Ah, the '80's, how infectious.....
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Caribbean Queen
Well, to my utter shock, I apparently know every damn note to the saxophone solo in "Caribbean Queen" by Billy Ocean. I was cruising through the condiment aisle of my local HEB last night, and found myself subconsciously putting on a dazzling whistling display as the tune pumped through the store's PA. And I mean dazzling, I would have impressed even myself if I hadn't been so surprised.
Ah, the '80's, how infectious.....
Ah, the '80's, how infectious.....
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Playstation 3: Blu-Ray, Media Server, And Legos, Oh My!
OK, so I'm not exactly what anyone would call a "gamer". I've got nothing against video games, I'm fairly partial to a good hockey or racing game, but the last game console I owned was the original NES back in like 1988. And even then, I think I only ever amassed a whopping 4 games for it.
Imagine Sara's surprise, then, a couple months ago, when I mentioned that I might be interested in "saving up my allowance" (I'm not sure why I'm using quotes, that's literally what it was. Yes, I have an "allowance", no laughing.) to buy a Playstation 3. My rationale was that since Blu-Ray had finally won the HD format war, converting over to Blu-Ray for movie purchases from here on out should be fairly safe, and since the Playstation 3 costs the same as the cheapest standalone Blu-Ray players, why not go ahead and buy the one that can also provide gaming ability. Not to mention the fact that the PS3 has already gone through a couple generations of design tweaks and bug fixes, and already had the infrastructure in place to provide automatic firmware updates, should they be necessary. Rock solid argument, if you ask me. Sara seemed fine with it, neither really put off nor excited, which I took as a landslide victory for team Tedo!
(Note: my actual motivation for wanting a Blu-Ray player so soon was simply because I refuse to own Ironman in anything less than Blu-Ray. That movie was so friggin' awesome, anything less than 1080p would be a travesty.)
So, after waffling a couple months over whether or not I really needed a PS3, last week I finally decided what the heck, lets give it a go, and ran over to Best Buy and snagged one of these bad boys. I got it home, got it set up in about 2 seconds (gotta love HDMI and wi-fi!), and then sat there for about 10 minutes reveling in the absolute beauty of this machine. As an EE, I have a particular affinity for solid, well-built hardware. Even Sara displayed some interest for a few moments, which became fleeting, however, as she realized that she "can't play Mario games on it." Apparently if you can't role-play as a plumber running around squeezing coins from bricks, its not worth the time of day!
First, I had to try out the obvious, the reason I had bought thing in the first place: a full-blown high definition movie. Along with my purchase, I had bought Harry Potter 5 on Blu-Ray. I had already owned this movie on DVD, but found the DVD transfer to be absolutely horrid, so I had this unofficially penciled in as a prime candidate for Blu-Ray purchase should I ever get a player. As expected, the picture was INCREDIBLE. I've had cable HD programming for the past year and a half or so, and the picture has always been outstanding, particularly for sports, but this was still noticeably better. I never wanted to see that much detail of Dudley Dursley's ugly mug. My decision to get this over a standalone Blu-Ray player was looking pretty good!
