Zilla's Concert Experiences: RBO Edition

[Zilla2112]

Roger Waters

First Niagara Center (HSBC Arena at the time)
October 8, 2010

In The Flesh?
The Thin Ice
Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1
The Happiest Days of Our Lives
Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2
Mother
Goodbye Blue Sky
Empty Spaces
What Shall We Do Now?
Young Lust
One Of My Turns
Don't Leave Me Now
Another Brick in the Wall, Part 3
The Last Few Bricks
Goodbye Cruel World
Hey You
Is There Anybody Out There?
Nobody Home
Vera
Bring the Boys Back Home
Comfortably Numb
The Show Must Go On
In The Flesh
Run Like Hell
Waiting For The Worms
Stop
The Trial
Outside The Wall











I actually wasn't planning on going to this show in the first place. Zacoftheaxes, who is a HUGE Pink Floyd fan, was going to go to see Roger Waters with his dad and his dad's girlfriend. However, she was unable to make it to the show because of work, so Zac invited me, and I accepted it. I'd like to thank Zac and his dad so much for this: it was incredible!

Zac's dad drove us to HSBC Arena, and after a bit of waiting, the show began. There were no opening bands, but the show certainly didn't need any.

Roger Waters on this tour was playing The Wall in its entirety, and it was a spectacle to watch. Visually, there was a ton going on throughout the whole show. The stage had a representation of The Wall that was being built as the concert progressed. On the wall was a variety of videos, including scenes from the movie as well as some new stuff made specifically for the show. There were also giant figurines of the teacher, the mother, and various other characters from the movie. A giant inflatable pig also flew around the arena, and a local children's choir sang along during "Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2". At the end of the show, the wall was destroyed, making for a very dramatic finale.

Musically, Roger and his band played well too. His singing is still solid after all of these years, and his backing band is probably just as good as the rest of Floyd was, at least in terms of playing ability. Some epic moments included songs such as "Hey You", "Run Like Hell", and "Comfortably Numb", which sounded incredible.

Overall, it was a great show that was definitely worth going to. It was more than just great music: it was an incredible visual experience as well.

[Zilla2112]

Whitechapel
with The Acacia Strain, Veil of Maya,
Chelsea Grin, and I Declare War

Club Infinity
February 20, 2011

Whitechapel:

Devolver
Breeding Violence
Possession
The Darkest Day Of Man
Reprogrammed to Hate
Prostatic Fluid Asphyxiation
End Of Flesh
Unnerving
Death Becomes Him (Instrumental)
Vicer Exciser
Murder Sermon
Single File to Dehumanization
Of Legions (Instrumental)
This Is Exile

The Acacia Strain:

Beast
The Hills Have Eyes
Whoa! Shut It Down
See You Next Tuesday
Ramirez
Dr. Doom
Bay of Pigs
Jonestown
JFC

Veil of Maya:

Martyrs
Crawl Back
Unbreakable
Dark Passenger
Pillars
We Bow in Its Aura
Namaste
It's Not Safe to Swim Today

Chelsea Grin:

Recreant
Crewcabanger
My Damnation
Cheyne Stokes
Sonnet of the Wretched
Lifeless

I Declare War:

Malevolence
New Age Holocaust
Federal Death Alliance
Whoop Dat Trick
Putrification of the Population

















This was one fucking day I won't forget. Not only was there this amazing show, but this was the day that Systema destroyed the MT Proboards in what I am going to call MTgate. I had a lot of shit going on in my head during this time, so this concert was a good way to let it all go and have a fun time.

What's funny is that earlier this day, Zacoftheaxes, who I invited to go to the concert with me, went to church that morning. It's such a change in mood to be going from church to seeing a band live with lyrics like "Fuck your faith, fuck your kind, fuck your ways, fuck your world."

