What A Day

Yesterday was a typical New York winter's day: I was woken up a few times over the course of the morning by the snowplow scraping the driveway clean of our first big snow of the season. After finally waking up at the crack of 1pm (I'm on Official Slacker Time), I looked out the window to see that big gray sky hanging over the Hudson like the seasonal killjoy that it is. The weather reports said we'd have even more snow later in the day. Not something you want to hear when you're faced with an already hour+ drive to see a show that night. Luckily, the weather didn't punish me with any more precipitation until much later in the night, so I made it down to see the Great American Rampage Tour at Starland ok.

When I got there, I was surprised to see that the left and right bars at Starland were curtained off. That's disappointing to me, because I feel that Skindred and Nonpoint are so good they deserve to be sold out. But I guess they're not at that level. Worked out for me though, because due to the smaller crowd, I was able to get front row barricade even after arriving 2 hours after doortime. I was a little surprised, because the show was only $25 after Ticketmaster charges, a bargain for a 7-band lineup these days. But I guess the people of NY and Jersey would rather stay in than go see some cool bands for a good price.

I arrived in time to see Australian band Karnivool, who I didn't know, but ended up being a pleasant surprise. I found them to be very interesting musically, especially their last song, which I wish I knew the name of. After Karnivool was Ankla, described as Latin Metalcore. I've never really seen a metalcore show, let alone one that utilized a shekere. Plus, they not only have a drummer, but a percussionist as well, which is definitely something you don't see every day in metal. During Ankla's set, Jose from Sirius' Hard Attack channel came up to perform. Evidently he is a big supporter of theirs, so they wanted him to come up and join in.

Following Ankla was Skindred. I've seen them before as an opener on the Getting Away With Murder tour, so I knew that their show was going to be great. I didn't remember more than three songs going into this show, but I still had fun. The singer, Benji, has a great presence and is skilled at getting the crowd into it. He has a playful personality which I find, well, adorable. Their music is like reggae-slanted metal. Very cool. My favorite song of the set was Nobody.

Finally, Nonpoint took the stage. Saturday, the day before my show, singer Elias had injured his ankle at a radiofest show down in Florida. The fact he still got on a plane, flew up to NJ, and performed hopping around on one foot just to play for us, really impressed me.

Although Elias was hindered physically, the set was still as explosive as I'd remembered from seeing them in '05 and '03 opening for Papa Roach on their Lovehatetragedy and GAWM tour as well. I didn't know every single song, only owning the live CD, but I stayed into it from beginning to end.

The drummer, Robb, is really a show on his own. First of all, he has his set facing sidestage. I'm not sure what the reasoning is. I used to think it was some kind of anxiety issue, like he is afraid to face the audience or something. But he would constantly turn to face the crowd, so that isn't it. Judging from the amount of times he would get up from his set, either to mess with bassist Bastard or Elias, or simply just to walk around, I guess that's one reason. Another is that he attacks his drums like no one else I've ever seen and just needs the space. Sometimes he'd stand up and play, sometimes kneel as he would do a soft drum roll... crazy fun to watch. Also fun, is Bastard. I've never seen anyone so into their own music. I loved it. Apparently this was obvious by the smile on my face, which Bastard recognized and so he gave me a psychotic smile back, which made me laugh.

For me the highlight of the whole set was "Alive and Kicking." To say I went apeshit during this song would be an understatement. I'm not the type to jump up and down during a song, even when the band commands me to do so, but I found myself yelling "Sooo I'm tearing this and everything else between me and what I want to do to pieces!!!" midair so I guess I am still capable of surprising myself.

After the show various band members hung out at the Merch booth, with the exception of Elias, who I assume was already backstage resting his foot. I bought a cool Skindred shirt for $25 and made my way out to the cold rainy parking lot, satisfied with the show. I got to see some cool bands I didn't know before, saw Nonpoint sing one of my current favorite songs, and all for under $30. Good day.

Photos:
KARNIVOOL:




ANKLA:






SKINDRED:








NONPOINT:








MARQUEE OUTSIDE VENUE:

Smile, You're meeting Henry Rollins.