Next up, some video games. As mentioned above, I'm not a huge video game fan, but I do like me a good NHL game. So, along with the unit, I picked up EA's NHL 2008. I had played EA's line of NHL games throughout the 90's for the Sega Genesis and for PC, and they had always been regarded as the best hockey video game out there, so I figured why stray from what I know. Holy frijoles, this game rocks. Its hard as hell at first to figure out their new "skill stick" feature, with which you use the right joystick entirely for deking, handling the puck side to side, and taking various styles of shot, all while using the left joystick for directional skating and shot placement. My brain just about seceded from the Union Of Tedo's Head while trying to sort out simultaneously controlling two joysticks, not to mention the other buttons that are used for poke-checking, changing lines, and 2 different types of passes. Luckily, though, one of the coolest features of this game is that it has a practice mode, under which you can select all different types of drills to run: team practices (5-on-5, 5-on-0), skating drills, shooting drills, all types of odd-man and even-man rushes, etc. I spent a couple days working in this area, slowly figuring out how to set up one-timers, deke the goalie, line up a guy on defense and throw a check (this sounds easy but is actually tough to do without overskating your guy!), etc. Anyway, after these practice sessions, I'm proud to say that playing as the Red Wings against the Blackhawks in Rookie mode, I can totally kick the computer's ass : - )
In addition to the NHL game, I also picked up the Lego Indiana Jones adventure game. I'm not really into shoot 'em up or super serious games, I'm more interested in stuff that's more along the "fun" line, and I had heard good things about this one. Plus, I knew Sara's penchant for bashing things in the eternal hope of collection coins, so I figured this might fit the bill. As it turns out, this game is pretty fun! It seemed fairly aimless for the first level or two, as Sara and I felt it out and tried to figure out exactly what was going on and what was the point. But after playing it a few times now, and more importantly after Sara now diligently reading through the instructions, I fully expect this game to provide a lot of pretty fun game play. As you pass through each level, there is a LOT that you simply cannot do yet, you have to continue on and accomplish certain things first. As you continue on and fulfill the stages of the 3 Indiana Jones adventures (we're not speaking of the 4th), you can accrew whatever abilities, tools, or personnel you need for going back and revisiting the things you had to pass over before. This is probably a fundamental characteristic of these adventure type games, but being one who has simply not cared about video games for the past 20 years, I find this pretty cool. And, the REAL surprise of this whole little experiment is the shocking discovery that Sara is far more prone to video game addiction than anyone could have possibly predicted. Needless to say, she has found bashing Lego structures/people/plants with a shovel has proven to be just as worthy a method of collecting coins as bashing bricks with your head : - )
I was thoroughly pleased with the performance of the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player and a video game console, and thus felt that the choice to get this over a standalone player was already justified, regardless of how much use I got from the PS3's other features. One of those features, however, is actually pretty cool and might get a fair amount of use, and that's the ability to stream content from a "media server". There are many programs out there, free and not free, that can be used to stream files from your PC. You load this program, you point it at a directory where you happen to store video, audio, pictures, whatever, and then other devices such as a PS3 have this media available to them. I personally tried 3 different programs: SimpleServer (free), Nero Media Home (technically not free), and TVersity (free). Here is what I found:
OK, well I've sung the praises enough. There must be something to complain about! Well, OK, there are a couple things I will mention:
So when does Ironman come out???
Imagine Sara's surprise, then, a couple months ago, when I mentioned that I might be interested in "saving up my allowance" (I'm not sure why I'm using quotes, that's literally what it was. Yes, I have an "allowance", no laughing.) to buy a Playstation 3. My rationale was that since Blu-Ray had finally won the HD format war, converting over to Blu-Ray for movie purchases from here on out should be fairly safe, and since the Playstation 3 costs the same as the cheapest standalone Blu-Ray players, why not go ahead and buy the one that can also provide gaming ability. Not to mention the fact that the PS3 has already gone through a couple generations of design tweaks and bug fixes, and already had the infrastructure in place to provide automatic firmware updates, should they be necessary. Rock solid argument, if you ask me. Sara seemed fine with it, neither really put off nor excited, which I took as a landslide victory for team Tedo!
(Note: my actual motivation for wanting a Blu-Ray player so soon was simply because I refuse to own Ironman in anything less than Blu-Ray. That movie was so friggin' awesome, anything less than 1080p would be a travesty.)
So, after waffling a couple months over whether or not I really needed a PS3, last week I finally decided what the heck, lets give it a go, and ran over to Best Buy and snagged one of these bad boys. I got it home, got it set up in about 2 seconds (gotta love HDMI and wi-fi!), and then sat there for about 10 minutes reveling in the absolute beauty of this machine. As an EE, I have a particular affinity for solid, well-built hardware. Even Sara displayed some interest for a few moments, which became fleeting, however, as she realized that she "can't play Mario games on it." Apparently if you can't role-play as a plumber running around squeezing coins from bricks, its not worth the time of day!
First, I had to try out the obvious, the reason I had bought thing in the first place: a full-blown high definition movie. Along with my purchase, I had bought Harry Potter 5 on Blu-Ray. I had already owned this movie on DVD, but found the DVD transfer to be absolutely horrid, so I had this unofficially penciled in as a prime candidate for Blu-Ray purchase should I ever get a player. As expected, the picture was INCREDIBLE. I've had cable HD programming for the past year and a half or so, and the picture has always been outstanding, particularly for sports, but this was still noticeably better. I never wanted to see that much detail of Dudley Dursley's ugly mug. My decision to get this over a standalone Blu-Ray player was looking pretty good!
