Neil Young Book Review

I recently finished reading the Neil Young autobiography Waging Heavy Peace that came out last month. This was a great book and a quick read.
Best part is that I actually learned a few things about Neil that I didn't already know.
The book is written by Neil, no ghost writer or anything. The book doesn't follow a timeline at all, it's actually all over the place, which to me, kept things interesting. Neil definitely has a love for cars, he talks a lot about cars he has owned or previously owned.As well as the electic car he has been working on for years now. I could do without all the car talk, but nonetheless, it's a love of his and who is to argue. he also mentions his other loves, like model railroading, music, making music and of course the love of his kids and his wife Peggy.
I learned that the Crosby,Stills,Nash & Young track "Sea Of Madness" on the original Woodstock soundtrack wasn't actually a recording from the Woodstock Festival, it was recorded a few months after the festival at the Fillmore East. And the 2010 Neil Young album "Le Noise" was named after the man who produced the album Daniel Lanois.
I also learned that Neil Young as probably scrapped more complete albums then a lot of artists have recorded. Neil once was sued by his own record label for putting out albums that didn't sound like Neil Young music. Still didn't stop him from doing whatever the hell he wanted. Would love to hear some of these albums. Which will surely become available through Neil Young's Archives box sets that he has been working on.
Neil also brings up the new digital to analog conversion technology he calls "Pono" he has been pushing. It is a technology that is supposed to make digital recording sound like they first did when they recorded in the studio. Unlike mp3's nowadays that takes away from the actual original recording. Sounds interesting and I am looking forward to hearing this new Pono thing, to see if I notice a difference.
All and all a book well worth picking up.

Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler Live in Edmonton Oct.9th 2012

On Tuesday night my buddy Buzzard and I went to the Mark Knopfler and Bob Dylan concert at Rexall Plave here in Edmonton. This was my third time seeing Mark Knopfler in concert, once with his old band Dire Straits and twice solo and my tenth time seeing Bob Dylan in concert, and second time this year seeing Bob.

With Mark Knopfler opening the show, the crowd of 6000 were for the most part seated early. Knopfler is touring for his most recent album Privateering. So we were going to be sure to hear some new stuff on this night. Mark had an eight piece band backing him up that included, violin,keyboard,flute,whistles,stand up bass and such. I found his set to be celtic influenced, which would have gone over better in a soft seat venue or at a folk fest setting, at the Coliseum I was hoping for a more rocking set. Knopfler closed his 75 minute set with the only Dire Straits song of the evening with 'So Far Away'.

Here is something you will never hear or see at a Bob Dylan show, a sing-a-long. One reason being that a lot of people have no idea what the hell he is singing, and the other is that Dylan never plays or sings a song the same way twice nor does he play the same set twice. Bob has a new album out called Tempest that was just released this summer, I was hoping to hear maybe a few new songs, but nothing from the album was played on this night. Dylan opened the show with the song 'Watching The River Flow' in which you could understand him sing. Having seen Dylan so many times and being such a fan, I knew what to expect, which is the unexpected. Dylan did one song that I had no idea what it was. After checking his website, I now know that it was a Gordon Lightfoot song called 'Shadows'. Bob only played the guitar once during the show and that was for the song 'Tangled Up In Blue'. Dylan did stand for three songs in a row, playing the harmonica and singing in his raspy voice. The rest of the night saw Bob at the grand piano. Sometimes it takes half a song to figure out what it is that Bob is playing, but that's what makes a Dylan show so interesting. The stage was very dimly lit for him, which made it hard to take a decent picture, also there were to be no pictures taken at the show, and security were doing their best at enforcing it too.

The seats I had for the show sucked, so I decided I was going to try and get closer to the stage. That's when I ran into someone I know that works at the Coliseum, well he was nice enough to upgrade me to the players bench, which were damn good seats. For the last song of the night, which was 'Blowin' In The Wind' I went to the upper section and tried to get a few pictures from up there. All and all a good evening of music. And for those that walked out on the Dylan show complaining, well you obviously know very little about how Bob Dylan performs, he rocks to the beat of his own drum. Both bands did a 75 minute set. Good times!!!

Bob Dylan setlist for the Edmonton show.

