life's a gas: 2010

ok so everyone knows i love this band, right? good.

went to see them, same place as last time, only this time i took my sister. she had never actually seen them before, except for one of those in-store performances, which are just a watered down version of what they're really like live. she loved it. she actually kinda used to hate that song of theirs, "point breeze," but after hearing it live, she's like "that song was AWESOME." neat, huh?

i also wanted to talk about their opening acts real quick. i didn't mention that last time, justin townes earle (yeah, that's steve earle's son) opened. he is freaking cool, people. awesome songwriter. you can tell he's related but it's not like he's only someone because of his dad, you know? he actually has the talent to back up the name. gotta love that. this time, it was cary hudson. again: AMAZING SONGWRITER. his voice and his guitar and everything was so smooooth and he plays harmonica, which i kinda have a weakness for. i talked to him a little bit afterwards and he was super cool and nice and funny. in fact, he let me trade my band's cd for one of his. how many musicians actually let you barter with them??

anyway, this show did not disappoint, although there were more lineup changes since the last time i saw them. new bassist who also plays trumpet, which was pretty freaking cool. i'm not gonna go into that whole mess too much though, because i don't have a lot of nice things to say about the reason the whole band quit in the first place. but to be quite frank, to me, marah was always about the bielanko brothers, and now that serge has put it behind him, it's really just dave. yeah, the musicians are generally great and fit the marah sound, but still. it's dave's band.

new marah music news: they're putting the new album out on cassette and vinyl. not on cd. that kinda made me all warm and fuzzy inside. only the cassette was available at the show i was at so i had to get that, but i CANNOT wait for the vinyl. i really like the sound of the new stuff. some of it is lacking the...i don't know...balls, for lack of a better word...that is typical of marah music. but it still has a great sound and i'm really digging it. i hope everyone else enjoys it as well.

i'm really almost afraid to write anything in here, because in the last couple entries, i wrote about supergrass and dio. well, last month sometime i found out that supergrass are breaking up and it made me really sad as i'm sure you can imagine. but even worse was finding out yesterday that dio has passed away. i'm not going to repeat myself about how amazing dio is (just go read my heaven & hell post) but seriously, he was just such a cool guy and anytime i ever heard a story about someone meeting him they always said he was really polite and took the time to talk, which is rare these days. what really makes no sense is that dio replaced ozzy in sabbath, and ozzy was/is the biggest goddamn trainwreck, and somehow he is still alive...? no offense ozzy, but what the fuck?

ok. moving on to happier topics... and completely changing the subject from metal to punk, and hoping that my bad luck doesn't rub off on these guys...

i went to see the buzzcocks on friday night!!!!! what you must understand first and foremost is this: i listened to this band A LOT as a teenager and they were one of the first punk bands i ever got into and at one point or another i think i have related to every single one of their songs. i used to have lyrics from "just lust" written on my bag when i was in high school because i was cool like that. and also, i did see them once before, but like i said with the first time i saw heaven & hell, i was in the lawn at camden. it kinda takes something away from it, being so far away and seeing little miniature people on the stage that may or may not be who you think they are... you know what i'm saying. so this show was at the troc AND i was able to get right up front and that made me very happy.

the opening bands were pretty good, i don't know who the first band was but the bass player was definitely in one of my classes at temple. ha. the dollyrots were fun, it took me a song or two to get adjusted to her voice, but overall i did really like them.

so, the buzzcocks. pete shelley and steve diggle are the 2 members still in the band from the original lineup, and they are seriously cute old men. it makes me happy to see them. oh and did i mention that this is the "another bites" tour? meaning that they are playing through their first 2 albums IN THEIR ENTIRETY? another music in a different kitchen and love bites. OH YES. so the set list is easy to figure out if you weren't at the show. they sounded awesome and they looked like they were having fun, which made me have even more fun, and i was so so happy to be there. steve was smiling a lot and pointing back to the people who were pointing at him, and pete was smiling and making eye contact while he was singing. so there we all are, dancing around, singing along, and i was getting ready to record a song because i knew "walking distance" was up next. having found out recently that original bassist steve garvey lives in the area, i had a bit of a hunch that he might be there to play on the song that he wrote. well GUESS WHO WAS RIGHT? that's right. they introduced him, and he walked out, and the excitement level in the room went up about 20 notches. it was incredible. and super cute. so after they got through the 2 albums, they came out and played a few more songs: "harmony in my head," "promises," "love you more," "orgasm addict." yeah that's right they closed with ORGASM ADDICT. the first song of theirs i ever heard and my most favoritest to this day. it never gets old. so there you have it.