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osarabaJust a bit of background info before I get into the report. Although I won those tickets to go see Chevelle, I'm not a huge fan or anything. I like what I've heard on the radio, and I've heard a few other songs of theirs, but by no means was I ready to sing all the words to all the songs they would play. So I decided to dl some songs, put them on a CD and listen to it nonstop for a few days to see if I could get any of them to stick in my head. I did that, but then I decided to look up the lyrics. After reading through the lyrics for their second album (Wonder What's Next), I realized I really dislike how their lyrics are more thought fragments than sentences (or even phrases sometimes). Okay, so that bugged me. And how redundant some of the lyrics were. (Which I was struggling with because I don't generally dislike repetitiveness in song lyrics.) And I got a little disappointed because here I won these awesome tickets and now that I'm listening to more than a handful of their songs, I'm not really liking it as much as I thought I did. But, I thought, okay, maybe I can deal with this 'cause I won't be reading the lyrics when they're playing live.
Oh, but then. I realized they're religious. ::groan:: Religious. Why?! One or two songs illustrate this pretty clearly. Now, this doesn't prevent me from liking the songs I already liked (like, The Red and Forfeit especially). And it won't prevent me from liking new songs of theirs that would have suited me. But at the same time, I find myself taking a mental step back from them. In what way this step manifests physically (or "practically" might be a better word), if at all, I don't know. It might just be a personal disappointment (disillusionment, somehow) and that's it.
So, now on to the concert reports:
Liz and I got to the Bowery Ballroom and waited for a while in the first-floor lounge before they opened the doors to the upstairs stage area. We were standing in around the 3rd row from the stage, toward the right. The first opening band, Instruction began shortly. They were a 5-member band, and the singer had that short-unwashed-hair-with-long-bangs-in-his-face look (IMO, very cute). The other band members had their own distinct styles, but they were all pretty normal-looking rock-guy types. They started playing and they sounded pretty good. In between songs, the singer would talk to the crowd a bit, introducing the next song or talking about something related. You could glean what the singer's personality was like from some of what he said, and he completely reminded me of the Brian Kinney character from Queer As Folk (for those of you who don't know: confident and arrogant, but with a good sense of humor). Some of their songs are politically... aware, at the very least; and they were views that I sympathized with (and most liberals would, I imagine). But then when the singer got really into his songs as he was singing, he would move his arms and body in this way that reminded me of Atsushi from Buck-TIck, and that was pretty amusing as well! Anyway, I really liked their sound, and their lyrics (what I could make out) and the guys seemed pretty interesting. Liz completely agreed and we decided we'd buy their CD after the show. (Which we got signed by the singer; none of the rest of the band was around at the time.) Check out their website: http://instructionrocks.com.
The next band to play was called Strata, a 4-member band. They were pretty interesting, I did like their music although it's a bit more mainstream than I prefer. It was sort of like listening to the radio, and hearing a song you like, but wouldn't necessarily buy the album for. Although their last 2 songs were much better, and I think I may want to look up their stuff, even if I didn't buy the CD. The poor drummer hurt his finger in some way during the second-to-last song because during the little break before the last song, he put his knuckle in his mouth and he looked like he was in pain. Then he had to start playing and all throughout that last song, he looked like he was going to cry, and every time there was a break in the drums, he'd put his knuckle to his mouth again. I hope he didn't break it or anything like that. I felt so bad for him and at the same time, had great admiration for his determination to go on playing. Good thing it was only for the last song. When the last note finished, he immediately stood up from his drums and started to leave the stage.
Then Chevelle played (and, interesting to note, they're a 3-member band... I wonder if the guys over at the Bowery did this on purpose?) The drummer was up on a platform (he's really cute -- has that Weezer kind of look to him); the singer on the left and the bassist on the right. The singer kind of freaked me out -- he somehow gave the impression that he's kind of egotistical (he got his face up in the front of the pit like, "hey, look at me!" when, duh, everyone is already looking at him). Maybe that's just a quirk of his, but it felt really weird to me. And the bassist was really dead. He just stood there and played bass, barely moving around, barely interacting with the crowd. The only one who looked like he was really into (focused, interested, excited, happy) the music he was playing was the drummer.
So, I had a lot of fun 'cause we got to see one really awesome band, and two pretty good ones. And I just love being in the mosh pit. It was nice and rowdy this time (in comparison to the last time I was at the Bowery for the Three Days Grace show). And this time I didn't take any bags with me, so I didn't have to worry about that at all. ^_~
Maryann and I went to this private in-studio performance by Chevelle. We got there at 6:30pm and were escorted along with other ticket-winners and their guests to a studio where a stage was set up. The room (minus the stage) was about 35-feet wide by about 50-feet long. (And those are really vague approximations because I'm really bad with eyeballing measurements, in fact I had to take out a tape measure and measure the width of the store and then imagine how many times bigger the studio is than the store, so yeah.) Anyway, it eventually filled up -- 50 people, tops. They played maybe around 45 minutes. A good set, and for such a small crowd it was really entertaining. The looked a lot more relaxed and natural and comfortable than they did at the Bowery the night before. The bassist didn't interact much more, but he did smile a couple of times and he looked more comfortable than dead. The singer wasn't as scary because he didn't try to play up to the crowd, and looked a bit more relaxed. The drummer was awesome; he talked a bit to the crowd in between every song and he was cool, he made regular-guy-type conversation. It was nice and normal and special all at once. So after the peformance, they mingled with the crowd a bit. I got their new CD signed (K-Rock gave them to the winners; the album was released that very day) by all 3 of them. And Maryann asked the drummer for a drumstick, and he had 3 with him, so I got one too! And we took a picture with him as well (his name's Sam, I don't remember the others' names). And do you know, they're a lot taller than they seemed to be! Guys are bastards. Anyway, I'll post the pic when I get home and upload it.
