still exist at this point) to check out the site I have created. Through existing contacts that I made in these markets, I get enough information to create said charts. I’m starting to talk to local music stores about participating in a local music chart for Binghamton, so fans of local music…hang in there! With any luck…you’ll have your own local chart soon enough!
Thanks again for visiting radio2point0.com!
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Monday September 17th, 2007:
Thanks for visiting my site! I’m a Binghamton disc jockey with a dream to revolutionize local radio. That’s what this site is all about. A chance to give radio back to the listener. Since I can’t go out and buy a station, which costs millions of dollars these days, I opted for starting one on-line. It’s been under construction for what seems like forever, as I learn how to run a site and my web master teaches me (thanks Duke) about how to update everything.
The site is being built to be about the music of Binghamton for Binghamton and the world at large. Please enjoy.
We had a great week of music with back-to-back shows on September 4th and 5th, in town. Chevelle was at Magic City Music Hall, with two bands that I was unfamiliar with, Fair to Midland and the show opener, 2 Cents. Adam O’Rourke, lead singer/drummer for the band set the tone for the night immediately starting with a Jessica Simpson put down and by the time the set ended the crowd was chanting “Pop music is the enemy.” Where Fair To Midland and Chevelle are a bit headier, 2 Cents went straight for the groin and stayed in the gutter for most of their set, but no one seemed to mind. O’Rourke is so charismatic, he reminds you of Jack Black in School of Rock. The obvious difference is that Adam is a drummer, not a guitar player. So what? He knows rock & roll and he knows how to work a crowd. Bet we hear more from them soon.
Fair To Midland also played well, but were more cerebral than 2 Cents, so it took a few minutes to get into the right mind set to appreciate them. It was obvious right away that they were a progressive unit with their use of samples. In fact, they are signed to Serj Tankian’s (system of a down) Serjical Strike label. Their music seems to be influenced by many prog bands, including modern ones like System of A Down, and classic ones like Kansas. The band played well and singer Darroh Sudderth did a good job, but he’s got to learn a new dance for the climax of their songs, because he went into spasm mode 4 or 5 times during the show and it began to get old by the end.
As for Chevelle, I went in knowing mostly “Send the Pain Below” and being very impressed with their new stuff. Sonically they had the best sound of the night, but they had the best equipment, the most experience and the biggest budget. They were the head-liners after all.
The only complaint about the night was those moshing or slam-dancing on the floor. I had to move closer to the band (2nd row approximately) to avoid them. There’s got to be something the Music Hall can do to fence them off from those of us who love good music, but don’t want to kill ourselves. I’ve got bad knees and just can’t hack the impact.
Here are links to the bands:
2 Cents http://www.2centsmusic.com
Fair to Midland http://www.fairtomidland.com
Chevelle http://www.chevellinc.com
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The next night at the Broome County Arena, another great triple bill, Queensryche, Alice Cooper and Heaven and Hell, the Ronnie James Dio version of Black Sabbath. Metal heads in the southern tier had to be in heaven. Only 2 complaints about this show, the Queensryche set was too short (even shorter for me because I got there 15 minutes late) and the songs from the Heaven and Hell set weren’t that recognizable. I was so hoping that they’d play Lady Evil from the Heaven and Hell album, but they didn’t get to it. Still H&H sounded great and the visual element was incredible (the gothic castle mentioned by Sarah D’esti Miller in her column in the Binghamton Press). The scenes in the windows kept changing and sometimes the windows would change size and location, so it was a little trippy, too.
Speaking of trippy, Alice Cooper was that and more. It was a theatrical review of his greatest hits. He played them all, No More Mr. Nice Guy, Billion Dollars Babies, Eighteen, Is It My Body, Feed My Frankenstein, Welcome to My Nightmare, Only Women Bleed, Schools Out, Poison and Elected, plus a few more that seemed engineered to advance the plot of the show (which was basically, Alice becomes a dad, kills wife and kid, gets sentenced to death, hanged and comes back), which climaxed with Alices return from death after he was hanged. A lot of sick fun.
Took my daughter Amy to the show and she tried to take some pictures with her cell phone, but I’m not sure they came out too well. If I’m wrong, I’m sure she’ll be posting them on her myspace account. I’ll post a link. She had fun just getting to see what professionals do, because she’s learning how to play bass guitar and how to play in a band.
Just because Summer’s almost over doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of the great concerts for the year. Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, Seether and Skillet are set to play at the Broome County Arena Wednesday night, September 19th. I won’t be able to see the show because I’m not free that night, but I’ll let you know what I hear.
--Dave “Dr. Dave” Weeks
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