But anyways, my dad and I picked Zac up later that night, we drove over to Mighty Taco to eat some rather delicious nachos, and we made our way to Club Infinity. When we arrived, there was a rather long line, but we were able to bypass it as we had already purchased tickets. As soon as we went to buy some t-shirts and CDs from the merch booth, I Declare War already started playing. This was kind of odd, as the show wasn't technically supposed to start until 7:00, and we were there about a half an hour before.

Regardless, I Declare War was pretty decent. They really didn't stand out much when compared to other death metal/deathcore bands, but they were good as an opening band regardless. After their quick set was Chelsea Grin, who was pretty similar to the previous band; good heavy stuff, but nothing special or unique.

After both of those bands came Veil of Maya, who is one of the better bands of the show. Not only are they a good metal band who adds some more progressive elements and cool guitar lines to their songs, but they were good live too. What was pretty cool was that even though Veil of Maya has only one guitar player, there was a sampler backstage which played all of the extra guitar parts, which was good to hear.

After Veil of Maya was The Acacia Strain. They also sounded pretty good as well, as they like the other bands were mostly spot on. The stage antics of their vocalist, Vincent Bennett, were pretty hilarious. In a break between songs, he said that the three ways that Buffaloians keep warm are by wearing sweaters, partying, and, of course, having sex. He said that the sex part is disgusting and that if there's going to be any sex, everybody should either wear a condom or have an abortion because nobody wants to see anybody at the show having kids. He also threw water bottles everywhere towards the audience. We saw a dude right in front of us get hit in the head with one as we got hit with some water.

Of course, once The Acacia Strain was done, Whitechapel was to come on. However, there appeared to be some technical difficulties with the drum set, as it took numerous people and a ton of time to get it put together. However, once it was set up Whitechapel hit the stage, and they were, of course, amazing.

Their setlist was immensely predictable, as I had seen it and had been listening to it weeks beforehand, but it was great to hear all of the songs regardless. I was a little worried that because their old drummer who played on all of their albums, Kevin Lane, had left the band and had been replaced with Ben Harclerode, that the drumming performance may have been somewhat lesser. Boy, was I wrong. He was just as good, if not better than Kevin Lane would have been. The guitar and bass work was spot on, and Phil's vocals sounded p. cool as well. I found it pretty funny when he dedicated "Prostatic Fluid Asphyxiation" to all of the vaginas out there.

Whitechapel ended the show with an encore of "Of Legions" and their most well known song, "This Is Exile", which was, of course, good to hear. Once the show was over, I was exhausted by all of the headbanging and my ears continued to ring even though I was wearing earplugs most of the time.

[Zilla2112]

Between the Buried and Me
with Job for a Cowboy and The Ocean Collective

Club Infinity
April 19, 2011

Between the Buried and Me:

Specular Reflection
Augment of Rebirth
Lunar Wilderness
Sun of Nothing
Ants of the Sky
Guitar Solo - Swim to the Moon Section - Drum Solo
Fossil Genera - A Feed From Cloud Mountain
Selkies: The Endless Obsession

Job for a Cowboy:

Unfurling a Darkened Gospel
Constitutional Masturbation
Knee Deep
Signature Of Starving Power
Ruination
Entombment of a Machine
Embedded

The Ocean Collective:

Anthropocentric
The Grand Inquisitor I: Karamazov Baseness
Orosirian
The Origin Of Species
The Origin Of God







This concert was a year in the waiting, but it was totally worth it. Since I haven't reposted the Fear Factory/All That Remains story yet, I'll summarize here. Basically, I was supposed to see BTBAM open for Mastodon last year, but since Mastodon's guitarist was ill, the concert was delayed for a month without BTBAM on the bill. I returned those tickets and got to see Fear Factory and All That Remains instead, which was in retrospect a wise decision.

As soon as found out that BTBAM was headlining at the Town Ballroom, I had to go, and indeed I got tickets. My mom also got me BTBAM's greatest hits album, which came with an awesome t-shirt I wore to the show.