Next up, some video games. As mentioned above, I'm not a huge video game fan, but I do like me a good NHL game. So, along with the unit, I picked up EA's NHL 2008. I had played EA's line of NHL games throughout the 90's for the Sega Genesis and for PC, and they had always been regarded as the best hockey video game out there, so I figured why stray from what I know. Holy frijoles, this game rocks. Its hard as hell at first to figure out their new "skill stick" feature, with which you use the right joystick entirely for deking, handling the puck side to side, and taking various styles of shot, all while using the left joystick for directional skating and shot placement. My brain just about seceded from the Union Of Tedo's Head while trying to sort out simultaneously controlling two joysticks, not to mention the other buttons that are used for poke-checking, changing lines, and 2 different types of passes. Luckily, though, one of the coolest features of this game is that it has a practice mode, under which you can select all different types of drills to run: team practices (5-on-5, 5-on-0), skating drills, shooting drills, all types of odd-man and even-man rushes, etc. I spent a couple days working in this area, slowly figuring out how to set up one-timers, deke the goalie, line up a guy on defense and throw a check (this sounds easy but is actually tough to do without overskating your guy!), etc. Anyway, after these practice sessions, I'm proud to say that playing as the Red Wings against the Blackhawks in Rookie mode, I can totally kick the computer's ass : - )
In addition to the NHL game, I also picked up the Lego Indiana Jones adventure game. I'm not really into shoot 'em up or super serious games, I'm more interested in stuff that's more along the "fun" line, and I had heard good things about this one. Plus, I knew Sara's penchant for bashing things in the eternal hope of collection coins, so I figured this might fit the bill. As it turns out, this game is pretty fun! It seemed fairly aimless for the first level or two, as Sara and I felt it out and tried to figure out exactly what was going on and what was the point. But after playing it a few times now, and more importantly after Sara now diligently reading through the instructions, I fully expect this game to provide a lot of pretty fun game play. As you pass through each level, there is a LOT that you simply cannot do yet, you have to continue on and accomplish certain things first. As you continue on and fulfill the stages of the 3 Indiana Jones adventures (we're not speaking of the 4th), you can accrew whatever abilities, tools, or personnel you need for going back and revisiting the things you had to pass over before. This is probably a fundamental characteristic of these adventure type games, but being one who has simply not cared about video games for the past 20 years, I find this pretty cool. And, the REAL surprise of this whole little experiment is the shocking discovery that Sara is far more prone to video game addiction than anyone could have possibly predicted. Needless to say, she has found bashing Lego structures/people/plants with a shovel has proven to be just as worthy a method of collecting coins as bashing bricks with your head : - )
I was thoroughly pleased with the performance of the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player and a video game console, and thus felt that the choice to get this over a standalone player was already justified, regardless of how much use I got from the PS3's other features. One of those features, however, is actually pretty cool and might get a fair amount of use, and that's the ability to stream content from a "media server". There are many programs out there, free and not free, that can be used to stream files from your PC. You load this program, you point it at a directory where you happen to store video, audio, pictures, whatever, and then other devices such as a PS3 have this media available to them. I personally tried 3 different programs: SimpleServer (free), Nero Media Home (technically not free), and TVersity (free). Here is what I found:
- SimpleServer: Well, it lives up to its name, its very very simple. Just add the files, give the share a name, and go. The PS3 had no problems finding the share or playing the files, it was pretty painless. The SimpleServer GUI was incredibly slow, though. First, it took several hours for the program to initially process my music directory (6900+ songs). Plus, once it was added, the interface would lag insufferably anytime I tried to select a song to do anything. Also, I believe this program was lacking any kind of auto-update, so if I added any new music to the repository, I would have to manually add it to SimpleServer. This is not cool. (I must admit I do not know for sure that this was the case, as the interface was far to slow for me to deal with. But from what I saw, I believe this is the case).
