The Z Files

I didn’t quite know what to expect going into last night’s Epica show. I had never been to Funhaus before, and I thought that 6:30 was pretty early to open the doors for a metal show. The venue itself is a hole. I played many better stages with Lurid. This particular one’s low ceiling reminded me of a bar in Lackawanna that I played a couple times. There was no security to speak of once inside, and I was right against the stage. I spent half the show leaning against the stage-right floor monitor.

There was a local opener, Apparatus. They didn’t bring much of anything new to the table and their music had a mainstream vibe not unlike Evanescence or Lacuna Coil. (Not that that’s a bad thing, just not really my thing.) They were still enjoyable, and I plan to check them out further.

The touring support band, Visions of Atlantis, followed. Hailing from Austria, with the exception of American vocalist Melissa Ferlaak, they’re stylistically closer to Epica’s brand of symphonic metal. Their music isn’t as aggressive and they use male clean vocals equally with the female vocals. I hadn’t heard them before this show, but I plan to pick up some of their stuff.

Epica didn’t disappoint. I just wish they would have put more emphasis on the new material. They played as many songs from their first album, The Phantom Agony, as from The Divine Conspiracy. I really would have liked to hear any of the new songs in the “Embrace that Smothers” series, especially “Fools of Damnation.” That said, the songs from TDC that they did play were excellent. My biggest hope was that they wouldn’t play the title track, as it’s way too long and gets boring. At least that hope was realized. Their performance was excellent, maybe better than when I saw them last year in Cleveland.

This show was a great rebound from the disappointing Kamelot show a few weeks ago, and was one of the best small-club shows I’ve been to. It’s always nice when the headliners impress and I get turned on to a couple other good bands on top of it!

Photos at Flickr, setlist after the jump…

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I often use my iPod at work to break up the monotony. Imagine my disbelief when I pulled my prized bit of shiny Cupertino gadgetry from my backpack last night and discovered that it wouldn’t start up. I wrote it off to an accidental bump in the backpack that started it playing and ran the batteries out, so I went down to the gallery’s restaurant and borrowed their iPod charger. I plugged the iPod in and it wouldn’t get past an illuminated Apple logo. Putting it to my ear, I heard the hard drive clicking. (That’s usually a bad sign.) At that point, I was thanking my lucky stars that I bought AppleCare for it, as the standard warranty expired several months ago.

This afternoon, I scheduled a Genius Bar appointment for tomorrow. As a last resort before taking it in, I decided to hook it up to the computer again and try to run utilities on it. Interestingly enough, Disk Utility reported the drive to be OK. Sure enough, I unmounted the iPod and gave it a quick test, which it passed with flying colors.

Only at that point did I breathe a sigh of relief and cancel my slot at the Genius Bar.

I headed for Toronto this afternoon with high expectations. I really enjoyed the Kamelot show in Cleveland last year and had similar expectations for this show, even with the new album being a little on the disappointing side. Unfortunately, this show would turn out to be the antidote for that awesome DT show on Monday.

I arrived about an hour before doors and got a decent, if not great, spot in line. Once they opened the doors, I made a bee-line for the stage and got a spot in the second ‘row,’ toward the center on stage right. There was a (local, I assume) opening band that I won’t even name, they were that bad.

I was looking forward to seeing Leaves’ Eyes. I’ve only been a LE fan for maybe four months, so to get to see them live so early on is a treat. Before the lights went down, though, I felt the disappointment coming on: they use a ‘quiet’ stage setup, with guitars and bass run direct into the PA (no amps) and electronic drums, so the only things left to produce noise on the stage were the vocalists and the cymbals, which were amazingly left without microphones. I figured the sound would be horrible, and it was. Even worse was the prerecorded backing track that they used, which contained all the synth/string/piano parts and backing vocals (and who knows what else, since there were no stage amps to ’speak the truth’). They’d do well to scrap one of the guitarists (they play the same thing 98% of the time anyway) and replace him with a keyboardist. I’m really not a fan of backing tracks. Triggering occasional samples is one thing, but the full-length tracks are just too much. That said, the performance was enjoyable, but the sound and the stupid backing spoiled it to an extent.

I was hoping things would get better for Kamelot, but they suffered from bad sound as well. Their set list was decent (although they left out “The Fourth Legacy,” which I was really hoping for) and the performance was just as good as the Cleveland show last year. A really nice surprise was the guest appearance of Simone Simons of Epica during “The Haunting.” It was also really great to hear “Memento Mori.” I love when the power metal bands play their more progressive stuff. Still, I had a hard time enjoying their set for reasons having nothing to do with the band.

The big downer on this show was the crowd. Things got crazy from Leaves’ Eyes’s first song. I’ve never had to fight so hard to defend a spot on the floor (and I’ve had spots at least as good as that on many occasions). By the time Kamelot came on, my back was sore, I was sweating like a pig and feeling dehydrated, and I was totally drained. I love to really get into the shows, with the fist-pumping and shouting and all that, but it felt rather like a chore to throw the horns up during Kamelot. Finally, after “Memento Mori,” I bailed and went to the back where it was cooler and I had space to lean up against a wall and not get blasted by some stray mosher. (The sound was bad back there too!) Basically, this was a good show despite the sound, but the crap with the crowd pretty much ruined the night. Finally, to add insult to injury, I got a parking ticket for some stupid thing about not having a permit or something. The cop had just finished it up when I turned the corner onto the street where I had parked. I would have beaten it if I had left early, which I had considered doing.