On the day of the show, I forgot that I had to take a shower and took one practically 15 minutes before my dad picked me up. Once we picked up Zac at his house, we realized that I left the tickets at home. Luckily, we didn't pass the house yet, so we were able to make a quick stop at home to get them.

Once we showed up at Club Infinity and waited quickly in line, I went to the merch booth to buy some stuff. Sadly, Colors wasn't on sale there, so I just picked up 'The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues' while Zac got himself a shirt. We found a cool spot that was not on the floor, but really close to the stage, which worked perfectly for us. Since I didn't eat dinner beforehand, I got myself some chicken fingers and a Sprite. Man, were those fingers we so delicious. They came with bleu cheese and everything. Mmmmm...

Where was I? Anyways, after that delightful meal, The Ocean was the first band on stage. I thought that they did a really good job, though much of the crowd wasn't digging them. The best thing to describe them as is 'post-metal', though Zac and I are somewhat confused by the use of 'post' when describing music, so calling them a mix of progressive metal and sludge metal is good as well. Their combo of heavy riffs and quiet sections with clean vocals was really impressive, and they had a ton of energy as well, moving about quite a bit around the stage.

What was kinda funny was that since the crowd wasn't doing much, one of the security guys tried to get the crowd going by shouting and raising his hands. The thing is, this was during a quiet section, so it seemed completely out of place. I rocked out moderately during The Ocean's set, though I had to save my energy for BTBAM, of course.

Once The Ocean was done, we waited for Job for a Cowboy to come on stage. Their set was alright, though The Ocean was, musically, a far better band. Job for a Cowboy was really tight, and they had to play with only one guitar player, which deserves props, but their music was pretty much the same ol' death metal the entire time with little variation. The kick trigger was really loud too, making it impossible to hear the snare during blast beats, which was a minus. They would fit in much better in the Whitechapel concert, whereas here they didn't compare well to the other two bands.

Once Job for a Cowboy was finished, the moment we were waiting for finally happened. BTBAM took the stage, and they were just amazing. They played 'The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues' in its entirety, as well as a bunch of stuff off of 'Colors', 'The Great Misdirect', and 'Alaska'. The set was pretty much as expected, though it sounded incredible.

Every member of the band played near perfectly at the show. Blake's drumming was really sick, as was Dan's bass playing, Paul and Dustie's guitar playing, and Tommy's singing and keyboards. There was only a slight problem with Dan's bass during "Ants of the Sky", in which he had to change his bass, and I didn't even notice any missing notes until my dad told me after the show.

The guitar/drum solos were really awesome as well. I wouldn't be surprised if that guitar solo showed up on their next album somewhere. The drum solo was ridiculous as well, though it was groovy and not just crazy rolls the entire time.

One funny thing BTBAM did before they played their encore was a "bad riff-off". It was pretty funny, though I had no idea what song they were making fun of and it sounded very familiar. Many of the people were shouting "Mordecai" and "White Walls", but we heard "Selkies: The Endless Obsession" instead, which made for a great closer.

The show felt like it went by too fast, though it was one awesome experience. I'm definitely seeing BTBAM the next time they come to Buffalo, no question about it, as this show was too much fun.

[Zilla2112]

I'm gonna take a break from updating now, I'll get the rest of the shows when I get to my dad's later.

[straf]

You mentioned stuff from the Wall movie being played at the Wall concert. If it was that animated stuff like the Trial and the Goodbye Blue Sky, I do believe that it's the other way around. It was written for the concerts (back in '80) then reused in the film (in '81 or '82).

Just some useless trivia that I know. <.<

[Zilla2112]

Nov 4, 2011 16:28:47 GMT -5 straf said:

You mentioned stuff from the Wall movie being played at the Wall concert. If it was that animated stuff like the Trial and the Goodbye Blue Sky, I do believe that it's the other way around. It was written for the concerts (back in '80) then reused in the film (in '81 or '82).