- Nero Media Home: This one had real potential, but for now I will have to throw this one in the "low down damn dirty shame" pile. Nero features a utility called "Nero Scout". You give Scout a list of directories to monitor, and it will periodically recursively scan these looking for added or removed files, so it can update the listing it makes available. OK, one point for Nero. Plus, this program had an option to start the server automatically when the computer is turned on, logging in NOT REQUIRED. Very nice, another point to Nero. However, when I added my music directory, it literally took Scout 18 HOURS to perform its initial scan. Take one point back. From the PS3 side of things, when I browsed through the music, the album art embedded in the mp3's was visible next to each song listing. Nice, one point back to Nero. Actually receiving and displaying the artwork took FOREVER, though, and anytime I chose a song to play, it would literally sit there for about a minute before the song would play. Skip to the next song, and same thing, sit for a minute or so before any audio. This kind of lag is simply atrocious, minus several thousand points from Nero. Maybe there is a setting I had that for some reason was causing this issue (if anyone knows, let me know!), or maybe they'll have a bug fix or something in the future. If so, I would love to give this another go. But until then, this one is just a low down damn dirty shame.
- TVersity: The GUI for this one originally turned me off, but in the end this one seems to perform pretty darn well, and has a fairly easy to use interface. This program also features a setting to start the server automatically when the computer is turned on, again no logging in required. Plus, with TVersity I could specify when and how often to re-scan the directory looking for file changes. Very nice indeed. Also, adding my music repository was MUCH faster with this one. I didn't accurately time it, but I believe it took less than an hour (like maybe 30-45 minutes?) to initially scan and index my entire directory. At the PS3, all music was available immediately when I selected it to play, no lag whatsoever. The only slight downside is that TVersity does not seem to make the album artwork available like Nero did. This would be a nice little feature, but I think I'll live.
OK, well I've sung the praises enough. There must be something to complain about! Well, OK, there are a couple things I will mention:
- No stereo fill: I will admit, I was slightly disappointed that the PS3 does not seem to support any kind of "stereo fill" or "channel fill" function when playing back stereo audio. For those unfamiliar, this means that if you are physically set up for a multi-channel format (such as Dolby 5.1 or 7.1) but are playing a source with only left/right audio (such as a CD or mp3), a device that supports stereo fill will play the left channel through all left speakers (front, surround, and back), the right channel through all right speakers (front, surround, and back), and will mix the two channels for the center channel speaker. This a very nice feature. My stereo receiver does this. If I'm watching a DVD (or now Blu-Ray!) or if the cable content happens to be surround sound, it will play it as such. If I'm playing a CD or if the cable content is stereo only, it will go ahead and play that content through all the surrounding speakers. Its great. The PS3, however, always outputs a multi-channel audio output, so my receiver always sees it as surround data, and plays all channels out their respective speakers. The problem is that if the PS3 is playing stereo audio, it ONLY puts that audio in the left and right channels, and it simply plays silence (or no data at all) through the other channels. My receiver has no way of knowing this, it is simply playing multiple channels like its being told to do. The PS3 itself needs a setting to tell it, "hey, for a stereo source, play left out ALL left channels, play right out ALL right channels, and mix it for the center channel". It has to be done at the PS3. The nice thing is that, if Sony decides to support this, it should simply take a firmware update to add. So there is hope.
- The heat: There is no getting around it, this thing is hot. And I mean physically hot, when the PS3 is on and the fans kick in, the area a few feet in front of the unit is noticeably warmer. Now, how much is still uncertain. The past few days, our A/C unit upstairs has been on the fritz and needs an evaporator coil replacement this week, so it is possible that the PS3 is spitting out a bit more heat than usual due to this unusual circumstance. But, my guess is that the thing will always be a bit warmer than most devices. Nothing a firmware update can do about this. (Keep in mind, I'm comparing to other home theater type equipment. Its still not as hot as a reasonably powerful PC.)
So when does Ironman come out???
Monday, June 16, 2008
Archived Concert Reviews A-finished....
OK, that's the end of my stretch of archived concert reviews. Any posts from here on out should pertain to the here and now.....
Friday, June 13, 2008
Archived Concert Reviews A-comin'....
One of the reasons I thought I might want a blog was so that I had a place to post concert and album reviews, something dumb that I occasionally like to do. Previously, I've always posted this kind of thing to toolarmy.com, which is the fan site for the band Tool. I've been thinking lately that if for some reason I'd like to hang on to these posts, I may want to archive them someplace where I've got a bit more control. I didn't want to muck up our family blog with this kind of stuff, so I figured this may be as good a place as any.
I highly doubt anyone is ever going to want to read this crap, other than myself during my more wistful, reflective moments. Heh. But here we go, anyway.
The next several (like 15-20 or so) posts are going to be re-posts of concert reviews I've done over the past few years, purely for archival purposes. I wish the blogging tool would let me retroactively "post date" the posts, so that they would appear to actually be from that time, but no such luck. Oh well, no biggie.
