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This concert had more trouble than any I've been to recently. Firstly I was never meant to be going, it was set to be on Thursday at the Arena. Then after some dude from Escape the Fate got his junk out at an all ages concert at the Arena recent the police decided not to approve all ages gigs there anymore.
Underoath then, somehow, manage to move the concert to the Tivoli, two days early. My mate who had tickets couldn't move his flight. To say the least he was pissed. On the upside for me I got to go.
For some bizzare reason (I've never really been to all ages concerts before so that may explain it) it started at 6pm and was designated to finish at 9.30. In time for me to go home for a nana nap. Re-fucking-diculous.
We got there are a bit after 8, deciding that more beers were better than unnamed support acts. Underoath had already started. That sucked. I don't know how much we missed, but they were still introducing themselves after the first song we heard. So maybe two songs??
Then they come out and say that their keyboardist (Chris I think his name was) got really sick in and missed their flight from Africa over, and only just got in.
from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underoath
Anyway, they were pretty good, they obviously enjoyed playing their newer (read: heavier) stuff than their older more emo/screamo stylings. They played stuff from all parts of their back catalogue. The newest two albums are by far their best, both musically and by the atmosphere. People, band members included, were going crazy. Fight dancing turned into straight up circle pitting. Good times.
But I'm not exactly sure what makes them such a good band. Their guitars aren't fantastic and the keyboard is virtually non-existant. The drumming and singing was cool though. I guess it's just one of those bands that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Then, the band finishes at 9.10. 20 freaking minutes early. That's just not cool. I've always heard that Underoath are really dedicated to their fans and will go out of their way to sign autographs and shit, but I mean a better fan treatment would be PLAYING AS LONG AS THE FUCKING TIMETABLE SAYS YOU WERE MEANT TO. Especially when its only 9pm.
And then as we were walking out I was overheard some kids talking about the Soundwave lineup. And I quote "There are some old school bands going, like Nine Inch Nails and Alice in Cooper". Alice in Cooper indeed! Learn some musical history, appreciate bands like Alice in Chains for their greatness and stop talking about Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. They actually suck
Aagh. Still Underoath were good, it was just a night that seemed like it was never meant to be.
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September 25th 2008 06:23
Time to dust the cobwebs from XYZ and pump out some articles I think.
I watched Training Day for the first time in a long time the other day. I forgot how good that movie was.
Full of everything you'd want in a cop film - action, adventure, set ups, gangsters, back stabbing crazy Russians. Everything.
But I'm still amazed that this won an Oscar. Not because it didn't deserve it, it did, but because it's the type of film that people rave about and then gets ignored at the awards ceremonies because it's too actionified, too 'low brow' and not full of enough meaningless bullshit.
from Wikipedia
But it's fantastic, the epic set up occurs is one of the best I can remember in pretty much any story. It starts right from the beginning, and even after the end your left wondering how things are going to fully be worked out. Great stuff.
The characters are sweet, the way the moral questions are posed (before being shot down towrds the end) are wicked. For example if your an undercover Narc and you refuse to take drugs from a dealer, your pretty much screwed. So you better know what the drugs will do to you and how to deal with it. Even if it means getting friends to fudge the details in the drug test labs.
Yeah, it rocks. I'm trying not to put too much plot details in here in case, for some reason, someohe hasn't seen it and it reading this. If you are, immediately head down to the video store and buy/hire this thing out. Violence, drug use, swearing, gangs, shoot outs. Everything you could want out of a quiet night in right?
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September 25th 2008 06:09
I went and saw the Faint live last night. Fantastic show. For those that don't know (which is a lot of people in Australia) is an indie band with a fair bit of electronic and punk influences. In fact wikipedia lists them as 'Dance-Punk', which is probably about right.
A five peice out of Nebraska in the States, they consist of a singer (wearing aviator glasses), two guitarist/bassists (they switched between instruments so often I don't think I could classify one as the guitarist and one as the bass player) a keyboard/synth player and of course a drummer.
They pumped out some fantastic sounds, a lot of it was really bass driven electronic stuff, but it all had very punky guitar and singing backing it up. I'd love to comment on the drums but I know next to nothing about drumming. He seemed good though.
from Wikipedia
A lot of music from their album Dance Macabre which was good because it's by far my favourite, and I think their best (Agenda Suicide, Let the Poison Spill from your Throat, and others). There was a fair bit from their new one Fasciinatiion and Wet From Birth both of which are good albums too.