Just some useless trivia that I know. <.<

Interesting. It makes sense, but I've looked it up a bit and it doesn't specifically say that Gerald Scarfe's animations were made for The Wall Tour.

[Zilla2112]

Dennis DeYoung
with Colors in the Air, The Albrights, and Early Attic

Molson Canal Concert Series
July 1, 2011

Dennis DeYoung:

Intro: The Message
The Grand Illusion
Lady
Lorelei
Blue Collar Man
Show Me the Way
Mr. Roboto
Desert Moon
Too Much Time On My Hands
Rockin' the Paradise
Babe
Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)
Suite Madame Blue
The Best of Times
Renegade
Come Sail Away







So, this concert kicked off my summer of concerts, in which hopefully I'll be able to see 5 or 6 shows total. This was definitely a great show to start things off.

First, I went out to my local Arby's and got some tasty chicken, then I made my way to the center of town. I met up with Zacoftheaxes and xfightingdreamer there, who were with her dad. The first opening band was playing when we got there, and I don't recall them being that good. Thankfully, I only heard about two songs, so it was alright.

During this, profbroland's dad, who was working for security, showed up behind xfightingdreamer, scaring her until she realized it was his dad. Also, another one of my friends came over with a pamphet he got from some church people outside the concert. It was a 'rap' about, you guessed it, Jesus Christ. And guess what: my friend was black too. Ahhh... laughs everywhere.

I went to the merch booth, only to see that Dennis DeYoung wasn't selling anything. In fact, the only band selling stuff with the second opener, The Albrights. They were, fittingly enough, alright. The was nothing that special about the music, but it was pretty decent. The drummer was having a blast, I could tell that.

Once The Albrights were done, there was yet another opening band. In between each band, we noticed that there were only five songs that played over the PA: "You Shook Me All Night Long", "Don't Stop Believin'", "Hard to Handle", "Are You Gonna Go My Way", and "Another One Bites the Dust". We noticed this after hearing each song numerous times. Pretty cheap, eh?

The next band, Colors in the Air, came on stage. They were pretty decent too, and they were right from my hometown as well. During their performance, a beach ball was going through the crowd, causing everybody to focus on the ball more than the band.

Another problem with the show was the vast amount of smokers lighting up there. I probably still smell like smoke, and all of the secondhand smoke is likely to cause lung problems in the future. But oh well.

We also got a ton of free stuff as well. Not only did my dad catch two concert shirts for us, but Colors in the Air gave away their newest CD for free, so I definitely picked one up.

Finally, once they were done, Dennis DeYoung and his band went on stage. After hearing this loud intro played over the PA that had way too much bass, the band opened with "The Grand Illusion". It was just awesome.

Everybody in the band sounded great. Dennis sounded great, even after all of these years, and his backing band was as tight as could be. Both guitarists played incredibly well, and the rest of the band was spot on too. It was also fun to watch as well, with Dennis's wacky dance moves and all of that jazz.

After the first few songs, things became pretty cheesy, starting with "Show Me the Way" (though I do like that one). Then, he played Mr. Roboto, full of cheese everywhere. However, it was worth watching, because Dennis did the robot during much of the song, he and the two guitarists did these cheesy head movements, and Dennis took a mask played around with it. Definitely made me laugh.

"Desert Moon", one of Dennis's cheesy solo songs, seemed to last forever with an extended guitar solo, and "Too Much Time on My Hands" was also pure 80's (but fun though).

After that, Dennis played more classic stuff, as you can see in the setlist. Dennis's wife was also performing in stage with him, and Dennis talked about how he wrote "Babe" for her. Very schmoopie pa poopie indeed.

After playing "The Best of Times", Dennis said (paraphasing of course), "This is the part where we pretend to go offstage like the show's over, and then everybody cheers and we come back on stage. Well, imagine that just happened." I found that to be pretty funny, and then he ended the show with "Renegade" and "Come Sail Away". It was a magical moment when everybody was singing along: even I, who never memorizes or even knows most lyrics, was able to join in here.

