Where normal ceases to exist

There's time when you have to do something by doing nothing at all.

True American Hero


Picture is from http://www.politicocomic.com

posted by Greg @ 4:45 PM 0 comments

I need help....

Well not exactly me, but my brother and his wife had their first kid, Gavin. And before leaving the hospital, I was told one of the test he given was a hearing test...the result of which was him failing it. Please keep my nephew in your thoughts in hopes that the test was just fluke and he comes out fine with the full scare of his hearing.

Thanks.

posted by Greg @ 10:29 PM 0 comments

Foo Fighters.....Council Bluffs 2-28-08!

When I seen that Foo Fighters were going to be in the area, but more important closer than Minneapolis...I had to make it to the concert.

I haven't been to one of their concerts before because I was just tired of radio over play of their music, to not being old enough to be trusted to drive myself, or else had to work. They were coming to Council Bluffs, and they brought with them Serj Tankian, and Against Me.
When I got into the Mid-America Center, Against Me was already playing, and I really didn't go to my seat until just after they ended their set.

I sat and waited for them to setup for Serj Tankian. Soon the lights dim and Serj starts up. The backing band (Flying C*nts of Chaos, FCC) are in black suits with black top hats, and Serj is in a white suit and a top hat. He did a good show, and played I think just about all the songs off of his solo album. The only thing is the crowd who weren't on the floor seemed apathic of sorts. While people my section were cheering along with me, the seats just didn't stand up at all for his part of the show. At the end his set, the drummer suddenly just shoved his drum kit off of the platform, and with the help of Serj pulling what didn't fall off. They proceeded to acknowledge the crowd, the drummer threw one of his drum sticks into the area where I was sitting bouncing off the people in the seats next to the aisle before someone picked it up.

The lights come up and they tear down the stuff from Serj Tankian. The equipment for Foo Fighters that still needs step is finished up, and guitars equipment are sound checked. I was very close to cheering for the guitar tech for the lead guitars, but decided not too.

As the lights dimmed, the crowd erupted and everyone started to stand up. Everyone including the touring members came out. Chris started off with the playing the lead for "Let It Die", and the crowd started clapping with a little help from Dave, until he started playing. Once they hit the bridge of the song everyone was jumping around and singing along. They then went right into "The Pretender" where when it came to the chorus Dave had the crowd sing with him. Rami Jaffee, Pat Smear, Drew Hester, and Jessy Greene leave the stage as they go into older songs.

From there they went immediately into "Times Like These", where during the interlude Dave runs down the catwalk they have that goes to the area for the acoustic stage and just looking to one side of the crowd and then to the other seeing who would be the loudest. He did this for a little longer before going back up to the stage and going back into finishing the song. The next song was "Breakout" where Dave continues with his sing with me during the chorus, and then he takes off running around the stage area again. Dave gets back to the his mic stand, and says that this is the usually the time where he goes off about the crowd having to get in concert, but he doesn't need to do that. They finish the song, and they don't go into another song yet.

Dave talks about how it has been 10 years since the Foos have been to Council Bluffs and they have a lot of making up to do. Dave then says that Against Me said this was the best crowd yet. Dave says it still has to be proven. Dave during this point also says that anyone who has to work tomorrow to call in sick and say Dave told us too.

They start playing "Learn to Fly" and Dave instantly runs across the front of one side of the stage to the other and then back to center. They continue into the next single "Cheer Up Boys (Your Make Up Is Running)". They then go into "This Is A Call" where midway into the song they go into a slow bluesy jam. Where Dave and Chris both just feed off of each other with some jams. Dave is again all over the place including the catwalk. He gets back to the mic and continues singing the song in the slower pace, and it picks up until they finish the song and they go offstage and get a drink.

Dave and Chris then come back up with matching guitars except for the color and just start having a soloing contest to the delight of the crowd as Dave is on the catwalk again and Chris is in front of Taylor Hawkins' drum kit. They continue doing this until Dave sprints to the stage and they both just jamming, and then Chris starts playing the opening riff for "Stacked Actors". They play the song until they go into another jam session that turns into a drum solo while the other three go off stage.

Taylor does a good 5 minutes or more drum solo and they come back on finish up "Stack Actors". Afterwards Dave is giving an acoustic guitar and then he starts playing "Skin And Bones" as the center floor acoustic stage was lowered into place with it's own drum kit and piano/keyboard/organ setup.

The rest of the band joins Dave for "Skin And Bones" and they continue on with "Marigold" with Jesse playing the songs violin solo. Dave then talks some and makes an off color Fall Out Boy comment before going into "My Hero". Where Dave is going between 3 different mics facing different directions of the crowd and playing rhythm. Pat Smear playing lead and Chris filling in between along with Rami getting a solo on the keys.

In between songs Dave does the introduction of the band members. Jessy Green plays another violin solo, Pat Smear chooses not to play a solo, Chris plays a solo, Nate plays a little, and Dave goes to Rami Jaffee for about piano/keyboard solo. Then the funniest part of the concert begins...

