Sweet Lou Killbot
Posts
There's been a whole host of new prog rock in the past few months, so I figured I'd take a few minutes to tackle everything I've heard so far... So to start out:
Marillion - Somewhere Else
2 stars
I love Marillion , but this is a placeholder if I've ever heard one. Everything moves at the same, deliberate pace - nothing is bad, but nothing stands out either. Basically take all the good tracks off _Marbles_ and _Anoraknophobia_ and this what you are left with.
Sad, because I've loved them for so long, but this is just so mediocre. At least _Marillion.com_ and _Radiation_ had a couple standout tracks between them!
If I'm missing something, let me know, because, like I said, Marillion have been favorites of mine for 20 years and I want to give them every possible opportunity.
It's been about 2 months now as a non-music critic. I'm really missing going to shows - but on the other hand there haven't been too many I really wanted to see over the past couple months. I missed Crowded House - warmup for Coachella and their 1st gig back together in the states - that was the one I really regret. I missed Lindsey Buckingham, but I saw him 6 months ago. I did manage to catch Morrissey who was surprisingly amazing. His new material is good and he has finally embraced the Smiths' material fully. And finally getting to hear How Soon Is Now was a joy. But it's kind of scary watching women swoon for him though. Of course seeing Moz meant that I missed the Hold Steady, but I figure I can catch them again in 6 months or so. Now I'm just waiting for the Decemberists and Wilco to come... Gasp, I'm actually going to have to pay for concerts - well at least I won't be using the "I'm tired and don't want to go out" excuse if I actually am paying for tickets...
Went to night one of the McDowell Mountain Music Festival and for the most part thoroughly enjoyed myself. The Neville Brothers were seriously funky - funkier than the last time I saw them - even if they did pretty much the same stuff I remember them playing 15 years ago - Iko Iko, Fire on the Bayou, Yellow Moon, Voodoo, Tell It Like It Is, Fever, etc. plus a killer version of Herbie Hancock's Chameleon.
Ratdog's set was a little wearying. But then I'd been up for 14 hours on very little sleep. After the drum solo the show just seemed to drag. But they did do some cool Beatles and Dylan covers, including a nice power-chord driven Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall. Also a nice Shakedown->Minglewood opener.
Between sets I caught my friend Chris's band Haiku Rd. who were playing on the second stage. Their acoustic cover of Belinda Carlisle's "Mad About You" had one boomer in the crowd doing the "lower-lip bite white man dance" with the added flourish of pretending to swing a baseball bat. Please, God, don't let me act that way the next time I see some cool Gen-X band from the late '80s...
Comments
This may be the greatest sentence in all of music writing: "After the drum solo the show just seemed to drag."
Haiku Rd. at McDowell Mountain played Mad About You? I have never heard of Haiku Rd. but hmmm, I might have see if a live copy of that shows up, I'm intrigued.
MOG Meter
Comments
Ah, yes, back to the ranks of normal mortals! You get used to it.
I just don't look forward to the day I have to start paying for air travel again.