After that, the show was over. It was definitely a great experience!

[Zilla2112]

Devin Townsend Project
with Obscura, Exit Existence, Psychopath, and Malformed

Montage Music Hall
July 18, 2011

Devin Townsend Project:

Addicted!
Supercrush!
Kingdom
Deadhead
By Your Command
Truth/Om
Life
Numbered!
Stand
Juular
Color Your World
The Greys
Deep Peace







This was a really fucking awesome show, one of my favorites if you ask me. I found out this a while ago, and while I was planning to see Animals as Leaders and Last Chance to Reason on the same day, I immediately decided to this concert instead. I made the right choice.

I took about an hour long trip to Rochester with Zacoftheaxes, xfightingdreamer, and PersonNinja to see the show. It took us a bit of navigating the city to get there, but we found the venue and some good parking. We were hoping to get there early since there were a lot of opening acts we didn't know about, but we actually got there early. We had to wait in line during some pretty heavy rain, and even when we got inside, we still had to wait another half an hour for the first band to start.

The venue was an odd, but cool one. The stage was in a corner, and the rest of the venue was just an open space. One could easily walk over to the drumsets on the side of the floor, even though there was a relatively small back stage area too.

I happened to pick up some merch while I waited. I got myself a 2 CD pack with both Deconstruction and Ghost, as well as a pair of drumsticks autographed by Ryan Van Poederooyen, the drummer of the Devin Townsend Project. My buddies also got some cool shirts as well.

The first band to come on was Exit Existance, who was surprisingly pretty decent. They had a pretty good vocalist who did regular singing the whole time, which was nice. However, the next two opening bands declined in quality. The next band, who I believe is Malformed, was pretty much straight up death metal. It actually got pretty boring, to be honest. Once their set was over, we thought Obscura was up next, but it was actually Psychopath who was next. They were the same thing, plain old death metal, nothing special. Afterwards, Obscura finally got on. They were a lot better because of their more technical nature.

The thing is, all of these opening acts suffered from some problems. I found it incredibly difficult to hear the guitars through the mix, which really hurt Obscura since so much of their music is focused on the melodies of the guitars. It was also near impossible to see the drum sets for the acts since their drum sets had to be placed on front level of the stage. Only the drum kit for the Devin Townsend Project was raised up. On another note, there was actually no moshing going on either, though granted I don't have a problem with this. There weren't too many people there to begin with either.

So finally, after a long period of waiting (and it was really late when Devin came on, after 10:30 I think), Devin was about to take the stage. Beforehand though, "Ziltoid Radio" was playing over the loudspeaker, complete with pop hits like "Barbie Girl" and "Single Ladies" and voiceovers by Devin acting as the almighty Ziltoid. I, along with many others there, found this to be very humorous.

So then, Devin finally took the stage as the crowd went crazy. Once I heard the opening riff for "Addicted!", I knew I was in for an awesome time.

The band just sounded incredible. The performances were practically perfect: Ryan was spot on, and Devin was lively and could sing as well as ever. The only problem that occurred was during "By Your Command", where the power went off on all of the instruments for about 10 - 15 seconds. The show kept going on though, without any pause.

The setlist was really freakin' good too. I knew every song and was happy overall, even though songs like Bastard and Bend it Like Bender weren't played. Songs like "Deadhead" and the closer, "Deep Peace", brought out Devin's more emotional side.

Devin is definitely a showman too. Not only did he make odd faces and connect with the audience, but he did some other odd stuff as well, such as taking hats from the audience and wearing them. He wore one of those crowns Burger King gives kids on their birthdays, as well as this other odd white, pointed hat. He also cracked some pretty funny jokes between and even during songs.

