Rocket Boyz

Difference between lights and a lighting tech

So, Friday night. After a not to bad day at the office for a change, I got to go out and watch a new-ish band. Man, did they suck. If there were more local bands around here they would have been laughed off the stage. But since there are no local bands they went over well. People don't know what they're listening to or for anymore. Not a big suprise as the vast majority tend towards what the media throws at them.

They wouldn't be bad if they practiced more. It was obvious they were playing to what was in their heads and not to each other. Small distinction maybe, but quite glaring when one's listening critically. Very stiff and stilted, perhaps because of some of their skill limitations, but it sounds like there about six months short of practice time. A few of the songs were really bunked up and should have been cut from the set list. The second set was stronger than the first, an interesting choice given you want to try and keep people at the venue as long as you can, plus as they drink more things will sound better anyway. Band was not without adult beverages and in fact had their own cooler stage right. Things like that do get noticed. And there's nothing worse than seeing your bass player run to the toilet block but still hearing notes over the wireless. That's class.

Lighting sucked again, as it normally does without a lighting tech. Maybe ten par cans, static gel filters, just all pointed at the stage. So bad for photography, but I think things came out nice considering what I had to work with. Helped that the band actually came into the lights and posed instead of just standing still in the back like Headcase does.

OMG the guitarist tho. Not very rock and roll in many ways, but I liked the looks of him. Couldn't play anything but basic chords either. Painful to listen to, but he had a decent stage presence and managed to move around enough to make up for totally sucking. In the little dive bars that can make or break a show when people are drunk to begin with.

Kinda strange, he looked exactly like a hybrid between Neil Young and Paul Raymond. With Paul's haircut no less. Torn jeans and all, cut just close enough so you keep looking to see something but never do. The slice on the back side expanded as the night wore on and by 1am had a nice view of a left cheek. He acted like Kevin when you talked to him tho, not how a guitarist usually works. Smelled nice. So my pictures are a little guitarist heavy (think his name is Russell, but not certain).

What I was interested in:



( Rest of the photos. )

For some reason everyone I seemed to know locally was there. Little Teddy, Chrissy and Eric, Bob (naturally)... Lots of juicy rumours circulating about Emerson and BL, had to say I did see it coming and I hope they can find someone better. Emerson never quite fit in. Auditions are Thursday, I really hope they can find someone and not just settle for the first moron who shows up.

Spent a good portion of today running around doing errands. Stocked up for the storm and spent 45 minutes in line at the grocery store. People are scared of this one, getting all set with batteries and water and bread. I spent too much money and bought too many groceries, but if something happens I have a week's supply of cornish rock hens and kalamari. All vital things, you see.

Must find a recipie for that poppyseed hen dish I had at a restaraunt in Solon. Going to try to reproduce it tomorrow. Nothing like little birdies sitting on your plate waiting for you to stab into their carcasses. Not only is it high class, it gets some of those murderous urges out of the system.

Wishbone anyone?

Cornish Hens

Have been indoors all bloody day with the storm outside. Not as 'blizzard' as I think it was supposed to be, but it's bad enough. Idiots trying to drive up and down our hill, ending up in various piles at the bottom. Makes for some light entertainment. Nothing like washing dishes and placing bets if the front wheel sedan will make it up the hill or not. Usually they don't.

Made a really gourmet supper tonight. Poppy seed Cornish hens, asparagus in a white sauce, homemade sausage bread with gravy... Yum! Too bad William didn't like it. I thought it was delicious. He said it was 'gamey'. Poop on him, more for my lunch tomorrow.

Have heard the latest Zeppelin show from O2 on Dec10th. I'm very much biased but I think it's over rated. Much better than Live Aid or anything of that ilk, but not what it should have been. Page/Plant sounded better in '95-'98 than they did last week. I can feel for Bonham, everyone will pick at his performance and he's not his father. He was and is better suited for other bands, I still prefer Michael Lee in the Zeppelin seat. Don't get me wrong, Jason's good, but he's not his father. Michael's no John Bonham either. It's a tricky spot. I like Andy Parker much better in the UFO seat than I liked Jason. But all that is nothing against Jason.

Page, well. Let's say that if he ever played a clean show it wouldn't be Pagey and the magic would be gone. The Page Signature sound is missed frets and dropped chords and bad notes all over the place.

Plant. Hasn't been able to sing since the Rhoades accident. Still can't. Oh well.

Jonsey rocks, always the professional.

I am uploading the disk to a short time file transfer service for a few mates who do not have usenet access. I'll try to remember to post the links when available.

Now, my computer keeps crashing when I try and play mp3 tracks. Just started today, yesterday was fine. This will be fun. I think that file that was torrented to me is all mp3 stuff. Afraid to open it until the first O2 disk is uploaded - don't want to short circuit the connection. I really hope this is just a bug that goes away on it's own. I have too much of a reliance on multimedia to have my computer crash every five minutes. I think 'Unplugged and Unshaven' will have to wait until tomorrow.

Had a very strange dream last night. Was about the mate of mine with one arm. He's got a really nice clean scar (very aerodynamic he says) where the arm was ripped off. No stump or anything to speak of, just smooth all around. In my dream somehow they had attached three little fingers (like children's fingers) to his shoulder/armpit/ex-arm area. He was doing all sorts of strange things with them to show off, I remember the one with the playing cards most vividly. I was looking at him like 'You can't do that' and he went 'Yeah, I can. See?' Odd. Pointless too. So strange seeing those little fingers wiggle out of where his joint should have been.

Enough of that. Gonna try putting the gig from the Wapentake Club 1995 on the memory stick and open it on a different computer. Damn, Richard was so hot that year even tho he was sick.

Should probably get something productive done. Shower sounds good. Have to wake up early because I intend to walk to work. No way I'll be able to drive. So goes winter.

O2 Show - Downloads

First disk is up! 7 days or 100 downloads, whichever is first. Pass the link around. Artwork is on the ZeppelinArt page.

Disk Two up!

Take what you can, while you can. The DVD should be out in a few months, but this will get the die hard collector through. We'll all be purchasing the DVD when it's released anyway.