(10.04.2011) Opeth @ Stubb's

I've been dreading posting about this, because quite frankly this was the most frustrating show I've been to in a long time. But, I feel I need to at least get the setlist posted, along with a couple comments. The show really doesn't deserve much more than that.

Katatonia opened. I had heard of them before, but never really heard much of their stuff. I was looking forward to them, since they have a pretty strong following and have overall been pretty well received critically. First song was pretty good, second was OK, and after that I realized that pretty much every song sounded the same. Not bad, but not remarkable. I have no idea how representative that set was of their catalog.

OK, Opeth's set:

01. The Devil's Orchard
02. I Feel The Dark
03. Face Of Melinda
04. Porcelain Heart
05. Pyre
06. The Throat Of Winter
07. Patterns In The Ivy II
08. Closure (preceded by Harvest teaser)
09. Slither
10. A Fair Judgement
11. Hex Omega
(break)
12. Folklore

OK, let's get the obvious out of the way: NOTHING HEAVY. ZERO. What??? Where the hell is the Opeth I know and love? I understand that they've gone a different direction with their most recent album, and I can respect that. I've actually grown to like the album quite a bit. But to completely abandon the heavy stuff boggles my mind, especially when they've previously always been very good about representing their work as a whole when they perform live. This time, power cords were few and far between, active drum work was sparse, and don't even bother looking for the death metal growl. It felt like a damn Indigo Girls show.

The shame is that, on a song by song basis, I really like most of the songs they chose to play. It was just the way they strung them together, the show never built any kind of momentum. I guess maybe if I had known ahead of time how their song selection was going to be, my expectation would have changed and it might have felt less infuriating. However, nothing could have prepared me for how much Akerfeldt was going to ramble on and on between the songs. Usually he's fairly chatty and funny, but this time it was way too much. Any time they might have started to pick up a little bit of steam, for example with the upbeat romping "Slither", the energy was quickly killed by his irritating blabbing. The pace of the show was just horrendous, enough that it unfortunately put a negative spin on the whole performance.

So, let's try to dig for some positives here. Like I said, I did like pretty much every song on an individual basis. There was a pretty heavy emphasis on the latest album, Heritage, accounting for 5 of the 12 songs, including my favorites in "I Feel The Dark", "The Devil's Orchard", and "Folklore". I loved hearing "Hex Omega", and "A Fair Judgment" is always a great choice. I was particularly surprised to hear them play "Patterns In The Ivy II", from the bonus disc of the special edition of Blackwater Park. "Face Of Melinda" and "Porcelain Heart" were OK, I think those songs are decent, but I could have done without them. In my mind, they signified the beginning of the disappointment in the show.

As far as the production, the sound was actually pristine, the best I've heard yet at an Opeth show. Granted, its tough to compare since the requirements for this show were scaled back. Its probably a lot easier when you don't have to worry about bass drum rolls, heavy distorted guitar, and heavy metal growls all washing into a wall of sound. But, to give them credit, everything was balanced very nicely, and Akerfeldt's vocals sounded incredible.

On the whole, while on paper it seems like a different, refreshing Opeth set, in reality it turned out to be mainly an exercise in frustration. And on a deeper level, this show bothered me far more than their major stylistic change on the latest album. Feeling the need to move on and progress creatively, I can totally understand, and respect. No true artist wants to get mired in creating the same thing over and over again, they want to master a broader skill set, produce a body of work that is diverse and varied. But this show seemed to make a more disturbing statement, that they not only wish to move on with their new creations, but want to distance themselves from their previous core aesthetic and material altogether. Perhaps that take on it is more doom-and-gloom than is warranted by one show, but its the one that that keeps stabbing at me in the wake of this disappointment.

The next time Opeth comes to town, I'll still be there, hoping to be rocked. But I'll be much more cautious in my expectations, and in my optimism.

Opeth - Heritage

01. Heritage (2:05)

02. The Devil's Orchard (6:39)

03. I Feel The Dark (6:40)

04. Slither (4:03)

05. Nepenthe (5:40)

06. Haxprocess (6:57)

07. Famine (8:32)

08. The Lines In My Hand (3:48)

09. Folklore (8:19)

10. Marrow Of The Earth (4:18)

11. Pyre (5:34)

12. Face In The Snow (4:04)

Seeing as I'm catching these guys live at Stubb's tonight, its only appropriate that I finally get off my ass and try to review this thing. I've been grappling with this album for a couple weeks now, and I've been putting off reviewing it because quite frankly I've been uncomfortable with the idea of committing myself to rigid opinion of it. Not something that usually bothers me.