Watching The River Flow
Love Minus Zero, No Limit
Things Have Changed
Tangled Up In Blue
John Brown
Mississippi
Summer Days
Nettie Moore
Highway 61 Revisited
Shadows
Thunder On The Mountain
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Like A Rolling Stone
All Along The Watchtower
Blowin' In The Wind

Hot Water Music / Gaslight Anthem and Rise Against Live in Edmonton Oct.7th 2012

Sunday night I went to the triple bill concert of Hot Water Music, Gaslight Anthem and Rise Against at the Expo Centre here in Edmonton. I have to say this has got to be the worst venue for a concert in the city. It's a cavernous echoing tin box warehouse, fuckin' awful sound unless you are somewhere in the middle of the audience up close to the stage. If your not, the sound is just a big muffle of noise bouncing around the place. And that was even with a decent turnout of around 2500-3000 people.

The main reason I went to this show was to see Hot Water Music and Gaslight Anthem as I know absolutely nothing about the band Rise Against, and they were the headliners. Not hard to tell why though, as it seemed seven out of every ten people in the crowd were sporting a Rise Against t-shirt or hoodie.

First band of the evening was Gainesville,Florida hardcore band Hot Water Music. This was my fourth time seeing the band play live. And again they were well worth coming out to the show for. Hot Water Music are touring for their first album in eight years called 'Exister'. And the show in Edmonton was the last date of the tour for this triple bill. I got fairly close to the stage for Hot Water Music as I knew the sound would be terrible anywhere else. The band opened with the song 'Remedy' from their album Caution. Another tune from the same album played was 'Trusty Chords', both singers Chuck Ragan and Chris Wollard were sounding good, I especially like Chuck's raspy vocals, but when both singers would sing together that sounded incredible as well. In their short 35 minute set they also did a few songs from their newest including 'Mainline' and 'Drown In It', I am sure there may have been a couple others. A great way to start the evening. I was hoping they would play my favorite Hot Water Music song 'Rooftops' from the 1999 album No Division, but to no avail.

Next up was the New Jersey band Gaslight Anthem. This was my fourth time seeing this band as well. I made sure to get myself as close to the stage as I could, because if I didn't I wasn't going to enjoy the show. In front of the stage the sound was tolerable. Brian Fallon and the boys opened with 'American Slang' then went into the song 'Howl' one of seven songs they did from their latest release Handwritten. While I like the new album, there new songs sounded better live as they felt more raw. The band seemed loose and were having a good time with lead singer Brian Fallon telling a few stories and doing an impression of Hot Water Music's lead singer Chuck Ragan if he were to be The Hulk, that got a big laugh from the audience. Gaslight Anthem had Chuck Ragan join them on stage for the song 'The '59 Sound', that was cool. Their set was only about 50 minutes long which was way too short. Yet again, I thought Gaslight Anthem kicked ass.

A few pictures of Chuck Ragan from Hot Water Music joining Gaslight Anthem on stage.

Gaslight Anthem setlist.

American Slang
Howl
The '59 Sound
45
Biloxi Parish
Here Comes My Man
Mulholland Drive
The Queen of Lower Chelsea
Old White Lincoln
Desire
Mae
Great Expectations

Headliners of the night was the punk rock band Rise Against from Chicago. As I said before, I knew nothing about the band. I had enough of being in the midst of the masses, so I was on the outside of the big crowd that had gathered in front of the stage for Rise Against. Because I didn't know their music at all and being away from the stage the sound was god awful. I couldn't understand a thing and the music just sounded like a wall of sludge. For those that knew the music and liked the band, they were going over well. The crowd was in to it big time, singing along and moshing and carrying on. The band was energetic and had video screens behind them showing all kinds of activist videos. From what I could tell they are a very political band. I left about half way through their set as I couldn't take anymore of the shitty sound.

Rise Against setlist.

Survivor Guilt
Ready to Fall
Collapse (Post-Amerika)
The Good Left Undone
Broken English
Help Is on the Way
Drones
Disparity by Design
Re-Education (Through Labor)
Blood to Bleed
Satellite
Wait for Me
Prayer of the Refugee

Encore:
Swing Life Away
For Fiona

Encore 2:
Make It Stop (September's Children)
Strong Reaction
Give It All

Encore 3:
Broken Mirrors
The Strength to Go On
Savior

I will never understand why they book bands in this shitty venue,it surely isn't made to be a concert venue that's for sure. I will be avoiding this venue at all costs. Edmonton needs a decent mid size concert venue in a bad way. All and all a good night of music. Good times!!!