Lessons learned:

• Choose carefully the shows that I go for the prime spot on the rail…going for a prime spot at the front of a raised area farther back is looking like a more attractive option.
• Be careful about the parking when I go back up there to see After Forever in October.

Setlists after the jump.

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On Monday, Dream Theater came to Buffalo for the first time in 13 years. After that show, I think it’s safe to say that the wait for their next show here will be much shorter. Bringing along Redemption and Into Eternity, they packed the UB Center for the Arts to the gills. It was certainly a night to remember.

Into Eternity opened with a furious set of “extreme progressive death metal,” as they call it, which didn’t go over all that well. I saw IE a couple years ago when they opened for Opeth and Nevermore at Showplace, and that was more their type of crowd. There were a lot of older proggers there who probably couldn’t wrap themselves around IE’s crazy vocals. Redemption drew a better reaction. A highlight of their set came just before their final song, when the bassist announced that it was vocalist Ray Alder’s birthday, and Mike Portnoy came out with a cake and promptly smashed it into Ray’s face.

Finally, the moment all had been waiting for: the traffic light above the stage changed to green and the guys slammed into “Constant Motion.” I had intentionally avoided spoilers about this tour, and it was a good thing because they haven’t been changing the set lists so much on this tour. I was really pleased with the set list, though. The new version of “Surrounded” was great, especially when Jordan Rudess pulled out his new keytar and came to the front to take a solo. “Blind Faith” was another highlight, as the Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence album is a very sentimental one for me. In the spirit of “Octavarium,” there was a new cartoon on the video screen during the instrumental section of “The Dark Eternal Night.” I really hope they put it on the next DVD, as they did with the “Octavarium” animation. Finally, “In the Presence of Enemies” was just amazing. I get goosebumps just thinking of it. My only wish is that they would have played “The Ministry of Lost Souls,” which is probably my favorite of the new songs. I’m guessing that they’re saving that for the next North American leg of the tour, in the spring.

I don’t know if I can say that this was better than the Cleveland show last year, but it was definitely no worse, and even better that it was right in my backyard for once! That spring tour can’t come around fast enough.

Setlist after the jump…

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So I’ve been riding a post-Moestock emotional roller coaster (on one hand, I have newfound confidence and motivation, but on the other, I’m sad that it’s gonna be another year before I see all my buds) but suddenly WHAM!!! it hit a wall when my external hard drive didn’t show up on my desktop. There’s a lot of stuff on there that isn’t normally on my laptop (my audio and video projects, for one) and, to make matters worse, I had dumped pretty much everything non-essential from my laptop when I lent it to my dad to take on his Mexico vacation (had to make room for what turned out to be something like 12 GB of photos…!!). All that I left behind was my Applications folder and my iTunes library.

Faced with a data disaster of the highest order, I fired up trusty ol’ Disk Utility to see if there was anything that could be done. It rattled off a list of something like 6 things wrong with the disk, but totally failed to repair anything. At this point, my stress level hit a point somewhere between “the sky is falling” and “oh noes, it’s the end of the world!!!!” Knowing that I could really not afford to lose all that data and all those photos and projects, I bit the bullet and bought DiskWarrior. Within 5 minutes, I was out $100 but I had a good shot at recovering my disk. I clenched my teeth as I watched DiskWarrior’s progress bars inch forward. Soon enough, a report flashed onto the screen detailing several issues that DW found and repaired. A quick glance at the rebuilt directory showed all my files just as they were. Two clicks and another minute later, and everything was well again.

Count me into the ‘religious backups’ crowd, starting about 20 minutes ago.

Unfortunately, it’s all business and very little pleasure. I’m typing this from Albany, where I’m doing secondary testing tomorrow for a NY Corrections position. Assuming I continue to advance, I’ll be making this trip a few more times before I get hired. The good news is that…well, I love my car. The Cali went through its first long-distance drive with ease. I’m projecting that I’ll be pretty close to the 30 mpg EPA estimate, despite the engine being far short of fully broken-in at only 400-something miles going into today. One thing that a lot of people complain about with the Caliber is excessive road noise. I’d have to disagree. At 75 mph, the cabin noise level, while not quiet, is low enough to carry on a quiet conversation. (I tried…yes, I was talking to myself. ) It was definitely no louder than the Saturn and the Tracer.

So…so far, so good.

What better way to celebrate Independence Day than with Canada’s great prog-rockers? That’s what I did tonight, at Darien Lake. I certainly wasn’t disappointed.

