Long Wave Goodbye....

It's been awhile since I have posted but I wanted to comment on what will be my last Nine Inch Nails show for some time - if not ever.... (PS. Not by my choice but that's what Trent said - Dammit...)

Yesterday, the wife and I spent most of the day in the yard, planting flowers, et al, along the back of the house. It looks really nice, but it came with a price - we were both pretty tired lastnight when we went for Sushi. Pretty damn good sushi up in the occult town of Town Lake. We escaped, nonconverted, and made our way to Lakewood.

The way to do it at Lakewood Ampitheater is to buy the parking pass... Not many people know about it, or aren't willin to spend the $ but it's all good. Only bad thing about VIP parking is NO BATHROOM. We see a Chevy Blazer parked against the fence near some brush and that turned into the bathroom - for men and women... Eeeew. We had a front row seat to watch 4-5 women drop trou and go right behind this Blazer. Not a pretty sight. But we had a cooler packed and it as nice drinking FREE beer because beers are $11 at Lakewood - that's right, its not a typo, beers cost $11. No wonder everyone smokes dope...

Show was to start at 7 so we decided to miss the 1st band and wander in for the 2nd, which I thought would be Jane's Addiction... Ummm... No, here comes the beat and then outcomes Trent... What the Fuck??? Why the Hell would he be 2nd and not Headlining??? NIN has totally surpassed anything that Jane's Addiction has done... Well, this is the 2nd time I have seen NIN in the daytime - first time was at the 1st Lollapalooza... Trent put on a great show on a very scaled down stage setup. (The last 4 shows have kinda been disappointing with the stage set up - compared to the past shows that had video's and props etc.) Well, I had to take a piss so I picked a slow song off of the Year Zero album and ran out took care of business and tried to buy a t-shirt. The 1st t-shirt booth was out of the Long Wave Goodbye green concert t-shirt so I made my way to t-shirt booth #2. I hear his sermon about this being their last tour for a while, how the music industry has changed - and not for the good, how record companies are money grabbing whores and how they stifle any creativity. It is obvious - he needs a break. But while I am in line he starts up the best cover song in his catalog, Adam Ant's "Physical" which is on the minidisc inside the Broken EP.... Wow... I had to leave the line and hustle back to the seat to try and catch some of this song... He plays a good mix of old an new and left out the instrumental songs of Ghosts I-IV, thank God, but in all it was 90 minutes and he was gone as night fell...

(oh, but I gotta tell ya - he brought out Saul Williams for 2 songs... If you don't know Saul Williams - check him out...)

Well, his exit was unexpected - I expected a 2.5 hr headlining act, power chords, and people tearing out the seats. But it was not to be... This exit was almost as surprising as the absolute surprise the first time I ever saw him. It was early 1990 and to be honest, I don't remember Pretty Hate Machine being released in 1989 when I was at WSBF. Maybe that is because I had a regressive progressive show and played some oldie alternative and I may not have had my finger on the pulse of new stuff. Well, I went to see The Jesus And Mary Chain at the Roxy and was prepared for a great J-M Chain show and I see an old WSBF'r there and he says "Get ready to be blown away by the opening act - Nine Inch Nails" And he was RIGHT.... Wow... I was blown away.... I had never seen anything like that before and it was a great feeling - that feeling you get when you see greatness... I knew they were going to be HUGE. I will say that Pretty Hate Machine has to be one of the top 5 albums of all time.... (London Calling, by the Clash; Never Mind the Bollocks, by the Sex Pistols; Joshua Tree, by U2, and insert 1 more of your favorites here). Well that first show was almost 20 years ago and last night was my 36th Nine Inch Nails show. I have probably seen the Goodies and Spider Monkey/Rev-7 more times but no other National Act have I seen that much - I've only seen Flogging Molly <20 times....

Over the Years I have seen NIN in a multitude of venue but I will never forget the shows at the Masquerade... I was at the show where Meat Beat Manifesto played and had crazy dancers and there was no a/c in the joint. Trent didn't come on until 1:30am and damn it was oppressively hot. By the end of the show 3/4 of the women had their shirts off and no one cared... The Festival shows never gave Trent top billing but he gets his due at the Voodoo Festival (wish I would have seen one of those shows) The shows at the Fox wer also epic. The Fox Theater took out a$1million insurace policy for 3 days - Nine Inch Nails had 2 shows Thursday and Friday and then Metallica played on Saturday - they were scared to death that their Theater would be torn down... The shows at Phillips were OK - Gwinnett SUCKED, like always. My tour from Raleigh/Charlotte/Atlanta was over Mother's Day in 2000 as well. That was great.... I could go on and on.... Wow, the memories....

