This is the coolest video on ye merrye olde interweb.
I should know, because I have searched high & low. Some would call it surfing, wasting time even. I call it research. It wasn't easy. There is a lot of Bieber and Gaga taking up space out there.
But I fought through the nonsense, the ridiculous, the novices and the pretenders. And from the toils of my strenuous labor, here is the fruit.
And this is it. FIN. The End. You can stop here. I saved everyone a lot of time. You can thank me later.
Through the magic of YouTube, here is Austinite Gary Clark, Jr. performing his song "Bright Lights" at the Crossroads Blues Festival in Chicago 2010. Sit back, and crank up that volume. Loud.
I know... Brilliant, Wunderbar, C'est Magnifique, etc. Any language you want. Gary Clark Jr is badass. Watch it 20 times and you will notice something every time. And you will fall in love.
He is playing the Belmont in Dallas in August 2012. The show sold out in three minutes. He is that good. You are going to know his name by the end of the night. Oh yeah.
He is destined to join and surpass such Texas blues guitar greats as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Freddie King, Albert Collins and Blind Lemon Jefferson. And Leadbelly. And T-Bone Walker.
And look for his acoustic stuff where he sounds better than Marvin Gaye.
The new Tom Waits album is his 20-somethingth release and might well be one of his best. "Bad as Me" debuted last week to much accolade among those who claim to know good from awful these days. In typical Waits fashion he wheezes along, sometimes growling, rasping, other times working up to his unimitable falsetto. No new ground covered but the ground he covers is so unique - the mold was shattered when Mr. Thomas Alan Waits came into this world in 1949 in Pomona, CA.
The deluxe edition of Bad as Me has 16 tracks and kicks off with the jaunty "Chicago", which rattles along like a box car, driven by on by sax, trombone, harmonica, and a certain Keith Richards on guitar. The organ on "Raised Right Men" is like a knife and lyrics like "You need the patience of a glacier, If you can wait that long" are wheezed out with urgency. Somehow, Mr. Waits elevates his voice on "Talking at the same time" to that of a female blues singer in a smokey basement nightclub. Guitar accompaniment on this track is David Hidalgo of Los Lobos.
"Go Get Lost" sounds like a late 1950's rock & roll... "Face to the Highway" is a slower number, featuring some terrific guitar and violin. And so "Bad as Me" continues on with one gem after another. No filler or weakness here. The title track is Waits at his crazy-rhyming rumba bumbling best.
For the uninitiated, this is a very accessible album (not always the case with Tom Waits) and definitely one of the best I have heard in 2011.
And what a show it was. More of a spectacle really. Released in 1979, The Wall has stood the test of time and even though the current iteration is sans Gilmour, Wright (RIP) and Mason, it was still an aural and visual tour de force. Disenfranchised from the other two, Roger Waters looks and sounds well for a 67 year old and when announced earlier this year, I was counting the days until Nov 21.
MY COOL DATE FOR THE NIGHT
The American Airlines Center (home to the Dallas Mavericks and Stars) was sold out. Our seats were poor, literally up in the rafters. However, as the usher said, "at least you are in the house". The sound was absolutely perfect. The visuals effects projected on to the wall were awesome. The various puppets that came out on cue were very cool: the schoolmaster, Pink's mother, his wife and of course, an inflatible pig that made the rounds. Oh and the WW2 fighter plane that swoops in over the audience and crashed spectacularly at the end of In the Flesh. It was pure rock theater at its best. Waters interacted ocassionally with crowd but there were no surprises.
It is very much a scripted production with no variation night to night. There is so much equipment and special effects it is amazing they were able to set up again within 24 hours of the Houston show. Two sets perhaps? I took lots of pics and video but while the sound is good, the video is poor, such was our seats. If I had the choice again, I would have definitely paid more for better seats.
WALL MID CONSTRUCTION
INTERMISSION (with those killed in war / terrorism)
LOOSE PIG
FINALE
Best part: when the hotel room popped put of the wall for Nobody Home, followed by the images on the wall for Vera / Bring the Boys Back Home. See here for yourself:
Not my video of course...
I would have to give the whole shebang a solid 10 out of 10. It really belongs on Broadway, or Vegas.
