Thin Lizzy: Still Dangerous: Live at the Tower Theatre Philadelphia 1977 Review

All of my reviews for live albums are essentially the same. I have a very simple format for reviewing live material, and in order for the album to get a good review it needs to satisfy these three basic criteria :

1. Does it sound live?
Answer: Most definitely. It doesn’t have that clean production sound that leaves you asking if this is just a rehashing of a bunch of songs with a live tag thrown on it. The crowd noise is audible but not disturbing, and the sound has its flaws, but when it comes to a live recording, that’s a good thing.

2. Does this recording make me want to attend the show?
Answer: This is a resounding yes! Thin Lizzy rocked this show from beginning to end. Even though the recording only clocks in at 45 minutes, they chose a good set of songs and did them plenty of justice. The energy was there and the musicianship was tight. Unfortunately I was born nine years too late to catch this show...

3. Does the band do enough to make the material sound fresh to justify purchasing the album?
Answer: Lizzy adds a little bit of a twist to a number of their songs which keeps things sounding new but at the same time holding true to their original form. It’s like throwing a little hot sauce on your fried chicken, it spices things up but the original flavor is still there.

This recording catches Thin Lizzy at their prime, with their quintessential lineup intact. Despite the set being a little short, this is exactly how a live album should sound. It does everything a live album should, and the songs selection is classic with hits ranging from "The Boys Are Back in Town" to "Jailbreak" and "Dancing in the Moonlight". Even for someone who doesn’t consider themself a big Thin Lizzy fan such as myself, I’ll be replaying this one over and over again.

Grade: A-

The Sword: Gods of the Earth Review

Hello. The Sword would like to welcome you to the wonderful world of Dungeons and Dragons taken to the musical realm. Where witches fly on broomsticks and orcs pound their clubs and flex their massive green biceps. Where the fight for middle earth is taken to the battlefield and "Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians" is your warcry.

Sound a little too geeky for you? Well this riffcentric production will have you questioning the toughness of the thirty year old LARPERS who put on their homemade battle gear sewn together by their mother.

This is the kind of music every LARPER has been dreaming of, the kind of soundtrack that gets the Dungeons and Dragons freaks pumped for their upcoming duel. The Swords lyrics are predominantly fantasy driven with song titles as crazy as the aforementioned, "Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians" and "Maiden, Mother & Crone". Given the subject material, The Sword do a fantastic job of giving the rather geeky material a kick in the ass.

The album opens up with "The Sundering" an instrumental piece that starts off with an elegant acoustic opening and drives straight into power chords from hell and pounding drums. Once the electric comes in they never stop with a relentless onslaught of music so heavy you would need a wheelbarrow to carry it. The album chugs along with an old school thrashy sound, with a hint of some doom metal thrown in for good measure. Gods of the Earth has a retro metal sound, and only during a few moments of the duration of the album is it given a modern feel with random pinch harmonics dished out. The Sword close out their sophmore effort with an epic finish between "The Black River" and the instrumental "The White Sea" which has the band flaunting their guitar virtuosity.

Gods of the Earth is held together with riff after massive riff, and vocalist/guitarist J.D. Cronise’s vocals often sound a little hidden below the deep ferocity of the music. It’s not necessarily that his vocals weren’t mixed loud enough, it’s more of a case of him not having the vocal chops to overpower this already incredibly powerful music. His voice is solid, but doesn’t quite have enough strength to seer its way through the thumping drums and power chords.

Overall Gods of the Earth is a strong album that lacks any poor songs, but on that same note, it never really delivers any songs that will have you begging for more. It’s a tight and heavy album that is definitely worth repeated listens, and if you’re looking for a little kick in the ass, Gods of the Earth will deliver on every front.

Grade: B+

Another Week Another Vinyl: The Sword: Gods of the Earth

This week I was lucky enough to get a copy of The Swords’ Gods of the Earth, and better yet, it was on vinyl. The vinyl itself is a really nice transparent ruby red color that looks like it belongs on a stick as a lollipop - and that’s a good thing. The album opens up like a book and on the inside is the lyrics to every song. As with many new vinyls coming out, the band offers some incentive to make a vinyl purchase by giving away a free digital download of the album. Inside the packaging is a little slip directing you to a website where you can go and download the album digitally by entering a unique code. I’m loving that more and more bands are offering this service, because unlike CDs it’s a pain to transfer vinyls - an analog format - to digital. It’s a step in the right direction to combat piracy, because who wouldn’t want a nice physical medium as inviting as vinyl while still getting the convenience of MP3s?

