Have you ever experienced the best sports day in history? It is possible, and when you do, you will remember it forever. I just had mine, and I tell you what, it was a blast. My buddy J-dub and I had tickets to see the Colorado Avalanche play the St. Louis Blues at Pepsi Center. And, the same day, the Pittsburgh Steelers were playing the Denver Broncos at Mile High (Invesco doesn't exist for me), and me being a Steeler fan, and J-dawg liking the very likeable team, the Broncos, you see what needed to happen. So I search eBay, and boom! get tickets. They aren't next to each other, which is for the best, but they were in sections 108 and 125, so the views were great.
So we got to go see the Steelers get beat by the Broncos (shit!) and then watch the Colorado Avalanche get beat by the St. Louis Blues (fuck!). But wait, there's more! We walk into the Pepsi Center, and this guy in a suit asks if we want to be in a contest during the first intermission. We think for about .125 seconds, and declare yes! We get to throw rolled up shirts onto the ice, and if we make them into the goals, then we get a jersey. Wow. And we get three chances. Piece of cake, right? Wrong! My first toss doesn't even make it onto the ice, number two falls well short of the net. However, I don't feel so bad, because W's throws fall short of the ice, and then short of the net also. Number three, and I have it all lined up, I toss, and then...it hits the post (Mulligan!), Jim's third doesn't make it in either, so we walk away with nothing. But we did get our likenesses on the jumbo-tron, and did get heckled by the arena announcer, so it wasn't a total waste. Best sports day ever.
This was a good day in my household, for one reason. Today I got the new EP from The Dreaming, Chris Hall's new band. I am listening to the songs as I type this, so if I lose concentration, please understand. For a little backround, I was really excited to see what Stabbing Westward was going to do after changing thier style drastically for thier self-titled fourth CD. I really like all of the albums that they have put out, and quite frankly, they were one of my favorite bands of the past 20 years.
However, and quite unfortunately, the band broke up about a year ago due to stress and different visions on where the band should go. Fortunately I had a chance to see them twice the summer before they broke up, so I win. However, a few months after the band's break-up, I had heard rumors that Chris Hall had formed another band, and was working on new material. I can't tell you how excited I was about this. One of the main draws of Stabbing Westward was Chris' voice. You could feel his pain, his sorrow in his voice, the lyrics really fit his voice, and used it to it's full potential. So hearing that he was working on another band made my mind think about the potential that it had to either suck or be really good.
Looking at several places, I finally found the name, and some details about the band, but still no web page, and nothing definate. Eventually Blabbermouth.net posted a news article that really got me going. It indicated that The Dreaming was making a four track EP, and that they had just launched a new web page The Dreaming Online, and that the EP's were for sale on this very page. I was giddy. Right then and there, I forked over the 12.95 for the EP and a Dreaming t-shirt. All was right with the world.
In short, the EP is awesome. The songs literally get better as they go. The first song, Let it Burn, has a solid opening, with Chris yelling in the backround. This song showcases his voice, and the feeling that it has behind it, so I am immediately hooked. Song number 2, Afraid, has a little bit more musical skill displayed in it, isn't so much a Chris Hall song, but still, a lot better than anything else that is being put out now. Songs three and four are fighting to become my favorite on the EP. Bleed and Beautiful, respectively have the Stabbing Westward earmark of his voice, but thats about it. These seem to original songs, that are just a nice amalgam of the SW sound, but really, truely are Dreaming songs. That is really cool. If there is anything that I don't like about the EP is that the songs follow the same pattern for a song: two stanza's, a chorus, another stanza, then the chorus, then rocking for a few more minutes. I would like to see these guys get away from that a little, they are good enough to do it. Over all, I like it a lot, and look forward to more of thier music in the future.
I just burned the Evanescence CD Fallen from my buddy Cary (no 'e'). To best sum up my feeling towards the CD, I would have to say that this is one solid effort for a band with a chick fronting it, and one hell of a CD for anyone. The first two songs are the two songs that have been released to the public, Going Under and Bring Me to Life, and those aren't the two best songs on the album. My favorite song has to be the last song, Whisper. It is very much a quality song, and really shows what this Amy Lee can do, vocally. As per Cary's recommendation, I listened to the songs Everybody's Fool and Haunted closely, and I can't them out of my head. And unlike Ace of Base or Aqua, I like it. Taking Over Me is a great song as well, and is at a bit slower pace then the rest of the CD. Normally for a new band like this, songs like that tend to sound forced and extremely underwritten (see Kid Rock). However, Taking Over Me seems to flow quite well, and I can tell that some thought was actually placed into it. While it is far to early to compare the two bands, Amy Lee's voice has passion and feeling, much like Chris Hall's of Stabbing Westward (see above). It is this factor that sets this band apart from the rest of the crap that is being pumped out today. The only down side is this band is Wind Up records, which, save Creed, does a horrible job at promoting bands and getting them good venues for shows. If they can survive being on Wind Up, and keep thier already extensive fan base, they should do quite fine in the near future.
However, I don't want to go to far with my praise of this band and thier CD. While, they seem to be a diverse band with a lot of potential, I just don't see too many people talking about them in 20 years. They are a good band for this time, and that is when they will thrive. I wish the best of luck to Evanescence, and Amy Lee, please e-mail me. I'm single...
I did see the aging punk icon Henry Rollins at the Paramount Theatre a few months back. It was everything that I thought it could be. He spoke about his hatred for Hummers, seeing the late Johnny Cash in concert, and the greatness of the late Layne Staley. However, the best story of the show was by far his events to get into the black movie, Bad Boyz (notice the X-treme spelling) 2 movie. I can't do it justice, just lemme say that Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer will never forget Mr. Rollins. He spoke for about three hours straight, and looked like he could have gone on for about 3 more. If he did, I don't think that anyone there would have objected, I know I wouldn't have. I have to give it up to Mr. Rollins, and I will catch his show everytime he comes through Colorado.
In other news, the movie, The Ninth Configuration finally came in via the Post Office. And it has taken me this long to be able to write something, anything about it. The movie is 2 hours and 20 minutes long. By today's sound bite standards, that is very long, and drawn out. For those of us with patience, it is just the right amount of time to tell this great story.
The movie is based in Northern California at a remote insane asylum run by the Marine Corps. The protaganist, Colonel Kane, gets transferred to the aslyum to be apointed the director the asylum, with the intent of curing these folks. The Marine brass are convinced that most of the inmates are faking thier illness just to get out of fighting in the Vietnam conflict (not war, read a history book). The inmates are a vibrant and diverse bunch, each with his own oddity and needs. One of the most memerable is an astronaut who hit the cancel button during the countdown of his shuttle launch, which was aimed for the moon. He said that they could never make him go up, for reasons that are far too deep to go into here. Among the rest, there is a group of inmates that want to redo the move The Great Escape, and an indvidual who wants to adapt Shakespeare for dogs. I won't delve too much farther into the movie, otherwise we'll have many, many pages here. I'll just say that the last thirty minutes of the movie are some of the best minutes in cinematic history. The worst part about this movie is that no one know about it. Although I am changing that now. You definitely have to see this movie, without a doubt.
Buy it on Barnes and Noble.com
Please remember to ask yourself everyday: "What would I do for a Klondike bar?"
Raise your hand if you are a minister, I am!