Holy crap was traffic bad tonight. Note to self: Starland is a PAIN IN THE ASS to get to during rush hour.

Tonight my schedule was finally synched up with Henry Rollins' and I got to see him perform at Starland. Clocking in at just under 3 hours, it was an evening full of some of the best stories you'll ever hear come out of someone's mouth. He told of rad nights with his favorite bands, his trips to Lebanon and Syria, and his idea that exotic beasts of the wild should be dispersed throughout random cities of America just to keep us on our toes. Of course there were some political rants Rollins-style thrown in as well.

I would like to bitch just for a paragraph or two about people who talk during a SPOKEN WORD performance. A stupid drunk chick behind me would not shut up and distracted me from the show a few times. Plus, our waitress appeared to be louder than any other waitress in the place (Starland was set up like a nightclub, with long beergarden style table seating on the normally general admission floor, and regular circular dining tables in the bar areas overlooking the floor. I was in the dining table area.) Not to mention the other two people who felt it was perfectly fine to answer cell phone calls and speak at normal volume so that the rest of us silent folk could hear their conversation.

It really upset me. I was taking this whole event so seriously- I wanted to soak up every single word Henry had to say and these idiots were being disrespectful. But I realized, I have a choice. I can confront these people or hope they go away. If I called them out on their behavior, that would take even more of my time away from the performance, as I would have had about 5 exchanges over the course of the show. And I don't know about your experiences with them, but I find that drunks aren't usually up for being told what to do. Trying to reason with them is about as effective as trying to clap with one hand (yes I stole that line from Anthrax). After I came to terms with the fact that I can't save the world from rude dumbasses under the influence, I eventually figured out a way to tune them out.

When the show was over, I knew where I was going: the tour bus. You know me- I can't pass up an opportunity to try to meet one of my heroes, especially one that's had a really profound effect on me. Since Henry had stated in a mass email that he normally comes out to talk to his fans, I knew my chances of speaking to the man were pretty good.

Being used to waiting a good hour before bands come out to chat after shows, I was surprised at how quickly Henry came out. In fact I almost didn't notice him as I was checking my text messages. I threw my cell into my purse and whipped out my copy of "Smile, You're Traveling" for him to sign.

When I approached Henry, I warned him that I was about to say something dorky and told him how the book has really made an impact on me and has inspired me to travel to random places alone. "Not any place like Syria," I said, "but I have now been to Wisconsin and Austin, Texas." Henry looked at me and paused. I thought he was going to shoo me off or move on to the next kid.

Instead, he launched into a story about his time in Tehran. I honestly don't remember half of what he said. I think it was something about how the people don't hate U.S. citizens, but have a real problem with our government. He was being drowned out by my heart pounding in my ears as I realized- Henry Rollins, the man whose writing has basically taken over as the voice in my head, was now telling me a story to my face.

As the group of fans (there were probably at least 30 or 40 people waiting to talk) stood in a circle around us, it took everything not to throw my hands to the sky and dance a jig of joy that this was actually happening. It was this weird perfect moment. I mean, the reason I love him is for his stories and take on life, and here he was telling one of those adventures in person, directly to me.

I had asked the girl next to me to take a picture of me and Henry. It came out god-awful. Let's just say I now know what I would look like with 2 1/2 chins. So that won't be posted. I would have taken another posed shot, but there were so many people waiting. I didn't want to hog his attention, especially after the cool storytime moment. If only I remembered what he said! Stupid joy distracting me.

Maybe Memories of last week

Video from the Used show last week at Starland:
Who was glad they weren't on the floor for this show? Me. I opted to stay in the bar area. Hurray!

Pain For Pleasure at Starland

Photos on my Flickr.
Videos on my YouTube.

Setlist, to the best of my memory (not in order):
Makes No Difference
Machine Gun
Motivation
Fat Lip
In Too Deep
Hell Song
Over My Head
My Direction
Still Waiting
Underclass Hero
Walking Disaster
March of the Dogs
(one song I didn't know)
Pain For Pleasure
We're All To Blame
Pieces