Hi all. Sorry it's been a while since I last wrote to you. There's a lot to catch up on, so let's get right into it.
First of all, I'm very excited to announce that I will be attending next year's Cruise to the Edge! Next year also marks the ten year anniversary of my introduction to prog, so in my opinion, there's no better way to celebrate that.
I think I should let you all know why I stopped posting for a while, and what I was doing in that time. Well, I just finished my third year of college, and I've been home now for a little over 2 weeks. School was getting very demanding, and since I had a part time job on top of that, I started viewing my blog posts as being more of a chore rather than something I did for fun, so I decided to take a break. It's been almost a year since my last blog post, but that doesn't mean that my passion for music has slowed down. I have been going to lots of concerts lately, which I hope to start reviewing again, as well as discovering plenty of new bands and artists. Having said that, though, I have been spending a lot of my time on bands or artists outside of prog. I have been finding myself delving more into genres that I either haven't listened to in years or have never really listened to. I realized that, at 21 years old, I can't live off of prog alone, and that there is so much great new music out there that I'm missing out on. So, to be honest, I haven't really been listening to much prog lately, especially in the last 6 or 7 months. Instead, I've been listening to more R&B, alternative, and even metal. I have also started revisiting some of the people I listened to long before I was listening to prog. These are the people that first sparked my desire to begin playing music. I'm mainly referring to the big pop stars of the late 90's or early 2000s like the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Kelly Clarkson, you get the idea. I know it's supposed to be blasphemous to mention these people in a blog about progressive music, but that was where it all started for me. And to be honest, I still like those people even as a hardcore prog fan.
2017 was pretty much a "getting to know you" year for me and the band Marillion. I spent all of that year buying the rest of their albums, and learning more about what a truly wonderful band they are. When they announced their 2018 tour of the US following their performance on Cruise to the Edge, I decided to travel to see them, and on February 9, I flew to Atlanta, Georgia, where I saw them up front at the Variety Playhouse. But that's not all I did. It didn't take me long to realize how truly caring and sweet they are towards their fans. Their album FEAR has become very special to me, so special that I bought around 17-20 copies of that album from their online store to send to my friends. After I did that, I thought I would buy one more to hopefully give to another band or musician. I decided to give a copy to Al Stewart, who performs out here in SoCal quite frequently. In short, I got the opportunity to give Al a copy after a show he did back in November. I handed him the CD, and he immediately recognized the name "Marillion." He then told me about how he had watched their performance at the 2014 Cropredy festival, where they had performed right before he had. I also brought a vinyl copy for him to sign for the band, which I presented to Steve Rothery after their show in Atlanta. He seemed surprised by it. Regardless, it was a very rewarding experience, and I'm exceptionally proud to call to call myself a fan of both their music and of them as people. Hopefully, I can make it to a Marillion Weekend someday.
Next, I'll talk a bit about some great new musical discoveries I've made this year. The first one is the band Ghost. I'd known about this band for a while, actually. My dad saw them open for Opeth back in 2012 at the (now demolished) Gibson Amphitheatre. I remember him texting me when they first took the stage. I don't remember the exact words, but it was something about this "weird band whose singer is dressed like the pope," followed by a slightly blurry photo. Metal is typically a genre that I pay no mind to. We talked about seeing them for a while, and they finally announced a tour this year, with their first show being in my college town. My dad drove down and we went to that show together. Walking in, I basically wasn't expecting a ton. Personally, I tend to find metal music too noisy. When I think of metal music, I think of mindless vocals, guitars that are so distorted that I can't even tell what chords are being played, and plenty of headbanging. So, in short, that's what I thought I was going to get from Ghost.
I was wrong.
They put on a delightful performance ("delightful" isn't a word I thought I'd use to describe a metal band). From start to finish I was pulled in by the theatrics, the passion, the clean vocals, and their ability to engage with the audience. I see that they like to take the anonymous approach that bands like Kiss, Daft Punk or Tool have adopted, as everyone in the band wears a mask that covers their entire face. When my dad saw them in 2012, their singer was known as Papa Emeritus (either the second or the third, I don't remember). After doing a little research, I discovered that, when we saw them together, I wasn't watching Papa Emeritus at all. Instead, I was watching a new persona known as Cardinal Copia. I've heard that some believe that the band changes singers every time the persona changes, when in fact it's actually the same guy (Tobias Forge) every time, just with a new look. Back to the performance, this band doesn't possess the qualities that typically turn me away from metal bands, as I mentioned earlier, so this is the first metal band that I've ever really truly enjoyed. We're already in the process of buying the rest of their albums and I look forward to seeing this band again at The Forum this November. These guys are getting a 10/10 from me.