Dave starts to do the introduction of the percussionist Drew Hester and gets flipped off by a fan. Let's just say no matter if it is the front man, or another band member, if the mixer controllers let them they will bury you...as was the case. Dave asked the person what they did for a living, and then Dave made up a job for the person...he then says that the percussionist gets paid to play the Triangle for a living. So on and so forth until Dave has Drew come up to the front mic and play the triangle. Dave continues making fun of the fan, and then after the solo.

Tells the fan he must do a real good job because that was one hell of a Triangle solo...Dave then apologizes to the children in the crowd for the language used and then introduces Taylor Hawkins as they go into "Cold Day in the Sun" w/ Taylor singing and drumming at the same time. Dave then announces the song "But, Honestly" and after the final vocals Dave goes and climbs the piano on the stage and plays his guitar on top of it.

After the song is over Dave is given a black guitar as the rest of the band members leave, and Dave starts playing "Everlong" on his own, he goes until the interlude thanks the back of the stadium fans as they switch the sound from the acoustic stage back to the main stage where Dave joins the back in finishing "Everlong". They go into "Monkey Wrench" and they are playing until the bridge where they stop and it is just Dave and the crowd screaming the lyrics and they go into the final chorus. Dave thanks the crowd and they go off stage.

For the entire tour so far, they have screens behind the main stage and they have been showing videos on it during the band's playing. Before the encore they show the main set list with last songs covered up. Dave asking the crowd how many songs they want for the encore. He will hold up one finger and everyone screams, he shakes his and holds up two fingers and everyone will screams and he shakes his head again walks off and goes back on screen and holds up three fingers. The crowd erupts and he continues to play to the crowd and then mouth something and the bands comes back on stage.

The first encore song Dave is playing the melody to "Big Me" as he is talking about this is a song with the stupid video concerning the candy. He dedicated it to Taylor who is sitting on a speaker and invite Jessy Greene to come up and sing it with him. Then Rami, Pat join them as they go into "Long Road to Ruin" where it is the final song with the help of the touring members. They leave stage, and then Dave starts into the opening riff to "All My Life". They go through the song until the silent part where dave goes back to the opening riff. They go into the bridge, and yells to the crowd "WAAAAHLRIGHT This your last chance to dance b*tches" before going into the interlude into the last chorus.

They end the show and Dave says we were great and that they have to come back sooner. All in all it was the end to an awesome show which this was the crowd for any concert I been too other than maybe Ozzy/Zombie concert overall. Excellent show I had a great time and a great crowd for the Foo Fighters portion made it absolutely awesome.




This was the final set list.

Let it Die
Pretender
Times Like These
Breakout
Learn to Fly
Cheer Up, Boys
This is a Call
Stacked Actors

Acoustic:
Skin & Bones
Marigold
My Hero
Cold Day in the Sun
But, Honestly
Everlong

Back to Electric:
Monkey Wrench

Encore:
Big Me
Long Road to Ruin
All My Life

Labels: concert

posted by Greg @ 3:30 PM 0 comments

Art, music, not saying goodbye, just see you next time...

This session of my ramblings is due to inspiration of a friend who is moving out of Sioux City to hopefully bring a better quality of life to wife, family, and himself.

Wednesday was the big going away get together party for co-workers, guest and friends of his. He had me start on a drawing of a baby being held in two hands, but at first he was going to have a friend do it. Then I think he forget to mention it to his friend or else his friend didn't have time. So he asked me to do it and I got started on it doing the easiest part of it being the hands. Then a few months later I got the hands down to the point of it being a different, more realistic, but drawn variation of the hands in the all state logo.

I finally got started on working on the baby part of the picture about a month ago. I somewhat finished it but screwed it up with the fact that I was in a hurry and drawn the hands to be the opposite of what they should have been...thumbs in rather than thumbs out.

Later on his wife was talking about how when drawing that she has a perfectionist style. That she won't stop on something until it was perfect. But for what it sounds like, most of her drawings are of objects that can be seen, feel, and touched. I am one who with my draws they are 90% of the time at random and they are abstract to say the least. But it is more of a it isn't perfect but it looks good to me style. Also, half the time my stuff 10 people can look at it, and 10 people will give you a different answer about what is in the picture. I am not sure she really understood what I was saying about my drawing.

But to explain it to those who may or may not read this. When playing the guitar you have many different styles to choose from, but you can define the type of guitar player into two different types. You have the type that will write everything out note by note. They will not be done with their part if it were to have any mistakes. Everything is done precisely to sound a certain way.

Next you have the style that is better at improvising they will mess and tinker around with different ideas. They will play stuff "that sounds cool" and if they are happy with it even if part of the section was them playing the wrong note or adding in extra notes that aren't needed, but they like and it works....They will use it. What they wrote and what they play doesn't match, but what they end up play may work better just of the fact that it sounds better by accidentally hitting the wrong note or adding a few wrong notes.

For bands, the latter could be the lead guitarist because they can just come up with a solo improvising, while the rhythm guitarist would have had to write the entire solo note for note and it could have been a little different.

Sometimes it works being the perfectionist, and sometimes you need to be a little sloppy and work something into what it was supposed to be, but with a few minor tweaks that you wouldn't have done otherwise.

And for those who read this, I am not saying goodbye or just see you next time. But for the former Night Manager and his family, I will not say goodbye, but see you the next time you come up here, take care of yourselves and family.

posted by Greg @ 9:43 PM 0 comments