To say that Heritage, Opeth's most recent offering, is polarizing would be the understatement of the year. Gone are the death metal vocals, the blast beats, the 10+ minute bone crushing opuses (opi?). In their place we now have swirling mellotrons, jazz-infused rhythm and percussion, even a flute makes an appearance. The clean vocals, which had taken 9 albums to work up to even a 50% share with the growl on the last album, 2008's Watershed, now reign supreme. What exactly in the hell is going on here?

That's not to say that this change is totally out of the blue. Over the past few albums, Opeth has continually worked toward a more and more progressive brand of metal. More mellow interludes, improved (and by now quite outstanding) clean vocals, more complex rhythm. Its just that up until now, Opeth's stylistic shift has been more about gradual change. Yes, a few years back they did produce Damnation, a 100% mellow, clean-vocal album. But that was tagged as more of a brief left-turn, an opportunity to do something completely different, almost a novelty. It was easy to accept, with the band's all-but-spelled-out assurance that the future still looked, more or less, heavy as shit.

In the case of Heritage, however, the stylistic upheaval seems to have a bit more gravitas. Strike that, a LOT more gravitas. Opeth is fully committed to this new sound, and in fact they seem majorly reinvigorated by the multitude of different directions available to them now. A sense of musical liberation absolutely permeates this album, and its this quality specifically that turned this particular skeptic into fanboy #1.

My first exposure to this album, along with pretty much everyone else, was the pre-album-release single "The Devil's Orchard". I thought it was OK, nothing particularly special, which in Opeth terms means I was essentially devastated. I wanted to be blown away, I wanted Opeth's newest track to pull me in, destroy me, spit me out, and leave me begging for more. I was left grasping at the notion that "The Devil's Orchard" was surely the oddball, and that the rest of the album would surely restore my faith. That idea was quickly dashed once I finally got my hands on the full album. I struggled through it the first time, unsure of exactly what I was listening to. Second time, same result. Third time through, not much better. At this point, I was starting to lose hope. There were a couple tracks that stood out as "good", a few as "tolerable", and a couple as "I never want to hear that again." But as tough as the going was, there was something, some quality about the album, that made me want to keep listening. While I was having trouble with the songs themselves, I was definitely caught by the organic sound of the album, and the sense of liberation that went along with it. It was the sound of artists creating exactly what they wanted to create, fans and critics be damned. And this made all the difference.

Massive understatement #2: this album is a grower.

Somewhere around the 5th or 6th time through, it all began to click. "The Devil's Orchard" had begun to feel pretty good, and "The Lines In My Hands" was definitely striking me the right way. I was also really digging the mellow bonus track "Face In The Snow". But these tracks are not particularly challenging, the former being a pretty straightforward rocker and the latter being a classic Opeth-style mellow number, complete with Akerfeldt's best crooning on the album. It was with "I Feel The Dark" that the tide really began to shift for the album as a whole. The acoustic intro with layered piano and mellotron, leading into a prominent plodding Mendez bassline, suddenly disrupted at about 3 minutes by a bout of heavy organ and guitar distortion, leading into alternating sections of acoustic twiddling and slow crunchy guitar, before fading out with some more layered mellotron, piano, and acoustic guitar. It all fit, impeccably. I began seeing it in the other tracks after that, and suddenly it was like I was listening to a whole new album.

As far as the individual tracks go, I would say that my favorites are "The Devil's Orchard" (ironic, I know), "I Feel The Dark", "Folklore", "Famine", and "Face In The Snow". "Heritage" and "Marrow Of The Earth" are short instrumentals, the former a beautifully executed instrumental piano piece, the latter consisting primarily of some quirky acoustic guitar. "Slither" is a fun romping ode to the late great Ronnie James Dio, and is probably the most out-of-place track on the album. "The Lines In My Hand" is the probably the easiest song to identify with for lovers of older Opeth, sounding a bit like a cut-down clean-vocal "Baying Of The Hounds". "Famine" is probably the most experimental track on the album, a sprawling prog-fest featuring guest percussionist Alex Acuna and some interesting flute placement, some cheesy and obvious (intro) and some fantastic and not-immediately-obvious (layered in toward the end of the song). "Nepenthe" and "Haxprocess" are really the only songs that I'm still working on. They're both pretty slow and deliberate, "Nepenthe" featuring an odd vocal melody that I can't quite come to terms with yet, and "Haxprocess" sounding very much like something left over from the Damnation recording sessions. Both songs may very well end up being tracks that I skip over, but, as with the rest of the album, both possess a subtle allure that keeps me listening, trying to find that hook or layer to pull me in.