Now to express my disgust...

Fucking Perry Ferrell was lucky to even be on this tour... It is called NIN/JA not JA/NIN so why the hell did he get to headline... Don't get me wrong, I respect that Perry founded Lollapalooza and does the Entourage theme song but come on.... They played the ENTIRE "Nothing's Shocking" album that was released in like 1986. Now, Dave Navarro is an awesome guitarist BUT the Base Player out played him and drowned his ass out. Wow... I don't know who that guy is but he was impressive. Perry Ferrel looked just like what you would think a 50 yr old Heroin addict would look like. He might weigh 140lbs and looked aweful. I heard that the lead singer for The Cramps died in 2oo8 and all Perry needed was some red pumps and a pearl necklace and he could tour with them... Eh, they had the energy but the crowd was dead and it got old him Eh-ah-oh oh-wo-wo-woo ing the whole damn show... So they come out for the encore and I knew "Jane Says" would be the finale... Well, they screwed the whole thing up. 1st Lollapalooze he had a team of steel drum guys, well, this time it was 1 white guy and it was aweful, we left...

I did make a final coup for the evening - Found a new way out of Lakewood.... University Ave., only thing is your car needs to be bulletproof and don't stop for any reason - traffic lights are just a suggestion.... On I-75 in nothing flat...

So-long Trent - I will miss you...

Sad State of P.E. in Schools....

Just watched a troubling segment on ESPN's Outside the Lines about childhood obesity and the lack of Physical Education in Elementary Schools. This was disturbing. It is showing that 1 in 5 children are considered obese to morbidly obese. AND, that PE classes and teachers are systematically being cut all across the US because of the focus on Academics for the No Child Left Behind. From what I heard I am not a big fan of NCLB but wish there was another form of "grading" schoold/teachers with real teeth to do away with bad schools and bad teachers but that is for another rant...

PE is such a fundamental part of schools - in my mind.... Every Parent in America has memories (good or bad) of growing up and being required to take PE class. I was traumatized by my Elementary School PE teacher - Sammy Simmons. Holy Shit, he may have only been 5'5" but to a 6 yr old he was a monster of a black man with arms like Tony Atlas. He would yell and scream and I hated PE because I was afraid of him - but guess what? I did what he said and always made A's. I always came in 3rd in races to pain in the ass K. Crowder and Chad Church (R.I.P.) and I did well in the classroom too.

My feeling is that fit kids perform better than fat kids in class.... Think about it... When I was in Elementary School we would have 1 fat boy and 1 fat girl in the class. They were always the class clown, sometimes the bully, but they were always the brunt of jokes. In H.S. I did have quite a few of the chubby boys/girls in my Advanced classes BUT they never got over their self consciousness and excelled. The kids that excelled were the smart athlete, that knew what it took to be competitive and could out will the others because they learned the killer instinct on the playing field and applied it to the classroom. Our Valedictorian and Salutatorian were not Athletes but were Geeky Nerds but at least they were not obese. Caroline and Stuart did the work, good for them.

I just hope that the US can change their mentality. Kids should go out and play. My neighborhood is full of pain in the ass kids running up and down the street - key is, are they going to be delinquints or are the becoming well rounded and in shape kids? Hmmmm.

It takes Guts NOT to Sing....

Last night was Flogging Molly at the Tabernacle and they absolutely rocked.... One of the best shows, of theirs, I have seen in a long time. We had a blast.

Interesting point of the evening was the opener for the opener.
The Dub Trio was the first band and they rocked the fucking house with their Rock n Roll New Age Jazz musicianship. NO VOCALS at all... No, thank you, No, this is jimbob on bass, nothing. These guys were as tight and all over the place a band as you will ever see - who knows how many rehearsal hours they put in to get this tight. Very SpazzJazz Metal RnRoll. They are almost indescrbable. I would never buy one of their albums because I would go insane in my car and either drive on the sidewalk or just stop in the middle of I-75 and run around the interstate. BUT, these guys kicked ass... You could tell that these guys were classically trained and tought it would be coold to be an ArtFartEclecticJazzMetal Band - that had no lyrics... Mom, Dad I want to be in a band that doesn't play songs.... is the impression I got...

