The Lunatic Ravings of Onstage Madmen

To kick off the last big party weekend of the summer, here - thanks to Easy Allen - is a link to some of the funniest onstage banter ever to pour out of the arenas and into your earholes.

Go here to experience drunken rants by Venom's Cronos, David Lee Roth, Courtney Love Hole, and of course Paul Stanley.

My favorite so far? Fugazi's Guy Picciotto belittling some fans:

"I saw you two guys earlier at the Good Humor truck, and you were eating your ice cream like little boys, and I thought, 'Those guys aren't so tough! They're eating ice cream.' I saw you eating an ice-cream cone, pal… You're bad now, but I saw you… That's the shit you can't hide. You eat ice cream; everybody knows it. Ice-cream-eating motherfucker, that's what you are."

En-joy!

The Stones Wrap it Up

Reuters news service covered the end of the Stones' two year world tour in support of the 'new' album A Bigger Bang (wow, it feels like it came out, well two years ago). Two years is a long time to be on the road. Here are some stats, from the story:

The marathon tour comprised 146 performances in 31 countries and Puerto Rico. First-time stops included mainland China, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia, as well as last year's Super Bowl in Detroit.

Along the way, Jagger and Richards each lost a parent, and Wood his older brother. Last October their former record label boss, Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, slipped backstage during their concert in New York, fell into a coma and died seven weeks later.

The North American shows, which accounted for just over half the performances, grossed $300 million and attracted 2.2 million people, according to Pollstar, a concert trade publication.

They forgot to mention that along the way Richards admitting snorting his dead dad's ashes. Then said he didn't. And then said he did after all.

Long live the fricking Stones.

Floydian Slips Rock Eugene

It was a busy weekend, as the Pink Floyd tribute band I am in, The Floydian Slips, played for 2,600 raving fans at the Cuthbert Amphitheater in Eugene Oregon last Saturday. It was our 10th anniversary show. Yep, we've been doing this for 10 years!

Drove down Friday for a four hour soundcheck and rehearsal, which went really well, but was tiring. It's always great to hook back up with the crew - the same guys we use every year. This is how we are able to pull of the stunning visual and audio part of the show. These guys know the music as well as the band does and we function like a well oiled machine. For the most part.

We decided to introduce a new song (to us), Learning to Fly, which is the most recent Floyd song we do. The oldest is Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun but we left that one out of the set this time. Over the years we have done The Dark Side of the Moon all the way through, and we've also done The Wall a number of times. This year we opted to just do a bunch of songs, from Dark Side to Momentary Lapse.

It was a great show. Maybe one of our best performances. Standouts for me were Dogs and Great Gig, which Nicole Campbell absolutely slayed. I am still poring over the video to hear all of my mistakes, as usual.

It's cool to see how many young people come out to the shows. 10 years ago it was all old frowning hippies with crossed arms - these dudes are very serious fans and they soak up every note. But then it turned slowly into a more varied crowd with teenagers and yeah even younger, all up font wearing Floyd, Stones, Who and Zep shirts. My little clones. Bwa ha ha ha! They know the words to even the obscurities, like One of My Turns.

Our next shows are in Portland (Aladdin Theater, January 12), and Seattle (Triple Door, January 5), and a rumored New Years Eve show in Eugene TBD. So it won't be too long before we are doing this again. That makes me glad!

For some INSANE photos of the show, go here.

Band members:

Nicole Campbell (vocals)
Ehren Ebbage (vocals, guitar)
Ned Failing (drums, percussion)
Asher Fulero (keyboards, vocals)
Paul Lesinski (vocals, guitar)
Brendan Relaford (bass)
Rich Sellars (vocals, drums, percussion)
Al Toribio (lead guitar, vocals)

Set list:

Shine On
Learning To Fly
Have A Cigar
Young Lust
One Of My Turns
Hey You
Wish You Were Here
Run Like Hell
Pigs

Pigs On The Wing
Dogs
Speak to Me/Breathe/On The Run
Time/Breathe
Great Gig In The Sky
Brick 1
Happiest Days
Brick 2
Mother
Any Colour You Like
Brain Damage
Eclipse

IRS Good - Bottled Water Bad - Huh?

