A Night of Rock

The Raskins, Alice Cooper, and Motley Crue

 Time for an entry in the concert series. Last night was a great night. It was time to break away from the hum drum crap of the world, immerse myself in some loud music, and lose myself for a few hours with some like minded people. Motley Crue's Final Tour at the Isleta Amphitheater, Albuquerque, NM. In the singing voice of Vince Neil, it kicked some ass! So time for a breakdown of the night. 

Sunset at the Isleta Amphitheatre, Albuquerque, NM

The warm up act took stage on time. Some crap group from NY called foreskins or some similar name not worth remembering. The didn't have a single song of their own, and played one of the worst Ramons covers I've ever heard. Most of the crowd ignored them and continued to get merchandise, food, and of course adult beverages. What's really sad is the fact that they weren't that bad if you got rid of the front man. Yes, he was that bad. So moving along.

Alice Cooper, center stage!

Time for Alice Cooper! Alice hasn't lost a step. Wardrobe changes, Frankenstein, beheadings, you were entertained from beginning to end. A truly great set from the master. If you were standing in the crowd in my section, it was behind me. Sadly I was in a noticeably weak section off the crowd. Don't get me wrong, I had a great view. But that's because from beginning to end, I was standing behind a sea of dead asses. Not a single person stood! Only part of the crowd! Obviously they didn't know what they were in for, our how to react. Losers. I felt bad for Alice, but I stood up raised my hand in the air and got the groove! It's ALICE! Amazing!

The sea of dead asses in front of me on the lawn. This is at the end of Alice's set.

Then of course a short intermission to adjust the stage for Crue. A short video came on the screens off stage and the sea of dead asses got up thinking it was actually their time. Morons! So I took the time to check merch, and food.

Motley Crue!

Now time for the so called FINAL TOUR (we'll see how that goes), Motley Crue takes the stage!  And BOOM! We're off and running! Balls to the wall! Everyone is on their feet and looking around you can finally tell that this is a sold out show! Lights, pyro, and ROCK! Another great set. The crowd was singing along, heads were bobbing, hands in the air, whistles, screams, a few lighters, all the good stuff that a concert should be. A little verbage from Vince and Nikki of course, and a couple of solo's. Sadly none from Tommy. But a great show none the less. Lights that give Kiss a run for their money easily, and pyro that kicks Kiss square in the balls. And to finish off the night... the boys moved to a stage in the middle of the audience to play Home Sweet Home.

Crue playing Home Sweet Home

And of course like any good show, aside from the fellow metalheads in the crowd, it was enjoyed with family and friends. Love ya!

Another rant about music.

Back to the music kids. It amazes me how today's pop culture will feed until the point of purging on the media mainstream. Kids today will know everything you can find on the likes of Nicki Minaj, Beyonce, etc, but don't go beyond that. The music underground has essentially become independents that haven't broken through into the mainstream yet, or are members that refuse to sign with major labels for fear of corporate media forcing them to sellout their gimmick for something else.

What brings me to this? Easy, recently I've tried talking to some people about their music and have gotten an overwhelming similar response every time. "Oh you wouldn't like it," or "Oh, it's new so you wouldn't know it." As those who truly know me, know I listen to a bit of everything, so I'm well versed in different areas of music. Hell, it's hard not to be when you grew up with your dad jamming in the living room at 3 in the morning on a school night, like it was no big thing.

One main area is with people who "think" they know what the rave scene, and tech is all about. I love the assumption that I don't know anything because of my age. One college kid made that assumption clear just a few days ago when I asked about a song. The first thing that came to mind was, "I was listening to Orbital, The Shamen, Praga Kahn, KLF, and a plethora of others when you were just being conceived!" No really, this is someone that was literally just being born when Traci Lords was cutting her first music album, and they think I don't understand. So I name off a few groups, and they are clueless as to who I'm speaking about.

Today's raver's are increasingly only familiar with what's in the mainstream. Part of it I blame on the DJ's, and part on the fact that kids are not encouraged to look beyond the MTV hype of today. And it's in all areas of music. You mention Black Flag, and immediately Henry Rollins is the association. You mention Metallica and  Cliff Burton is an unknown. AC/DC and Bon Scott who? Belinda Carlisle is in Purgatory apparently because nobody under 30 has a clue who she or the Go-Go's are. And Bananarama is confused for a name game played in pre-school and early grade school.

It's sad and funny all at the same time. It's a testament to an earlier rant that what passes for music today is a joke, and a bad one at that. We really need a new surge in music badassery that gets people interested in it, and the bands again.

So for those about to rock, I salute you.