The Aggro-Lites are a pussy Bosstoneesque reggae wannabe band that got on tour by being good drinking partners with the Molly. Hey, whatever works. They were just - eh! Nothing special. Reggae without a hook or killer chorus negates your importance. Thank God they played some covers.

Wish I could make another Molly date on this tour.

DERAILROADED...

Yesterday was busy but at lunch i turned the tv on. IFC channel has DocuMondays so they show documentaries all day Monday and I saw a GREAT one. DERAILROADED is the story of Larry "Wild Man" Fisher. This guy had a cult following in the very late 60' to the 80's for his off beat, wacky, crazy rants and unintelligible songs. He was so crazy, Frank Zappa wanted to record with him... Wow. Poor guy was suffering from Bi-Polar, Schitzophrenia, mania and every other defect out there.
The record producers and his friends tab him as a genius but it was kinda sad. Hard to work with someone who threatens your life.
It's a good watch if you can stand 90 minutes of terrible singing...

Fu@$%ng Taxes and the People that prepare them!

Shit Fuck Damn Piss... So me and the girl that I married go to HR B to get our taxes done, just like I have done for the last 7 years.... Looky looky looky, here's our shit, here's last years shit, what can you do for me? (Why did I ask?) Well... What they can do is say "OH, last year you didn't qualify for this deduction, I am required by law to prepare a 1040X to ammend your 2007 tax return." WHAT???? YOU BITCH... I didn't come here for you to cost me money.... Well sir, I have to prepare the form and you do not have to send it in if you are not inclined to do so... HMMMMMMM... You ignorant whore - you have the power to electroniclly file my taxes and re directly linked to the IRS database - you mean to tell me that they do not know that you just prepared this form.??? I am sure that we are on some watchdog list now - counting down the days and increasing the interest % daily... HRB will pay the interest and penalty but we still gotta cover the tax liability. Fuck em and their $200.... Shit. Just makes me feel like the gov't is taking a sticky dildo and rolling it in broken glass shards and ramming it in my ass until it comes out my mouth while I sit there an whimper like a pussy....
OK sir - were you satisfied with your service today?
Ummm NO....

Dealing with the English influence....

Over the last couple days I have watched some incredible movies. "Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten" and "Green Street Hooligans". I have commented on the latter before but the Joe Strummer documentary was one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. Alot of voice overs and the filmmaker was not worried about identifying every single person interviewed. It was your loss if you didn't know who they were. Pretty wild though - Joe was a Hippie before he was a Punk. WOW. Didn't see that one coming. It's amazing that all these Punk bands begin dirt poor, can't play, are anti-establishment and all that - then they fall victim to all the pitfalls of sellout bands: drugs, attitudes, power plays. It all turns to shit.
During the movie Bono commented about the Clash and stated that what pisses him off about the Clash is that they are not still around making music. Then, towards the end of the movie, one of the nameless interviewees (an old friend of Joe Strummer's) states, "It's selfish of us, the fans, to expect bands to stay together and keep making albums for "our" sakes instead of their own." I think that is one of the most profound statements I've ever heard. We should respect other's rights to do what they want to do instead of expecting them to do things for us. Hmmm.
Now on Green Steet Hooligans - I have taken a 3 month hiatus from this Blog because I have gotten bitten by the Facebook bug. All the old friends from High School have come out of the woodwork. Some I was friends with, some I wasn't. Some "adult" friendships are here too but it just bring back the thoughts of going out on Friday nights and looking for trouble, knowing all the while that my friends had my back. Then Elijah Wood says in this movie "...best feeling is not knowing your friends back, it's knowing that you have theirs." (the weird thing is other people are shocked to know that you have their back). In HS we got into quite a few scraps and the infamous night I got my nose broken and rescued by Wendell K I saw that me and my friends were out numbered but not out manned. I took the biggest guy and broke his hand with my face while the rest of the guys (3) took care of the rest, except for Scotty- they ganged up on him.

Another Project almost completed....

This weekend was my job to Tile the laundry room - and I am just the Grout away from completion.
The first question you should ask is "Why does the Laundry room need to be tile?" And to that I have no logical answer. Just doing what the wife tells me to do. The only qualifying statement I can say is that this will be good practice for the 1/2 bathroom (which looks like next weekend's job.)
Funny part was the wife's reaction when she got home on Saturday night. (I had finished my dry cuts and had the whole floor layed out, Sunday was thin-setting the tile, Monday is grout.) "Oh, my god, this looks great." She didn't think I could do it....
Showed her...