I actually think they sounded better live than they do recorded, which is always excellent. No point going to a concert when their album is better than the show.
The atmosphere was pretty electric, not suprising though considering the size of the Zoo (tiny), and that it was sold out. People were jumping and dancing around for most of the show, then towards the end where the band started going a bit nuts it virtually turned into a moshpit. Not a violent punk or metal pit mind you, but losts of people jumping around together. Which was fun.
I'd nearly forgotten what it was like to leave a concert without having your feet crushed, having a bloody nose, and getting covered with sweat (the majority of it belonging to the shirt-lessfat bald man in front of you). It was a pleasant change.
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September 22nd 2008 00:47
Wow. Anyone who like guitar must listen to this album. I'd barely even heard of Protest the Hero before a week ago. As far as I knew they barely knew which end of a guitar did what. And now they bust out with one of the most technically incredible album's I've ever heard.
I first heard of this album in the magazine Death Before Dishonour. A great Aussie metal/punk (and all thing in between) mag out of Brissie. This album is fantastic. It's a strange, but awesome mix of Dillinger Escape Plan style 'mathcore' and prog metal stylings. As anyone who has read this blog before can tell, essentially that's everything I want in a metal band
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September 19th 2008 06:30
I'll have an actual post in a couple of days, I want to write about Maylene and the Sons of Disaster and 36 Crazyfists at some stage (I haven't written about Crazyfists before right?).
Anyway, as a bit of a follow up to my Death Magnetic post I just wanted to mention that The Unforgiven III was one of my least favourite songs on the album to start with
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September 15th 2008 05:51
Coldplay can shove it, this is the biggest album of the year, and I honestly didn't know what to expect. I'd heard good things for a while, that Metallica were getting back into the groove. Then they released the single 'The Day that Never Comes'.... I wasn't impressed. Sure it was better than St. Anger, but nothing mind blowing, nothing I'd class as worthy of Metallica, the band that is to metal what the Beatles are to all music.
So I've given the album a couple of listens now, and I can admit: I like it. Even The Day that Never Comes is good when heard in context of the whole album. It's thrashy, it's still a little Southern at times (hey I love a good bit of Southern rock/metal, just a don't want an entire Metallica album to be this), it's got elements of newer music without sounding like Korn or System of A Down as St. Anger did
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Believe it or not I'd never seen this until this weekend. It was just one of those movies I'd always planned on watching but never got around to it.
It was fantastic, everything I expected. Not so much an action movie, or even a police chase movie as an hour and a half of Clint Eastwood just being the manliest man of all time. Just busting around messing people up and telling people to get out of his way. Hanging out on top of bridges waiting to jump onto buses
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As I Lay Dying are one of the biggest names in current metal at the moment. Despite the fact it's the style I generally like, and that I love the singer's side band Austrian Death Machine, I just can't get into them. They seem good, but not god enough to really pull me in.
I'm trying to amongst them, I really am, but these metalcore bands that have next to no clean singing can really rub me the wrong way, and I think that's what As I Lay Dying's problem is. Sure there are a couple of songs with clean vocals, but not that many, and most of those aren't that fantastic. Except for 'Confined' off Shadows are Security that song is wicked
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I've recently come to the conclusion that film has invented a type of superhero that is completely different from the more famous comic book variety.
I'm not talking here the standard comic-to-film adaptions that have been coming out with more and more frequency recently, but a whole bunch of movies that have been popular for decades. While comic books have their heroes in spandex and bright colours, masking their faces and hiding their identities, these movie heroes are more desperate vigilantes, often acting out of their own selfish needs, in tragic and impoverished settings. They often come across less as a people's heroic watchman, and more of a wandering myth
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So I haven't posted here or at Cinema XYZ for ages. But with a helpful reminder from Charles I figured I should throw some stuff down to at least keep the place going.
Anyway I've come across a couple of new bands recently that I can talk about, and I'm going to start with He Is Legend
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Comment by Geoff Egan
on A Legend Passes – Paul Newman Memories
Cinema XYZ
Noise Fanatic
My favourites would be: The Road to Perdition, Butch Cassidy and Slap Shot. Especially Slap Shot. Fantastic actor, he'll truly be missed