Devin played "Color Your World", "The Greys", and "Deep Peace" for the encore. Once the show was over, Devin shaked hands with many of the people in the audience, and Zac and I got to shake his hand too. Once that was done, we had to leave, as it was really late and there was a long trip ahead of us. I would have loved to meet and chill with Devin like Crash got to do, but I'm guessing everybody there would have wanted to do that too, so I didn't get the chance.

This was definitely one of the best concerts I've been to. I really wish there were less opening acts though. The two local death metal acts seemed very out of place at Devin Townsend concert: they'd be more fitting if it were a Strapping Young Lad show or one of another death metal act. Still, getting to see Devin was incredibly worth it, and I can't wait to see him again the next time he comes to Western New York.

[Zilla2112]

The Tea Party
with Son of the Sun and The Etchings

Molson Canal Concert Series
July 22, 2011

Writing's on the Wall
The Bazaar
Lullaby
Psychopomp
The Messenger
Fire in the Head
Heaven Coming Down
Sun Going Down
Zahira / The Halcyon Days
Save Me / Last Goodbye
Temptation
Winter Solstice / Sister Awake / Paint It Black













This was a pretty good and fun show, though there's definitely been better ones. I got to the venue relatively late, so my dad and I didn't have to sit through opening acts on such a hot day. There was a huge crowd: many Canadians went across the border to see The Tea Party as well. Son of the Sun was playing when we got there, so we missed The Etchings entirely, though Zacoftheaxes said that they were pretty good. My dad and I got some water (since it was so hot outside) and we met up with Zac and xfightingdreamer. We didn't have the best spot for the entire show, as it was relatively far back and near a drinks booth, but it was fine.

We talked for a bit while Son of the Sun was playing. They were pretty decent, but nothing too amazing, typical of most opening acts in this series. Once they finished their set, there was a long break filled with advertisements and a small playlist of classic rock, but the Tea Party did take the stage after this.

The Tea Party opened the show with "Writing's on the Wall", and played a variety of songs from across their career. The band instrumentally sounded great: Jeff Martin's guitar playing was spot on, Jeff Burrows' drumming was tight, and Stuart Chatwood bass and keyboard playing was great as well.

There was a lot of things that happened during the show that were very reminiscent of Led Zeppelin. The band has a very Kashmir-esque sound in many of their songs, Jeff played a Les Paul with a bow, played a double neck SG, and played a theremin during the show. The way Stuart handles both bass and keyboard duties is similar to John Paul Jones as well. The band did some other interesting stuff as well: they played some of "Paint it Black" during "Sister Awake" as well, which I thought was pretty cool.

However, despite how good of a show the band put on, Jeff Martin's voice was very hoarse. He pointed this out near the beginning of the show, and it became more noticeable as the show went on, both in his speaking voice and in his singing. He didn't even try to sing the higher parts in songs like "Temptation" and "Sister Awake", so the crowd sang along instead.

The show went on, despite this. Even though it was a bit disappointing to not hear Jeff Martin sing as well as he normally can, the band went on and still put on a great show. I'm really glad I went to this show, and I'm looking forward to seeing Queensryche in a few weeks at the next free concert.

[Zilla2112]

Queensryche
with The Voodoos, Dodriver, Kennedy Carpool, and some other band

Molson Canal Concert Series
August 12, 2011

Get Started
Damaged
I Don't Believe In Love
Hit the Black
A Dead Man's Words
At the Edge
The Thin Line
Real World
Screaming In Digital
The Right Side Of My Mind
Around the World
Silent Lucidity
Jet City Woman
Empire
Eyes Of A Stranger / Anarchy-X








This is the last concert I attended during this year's Molson Canal Concert Series, and it was a great way for me to finish it off. Having seen Queensryche before, I had high expectations for the band. Queensryche had just released their newest album, Dedicated to Chaos, which was notorious for being the worst Queensryche album to date because of tracks like "Wot We Do". Despite this, I expected them to put on a good show.