The next band I discovered was Franz Ferdinand. Like Ghost, I had known about this band for a number of years, but only just got around to seeing them last month. I bought my ticket to see them on a whim, actually, as I didn't decide to go until about 3pm the night of the show. I bought a ticket in the last row of the balcony. Sometimes I think it's fun to just buy the cheapest ticket available and sit at the very top, watching everything unfold. But I'm sure glad I did that, because, of all the shows that I've seen so far this year (about 26 or 27, I think), this one may have been my most favorite. Unfortunately, I think Franz Ferdinand may be one of those bands that aren't as big as I think they deserve to be. They played at The Wiltern Theatre, which only holds about 2,000 or so people and was only about 3/4 full. People really don't know what they're missing, because this was one of the most refreshing and enjoyable concerts I've been to in a long time. It got me thinking about why I decided to take a break from the older bands and focus more of my attention on newer bands, because this band displayed a wonderful amount of energy that I don't get from some of the older bands I go see. I went to Amoeba Music in Hollywood that weekend and promptly bought all 5 of their studio albums. I've been playing those non-stop ever since and I will definitely be seeing this band again. Giving this band a big 10/10.
On a less positive note, this year I also saw the single worst concert I've ever been to in my life. Some of you may be surprised, and some of you may not be. Last month I saw Liam Gallagher at the Greek Theatre. I bought his solo album As You Were at the beginning of the year, and I thoroughly enjoyed that record. I was sorry to hear that I had missed his performance at the Wiltern just a couple months earlier, so we bought out tickets to this show the minute they were on sale (in the presale, actually). Wow. This show was pretty much the lowest energy show I've ever seen. All of the musicians practically sleepwalked through their performances. The entire show had such an unwelcoming, bitter feel to it. There was no heart or passion put into any of the songs, and Liam's voice was absolutely dreadful, except for maybe 2 or 3 Oasis songs. I don't it's too farfetched to suspect that the band didn't even rehearse for this tour. I wrote a review of this show on the Facebook event page, and someone commented something along the lines of "Well, what were you expecting?" What was I expecting? I was expecting a good quality show, just as I do for any other concert! You really expect me to believe that people go to see him while knowing that they're paying for a subpar performance? I read other reviews on Ticketmaster, and my opinion is clearly not an unpopular one. The thing that pissed me off the most was the fact that his entire performance was only 55 minutes long. With a discography as big as Liam Gallagher's, there's no excuse for this. I guess you could say that I didn't have to suffer longer than I needed to, though. I don't think I could have been able to stand hearing him barf out those songs for 2 hours or more. Anyway, terrible show. Would not recommend it to even the biggest Oasis fans. I'm giving this a 3/10. Epic waste of time.
I've decided not to review the people I've seen many times in the past (5 times or more). This includes Yes, Steven Wilson, and Al Stewart. Instead, I'll just give you my star ratings for the other bands I've seen this year:
The Killers - 10/10
Marillion - 9.5/10
Steve Hackett - 8/10
Demi Lovato - 7.5/10
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - 8/10
Wishbone Ash - 6/10
Ghost - 10/10
Liam Gallagher - 3/10
Franz Ferdinand - 10/10
Ian Anderson presents Jethro Tull - 7/10
Aly and AJ - 8/10
Upcoming shows I have for the rest of the summer and year:
Harry Styles at the The Forum - 7/14
Phish at The Gorge Amphitheatre - 7/20, 7/21, 7/22
Jesse McCartney at The Belasco (terrible venue) - 7/25
Panic! At the Disco at STAPLES Center - 8/15
ARW at The Greek Theatre - 8/29
Justin Hayward at The Rose - 9/8
Justin Hayward at The Canyon Santa Clarita - 9/9
Korn at The Palladium - 9/13
Arcade Fire feat. The Zombies at The Greek Theatre - 9/20
Bruno Mars at STAPLES Center - 10/27
Phil Collins at The Forum - 10/28
Ghost at The Forum - 11/16
That's about it, for now!