Overall, I would say that this is probably Opeth's most ambitious work, and absolutely their bravest. Is it my favorite? Well, its still sinking in with me, but I feel pretty comfortable saying that no, its not ever going to be even close to my favorite. But its damn well earned my respect, and has bolstered my excitement for what this band can achieve in the future. According to Akerfeldt in the "Making Of Heritage" film that came with the album, typically everyone in the band is completely mentally and physically drained by the end of the recording process. With Heritage, this is the first time they actually feel renewed and excited about a new direction.

I can dig it.

90 Days Later

So, I'm a bit slow posting about this, but it seems that life is just far too busy these days for pointless blog posts.

I yoinked my right shoulder pretty damn bad last September, in an accidental collision during one of my "non-contact" inline hockey games. Yeah, go me. Turned out it was separated pretty bad. At the AC joint, the clavicle stuck out the better part of an inch, which could be seen even through a heavy sweatshirt. ER doc said it was minor Grade 2 (out of 5), meaning the ligaments were a bit torn but not severed. He said they should heal on their own after a few weeks, so I headed out thinking I had dodged a bullet.

Well, I guess there's a reason this guy is a night shift ER doc and not an orthopedist. After a few weeks the pain had subsided a bit but it was still pretty sore, and visibly the joint hadn't pulled back together at all. So I went in to see an actual orthopedic surgeon. After a far more thorough gamut of X-rays (weighted, non-weighted, left shoulder and right shoulder for comparison), the doc told me I actually had a severe Grade 3 separation, meaning both the acromioclavicular and coracoclavicular ligmants were completely severed. Instead of the typical 6-7mm separation between coracoid and clavicle, mine was 19mm. Translation: surgery for Tedo.

I guess the upside of all this is that the surgeon was TOTALLY JAZZED. This guy fixes all sorts of knee and shoulder injuries all the time, with Monday and Wednesday of every week completely dedicated to surgeries all day long. But apparently the procedure I needed done he only gets to do 2-3 times a year. Its called a modified Weaver-Dunn, and it includes all sorts of cool stuff like drilling holes through bones and pulling cadaver tendons through said holes. They also lop off the last 1-2cm of the clavicle, apparently just for fun. Anyway, a more detailed description can be found here (although instead of the cord, imagine a chunk of hamstring tendon from a dead guy).

So, the deed was done Wednesday, December 8th. Doc said the timeline for full recovery would probably be about 6 months. The first 6 weeks my whole right arm had to be immobilized, which completely sucked. No picking up the kids, no driving my car, no exercise whatsoever, etc. I'm now at 13 weeks, and the progress since has been excellent. I've got most of my range of motion back, and normal everyday activities are no problem. Doc cleared me to start running again 3 weeks ago, and today cleared me to start back with weights. But most importantly, he cleared me to return to hockey in 8 weeks!! Perfect timing, as the next season begins in 9.

All in all, its been interesting, albeit a pretty sucky brand of interesting. Hey, but at least I got a sweet scar out of it.

Here is the pretty dramatic before-and-after comparison:

(2010.08.28) Ween @ Stubb's, Austin

OK, its been 5-6 weeks since this show. I've been busy as hell, and really I don't know what more I could write about Ween that I haven't already written. The Boys of Boognish once again plowed through Stubb's, and as always left the place in gloriously euphoric shambles. I know I'm totally phoning this one in, but I have to at least note the setlist, for posterity.

01. HIV Song

02. The Golden Eel

03. Baby Bitch

04. Bananas And Blow

05. Piss Up A Rope

06. Learnin' To Love

07. My Own Bare Hands

08. Take Me Away

09. Transdermal Celebration

10. Gabrielle

11. Stroker Ace

12. Voodoo Lady (Prince's Kiss in the middle)

13. Mutilated Lips

14. Buckingham Green

15. Booze Me Up And Get Me High

16. Touch My Tooter

17. Mr. Richard Smoker

18. I'll Be Your Johnny On The Spot

19. Even If You Don't

20. Freedom Of '76 (w/ Sarah Jones)

21. Let's Dance (David Bowie cover)

22. Your Party

23. Woman And Man

24. The Mollusk

25. Spinal Meningitis

(break)

26. Fiesta

27. Sorry Charlie

28. Ohio (Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young cover)

29. Roses Are Free

Damn good set. I mean DAMN good set. I found the David Bowie cover to be pretty lame, but aside from that the main set was just about as perfect as it could be. I was a little down on the encore though, it didn't really blow me away. "Roses Are Free" is a fantastic song, but I would have preferred a more epic closer, like what they usually deliver.

Great show though. Can't wait until my next Ween encounter.

