Ouch At 345AM (06/02/13)...

So I started off my day at around 345am. LOL. Yes 345am. I woke up thirsty and figured I'd go get a glass of water or something. Well not something. Just water. Anyways I swing myself out of bed and for some reason I managed to bang my right knee on the dresser on the right side of my bed. Let's just say that a choice 4-letter word escaped my lips rather loudly. Here's a hint. It starts with F and ends with K. If the other humanoid in this house along with the two felines were sleeping my bellow changed all that but quick. Once I was able to speak through the pain; I apologized to all in the house. LOL.

I ended up staying up for a couple of hours listening to my man Ronny Mack online on CHOM and reading a Brad Thor novel who's title escapes me now. I am sure it will come to me soon. It's a quick read. Typical for Brad's novels. It reminds me a bit of a Jason Bourne adventure only his protagonist is named Scot Horvath. I kind of picture a younger Scott Glenn type as the Scot Horvath in any future movie productions. I went back to sleep at 630. It's no wonder that I have weird sleep patterns during the week as this is kind of typical for me on weekends.

Today I need to be a domestic gawd! I have much laundry to do. The house definitely can use a sprucing up. I will likely head outside and work on what I call my lawn. I am going to make another sauce for pasta this morning. I have most of the ingredients handy. I would be having pasta for breakfast had I prepared it yesterday like I originally thought I would have done. I love pasta as a mid-morning breakfast lunch thing. Call me weird. LOL. I have been called weirder.

I need to get busy. Peace out rock and rollers and don't forget the deodorant.....

Scorpions & Rainbow Verdun 1982

This blog is right out of left field as all of sudden I started thinking back to a Scorpions and Rainbow concert I saw with several of high school buddies at Verdun Auditorium back on June 12th,1982.

The thought for this blog came up as some Rainbow tracks started playing in the background as I was reading up on my Washington Nationals. I had YouTube on automatic play and "Stone Cold" followed by "Street of Dreams" came on the player.

The main reason we went to the show was because of the Scorpions who were opening for Richie Blackmore's Rainbow as they were supporting the release of their epic hard rock album "Blackout" which was getting major airplay on CHOM. Pretty sure Jeff, Jay, Joey and I were the ones that attended this show. LOL. It was 30 years ago. My memory isn't that precise. There may be a mistake in the list of attendees. I know Jeff and I were there. We were inseparable back then until he hit his Don Johnson stage. LOL. I will leave it that.

I was already a Scorpions fan from the Animal Magnetism album that featured the classic cut "The Zoo". To my knowledge this was the first time that the Scorpions were playing in the Montreal area and they were openers so they weren't getting a chance to play a full set list. I've come to appreciate Blackmore's Rainbow over time but back in '82 I was at that show for the Scorpions.

I am not sure if the Verdun Auditorium is still there so I looked it up and it is still there. Turns out it seats about 4000 people for hockey. It seats a little more for concerts. Not exactly a prime venue to hear music. It's kind of built like an airplane hangar. I know that we had floor seats for the show and it wasn't that crowded. Remember this was '82 just when the Scorpions started to hit their stride. The next time over they played the old Montreal Forum (the 18,000 seater).

Anyways back to the show. One thing the boys from Hannover always did well was write these air guitar anthems that often had these catchy singalong titles and choruses like "The Zoo", "Blackout", "Can't Live Without You" and "Dynamite". By the end of their set I had displayed my best air guitar talents and sang or yelled out to my favorite songs by the Scorpions.

Back then I didn't know much about Rainbow. I knew that the famed axeman Richie Blackmore was fronting the band and that the bass player was from Deep Purple. That being Roger Glover. I knew that Joe Lynn Turner was now the lead singer after the Ronnie James Dio and Graham Bonnet had left the band. MTV was playing Rainbow's "Stone Cold" video on heavy rotation and Blackmore and Turner were interviewed in studio by one of the MTV veejays. Funny what I remember.

At the time I knew two Rainbow songs. The aforementioned "Stone Cold" and the classic "Man On The Silver Mountain" track that featured the heavy metal elf Dio. I didn't even know the classic Bonnet cuts like "Since You Been Gone" and "All Night Long". I knew that Rainbow was about to release "Straigt Between The Eyes" which had been recorded at Le Studio in Morin Heights. We used to get all of this info on the bands from CHOM's Rock'n'Roll News which was on daily for 15-20 minutes at 4pm and if memory serves me correctly they had an hour long version on Saturdays.

