Diario

Tue 20 Jul – Streetlight Manifesto

this show was amazing. well, to be fair, it felt like i went to two shows last night: one show that was alternatively boring and shitty, and one that was amazing.

Potthast opened up. i came into the situation with an open mind, but just the acoustic guitar was kinda boring for me. some of the songs were funny, especially the last one directed towards a heckler in the crowd, but overall i was just not interested.

The Wonder Years are an awful, boring band that should not be touring with the next two bands ever. That is all about them you need to know.

Supervillains were fantastic. I skanked it up in the pit for these guys, pigtails flying everywhere. I had never really heard them, but greatly appreciated their reggae-reminiscent sound (it is ska, but still). i loved how they'd build tension up to a point and either go back into relatively calm ska chords or go batshit crazy like a punk band. I shook the saxophonist's hand and told him i dug his playing because i did. i loved his style. I'm definitely checking these guys out next chance i get.

Streetlight Manifesto was everything i wanted and more. i haven't heard much off of Keasby Nights, but this show convinced me to go get it eventually. i mostly danced off to the side and stood on the second stage to watch. i got to shake Martin Thomas' hand (the trumpeteer for Streetlight Manifesto. i think that's his name, i can never remember) and tell him that i dug his playing. as a trumpet player, that was a great moment for me. Streetlight's set was absolutely amazing, and i got to sing along to all of my favorite songs of theirs.

i got a tour poster for cheap too! i'm so happy to go to a show where shirts are only $15 and posters are $2. i need to start going to more shows like these.\

this show was great. it convinced me and my buddy jimmy to go to more ska shows, which i'm looking forward too, and also cemented my love of skanking. it only gets funner when you're in a crowd!

Wed 9 Jun – Iron Maiden, Dream Theater

This show was great. I had pit tickets with two of my friends, so we were less than 50 feet away from the performers the entire time.

Dream Theater's show was flawless. If you don't have a decent appreciation for DT's technical ability, watch them live. They are gods. Petrucci was naturally perfect. The bassist, the keyboardist, Portnoy; all of it was perfect. the only small messup was LaBrie sounding a little flat on some notes, but it wasn't too noticeably bad.

Iron Maiden was just as great. Unlike what was expected from many, including my friends, the overwhelming majority of their set consisted of stuff from their new album, stuff off of A Matter of Life and Death, and their work from the 90's. I thoroughly enjoyed it personally, as i've a copy of Death on the Road, so i've heard most of the stuff they played. Paschendale was nice, but had one or two snags in it with the drums/guitar, and Dickinson came in early a bit, but it was otherwise awesome.

Overall, in terms of technical performance, Dream Theater was a little better, but to me Iron Maiden was much cooler just because it was fun to watch the guys performance