I should have a review of the album posted sometime this week.

Nine Inch Nail to Tour With Janes Addiction

Here is a message from the official Nine Inch Nails website:

Towards the beginning of my career in Nine Inch Nails, our biggest break came in the form of an invitation to perform a series of shows with Jane's Addiction. These performances essentially created and defined the term "alternative" rock in the US, created an ongoing festival franchise that is still thriving (Lollapalooza), set the stage for Nirvana to shift popular taste a few months later, and were really fucking FUN to play and attend - truly the best times I've had. The shows were epic. So epic, they propelled NIN to the "next level" (whatever that means), but caused Jane's to implode. The band broke up at the end of that tour.

Fast forward to the present. Corporate rock STILL sucks. A friend tells me they saw the original Jane's lineup play a tiny show in LA that was unbelievable. I break out my Jane's records and am amazed by how vital they sound. These guys were the real deal and in this current climate mostly dominated by poseurs and pussies it was refreshing to hear something that sounded dangerous, volatile, beautiful and SINCERE.
Emails were sent, phone calls were made, dinner was arranged, ideas were discussed and the next thing I know we're in the studio experimenting. We laugh, we get to know each other, we cry, we yell, we almost quit, we record LOTS of guitar solos, we discuss, we actually begin to all communicate, we yell some more, we become FRIENDS, we laugh again and we do some great things. I get to see first hand why they broke up all those years ago but I also get the chance to see four distinct personalities that become an INCREDIBLE band when they're in the same room.

In NIN world, 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of our first releases. I've been thinking for some time now it's time to make NIN disappear for a while. Last year's "Lights in the Sky" tour was something I'm quite proud of and seems like the culmination of what I could pull off in terms of an elaborate production. It was also quite difficult to pull off technically and physically night after night and left us all a bit dazed. After some thought, we decided to book a last run of shows across the globe this year. The approach to these shows is quite different from last year - much more raw, spontaneous and less scripted. Fun for us and a different way for you to see us and wave goodbye. I reached out to Jane's to see if they'd want to join us across the US and we all felt it could be a great thing. Will it work? Will it resonate in the marketplace? Who knows. Are there big record label marketing dollars to convince you to attend? Nope.
Does it feel right to us and does it seem like it will be fun for us and you? Yes it does.
Look for tour dates soon and I hope to see you out there.

Trent

General Admission

Seano over at Circle Fits awhile back did a pretty comprehensive list that covered just about every type of person that could ruin a concert. It was one of the most accurate and all encompassing lists I’ve seen describing the kind of people who can take an amazing experience and turn it into something you would rather forget. While at a Metallica concert a around a week ago I ran into not one, but a group of people who can certainly be added to that list. The please don’t invade my personal space despite having general admission tickets to a metal concert person. Yes, it’s this same person who freaks out when a mosh pit opens up right in front of them, and instead of just going with the flow, or just simply trying to move out of the way, they have a hissy fit and throw punches at every person who flails their body nearby. It’s also this same person who is holding a big cup of beer and is distraught and fuming after their seven dollar Budweiser is knocked to the floor when the lights go down and the band takes the stage.

I’m not quite sure what goes through these peoples mind when they submit their purchase for general admission tickets to a metal concert. Sure, I can understand people being upset if a mosh pits break out during a Barry Manilow concert, but this is a metal show. Either these people have never been to a concert or they’ve never been to a legitimate rock concert.

When I first arrived at the show I could immediately see that it was a diverse crowd, with a healthy mix of young and old, but not even Metallica could bridge the gap on the floor. When the lights went down there was-- as to be expected-- a surge to the stage. Standing right to my side was a short and stocky Italian guy holding his cup of beer that was filled to the brim. During the surge to the stage half the beer hit the floor and the short stocky Italian had eyes of venom. He wasted no time screaming at the person behind him for pushing him, and in a scene that could have come out of the Sopranos, was declaring, "I’m gonna get my f’n brudda and kick your ass!" He then looked at his wife and shouted, "I’m gonna put a f’n cigarette down this guys shirt!" As the case with most people like him, he never got physical and just let his empty threats ramble on.