A parting anecdote. I remember in 1986 living in South Jamaica, Queens. This was before Mayor Giuliani cleaned up the city; NYC was akin to Beirut. Google "Larry Davis", or watch "Do the Right Thing". South Jamaica was as close to the crack epicenter of NYC as you could get and I may have been the only white kid for miles. One hot afternoon I was at a payphone (a what? you say) fumbling with change and I had a Pink Floyd / The Wall t-shirt on. An old black man (he was probably only 40) under the influence of something staggered up and after surveying my shirt (I expected to be robbed) chuckled "Michael Jackson, off the The Wall". He wobbled off, probably thinking I was one strange cat but if I was a fan of Michael, I must be okay. That was the day Roger Waters saved my life.
Last Friday, those wholesome middle aged men from Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer rolled their wagons into Big D, the first stop on the second leg of the "Clash of the Titans" tour. Since I have a passing interest in all three and the $20 ticket price seemed just too good to pass up, I jaunted over to the Superpages.com Center in hope of a spectacle. It was all a bit under-whelming. There was maybe 3,000 in attendance in a venue that can hold three times that.
My unscientific research proclaimed the obligatory black t-shirts favored Slayer 70%, Megadeth 15%, Anthrax 2% and 13% other... Pantera was well represented. And the jackass wearing the Rod Stewart t-shirt? What can I say? He was beyond ridicule. Myself sported a rather fetching "Ride the Lightning" shirt which I have had for about 20 years and I am pleased it still fits and I got several compliments from the youngsters, one of whom proclaimed to me "I wish Metallica was here, man!". Well, me too, but James and Lars are pricks and so be it...
The Superpages.com center is an amphitheater, half covered / half open to the elements. Not a bad place at all with plenty of elbow room. It is adjacent to Fair Park and it was interesting to see the metalheads crossing paths with the fried turkey leg crowd heading into the Texas State Fair.
Anthrax came on at 7pm, played for 40 mins and were better than I hoped or remembered. Some minor mosh pit action and some low energy head banging. Grade: B
Megadeth played for maybe an hour and 15 mins, sounded great and while Mustaine is a bit of a prima donna (changing shirts, the ridiculous double-neck guitar), their set was solid and enjoyable. The first half was a bit bland for me, only later did I realize they had played Rust in Peace in its entirety. The second half was better - maybe because I knew Symphony for Destruction, Peace Sells... etc. Decent mosh pit, good crowd energy. Grade B+
And so it was on to Slayer. I have some of their stuff, a live CD and a few other bits and pieces and I was hoping they would burn up the stage. They didn't. I counted 38 Marshall amps. It was a sea of noise. I felt like I was inside the engine of a huge locomotive that was never greased and was overheating. About half way through, I moved back and sat on the grass near the rear of the amphitheater and the sound was significantly better. I could actually make out the lyrics and hear the bass. The first several songs focused on their new material Seasons in the Abyss, which I will not rush to buy based on the live performance. By the time I relocated they fired up Raining Blood, South of Heaven, Angel of Death and the show was much more enjoyable... I think for the most part the audience was pretty much riveted to their standing spots by the sheer jet blast of noise. There was no discernible slam pit and the metal heads were statue-like. Grade B-
Much better review than I could ever write is here -
So after a couple of the $12 beers and a perusal of the $40 concert t-shirts, I empathized with my young "And Justice For All" friend, wishing that grizzled old Metallica were part of the line up. While it was not the worst $20 I have ever spent, something was missing.
This one will be short and to the point - kind of reminiscent of the career of the Screaming Blue Messiahs. If you have not heard their music, do yourself a favor and get acquainted on Youtube, iTunes, whatever it takes... Electric, Bombastic, Driving, Furious. The Messiahs.
Started in 1983 in London. An EP and three raucous albums later, they were good & gone. Comet-like, last seen in 1990.
One of the best live shows I ever have seen, Gaga fans. The old Ritz, NYC 1988. Lips and Marsboy will testify as to the greatness.
SBM Lineup: Bill Carter - phenomenal guitar player, with a fixation on Americana Chris Thompson - pounding bass Kenny Harris - ferocious drums, kept everything in sync