So, if you happen to read this, and are looking for any kind of new and exciting current event type 411, you may want to skip this upcoming deluge. On the other hand, if you feel like perusing through my concert-going career over the past few years, go for it and enjoy....
I highly doubt anyone is ever going to want to read this crap, other than myself during my more wistful, reflective moments. Heh. But here we go, anyway.
The next several (like 15-20 or so) posts are going to be re-posts of concert reviews I've done over the past few years, purely for archival purposes. I wish the blogging tool would let me retroactively "post date" the posts, so that they would appear to actually be from that time, but no such luck. Oh well, no biggie.
So, if you happen to read this, and are looking for any kind of new and exciting current event type 411, you may want to skip this upcoming deluge. On the other hand, if you feel like perusing through my concert-going career over the past few years, go for it and enjoy....
Thursday, June 12, 2008
New Blog....
Alrighty, so I figured I'd go ahead and get a blog setup over here. Not sure why, maybe I'll post concert reviews here, or jubilant ramblings when my teams win, or whatever. Or maybe this blog will just sit here collecting dust.
Either way, I think every great blog should start with a great photo. So here you go:
Either way, I think every great blog should start with a great photo. So here you go:
Friday, April 11, 2008
The Mars Volta @ Austin Music Hall (04.10.2008)
I went and checked out The Mars Volta last night in Austin. I had seen them a few years back when Frances The Mute came out, and they had torn the place up pretty good, so I was pretty jazzed. They went on at about 8:20pm, and finished at just about 10:55pm, so it was a good solid just over 2 and a half hours of jamming. Overall, it ended being a good show, I was definitely not disappointed.
Here is the setlist:
01. Roulette Dares
02. Viscera Eyes
03. Wax Simulacra
04. Goliath
05. Ouroboros
06. Tetragrammaton
07. Agadez
08. Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus
09. Aberinkula
10. Drunkship Of Lanterns
Mighty fine setlist, although I will say I would probably axe "Viscera Eyes". It is my least favorite TMV song of all time, or maybe my second least favorite behind "The Soothsayer". But that's my only minor complaint, they still played it with gusto and it was still fun to watch. The new material sounded great. I was particularly impressed with "Agadez". I like that song well enough on the album, but live they really did a great job with it.
The sound was pretty good, the bass and drums especially came through flawlessly. Cedric's vocals sounded pretty damn good the whole show too, although it sounded like they were still adjusting his mic a little bit during "Roulette Dares". The keys, horns, and guitars would usually come through pretty clean, although there were a few moments where everything was going on at the same time, and it all kind of washed out into a wall of noise. With that many dudes on stage going to town on an instrument (or 2, in some cases), I'm sure its a difficult thing to avoid.
Visuals were good. The backdrops were absolutely gorgeous, best I've seen outside of the Tool shows. The lighting was well done, and complemented the frantic energy of the set very well. Particularly cool was this rotating cylindrical light assembly they had at the back of the stage, which they lit up towards the end of the show.
As for the performances, almost every song was modified in some way, whether it be with an extended intro or noodling off into the weeds in the middle of the song. In particular, "Tetragrammaton", "Agadez", "Cygnus", and "Aberinkula" had long drawn out intros, where Cedric would sing some of the lyrics to those songs while the band played some cool, chilled out grooves. They would do that for a few minutes, and then they would launch into the song full-bore. I liked it, it was like we got an alternate, mellower version of the song, followed by the original version of the song. I thought it was a cool idea, and that it worked pretty well. As for the excursions into wankery, "Roulette Dares", "Goliath", "Cygnus", and "Drunkship" all featured some pretty extensive noodling. A couple times it seemed to go on maybe a minute or two longer than I had the patience for, but for the most part it was all pretty good stuff. I can't remember for sure which song it was on, maybe "Goliath", but at one point Omar and the guy on sax went back and forth like they were dueling. Omar would rip off 10-15 seconds of some wailing guitar work and then look over at the sax guy, who would then go nuts blowing his lungs out to match him. It was pretty cool.
