Rush Nuggets

Happy Halloween, folks.

Rush's 2007 tour wrapped up in Helinski, Finland (no relation to Isorski, blogger). In interviews and posts, the band and crew have suggested the band will be back on the road in 2008 in North and South America.

Anyone checking out Ross Halfin's diary noted that in sound checks the band has been pulling out some really old nuggets like Beneath, Between & Behind, La Villa Strangiato, Cinderella Man, The Analog Kid and Here Again (wow, WHAT?). Maybe those are some of the tunes we'll get next year.

For the tour so far, here are some interesting stats (from rushisaband.com). Note that the Auburn show I attended had the third highest attendance so far. Note to band: that means come back in 2008!

Attendance

Average Attendance: 10,633
Average Capacity: 15,052

TOP 5

1) Tinley Park, IL (Sep 8) - 16,613
2) Los Angeles, CA (Jul 23) - 14,696
3) Auburn, WA (Jul 20) - 13,689
4) Tampa Bay, FL (Jun 16) - 13,434
5) Dallas, TX (Aug 11) - 13,366

BOTTOM 5

1) Quebec City, QC (Sep 14) - 6,604
2) Darien Center, NY (Jul 4) - 7,624
3) Uncasville, CT (Jul 9) - 7,793
4) Raleigh, NC (Jun 20) - 8,085
5) Bonner Springs, KS (Aug 23) - 8,104

Note: although the Uncasville show was the 2nd least attended show, it was still sold out.

Percentage Capacity

Average Percentage Capacity: 70.64%

TOP 5

1) Morisson, CO (Aug 8) - 100% (SOLD OUT)
2) Uncasville, CT (Jul 9) - 100% (SOLD OUT)
3) New York, NY (Sep 17) - 97.2%
4) Montreal, QC (Sep 15) - 97.18%
5) London, ON (Sep 12) - 96.33%

BOTTOM 5

1) Darien Center, NY (Jul 4) - 34.97%
2) Pittsburgh, PA (Jun 25) - 40.13%
3) Raleigh, NC (Jun 20) - 40.35%
4) Virginia Beach, VA (Jun 22) - 42.72%
5) Saratoga Springs, NY (Jun 30) - 42.98%

Gross Ticket Sales

Average Gross Sales: $589,333

TOP 5

1) Los Angeles, CA (Jul 23) - $1,074,586
2) New York, NY (Sep 17) - $1,022,675
3) Montreal, QC (Sep 15) - $967,692
4) Las Vegas, NV (Jul 28) - $922,675
5) Wantagh, NY (Jul 2) - $860,671

BOTTOM 5

1) Raleigh, NC (Jun 20) - $348592
2) Virginia Beach, VA (Jun 22) - $378,512
3) Pittsburgh, PA (Jun 25) - $380,157
4) Scranton, PA (Jun 29) - $405,990
5) Bonner Springs, KS (Aug 23) - $406,416

Average Ticket Price

Average Ticket Price: $55.47

TOP 5

1) Las Vegas, NV (Jul 28) - $92.25
2) New York, NY (Sep 17) - $86.77
3) Montreal, QC (Sep 15) - $82.98
4) Morisson, CO (Aug 8) - $77.06
5) Quebec City, QC (Sep 14) - $74.15

BOTTOM 5

1) Phoenix, AZ (Jul 27) - $39.57
2) Maryland Hts, MO (Aug 24) - $40.44
3) Pittsburgh, PA (Jun 25) - $41.07
4) Milwaukee, WI (Sep 6) - $42.66
5) Cuyahoga Falls, OH (Aug 30) - $42.710

Stanley and Simmons Sink to New Lows

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

DON'T YOU GUYS HAVE ENOUGH MONEY YET? Ugh.

Shameless Self Promotion

Two weeks ago my band, colorfield, played at Portland's Wonder Ballroom in a benefit called Rock for Rett. More info on that here.

But here are some videos I posted from the show. I am the guitar player on the left (not the one with the hearty blonde hair, sadly!).

New Link Posted - Ross Halfin Diary

Ross Halfin is a world-renown photographer. From Wikipedia:

Ross Halfin (b. 1958) is one of the world's top English music and travel photographers. Having shot bands such as Led Zeppelin, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses, KISS, Metallica, The Who, Rob Zombie, ZZ Top and many others, Halfin's images are widely published in magazines, newspapers and books.

Halfin began his career as a freelance photographer for Sounds Magazine in the 1970s, where he befriended upcoming Heavy Metal acts like Def Leppard and Iron Maiden, who he would go on to photograph extensively. Halfin continued his career shooting for many years for UK rock magazine Kerrang! and other high-profile UK magazines such as Q, Classic Rock and many others around the world.

He is also funny as all hell, and thankfully keeps a Web diary of all of his photo shoots and happenings month to month and day to day. It's a great read and I am still poring over previous months and years of posts in all my free time (ha). Check it out for yourselves but here are some nuggets:

October 20 post - Speaking of bass players, spoke to Andy Curran, ex-bassist of Coney Hatch and AR type person for Rush's management. I may go to Italy next week to taste the honeydew and drink the milk of paradise.

