Tag Archives: concerts

Familiar Taste of Poison

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I cannot get enough of this song. It took a while for Halestorm’s first single, “I Get Off,” to grow on me, but “Familiar Taste of Poison” was what made me go out and buy their album.

This video is just as good as the song. It has the elements of a good flash fiction mystery: very subtle clue to the climax in the beginning, distraction from the clue, and then BAM! You get hit with it.

I love Lizzy Hale’s voice. I don’t listen to a lot of female vocalist fronted bands, because there honestly aren’t very many good ones. I have Lacuna Coil, Evanescence, Garbage, and Halestorm, and that’s pretty much it. Halestorm has been getting a lot of airtime on WCCC — arguably the most popular rock station in my area — and on the days that I get sick of my CDs (that are taking over my glove compartment), I (unfortunately) choose CCC. I had no idea that “Familiar Taste of Poison” was by the same band who wrote “I Get Off,” and I can’t stop listening to it — a couple of months later.

And now I’ve found out that they are coming to play a show in my state at the end of December. I’m always hesitant to see live shows, because in the back of my mind, I’m always wondering, “What if they suck live?” (Exhibit A: Shinedown at Toad’s Place in 2005. Because of that performance, I stopped listening to them. What can I say? I take my music very seriously.) I’m willing to take the gamble, though. I just have to find someone to go with me, because I know Mike won’t go — Halestorm is definitely not his thing — and my rule of thumb is to never go to a concert alone. (Sorry, potential stalkers.)

December is also far enough away that I can buy tickets next time I get paid. (I’m missing Lady Gaga this week because I have zero extra money, but get to see Mastodon again next week because Mike is getting me tickets for my birthday.)

You can listen to Halestorm’s full album right now on their website, and while you listen, tell me which songs — not necessarily Halestorm’s songs, just your current favorite songs in general — you’re currently hooked on!

Liz and Mike see Megadeth (finally)

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Last night, Mike and I went to do something by ourselves. For Christmas, I had bought him tickets to see Megadeth, who he was really into at the time. The show was scheduled for February, but because the lead singer of Slayer ended up needing surgery, it got postponed all the way to… yesterday.

My love for thrash metal has been renewed. For a long time, the only thrash I really listened to was Metallica, because I grew up on it. But, as we all know, Metallica sucks now. I have to admit that I suck and for a while didn’t know the different genres and couldn’t really tell the difference. Age has wizened me. (And, okay, so has Mike.)

Anyway, around the time that Mike got super into Megadeth, I got really into them, too. Now I’m in love with Testament and Megadeth. Slayer was good, but I wasn’t too thrilled, which probably had something to do with the fact that they started almost every song with that same standard cymbal count off thing. The one song they didn’t do it on, they counted off with the bass drum. They were still cool, though. Don’t worry, Slayer fans, I have nothing against your almighty.

We ended up leaving early, though. We were both sitting down at that point and looked at each other. “You ready?” Mike asked. I swear, the man reads my mind.

We hiked back to the car and went to Denny’s, then drove through a downpour because it wouldn’t be a Mike and Liz outing if it didn’t rain so hard we couldn’t see the road. (I swear it is going to rain on our wedding.) As soon as we got home, we both went to bed.

So yeah, maybe we are old and boring now, but at least we’re old and boring together!

Highlights of the Night:

  • Getting in at the tail end of Testament’s set and taking in their kickass stage set design.
  • The fan who, as Testament ended their set, jumped up on stage, ran up and across the stairs on stage, then stagedived into the crowd. The lead singer said, “That’s how you fucking do it!”
  • Megadeth did “A Tout le Monde,” which is one of my favorite songs of theirs. Mike said they do it every time, but still. It was awesome.
  • Dancing to Megadeth. Metal is the only music I can confidently dance to, because even if you are uncoordinated and look like you’re having a seizure, it can only be seen as headbanging.
  • Hitting the rumble strips on Route 15 during the downpour and realizing it was time to slow the fuck down.
  • Laughing when the downpour ended just a few minutes later. Most likely, we were both laughing with relief that we were alive, and because it rains like that every time we go somewhere together.
  • Getting home and kissing goodnight. It is so cool to actually kiss him goodnight and go to bed, as opposed to one of us dropping the other off with a kiss goodnight. Cohabitation has a lot of perks.

I also have to mention that the Wall of Death was not as badass as everyone makes it out to be. Or at least, it didn’t look that way from where we were. (We were five rows up from the pit.) Testament actually made everyone in the pit do it, and I honestly just laughed the whole time. Matt said that it was brutal, though. He would know better, since he was in the pit, but… I wanted to see some Lord of the Rings battle crashing, man. Did anyone even bleed?

And speaking of Matt, we almost met! I actually almost met another blogger, but we saw each other and weren’t sure we were the right people, so the opportunity kind of slipped by. I should have just waved like a crazy person.

Still, it was a great night. Mike and I enjoyed the time together, and of course enjoyed the music. There is nothing better than closing your eyes and having a seizure dancing to good, live music.

Tattoo #2: Tigerlilies

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Tigerlilies are my favorite flower. I wanted six, on the top of my shoulder extending onto my upper arm, one for each of my immediate family members: Mom, Dad, Lauren, Noni, Popi, and Biz Noni.