Energy wise, the whole damn show had a crazy pace. Thomas Pridgen is a madman, that is the only way to describe him. The guy must lose about 15lbs every show. The only minor gripe I would have is that he seems completely unable to slow himself down ever. During the slower parts of some of the older songs, he would still keep a bit of a frantic pace going. It still worked fine, it was just a little unexpected. But he's fun as hell to watch, he looks like he's just having an absolute blast playing with this band. And Cedric, jesus I don't know where he finds the energy. I heard a quote one time, where someone described James Brown as the only performer who could "out-dance the audience". I think that applies to Cedric as well. I was about 30 feet or so from the stage, in the middle of what I like to call "the tidal wave", where people aren't really moshing or anything, its just so packed and everyone is jumping and grooving and you get kinda knocked around and pushed off your feet a bit. Well for the first few songs, everyone was matching Cedric's antics. The more he ran around and jumped and climbed, the more energetic the crowd got. About two thirds of the way through, Cedric was still bouncing off the walls, but as I looked around people were definitely wearing out. Everyone still went crazy during the faster parts of the songs, but at some of the mellower times you could see everyone collectively catching their breath. By the time I left, I felt like I had just finished a hockey game or something. Awesome show + kickass workout. Sweet!
Anyway, overall it was a great time. Its kinda funny, because typically when I go see a show, part of how I judge the performance is how tight the band is. The Mars Volta is a bit of an enigma in this regard. They are not "tight" whatsoever. The timing is all a bit off, the guitar work is fairly sloppy, and Cedric seems to decide at random whether he'll cram the lyrics in or just wail. But it all works, its awesome. It all has this incredibly free-flowing feeling, and if you just go with it, its an absolute blast.
Here is the setlist:
01. Roulette Dares
02. Viscera Eyes
03. Wax Simulacra
04. Goliath
05. Ouroboros
06. Tetragrammaton
07. Agadez
08. Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus
09. Aberinkula
10. Drunkship Of Lanterns
Mighty fine setlist, although I will say I would probably axe "Viscera Eyes". It is my least favorite TMV song of all time, or maybe my second least favorite behind "The Soothsayer". But that's my only minor complaint, they still played it with gusto and it was still fun to watch. The new material sounded great. I was particularly impressed with "Agadez". I like that song well enough on the album, but live they really did a great job with it.
The sound was pretty good, the bass and drums especially came through flawlessly. Cedric's vocals sounded pretty damn good the whole show too, although it sounded like they were still adjusting his mic a little bit during "Roulette Dares". The keys, horns, and guitars would usually come through pretty clean, although there were a few moments where everything was going on at the same time, and it all kind of washed out into a wall of noise. With that many dudes on stage going to town on an instrument (or 2, in some cases), I'm sure its a difficult thing to avoid.
Visuals were good. The backdrops were absolutely gorgeous, best I've seen outside of the Tool shows. The lighting was well done, and complemented the frantic energy of the set very well. Particularly cool was this rotating cylindrical light assembly they had at the back of the stage, which they lit up towards the end of the show.
As for the performances, almost every song was modified in some way, whether it be with an extended intro or noodling off into the weeds in the middle of the song. In particular, "Tetragrammaton", "Agadez", "Cygnus", and "Aberinkula" had long drawn out intros, where Cedric would sing some of the lyrics to those songs while the band played some cool, chilled out grooves. They would do that for a few minutes, and then they would launch into the song full-bore. I liked it, it was like we got an alternate, mellower version of the song, followed by the original version of the song. I thought it was a cool idea, and that it worked pretty well. As for the excursions into wankery, "Roulette Dares", "Goliath", "Cygnus", and "Drunkship" all featured some pretty extensive noodling. A couple times it seemed to go on maybe a minute or two longer than I had the patience for, but for the most part it was all pretty good stuff. I can't remember for sure which song it was on, maybe "Goliath", but at one point Omar and the guy on sax went back and forth like they were dueling. Omar would rip off 10-15 seconds of some wailing guitar work and then look over at the sax guy, who would then go nuts blowing his lungs out to match him. It was pretty cool.