October 2 post - Spent nearly the whole of today shooting Jimmy Page for various things - magazines and beauty products. Felt quite exhausted at the end. But what I find more exhausting are the wankers who keep emailing me wanting Led Zeppelin information. Prime example is the arsehole who goes by the name Hurtin Kind. It will be a pleasure if I ever meet him to hurt him and I wouldn't be kind...

August 21 post - Went to see The Rolling Stones with my mates Wilf Wright and Barry Drinkwater at the O2 Arena. I wasn't really in the mood for rock and roll, which was a good thing as they were as far removed from rock and roll as possible. They were dire - words fail me... Mick Jagger tried hard and worked the stage but the sound was terrible, the lights production were a cross between an MTV video and a Las Vegas revue. There was no camaraderie on stage, it was lifeless. A bit like an old folks fashion show - there seemed to be more costume changes than in a Madonna concert... The best song was James Brown's I'll Go Crazy, they butchered their own songs. It reminded me of a pub singalong on New Years Eve, dreadful. And the crowd was like being stuck with 22,000 bank managers on a night out. It was fucking awful.

October 10 post - During the intermission [Rush show] I hear what sounds like chanting. I look round to find Paul "Gooner" Elliott falling drown drunk singing to himself standing next to an embarrassed Dave Everley (Q Magazine features editor) with a "help me" look on on his face. As I try to talk to Dave, Paul interrupts slurring the words to The Trees. All around there is a smell of Guinness and whiskey pervading the air. 'Top of the morning,' slurs a voice - it's Paul Brannigan. 'I'm having a night off.' Off what, I wonder. 'Me and Paul have come to see Machine Head.' By now both his eyeballs are going in different directions, a bit like a slot machine. Paul's face is also bright red. 'Do you like Rush?' I ask. Paul looks baffled. 'Who...?' I go and shoot the second half of the show. Lots of pyro and the highlight for me is looking up at the stands during Spirit Of The Radio seeing Paul Elliott playing air guitar with Paul Brannigan passed out next to him, and a forlorn Dave Everley telling Paul to sit down. The one thing people seem to miss about Rush is that they are a good rock band. They are always good. Not some form of art rock. I came home at midnight and played 2112...

There are YEARS of posts. I placed the link in my 'links' section on this blog. Bookmark and enjoy...

Van Halen Train Wreck

Ouch.

Ouch ouch ouch ouch.

You music techie guys out there, you ever wonder what would happen if the recorded keyboards in Jump play at a 48k bitrate instead of 44.1k and the band tries to play along on their regularly-tuned axes? Well, here t'is!

Poor Eddie tries to adjust but they are all clueless as to why things sound so...off. Someone got a new ass torn backstage I imagine! Thanks to Nedmusic for passing on this horrible train wreck. Very amusing.

Black Hole WHAT?

Easy Allen forwarded this site for a wine bar in San Francisco. Make sure your speakers are on and listen to the first song that pops up, as performed by Lonesome Hank and his Lonely Boys. Claaaasic!

Zeppelin Catalog on iTunes in November

Led Zeppelin, one of the last holdouts over making its music digitally available, will soon have its full catalog available on iTunes and other online music sites, according to this Reuters story. Next up, The Beatles and Radiohead?

On a related note, I was not one of the 10,000 who got accepted to buy tickets to the reunion show. More than a million people applied to be in the running, and I guess the odds weren't that good. Not like I could have dropped everything and GONE to the show in London, but it would have been nice to have the option, no? Ha ha!

Vader Blows The Harp

Thanks to VoxMoose for this little ditty.

And of course, to video editing software!

Enjoy.

Radiohead's Bold Experiment

Radiohead's new album, In Rainbows, is available today online only, for - well, however much you want to pay for it. If you have a boatload of dough, pay what you think a CD is worth. If you are bit strapped, pay a buck, or nothing at all.

Radiohead, currently without a label, decided to try this new idea to further break away from the big machine of the recording industry. Go here for more details.

Industry reaction is mixed. Some think it's a bold new experiment that helps wrestle control from the labels and puts it into the hands of the people. Others lament the move as something that will further siphon foot traffic from already-struggling music stores.

It will be interesting to see what happens. Radiohead can probably afford to try this and not make any money at all. They'll make it up in mechandise sales, live performances, licensing etc. Less established artists are probably less likely to see money from a scheme like this.

It reminds me of a few years ago when Stephen King rocked the publishing world be announcing he'd start selling chapters of a new book online for a buck a pop. If people paid for it, he'd keep releasing chapters. If people ripped him off, he's stop writing the book. Interesting notion. If I remember, people didn't pay, and he stopped writing the book!

But there is a difference between people wanting to read a book chapter by chapter on a computer, (or worse yet printing all those pages themselves), and downloading music you can take with you anywhere. That's why iTunes is raging success and e-books are still a pipe dream.