Again, apologies for the total lack of effort on this one, I just don't have it in me right now.

(2010.08.18) Rodrigo Y Gabriela @ The Greek Theatre, L.A.

OK, the relevance of this post is thinning out with each passing day, particularly because I'm seeing these guys again tomorrow night at Stubb's in Austin. There's been so much going on this summer that reviews have firmly taken a back seat. So, let's crank this thing out.

The wife and kids and I took a trip to Los Angeles for my birthday a couple weeks ago. As luck would have it, the maniacal acoustic duo of Rodrigo Y Gabriela happened to be playing the Greek Theatre our first night there. We had become fairly big fans with their 2006 self-titled debut album, and since the release of 2009's magnificent follow-up 11:11, I had been practically foaming at the mouth to see them live. We enlisted my wife's brother and his friend to hit the show with us. After a healthy helping of Maker's Mark and Coke to shake off the long day of flight-hopping and child-wrangling, we headed out into the perfect, cool Southern California evening and made our way to the venue.

After snagging a couple drinks and a bottle of wine (seriously, ladies?) from the concession, we sought out our seats and took stock of the venue. I had heard of the Greek Theatre before, but had never been there. It was very nice, nestled within the trees on a bit of a hill. Comparing it to other legendary outdoor venues, it had a serene coziness about it, rather than the awesome majesty of Red Rocks or the sweaty, dripping funk of character of Stubb's. The trees surrounding all sides of the theater gave it a sense of peaceful isolation, which complemented the cool night air very nicely.

Anyway, after an opener that I didn't really pay much attention to, Rodrigo and Gabriela slipped in from the sides, strapped up, and went to work. Here's the set:

01. Intro (Very similar to the "OK Tokyo" intro from the Live In Japan Album)

02. Hanuman

03. Triveni (Impromptu jamming by Gab while Rod replaced a broken string)

04. Diablo Rojo

05. Satori

06. Logos/Santo Domingo

07. Chac Mool/Hora Zero

08. Gabriela Solo

09. Juan Loco

10. Orion (with Shankar and Trujillo)

11. Volcano Jam (with Shankar and Trujillo)

12. Rodrigo Solo (Pulling Teeth!!!)

13. Savitri

14. Mediterranean Sundance (Al di Meola Solo/Jamming)

15. Tamacun

(break)

16. Buster Voodoo

As hoped, this show completely blew me away! Listening to their albums, you obviously get a good sense of RyG's technical proficiency, but seeing them live is a total shock to the system. The awe I experience listening to their material is now trumped only by my eyes' complete disbelief while actually seeing it happen in front of me. Rodrigo's fingers fly across the frets of his guitar like some deranged, frantic crab on crystal meth. One moment he's delicately plucking out a slow, isolated, moody melody, and the next he's shredding through some 100mph arpeggio-laden riffage that I can hardly keep up with. And Gabriela, I don't even know how to describe what she's doing, it makes absolutely no sense. When I first heard RyG, and particularly after hearing their second album, I figured there HAD to be some third person in there, lending a hand with the percussive elements. Nope. Nyet. Nuh-uh. All while ripping through those head-spinning rhythms, in those fractions of fractions of seconds between striking one string and striking another, she's absolutely beating the hell out of the body of her guitar with her thumb, pinky, and whatever other part of her hand that happens to be free. Who needs a drummer when you can just shatter the laws of physics? It was utterly jaw-dropping, my brain still hurts to think about it.

In total, they played for right around two hours, maybe a little more. The set was very comprehensive, covering probably about 75% of their studio work. Their original material was more often than not performed pretty true to the original recording, though they did manage to work some mid-number jamming in here and there (particularly when Rodrigo broke a string during "Triveni" not long into the show; apparently he was just as excited about this show as I was!). They did throw me for a big loop by sliding from "Chac Mool" into "Hora Zero" instead of "Atman". While I do love "Hora Zero" and the intro worked very well, it did put an exclamation point on what I thought was the only downer of the show: they did NOT play "Atman"!! This bummed me out because its pretty easily my favorite RyG song, and quite frankly I was a bit shocked at the omission of what I consider to be the best song they've written yet. But no matter, in general the show kicked way too much ass to dwell on this one detail.