Not only did I attend the concert, but Elysia did so as well, along with our friends Alex and Donny. After picking them up, we went to the show, and there was a band already playing. My dad, who took me to the show, was actually doing work for one of the opening bands, Kennedy Carpool, before the show by making some CDs for them (even though the band recorded the CDs in mono, which my dad noticed). However, the band was kicked off the stage before we even got there for swearing. Of course, it's hard to avoid swearing when your album is called "Goddamn the Motherfuckers".

All of us pretty much chilled and chatted during the early part of the concert. I got myself an Operation: Mindcrime shirt, which I was glad that they had there. The two bands that opened were Dodriver and The Voodoos, both of which were pretty good. Dodriver had a heavier sound it seemed, though they both played well.

After a while of waiting, Queensryche got on stage, opening with "Get Started", a song of their newest album. One very noticeable change between both concerts was Geoff Tate: he is now bald! When he came up on stage, he actually looked a lot like Rob Halford, being bald, wearing sunglasses, and wearing dark clothing including a top hat.

The band, just like the first time I saw them, was really tight. All of the instrumental parts were played incredibly well, just like they were on the original albums. Geoff Tate, however, while he still has a good voice, could not sing all of the high notes in songs such as "I Don't Believe in Love" and "Eyes of a Stranger", though you can't really blame him for being unable to sing the higher stuff as much as old age. It was neat seeing Geoff Tate play both the clarinet and saxophone during several songs as well, even though the songs that he played them in were just alright.

The setlist this time had a lot more variety and featured stuff from more albums than just Empire, Rage for Order, and American Soldier. It was awesome hearing some stuff from Operation: Mindcrime: They played 3 to 4 songs from the album: Michael Wilton actually teased us with the guitar part to "My Empty Room", though it wasn't played all of the way through.

Even though Mindcrime stuff was played, there was also some mediocre, more forgettable stuff played during the middle of the show. One of the lower moments was the song, "Around the World", which was pretty cheesy and not that interesting.

However, the end of the show made up for it, with the band playing "Silent Lucidity", "Jet City Woman", "Empire", and "Eyes Of A Stranger" leading into "Anarchy-X". It was odd that they closed the show with the song that opens Operation: Mindcrime, but it sounded really good regardless.

And that was the show! Sadly, Elysia had to leave during the middle of Queensryche's performance, so she missed out on the encore, but I'm pretty sure she had a great time regardless, as did I. As for how it compares to the first time I saw them: I'd say that both shows were pretty close in terms of quality and fun. I wonder if Queensryche's going to come to this area again for another free show: if they do, I'll try my best to make it there.

[Zilla2112]

The Bravuras

Mark Studios
August 20, 2011

This, much like the Ball Cheese Psychotics concert last year, was more of a party than a concert, but it's worth mentioning here anyways. I showed up at Mark Studios early with my dad and helped everybody set up for the party. The band didn't start playing until after noon, but there was enough to do that I wasn't just waiting around.

One of the most awesome things about the party was the food. The main item on the menu was this delicious pig. It had been cooking since four in the morning, which made it incredibly tender and tasty. Put it on a bun with some honey barbecue sauce and you've got a meal. There were also baked beans, Swedish meatballs, potato salad, and regular salad too, as well as tons of soda to drink.

Of course, other than the food, there was the band to enjoy as well. The Bravuras call themselves "old school blues", and they fit this perfectly. All of the band members were solid musicians, and there were some great guitar, saxophone, piano, and harmonica solos to be heard. Because they were a more accessible blues band, there were far more people at this event than the one last year.

Other than that, nothing too much happened at the party. I couldn't see The Bravuras finish their last set, as I had to leave for another party, but it was enjoyable regardless. I'm definitely looking forward to next year's party, which will probably be a good time as well.

[Zilla2112]

More posts for page purposes...

[Zilla2112]

14.

[Zilla2112]

15.

[Zilla2112]

>that feel when I can't count