So after the intermission on came Rainbow which was a bit of a letdown for this big Scorpions fan. My not knowing much of their material didn't help. Richie Blackmore teasing the audience with all these Deep Purple riffs at the start of the songs didn't help either. You get the opening riffs from Lazy or Highway Star or Smoke on the Water. Immediately recognizable riffs that would segue into some Rainbow. Ugh. What a letdown that was. LOL.

Now in 2012, I listen to Rainbow all of the time. I still the listen to the Scorpions and I am still a rocker.

Favorite New Songs

Okay first of all they're my favorite new songs. It doesn't necessarily mean that they are brand new. The second definitely isn't. At least it is from this century. Ha!

As I have mentioned before I don't listen to much radio here because it annoys me to no end; however lately I have been listening to CHOM online quite a bit and like the way they tweaked the format. They still play tons of classic rock but they have added some new rock. Bravo! CHOM rocks once again!

The first song that caught my ear is Young The Giant's "My Body" which was released as a single in January 2011. This is one of those songs that the very first time I heard it; I immediately had to listen to this song again and again. It just has this driving beat and this catchy chorus. I have no idea what the songs means. I read that it was a song that took them ten minutes to write after a particularly bad day at the recording studio. Well they nailed this song that's for dang sure.

Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQYpF2pCkLI&feature=bf_prev&list=FLWSkrZT-kF2QIBHW9w6bHqQ&lf=plpp_video

The second song that caught my ear is the Pearl Jam song "Just Breathe" released at the end of October 2009. I know. I know. I have jumped on the train a little bit late. Whatever! This song is gorgeous. I am such a sucker for an accoustic guitar song and the lyrics are so heartfelt to boot. I always have thought of Eddie Vedder as a front man who makes weird faces, contorting his body in bizarre ways and making his eyes flutter madly and then he comes up with an absolute gem like this song. Plus he plays a nice accoustic guitar on top of that.

Here's the link for this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aePWkeDxRjE&feature=bf_prev&list=FLWSkrZT-kF2QIBHW9w6bHqQ&lf=plpp_video

The other song that is bouncing around my head lots these days is Mumford and Sons "The Cave" that came from an album released in late 2009. I first heard of this band when I saw them on stage with Bob Dylan and The Avett Brothers at the Grammys. The song was a hit in Ireland when the album was released and then a hit down under in 2010 making it to the hottest 100 charts in Australia and New Zealand. It then started getting airplay here in the States in 2011. Let's face it a folk rock bluegrass group is going to take a while to get a following here on rock radio. A band with a keyboard, a couple accoustic guitars, a banjo, a stand-up bass and drums doesn't exactly strike me as Van Halen or Journey like. Hey I like Van Halen amd Journey! Just making a point. I don't know if they play them here in SC. I discovered their stuff on YouTube. A great place for old and new music. Hearing it online makes me go out and buy the CD. I don't do ipods. LOL.

Here's the link for this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnmIGWW_pv4&list=FLWSkrZT-kF2QIBHW9w6bHqQ&index=125&feature=plpp_video

Anyways enough typing for now. I need to grab a bite to eat. Time for some Guadalajara.

Live - Lightning Crashes

So while waiting for J to get home after A's JV b-ball game I've been listening and watching some of my favorite songs on YouTube.

"Lightning Crashes" by Live is one of my fav songs from the 90s. I saw this band headline an amazing show at the Bi-Lo Center a few years ago. The supporting acts were Tonic and Collective Soul. The show was amazing. I got us seats 3 rows from the stage. Us being Harrison and I. It was H's first concert. Personally I think that line-up was a pretty good introduction to live music shows for him. I'm biased as Collective Soul and Live are two of my fav bands from the 90s and beyond.

Anyways CHOM in Mtl. used to play this song every once in a while back in the day but it never really made it big airplay-wise back home. I really came to know this band when I first moved to Greenville in 1999 and spent hours and hours chatting online while listening to new music stations either on my TV or computer.

This is where I was introduced to "Throwing Copper" by Live. To me it is one of the definitive albums of the new rock era of the 90s. There are 4 songs on this disc that stand the test of time. They are as memorable today as they were back in 1994. These songs being "I Alone, All Over You, Selling The Drama and Lightning Crashes". Songs I will never get tired of listening to. This CD is on heavy rotation in my car and I bought the DVD of their show at the Paradiso. Simply amazing. The audience was so into Live. I would have loved to have been there. I would have been one of the many singing the lyrics as Ed K. was doing the same.

Back to "Lightning Crashes" now. I have sang two songs karaoke in my life. This was my solo performance. This is how much I like this song! I got up in front of people and tried to do justice to do this song. I remember my hand in my pocket. My right knee bopping to the acoustic guitar. Okay many may have been inebriated nevertheless this was my song. A song about life. Birth. Death. It is a song about life.