Saturday, May 27, 2006

The debut of Darkness Dear Boy!!

The DDB coming-out gig. Playing to a packed house at Hollywood Alley. UPDATE : Additional pics now available at a sister blog. Access it by clicking on "View My Complete Profile" (at the upper left of this blog, then scrolling to the bottom of the profile) or this link : www.ter-ddb.blogspot.com

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Darkness Dear Boy - Friday Night !!

Pigeon has evolved into Darkness Dear Boy. Their first gig is this coming Friday, 26 May, at Hollywood Alley, 2610 West Baseline Road, Mesa Arizona. That's one block east of the 101. They start at 8:30 PM. Be there or be sqaure.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Terlist : 5 New Things I Learned When 'Almost' Going To A Wolfmother Concert

Wolfmother was in town the other night. At a small dive called "The Clubhouse Venue" in Tempe. On a weeknight, but at a reasonable hour. For $12. I thought I'd go down, hear a few songs, snap a few jpegs, and be home and in bed by the 10 o'clock news. Wrong-o.

Terlist : 5NTILWAGTOWC

01. There is no such thing as a "seat" at a small-time rock concert in a small-time venue. Except at the bar, and those obviously aren't reserved seats. You can stand. You can pogo. You can mosh. You can do the twist. You can whatever. Except sit. 02. Just because no other band is listed, doesn't mean there is no other band. "(Something-or-other) Parchment" opened for WM. Normally, that's okay. But it was Tuesday night, 7:00 PM, and I didn't particularly want to stay up half the night. So a surprise warm-up band was bad news. 03. Just because the promo says the concert will start at 7:00 PM, doesn't mean the concert will start at 7:00 PM. In fact, the doors weren't even open at 7:00 PM. In fact, the doors weren't even open at 7:30 PM. So you stood in an unmoving line outside. In 100°F weather. But it's a DRY heat. 04. Just because it's a small-time band trying to become famous, doesn't mean you can take pictures. Indeed, around 7:30, a goon walked outside and in a loud voice announced, "THERE VILL BE NO PHOTOS ALLOWED! VE VILL CONFISCATE ANY AND ALL CAMERAS THAT VE FIND!" Folks, the invention of the cell-phone camera makes this stupid policy outdated. What are they gonna do, confiscate all cell-phones too?! Dear WolfMother, you can use all the publicity you can get. Even amateurish photos on a blog. 05. Stick to "oldie" concerts, such as Don Williams @ The Celebrity Theater. We saw him last fall. Photos were allowed; they simply asked that you not use flash. And of course, at the Celebrity, you all have seats, and they're all GOOD SEATS. So at 7:30 PM, realizing that WolfMother wasn't even gonna start playing until 9:00 PM at the earliest, I gave the goon the finger, said 'screw this concert', and went home. Ah well, at least I hadn't shelled out my $12 yet.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

This Week I'm Listening To...

Barclay James Harvest : "Everyone Is Everybody Else" (1974) ***** **** (out of 10*). Actually I've been listening to all sorts of BJH albums. From the mid 70's thru the mid-80's. They went thru some significant changes. Mid-70's BJH is good prog rock. Great guitar licks, superb anti-war lyrics, coupled with some very nice instrumental arrangements. EIEE and their live album from the same year are perfect examples of this. In the late 70's they morphed into a "Poor Man's Moody Blues". Less progressive, less rock, but still passably okay. The lyrics-writing remained outstanding. In the early 80's they morphed again, this time to a "Steely Dan" wannabee band. Yuck!! Steely Dan is one of my five most overrated bands of all time. A wannabee SD band is even worse. The downward spiral continues into the mid-80's when albums like Victims Of Circumstance make them sound like a lounge band. Somebody fire their manager, please! BJH is still around today. But like the Strawbs, trying to find any of their recent albums is next to impossible. Stick with their 1970's releases. They're fantastic!