Energy wise, the whole damn show had a crazy pace. Thomas Pridgen is a madman, that is the only way to describe him. The guy must lose about 15lbs every show. The only minor gripe I would have is that he seems completely unable to slow himself down ever. During the slower parts of some of the older songs, he would still keep a bit of a frantic pace going. It still worked fine, it was just a little unexpected. But he's fun as hell to watch, he looks like he's just having an absolute blast playing with this band. And Cedric, jesus I don't know where he finds the energy. I heard a quote one time, where someone described James Brown as the only performer who could "out-dance the audience". I think that applies to Cedric as well. I was about 30 feet or so from the stage, in the middle of what I like to call "the tidal wave", where people aren't really moshing or anything, its just so packed and everyone is jumping and grooving and you get kinda knocked around and pushed off your feet a bit. Well for the first few songs, everyone was matching Cedric's antics. The more he ran around and jumped and climbed, the more energetic the crowd got. About two thirds of the way through, Cedric was still bouncing off the walls, but as I looked around people were definitely wearing out. Everyone still went crazy during the faster parts of the songs, but at some of the mellower times you could see everyone collectively catching their breath. By the time I left, I felt like I had just finished a hockey game or something. Awesome show + kickass workout. Sweet!
Anyway, overall it was a great time. Its kinda funny, because typically when I go see a show, part of how I judge the performance is how tight the band is. The Mars Volta is a bit of an enigma in this regard. They are not "tight" whatsoever. The timing is all a bit off, the guitar work is fairly sloppy, and Cedric seems to decide at random whether he'll cram the lyrics in or just wail. But it all works, its awesome. It all has this incredibly free-flowing feeling, and if you just go with it, its an absolute blast.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Tool @ Frank Erwin Center, Austin (11.14.2007)
First show of this leg of the tour, last night in Austin:
01. Jambi
02. Stinkfist (extended)
03. Forty-Six & 2
04. Schism (extended)
05. Rosetta Stoned
06. Flood (synth intro + normal building intro)
07. Wings For Marie/10,000 Days
08. Lateralus (extended drums)
09. Vicarious
01. Jambi
02. Stinkfist (extended)
03. Forty-Six & 2
04. Schism (extended)
05. Rosetta Stoned
06. Flood (synth intro + normal building intro)
07. Wings For Marie/10,000 Days
08. Lateralus (extended drums)
09. Vicarious
I'm normally a bit more verbose, but after the past couple weeks I'm a bit reviewed out. And while I agree they are amazingly performed, Tool shows don't really contain any surprises these days, so there's not a whole lot new to add that we don't already know. So I'll just add a few notes here:
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- Might be the best sounding arena Tool show I've been to. Adam's guitar sounded incredible. Maynard's mic could have been turned up a bit.
- No appreciable difference in the visuals. Maybe some slightly different videos at some parts, but maybe not, I don't really remember. Same lasers, same backdrop, same three moving circular light assemblies.
- Maynard kinda killed the momentum of "Rosetta Stoned" at the beginning by flying through the machine-gun style vocals way too fast. He would get through each verse really quickly, and then have to just stand there while the music caught up. It made the beginning of that song really choppy. I don't remember this really being an issue the other couple times I've seen them play this song.
- Long synth stuff leading into the "Flood" intro was pretty damn cool. I had only heard "Flood" live once before (on the Lateralus tour), and on that one they just jumped directly into the meat of the song, no intro. It was great having the full song plus the synth intro stuff. That song really kicks ass live.
- I'd gladly trade the extended drum stuff during "Lateralus" for another full song. That being said, "Lateralus" is still quite possibly the best live song I've ever seen.
- It is absolutely true that watching a Tool show with someone seeing Tool for the first time really elevates the entire experience.
=========================
Enjoy the tour, guys....
=========================
- Might be the best sounding arena Tool show I've been to. Adam's guitar sounded incredible. Maynard's mic could have been turned up a bit.
- No appreciable difference in the visuals. Maybe some slightly different videos at some parts, but maybe not, I don't really remember. Same lasers, same backdrop, same three moving circular light assemblies.
- Maynard kinda killed the momentum of "Rosetta Stoned" at the beginning by flying through the machine-gun style vocals way too fast. He would get through each verse really quickly, and then have to just stand there while the music caught up. It made the beginning of that song really choppy. I don't remember this really being an issue the other couple times I've seen them play this song.
- Long synth stuff leading into the "Flood" intro was pretty damn cool. I had only heard "Flood" live once before (on the Lateralus tour), and on that one they just jumped directly into the meat of the song, no intro. It was great having the full song plus the synth intro stuff. That song really kicks ass live.
- I'd gladly trade the extended drum stuff during "Lateralus" for another full song. That being said, "Lateralus" is still quite possibly the best live song I've ever seen.
- It is absolutely true that watching a Tool show with someone seeing Tool for the first time really elevates the entire experience.
=========================
Enjoy the tour, guys....
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