Today, I want to direct your attention to two of my fellow blog-mates, Dr. John and Voxmoose, who recently put up two of the most interesting posts I have read as of late:

Dr John writes at Dr. John's Orders about a positive (yes positive) experience he had in remedying an IRS screw up that could have cost him some dough. Not only is it an unexpected outcome, it's a great read!

Voxmoose on his blog Cryptohedonology (anyone, anyone?), posts about the scam that is bottled water. After reading it, I pretty much am not going to even bother with buying bottled water except on rare occasions (like birthdays and Christmas). Voxmoose takes a look at it from a scientific standpoint and makes the very strong case that bottled water is no safer or better tasting than good old tap water. Not too shocking as Pepsi recently admitted that its bottled water IS tap water. For more info on this, check out this recent article from the San Francisco Chronicle.

The one point Voxmoose failed to include is that the bottles from bottled water are filling up our landfills faster than you can say "Jimmy Page!" Not to mention that all that plastic requires energy and petroleum based products to make.

Food for thought.

Van Halen Roth Reunion A Go

Minutes ago, Van Halen announced they will reunite with David Lee Roth and hit the road in September, coming to Portland in early December. Will I go? That's a definite maybe.

Eddie's son Wolfgang is confirmed to be the bass player (if he could grow a beard he would look a bit like Michael Anthony). Roth spouted off that they will also record a new album and keep the band going, meaning it's not a one off reunion tour. Well, let's see if they can even make it to the Portland gig without imploding before we start talking about a new album!

Go here for the list of tour stops...

Heart of the Moment

Man what is the deal with the heart problems? First, Paul Stanley pulls out of a KISS gig due to his heart beating faster than a hummingbird and now this. John Wetton from ASIA and King Crimson had a routine medical checkup that disclosed adverse heart readings indicating advanced coronary disease, according to a press release the band issued this week.

Wetton now has to undertake an angiogram to determine whether the condition can be treated with drugs, or whether immediate open heart surgery is needed.

Needless to say, they cancelled the show I was supposed to see on the 21st. They hope to reschedule for 2008. Whatever – I just hope the guy comes out all right, even though he is kind of a pseudo hack.

Best to you, John Wetton. The rest of you aging rockers, take care of your tickers!

Barry Bonds 756 - I Was There

Yep I got lucky. My company had its annual Summer event last night and this year we decided on a Giants game at AT&T Park – the most beautiful baseball park in the league, hands down. Of course when our block of $18 left field bleacher seats was bought, no one had any idea the controversial Barry Bonds would be close to breaking Hank Aaron’s 30 year record for most career home runs hit.

It dawned on me last weekend when I was getting ready for the trip that we might actually be at THE game. I watched Monday’s game in my hotel praying he would NOT hit the thing out and he didn’t – he was cold on Monday.

But last night he wasn’t. Bonds’ first at bat was a double, followed by him scoring the first run of the game. Second at bat, a single. Third at bat, oh let’s see – home run number 756.

It was unreal. The place went mad, there were more fireworks than an outdoor KISS concert and the game stopped for 10 minutes while Hank Aaron’s pre-recorded congratulation played on the big screen, Bonds hugged his family and his godfather, Willie Mays, and thanked everyone including the fans and his late father.

Lots has been said about Bonds – and he is a total asshole. However, you can’t take away the fact that he has now hit more home runs that anyone else in the history of baseball. Many of those before his reported steroid use and quite a few since he’s been under the microscope, which includes testing for ‘performance enhancers.’ Tests in which he’s been clean.

Whatever the case, it was a piece of history last night and I was very lucky to be there. I will indeed remember it forever!

Geddy Lee Bass Player Interview

There is an interview with Geddy Lee at the Bass Player Magazine web site. It's pretty insightful, so I thought I'd post it here as well.

There are some good nuggets on how he and Alex Lifeson write songs together, how the band rehearses, and how they juggle all of the pre-recorded sounds they play to. Enjoy the read. It's good.

Photo by Andrew McNaughtan