Tattoo #2, 04/22/2010

Tattoo #2, 04/22/2010

Lauren took the above photo yesterday, and I took the below photo this morning:

Tattoo #2, 04/23/2010

Tattoo #2, 04/23/2010

I had no idea how hard it is to take a picture of your own shoulder. I promise to have someone take a shot of it from behind so you can get a better view!

Anyway, I know I have comments to reply to and blogs to catch up on, but I’m super busy with work and family right now. A bunch of you have been asking me for pictures, though, so I figured I’d post this really quickly.

Also, in case you were wondering, Mastodon was awesome last night. Baroness was kickass, too. I’ll try to write a full review of the show sometime this weekend, maybe tomorrow.

How are you doing?

PS: In case you’re wondering and live in the area, my tattoo was done by Jason at The Beauty Mark on East Main, for $200 (with tax). Jason is really cool. His favorite Final Fantasy is VII (that’s my favorite, too). Mike and I had a great time hanging out with him while he worked on me.

NIN Lights in the Sky

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The NIN show last night was amazing. I know I say that about every concert I go to, but this one truly tops them all. There’s no way to even describe how incredible it is to see NIN live. I don’t think I could ever explain, in words, what it’s like. You would have to see them for yourself. We got lucky, too; apparently tonight’s show in Worcester, MA is canceled because Trent is having throat problems.

The opening act was an obviously college band called Deerhunter. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t good either. The lead singer had a strong voice with some range, but you couldn’t really hear him over the noise of the guitars. They pretty much sounded like a garage band, minus the energy. They didn’t have much of it. After every song, the lead singer said “thank you very much”. I did feel bad for them when he announced their last song and said NIN was up next, because the whole crowd went nuts. After every other song a few people clapped and cheered, but not as many as when he said “this is our last song”.

When NIN came on, though, you could feel the energy building. On tour with Trent Reznor were Alessandro Cortini, Josh Freese, Justin Meldal and Robin Finck. I’ve never seen NIN live before but I thought the band he put together for this tour was pretty kickass. Mike said they are the best, so I’ll back him up. (:

I took some photos and video before a security guy came over and made me stop. You can see official photos on NIN Flickr page. (Some of my favorite parts of the show were the desert, the red backlights, the red and white buttons (which one of the band members came over and pressed) and the ghosts. I really loved the rain part of it, but I can’t find any photos on their stream and couldn’t take my own. The screens were set up to make it look like it was pouring on the stage, and one screen was like the glass of a window. Then someone wiped away the “steam” on the window and you could see the band through a little looking-glass. It was fucking awesome.

I do have one regret about the night: Close to the end of the show, Trent told everyone they would be hanging out at Denny’s down the street if anyone wanted to come hang out. Since Mohegan Sun is huge and a time-warp, we had no idea where Denny’s is. It so would have rocked to hang out and eat breakfast with someone I admire so much.

That hand at the end was the security guard. He totally ruined “Closer,” dammit.

NIN Lights in the Sky

NIN Lights in the Sky

NIN Lights in the Sky

You can view the rest of the photos I took here, in the NIN Lights in the Sky album I made.

And just in case you wanted to hear the rest of “Closer”:

You kissed me into ruins

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I don’t know what it is lately, but I’m inspired by everything. I got another idea for some writing today. I’m going to write a series of ten short stories, maybe more if my muse sticks around. I was reading today’s stories on Rep-Am.com and one of them caught my eye. It was about the homeless in my city (literally right down the street from where I work, at that), and how they are living in tents. The area is dubbed Tent City, and there are hundreds of people living there. It’s kind of sad, yes, but I also think it’s kind of interesting that there is a whole ‘sub-culture’ kind of ‘city’ in my own. These people live there year-round. Apparently HUD is involved but not enough. I really hope something happens, to help these people.

Meanwhile my imagination is piqued, and all I can think about are the different kinds of people who live there.

One of those people–at least, I think so–came into my office earlier, ironically enough. He was kind of babbling and ranting, but what I did get out of it was that he was 60+ years old, “they” had kicked him out, the FBI was involved with helping him, so-and-so on Fox News Channel apologized for something, HUD was involved, and the rest didn’t make much sense. I’m assuming he was talking about Tent City or maybe an abandoned warehouse, and this Fox guy probably exposed the story and got him kicked out of where he was staying. It wasn’t really clear. But it’s kind of ironic, how I read the story on Tent City and then a homeless man (he was carrying a beat-up green duffel bag and looked kind of grungy, so I’m only assuming) comes into my office demanding that my boss and I call the Fox reporter and complain enough so he will “do something” instead of writing an apology letter.

If you’re lost, don’t feel bad. So was my boss and I.

Anyway, tonight is the NIN concert! We’re leaving around 4 because the drive will take about an hour and a half. I’m going to bring my camera and take mass amounts of pictures. Of course, because I’m bringing my camera, Murphy’s Law says I won’t run into any of the musicians. Still, maybe I can snag some pics of Mike and me. I’m just hoping all goes well tonight. He’s been in a bad mood lately, and things seem kind of strained–at least to me, anyway. He doesn’t seem to think so, so I guess that’s a good thing.

Between now and the time I meet him at his house, I have to: finish my shift, catch up on blogs, catch up on email, maybe do some laundry, catch up on Letters of Love and find something to eat for dinner. If you never hear from me again, it’s because I ran away with Trent Reznor.