Overall, I'm really grateful to K-Rock for the tickets and the opportunity to see a performance in such an intimate setting. LOL, what a difference it is when a band is playing to 50 people rather than to 500!
And, I really like Sam. He's cool and nice and definitely good-looking (and I don't if you've figured out by now that I love nerdy-looking guys). ^_~
Oh, but then. I realized they're religious. ::groan:: Religious. Why?! One or two songs illustrate this pretty clearly. Now, this doesn't prevent me from liking the songs I already liked (like, The Red and Forfeit especially). And it won't prevent me from liking new songs of theirs that would have suited me. But at the same time, I find myself taking a mental step back from them. In what way this step manifests physically (or "practically" might be a better word), if at all, I don't know. It might just be a personal disappointment (disillusionment, somehow) and that's it.
So, now on to the concert reports:
Liz and I got to the Bowery Ballroom and waited for a while in the first-floor lounge before they opened the doors to the upstairs stage area. We were standing in around the 3rd row from the stage, toward the right. The first opening band, Instruction began shortly. They were a 5-member band, and the singer had that short-unwashed-hair-with-long-bangs-in-his-face look (IMO, very cute). The other band members had their own distinct styles, but they were all pretty normal-looking rock-guy types. They started playing and they sounded pretty good. In between songs, the singer would talk to the crowd a bit, introducing the next song or talking about something related. You could glean what the singer's personality was like from some of what he said, and he completely reminded me of the Brian Kinney character from Queer As Folk (for those of you who don't know: confident and arrogant, but with a good sense of humor). Some of their songs are politically... aware, at the very least; and they were views that I sympathized with (and most liberals would, I imagine). But then when the singer got really into his songs as he was singing, he would move his arms and body in this way that reminded me of Atsushi from Buck-TIck, and that was pretty amusing as well! Anyway, I really liked their sound, and their lyrics (what I could make out) and the guys seemed pretty interesting. Liz completely agreed and we decided we'd buy their CD after the show. (Which we got signed by the singer; none of the rest of the band was around at the time.) Check out their website: http://instructionrocks.com.
The next band to play was called Strata, a 4-member band. They were pretty interesting, I did like their music although it's a bit more mainstream than I prefer. It was sort of like listening to the radio, and hearing a song you like, but wouldn't necessarily buy the album for. Although their last 2 songs were much better, and I think I may want to look up their stuff, even if I didn't buy the CD. The poor drummer hurt his finger in some way during the second-to-last song because during the little break before the last song, he put his knuckle in his mouth and he looked like he was in pain. Then he had to start playing and all throughout that last song, he looked like he was going to cry, and every time there was a break in the drums, he'd put his knuckle to his mouth again. I hope he didn't break it or anything like that. I felt so bad for him and at the same time, had great admiration for his determination to go on playing. Good thing it was only for the last song. When the last note finished, he immediately stood up from his drums and started to leave the stage.
Then Chevelle played (and, interesting to note, they're a 3-member band... I wonder if the guys over at the Bowery did this on purpose?) The drummer was up on a platform (he's really cute -- has that Weezer kind of look to him); the singer on the left and the bassist on the right. The singer kind of freaked me out -- he somehow gave the impression that he's kind of egotistical (he got his face up in the front of the pit like, "hey, look at me!" when, duh, everyone is already looking at him). Maybe that's just a quirk of his, but it felt really weird to me. And the bassist was really dead. He just stood there and played bass, barely moving around, barely interacting with the crowd. The only one who looked like he was really into (focused, interested, excited, happy) the music he was playing was the drummer.
So, I had a lot of fun 'cause we got to see one really awesome band, and two pretty good ones. And I just love being in the mosh pit. It was nice and rowdy this time (in comparison to the last time I was at the Bowery for the Three Days Grace show). And this time I didn't take any bags with me, so I didn't have to worry about that at all. ^_~
Maryann and I went to this private in-studio performance by Chevelle. We got there at 6:30pm and were escorted along with other ticket-winners and their guests to a studio where a stage was set up. The room (minus the stage) was about 35-feet wide by about 50-feet long. (And those are really vague approximations because I'm really bad with eyeballing measurements, in fact I had to take out a tape measure and measure the width of the store and then imagine how many times bigger the studio is than the store, so yeah.) Anyway, it eventually filled up -- 50 people, tops. They played maybe around 45 minutes. A good set, and for such a small crowd it was really entertaining. The looked a lot more relaxed and natural and comfortable than they did at the Bowery the night before. The bassist didn't interact much more, but he did smile a couple of times and he looked more comfortable than dead. The singer wasn't as scary because he didn't try to play up to the crowd, and looked a bit more relaxed. The drummer was awesome; he talked a bit to the crowd in between every song and he was cool, he made regular-guy-type conversation. It was nice and normal and special all at once. So after the peformance, they mingled with the crowd a bit. I got their new CD signed (K-Rock gave them to the winners; the album was released that very day) by all 3 of them. And Maryann asked the drummer for a drumstick, and he had 3 with him, so I got one too! And we took a picture with him as well (his name's Sam, I don't remember the others' names). And do you know, they're a lot taller than they seemed to be! Guys are bastards. Anyway, I'll post the pic when I get home and upload it.
Overall, I'm really grateful to K-Rock for the tickets and the opportunity to see a performance in such an intimate setting. LOL, what a difference it is when a band is playing to 50 people rather than to 500!
And, I really like Sam. He's cool and nice and definitely good-looking (and I don't if you've figured out by now that I love nerdy-looking guys). ^_~