Once Metallica kicked into their opening song the pits opened up and bodies were flying. Many of the older crowd looked baffled and were just as angry as the stocky Italian. Big old guys ran in and started throwing people to the ground -- pissed that they were interrupting their experience. One shorter lady would end up taking an elbow to the nose leaving her crying for half the show and sent her husband into a temper tantrum screaming at the guy who had ran into her despite him apologizing to her immediately after she had her face buried in her hands.
Sure, a metal concert can get physical, but it comes with the territory. In fact, I expected this concert to be a lot more aggressive than it actually was. If you’re going to a metal concert you should expect mosh pits and the constant pushing and shoving. It’s a concert! If you’re looking to maintain some personal space then buy seats. Don’t expect the floor to be some spread out area where you can lay on the floor and expect not to be trampled.

Metallica Live at the Prudential Center, Newark NJ 1/31/09 Review

When Metallica tickets first went on sale I was sitting in a Dentist Office with my girlfriend (Dental Hygenist) in my mouth hoping and praying that my Mom would come through and get me tickets for the show. While having calculus scraped from my teeth with various sharp objects my phone began to vibrate, and at that moment I knew I was either going to be twice as miserable as I already was being that I was at the dentist, or as ecstatic as one could be while having a minature vacuum in my mouth along with tools with the sole purpose of bringing pain. To my dismay my Mom called to tell me that she wasn't able to read the numbers on my credit card that she was using to buy the tickets. I was trying to dig deep into my brain to recall the numbers I have typed into Amazon and PayPal so many times, but to no avail I was drawing a blank. I went home with a sore mouth and no Metallica tickets to boot. From that day on I was determined to get tickets by whatever means possible. From the day after the tickets went on sale to two days before the day of the show I checked Ticketmaster twice a day crossing my fingers that just maybe some extra tickets would be released. As you may have assumed, two days before the show Ticketmaster finally delivered a different message then the one I had read over and over again. I came accross two General Admission tickets, and with my heart pounding so fast I raced to my wallet and fumbled over my credit cards and typed away those magical numbers which my Mom was unable to read, and before I knew it, I was picking up my tickets at will call.

So with my personal story aside, now I can focus on the concert. Opening up for Metallica was The Sword and Machine Head. The Sword had put on a good show with some Sabbath-esque quality. Machine Head didn't exactly qualify as the kind of band I would listen to with their deep growls utilized more than singing, but if I was to put the music aside, they had a ton of energy and got the crowd ready for the reason everyone was there.

Metallica took the stage to "Ecstasy of Gold" as always and kicked right into "That Was Just Your Life", a song that bites with as much energy as "Blackened" and in my oppinion is the strongest track on the new album. All together they would pull six songs from Death Magnetic all of which transfered amazingly live. One of the higlights of the show came from the first single from Death Magnetic, "The Day that Never Comes". The performance of that song especially was filled with a ton of passion and a stellar guitar solo.

As Hetfield said during the show, "With the new stuff, we found what really goes well with the new stuff... Yes, the old stuff". Right after that line, the band went straight into an amazing rendition of "Ride the Lightning". They would go on to pull from every album besides the dreaded Load, Reload, and St. Anger.

The stage show was pretty impressive with large coffins coming down from the rafters lighting up the stage. The band, as expected, threw a good amount of pyro out during the introduction of "One" coinciding with the explosions and gun shots. During the solo on "One", out shot flames of every conceivable color getting the crowd amped. To top it off, the band unleashed the lasers at various moments during the show. During the finale, "Seek and Destroy", hundreds of enormous inflatable balls with Metallica's logo poured from the ceiling onto the crowd eventually ending up passed all around the arena and the majority ending up on stage. At the very end of the show the band walked around tossing out guitar picks and when Kirk came by me out came a dozen or so guitar picks and when I saw one fly right by me I dove on the ground and picked it up from the ground and smiled from ear to ear.

The band was firing on all cylandes the entire night, dishing out a set list to die for. Sure there was an abundance of Death Magnetic, but to their credit, the songs pulled from the album are incredible, and pieces like "That Was Just Your Life" and "The Day that Never Comes" match up to everything from their glory days. Being only about fifty feet from the stage, I could see every expresion on the bands face, and it was clear, that they were having a great time out there. This was my first time seeing Metallica, and quite honestly I'm a bit embarassed to say that, but after that experience, there is nothing that will stop me from seeing them again!

Setlist:

That Was Just Your Life
The End Of The Line
Ride The Lightning
For Whom the Bell Tolls
One
Broken, Beat And Scarred
Cyanide
Sad But True
...And Justice For All
All Nightmare Long
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Battery
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
- - - - - - - -
Blitzkrieg
Hit The Lights
Seek and Destroy