Anyway, it'll be interesting to see what happens with the Radiohead experiment and who follows this model, or changes it somehow. Once again, the music industry is at a loss to adjust to the times and Radiohead's move today is another intresting reaction to it.

New Blog Link - Layla's Classic Rock Faves

Isorski's Musings blog reader Layla runs a number of blogs. I am adding one to my list of links that complements my blog very well, called Layla's Classic Rock Faves.

Poke around and see what you see. A recent cool one is from late Sept - who are the five best voices in rock and roll? Post your list, people! I plan on doing so after I give it some deep thought...

Book Review: Bob Dylan - The Essential Interviews

I have been making my way through Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews and I have to recommend it as a crucial piece of reading for anyone interested in the written word and the history of modern music.

Adjectives that come to mind when reading this guys' interviews include: Insightful. Modest. Brilliant. Genius Wordsmith. But also removed and disconnected at times.

The interviews span from his very first in the early 60s, when he was really creating his image, all the way to the present, where he's in the middle of a resurgent body of work.

For a guy who has the reputation of being a guarded recluse, he provides frequent glimpses into what makes him tick and to why he did certain things in his life. He is consistent over the years in not calling his career a "career." Rather, he says it's a path he chose - to be a songwriter, when it was not fashionable to be one. To interpret his words, it sounds like he got super successful early on and then just sort of kept going.

He's frank about the times where he lost focus, including the seven year stretch in the early 90s where he didn't write any new songs. I love his comment that "The world doesn't need any more songs."

Dylan says in a few interviews how he can't do certain songs anymore because he can't get into the headspace necessary from when they were written. But then he'll take other old songs and change lines, melodies, structure, feel and just re-invent them onstage. He never listens back to his records because he feels like they are just snapshots of the songs at that time. A song is never static. It is always up for reinterpretation on every level, and that includes changing it so that is not recognizable to the recorded version.

Also fascinating is his observation that he never was any good at recording in the studio until recently and most of his 60s and 70s albums were put together quickly so he could get the 'song sketches' down and get on the road. Funny to hear him talk about songs like "Idiot Wind," "Isis" and "Hurricane" as 'sketches.'

But he also acknowledges the brilliance in some of his songs, saying that when he looks back on some of them he has no idea where they came from and is often a bit blown away. You get the sense that he is really a conduit, tapping into something that normal people can't access.

All the hackneyed stereotypes about Dylan come through in these interviews, too. He's aloof, answers questions with questions, is often evasive, etc.

But I also got the sense that the guy is sort of a nomad. A wanderer, observer and storyteller who has an immense gift. I get the sense that Dylan is really from another era. Like 100 years ago or more.

It's also fascinating to read interviews that span a 45 year period. You get a feel for his evolution as an artist and human being, just by looking at what interests him over the years and his take on our life and times.

Having said this, I am still acquiring a 'taste' for Dylan. I still often prefer other people's covers of his music over the originals. But I also smack myself in the face every time I hear a new (to me) Dylan album because if I could write just ONE song as potent and brilliant as this guy, I could stop trying.

I once got an inspirational email that said "write for the garbage can." Meaning, you need to get through all of your bad writing to finally break through and write something good. So just get started and get all of the garbage out of the way so you can crack through to the good stuff.

I feel like Dylan never wrote for the garbage can, or if he did, he did it in the womb.

Van Halen Reunion Set List

Just do a Google on "Van Halen" and "Charlotte" and you'll get a smattering of mostly glowing reviews of the kick off night of Van Halen's reunion tour with Roth.

I kind of want to see this tour. I'm just held back by what assholes these guys are!

But sheeeeit, dig this crazy assed set list. On paper, this looks so good. If I can get a last minute cheap ticket, I will probably go.

1. You Really Got Me
2. I'm the One
3. Runnin' With the Devil
4. Romeo Delight
5. Somebody Get Me a Doctor
6. Beautiful Girls
7. Dance the Night Away
8. Atomic Punk
9. Everybody Wants Some
10. So This Is Love?
11. Mean Street
12. Pretty Woman
13. Drum Solo
14. Unchained
15. I'll Wait
16. And the Cradle Will Rock
17. Hot for Teacher
18. Little Dreamer
19. Little Guitars
20. Jamie's Cryin'
21. Ice Cream Man
22. Panama
23. Guitar Solo (incl. "Women in Love" intro, "Cathedral", "Eruption")
24. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love

encore:
25. 1984
26. Jump

Zeppelin Reunion - No Tour?

Looks like the Led Zeppelin reunion gig will be a one-off, with no follow up tour. If you believe Robert Plant.

Last week, Plant cited his age and basic unwillingness to go on the road, saying "There'll be one show and that'll be it. We need to do one last great show because we've done some shows and they've been crap." He's got that right!

Plant may even be edging towards retirement: "I know I'm getting on. When I do come back from touring, I'm shocked to find a lot of my mates tend to be going to bed far too early, and that means I should probably be doing the same. Maybe I should stop having a good time and get old."

Then again, Plant denied the one off reunion for months, so who knows?

More from MTV.com.