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Freddie Mercury Book Review

I recently finished reading the book Freddie Mercury The Definitive Biography written by rock journalist Lesley-Ann Jones. The book came out in 2011. Not knowing much about Freddie Mercury but hvaing always enjoyed the music of Queen,whom he was the lead singer for, I figured this would be an interesting read. And, I was right.

The author did a lot of research and interviewed pretty much everyone that anything to do with Freddie and the band. Like all biographies the book follows him from his early years in India to moving to London and the highs and lows that Queen went through.

Sounds like Freddie mecury lived his life to the hilt, music wise, drugs and sexually. Freddie never did come out and say he was gay, although pretty much everyone figured he was anyways. Freddie's quote of "I'm not going to be a star,I'm going to be a legend" did come true, because when he was on, there were few vocalists that could match his range and enthusiastic energy.

The Queen comeback show in London for the Live Aid 1985 concert was a big turn around for the band as they were losing popularity in North America. But their performance at Live Aid may be one of the greatest live 25 minutes ever caught on film.



Sadly the music world lost Freddie Mercury to AIDS in 1991.

I found the book to be a very interesting read and would recommend it.

How I wish I could have had the chance to see Queen play live.

Rush Live In Edmonton Sept.30th 2012

On Sunday night my buddies Hurl, Buzzard and I went to see the legendary Canadian nerd prog-rockers Rush play in Edmonton at Rexall Place. This was my fourth time seeing Rush perform live in concert. Rush are on tour for their excellent 19th studio album Clockwork Angels.

Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart played a two set three hour show to a crowd of 12,000 people. The first set of the night was made up mostly of songs from their 80's era catalog. Opening with 'Subdivisions' from their 1982 album Signals, also from that album was the song 'The Analog Kid'. The 1985 album Power Windows was covered extensively, with Rush playing 'The Big Money', 'Grand Designs', 'Middletown Dreams' and 'Territories'. One of the songs that they played in which I have always really liked was 'The Pass' from their 1989 album Presto. The only two songs they played that weren't from the 80's was 'Where's My Thing' from the 1991 album Roll The Bones and closing out the first set with 'Far Cry' from the 2007 album Snakes & Arrows. Geddy Lee and the boys were sounding good with Geddy playing both keyboards and bass and even jumping around bit, which surprised me considering some of the comments Geddy has made recently about touring saying how much energy it takes out of him to tour nowadays. Maybe because this was the last concert date for 10 days he had a little more energy then usual. I thought the drums were lost in the mix a bit at the start of the show, but that could have just been because of where I was sitting.

The second set of the evening started with Rush coming out on stage with an eight piece string section. Geddy Lee had said it was the first time in their career that they had performed with someone else other then him Alex and Neil. Rush opened with 'Caravan' from their latest release Clockwork Angels and proceeded wit the next eight songs all from the same album. My favorite song from the album 'Headlong Flight' was also played, and is one of their heaviest songs in a long time, that song kicked my ass. It's not often a band can come out and play almost their whole new album and still have the fans in the palm of their hands. Usually that's a good time to do a beer run, but not with Rush, the fans were loving the new stuff.

Of course the crowd went wild when they went into the song 'Tom Sawyer', probably their best known song and most played radio hit. Rush ended the show with three parts from the 2112 album, ending with 'Grand Finale' of course. This was an amazing show from start to finish.

Something else I noticed at the show was how busy the merchandise booths were through out the night. Constantly a line up and not a small one either, huge line ups at all the merch booths.

All and all a fun night. Good times!!!

Rush setlist for the Edmonton show.

Set One
1.Subdivisions
2.The Big Money
3.Force Ten
4.Grand Designs
5.Middletown Dreams
6.Territories
7.The Analog Kid
8.The Pass
9.Where's My Thing?
10.Far Cry

Set Two, with string section
11.Caravan
12.Clockwork Angels
13.The Anarchist
14.Carnies
15.The Wreckers
16.Headlong Flight
17.Halo Effect
18.Wish Them Well
19.The Garden
20.Dreamline
21.Drum Solo
22.Red Sector A
23.YYZ
24.The Spirit of Radio
Encore:
25.Tom Sawyer
26.2112 Part I: Overture
27.2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx
28.2112 Part VII: Grand Finale

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