Knowing how little Rush’s set list changes within a tour, I made it a point to not peek at the list, which is widely available on Rush fan sites. I like the feeling of not knowing what song is next. This tour’s set is a really good one, and it kept me very happy. It was, as expected, heavy on material from the new Snakes & Arrows album, all of which sounded excellent. Highlights included “Far Cry,” “Workin’ Them Angels” and “The Main Monkey Business,” although I wish they would have swapped “Spindrift” or “TWtWB” for “Bravest Face.” The emphasis on Permanent Waves material (the set includes four of the album’s six songs) was very welcome, as PW is definitely my favorite Rush album. “Entre Nous” was a nice surprise and “Natural Science” was just awesome. Neil’s drum solo was truly captivating. It began like any other drum solo, until his drum platform spun around and he switched to an electronic kit on the other side. After doing some interesting things with that, he switched back to the normal kit and played along with a swing/big-band track that was synched to a very appropriate video. Finally, the band made its first set-list change by removing “Summertime Blues” in favor of “Distant Early Warning.” A very good move, in my opinion.

The production itself was very good. The sound left a bit to be desired, but I’ve never heard great sound at Darien Lake. Use of video projections was good. There were entertaining intro videos to “The Bigger Bowl” and “Tom Sawyer,” and some of the videos used to accompany songs were excellent. All in all, it was a top-notch show.

Setlist after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

The genesis of this one came when I was broken down in Wisconsin after Moestock last year. After much thought and not as much haggling, I brought my new Dodge Caliber home on Thursday. I’m still excited, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. It rides beautifully, looks awesome, and sounds absolutely killer with the premium sound system. I’ve rediscovered my love for driving. Suddenly I have the urge to take a road trip. I have a bunch of Toronto trips coming up, along with a Cleveland trip, but those don’t really count. I’d love to do a big trip like I did last summer…the Cali is just that awesome. Anyway, here are a couple pics…much more in the way of pics and maybe even a video will be coming in the next several days.

A few weeks back, I took advantage of a sweet financing deal at Guitar Center to bag a pair of KRK RP5 studio monitors. Not only are they really nice for production work, but they’ve become my de facto computer speakers as well. I’d have a hard time going back to normal computer speakers.

My latest toy arrived on Friday: a DigiTech GSP2101 preamp/effects processor. I had been lusting after the 2101 for quite a while, and finally went for it when a guy on cyberjammin put his up for sale. It’s a nice preamp for recording, as it has a good hardware-based speaker simulator and decent tube distortion, which sounds really good when properly EQ’ed. I bought this unit for two reasons: 1. late-night playing isn’t exactly feasible with the Recto, unlike the 2101; and 2. to thicken up my recordings in conjunction with the Recto. Hopefully, I’ll have some 2101 recordings up soon.

Of course, gear begets gear, and now I find myself looking at FireWire audio interfaces because my rig is starting to outgrow my Tascam US-122. I probably won’t act on that immediately, though.

I took the drive up to Toronto’s historic Massey Hall last Thursday to see the latest incarnation of the venerable G3 tour. This tour’s lineup featured Paul Gilbert (Racer X, Mr. Big), John Petrucci (Dream Theater) and Joe Satriani. I was disappointed that Steve Vai wasn’t on board, as it’s very rare to see a G3 tour without him. I was excited to see Gilbert and Petrucci but, as much as I like Satriani, I’d rather see Vai.

Paul Gilbert was the first one up. He had the biggest band of the night, a five-piece complete with old Racer X pal Bruce Bouillet on guitar. I was mostly unfamiliar with Gilbert’s work going into the show, but my expectations were high. I really enjoyed his set. The song selection spanned his entire career, touching on Racer X and Mr. Big material as well as cuts from his solo albums. The musicianship was top notch on all fronts, and the songs and stage performance displayed the humor and irreverence that I had expected. I definitely plan to start building a Gilbert collection after seeing his G3 set.

John Petrucci’s set was enjoyable but predictable. He stuck to material from his solo album, Suspended Animation, playing six of the disc’s eight cuts. The band, once again featuring Dave LaRue on bass and Mike Portnoy on drums, was flawless. I actually spent as much time watching Mike as I did John. (Completely irrelevant to the performance: it seems like Petrucci beefs up a bit more every time I see him. His arms are like tree trunks. He could probably snap Satriani or Gilbert in half.) I think Petrucci would do well to bring a second guitarist out on his solo shows, as his songs have so many different layered guitar parts that it feels like there’s a lot missing when they’re performed in a trio context.

Satriani was my least favorite of the three. My big knock on Satriani’s live show is that he sticks to a very small pool of material. His set lists are way too predictable, especially when considering how much great work spanning his whole career never makes it into the set. I also wish that he’d either do away with rhythm guitarist Galen Henson or give him a bigger role. Both times I’ve seen Satriani, Henson has been completely buried in the mix. One actually has to strain to hear him. Joe should swallow a little bit of his ego and bring Galen up in the mix and let him get a little more into the action.

Satriani closed with “Always With Me, Always With You” and dragged out the outro, at which point he was joined by Petrucci and Gilbert. Both took solos before Satriani ended the song. From there, they went into the G3 jam, featuring Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” and “Purple Haze,” followed by “Going Down” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” The jam was great, even though the songs aren’t exactly my favorite style.

Overall, it was a good show. It doesn’t quite rank among my favorites, but it was still very enjoyable and well worth the price of admission.