In addition to their own original studio material, the show was loaded with all kinds of other surprises. Shankar and Robert Trujillo joined the duo to perform "Orion" (in its entirety!), which led into a fairly lengthy jam session, which ultimately ended with Shankar wailing incomprehensibly into the microphone. It was a bit tedious toward the end once Shankar started up with the vocals (Note: a RyG show should NEVER include vocals), but overall it was interesting enough. And toward the end of the show, guitar legend Al Di Meola made a special appearance. RyG gave up the spotlight and watched like kids in a toy store as Di Meola picked his way through a winding 10-minute-or-so rendition of Mediterranean Sundance, after which the duo joined in for some 3-guitar jamming madness. While I myself am not that familiar with Di Meola, the obvious excitement radiating from Rodrigo and Gabriela at this chance to play with one of their idols was infectious, and really made for a special moment. And as always, both Rodrigo and Gabriela got an opportunity for some solo jamming. Gabriela dazzled the crowd with some Les-Claypool-on-speed rhythm funkiness. Rodrigo on the other hand, played around with a beautiful slower melody, carefully plucking out and slightly varying the same repeated tune for a couple minutes, before launching into my highlight of the night: a full-on performance of Metallica's "Pulling Teeth"!!! I absolutely lost it at this point, leaping to my feet and screaming "Pulling Teeth?! Are you f%$&ing kidding me??!!!" Which was a bit awkward seeing as the whole theater was in a seated, restful state at the moment. (I saw about 4 other people in attendance who shared my incredulous excitement). Anyway, Rodrigo absolutely slayed it, and I loved every second of it.

Not to be lost in the glory of the setlist and the enthusiasm of the performance, the presentation of the show was exceptionally well done. Sonically, it was flawless. The deeper tones of the rhythm and the higher lead notes were all pristine, and bounced warmly around the venue. Gabriela's unconventional percussive elements were also nicely captured, lending support to the rhythm without overtaking it. Visually, I was pleasantly surprised how much the show had to offer. On either side of the stage was a large video monitor, which would alternate between close-ups of the performers. (It still didn't help me figure out how the hell Gab does what she does, if anything it just pushed my brain further over the edge). At the back of the stage was a translucent back-drop, used for projection. For the most part, the images they projected up were static, and would be up for a few songs at a time. But, at a couple points in the show they would project up there the same video image that was on the video monitors, except that it would be more fuzzy and grayed out. The effect was incredible, nothing cooler than normal life-size Rodrigo laying into a solo in front of gigantic 25-foot-tall Rodrigo.

Anyway, the show was every bit as enjoyable as I hoped it would be, and then some. I'll definitely try to see these guys whenever they come to town. Wait a minute, that's tomorrow. Oh yeah, here we go!!

Two Years

Two years ago today, I had to choose between this:


and this:


Naturally, I went with the better hair.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Leili!!!

Worst. Jersey. Ever.

Last week I played in a hockey tournament here in Austin, and part of the registration fee covered jerseys for the team. I'm always down for a new jersey, especially when its supposed to look pretty cool, like this:

The week before the tournament, however, we got word that the lead time on the jerseys was several weeks, so we wouldn't be able to get the cool jerseys in time. Instead, the owner of the rink would have to improvise. I figured whatever, a jersey is a jersey.

Little did I know how horribly, horribly wrong things could go.

As a Red Wings fan, there is one team above all others that I absolutely detest: the Colorado Avalanche. The Wings/Avalanche rivalry was the best in all of pro sports for about a decade. Blood was shed, punches were thrown, feelings were hurt, etc. More often than not, the road to the Stanley Cup went through either Denver or Detroit. And through all this, there was one man, one gutless, turtling, sucker-punching, cheap-shot artist that was hated more than any other: Claude Lemieux, #22. To this day, I hate him more than any other professional athlete ever. If I heard he had been hit by a bus, I'd probably just say "Huh...how about that", and then casually change the channel and move on with my life.

So, imagine my extreme displeasure last Friday night when, minutes before our first tournament game, I was handed THIS:

(An Avalanche jersey??? Could this get any worse???)

(Yup, its worse.)

I typically prefer to keep explicit profanity out of my blog posts....but this is bullshit.

As it turned out, during that first game I was so distraught by what was on the front of my jersey that I failed to realize the full impact of what was on the back. It wasn't until that night, as I was drifting off to sleep, that the horrific realization that I was essentially wearing not just an Avalanche jersey, but a CLAUDE LEMIEUX JERSEY, tore through my mind like a wrecking ball of shame. All I could imagine was the look of disappointment in the faces of my friends and family back home when they learned of such treason. It wasn't exactly a great night of sleep.

Thankfully, the tournament is over now and I have no obligation to ever again let that atrocity of a game sweater see the light of day. But as long as that thing remains intact, I just feel dirty. Sara and I have occasionally talked about getting one of those fire-pit table things for our back deck. If we ever do, I'll be putting on my ol' Dino Ciccarelli sweater and having myself a jersey burning party.....