Friday, September 09, 2005
High on Fire, the old neighborhood
Last night I saw High on Fire" at Irving Plaza. They are my favorite band and this is the third time I've seen them live. They played a mix of songs from their latest album "Blessed Black Wings, their second album "Surrounded by Thieves", and one song ("Baghdad") from their first album "The Art of Self-Defense".
Totally as an aside, allow me to hypocritically note that I hate it when people use URL links foolishly in their web writing. I recognize that hyperlinks predate HTML and were considered a revolutionary way to tie information together. What I mean by "foolishly" is that, for example, saying "Looks like Google is planning a stock split! I bet Microsoft employees are jealous as hell right now!" Like, who is reading the sentence and saying to themselves, "Google? Looks interesting! How do I get to that website?"
However, linking to things that are NOT obvious is useful as hell. I in fact keep launching the simple but awesome program EnterLink so I can create links to paste into OneNote (which has no other function for creating friendly hyperlinks) while writing in my blog. For example, I would assume that the average reader stumbling across my blog would not know who High on Fire is, and I would like them to both check out the web site and at least by "Surrounded by Thieves" if not also the other two albums. So for that reason I link them.
It's also helpful to learn useful linking tricks like Google searches/cached sites/directions, Technorati searches and tags and whatnot and link them.
High on Fire opened for a band that I'd never heard of called Every Time I Die but we didn't stick around. To be totally honest, the people in the little pit that formed made me think that since the band's fans were a bunch of chumps that didn't say much about the band. But I'm a crotchety old bastard and I never really enjoyed the pit, and there used to be a pit at EVERY show I went to. Even when I saw the Melvins at St. Andrews Hall (Detroit) 12 years ago, that pit was like one dude slowly walking around and bumping into people. But this pit at Irving Plaza was four kids that were like skipping, doing goofy Fat Albert walks, jumping jacks, etc. The sort of thing that would earn you a bloody nose in Detroit after like 30 seconds. And yet this whole vast area had opened up in the middle of Irving Plaza to let them do their ridiculous faux moshing. So I hate to stereotype a band because four numbskulls were being assholes, but there you have it. That's the kind of guy I am. I will probably check out their music and will perhaps post an apology if it turns out to be good. But I didn't bother to stick around. I'm old and it was getting to be near my bedtime.
Anyway, my wife went to the show with me and I'm not sure how much she enjoyed it but I certainly had an awesome time and I think that rubbed off on her. It was also nice to visit the old neighborhood, too -- we used to live on 14th & 3rd before we moved up to where the married people go. Before the show we went to our old favorite local restaurant, Friendhouse, which is like a reasonable sushi and pretty good Chinese restaurant with a nice outdoor garden. It's not that fancy but it served a critical need in that it allowed my wife to get sushi, which I used to never ever touch, while I could get Chinese. I am more open to eating sushi now so this issue is lessened but at the time it was the primary restaurant where we could find something to satisfy both of our very different food tastes. Also, it was not quite as much NYU parents'-credit-card hell as most restaurants in the neighborhood.
While I am rambling about personal shit that is of no interest to any readers who may have optimistically subscribed based on my
OneNote/SharePoint post, I might as well note that my band Dudes of Doom played a show at a very cool establishment called Wild Spirits on Friday night. It was just a fun place and we had a good turnout. Also there was a big pedestal for me and the drum kit -- all clubs should have this so I can be truly worshipped for the awesome drummer I am! Next step: giant rotating pedestal with a whole spotlight set!
Uh, anyway, please go see the Dudes of Doom with Detroit's Electric 6 and Outrageous Cherry at Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ, Monday September 26th. This is the biggest show and with the most famous band and in the most famous venue we've ever played so I hope you all can make it.
Yours,
--sbreck
Technorati tag(s): High on Fire NYC Live Reviews
Totally as an aside, allow me to hypocritically note that I hate it when people use URL links foolishly in their web writing. I recognize that hyperlinks predate HTML and were considered a revolutionary way to tie information together. What I mean by "foolishly" is that, for example, saying "Looks like Google is planning a stock split! I bet Microsoft employees are jealous as hell right now!" Like, who is reading the sentence and saying to themselves, "Google? Looks interesting! How do I get to that website?"
However, linking to things that are NOT obvious is useful as hell. I in fact keep launching the simple but awesome program EnterLink so I can create links to paste into OneNote (which has no other function for creating friendly hyperlinks) while writing in my blog. For example, I would assume that the average reader stumbling across my blog would not know who High on Fire is, and I would like them to both check out the web site and at least by "Surrounded by Thieves" if not also the other two albums. So for that reason I link them.
It's also helpful to learn useful linking tricks like Google searches/cached sites/directions, Technorati searches and tags and whatnot and link them.
High on Fire opened for a band that I'd never heard of called Every Time I Die but we didn't stick around. To be totally honest, the people in the little pit that formed made me think that since the band's fans were a bunch of chumps that didn't say much about the band. But I'm a crotchety old bastard and I never really enjoyed the pit, and there used to be a pit at EVERY show I went to. Even when I saw the Melvins at St. Andrews Hall (Detroit) 12 years ago, that pit was like one dude slowly walking around and bumping into people. But this pit at Irving Plaza was four kids that were like skipping, doing goofy Fat Albert walks, jumping jacks, etc. The sort of thing that would earn you a bloody nose in Detroit after like 30 seconds. And yet this whole vast area had opened up in the middle of Irving Plaza to let them do their ridiculous faux moshing. So I hate to stereotype a band because four numbskulls were being assholes, but there you have it. That's the kind of guy I am. I will probably check out their music and will perhaps post an apology if it turns out to be good. But I didn't bother to stick around. I'm old and it was getting to be near my bedtime.
Anyway, my wife went to the show with me and I'm not sure how much she enjoyed it but I certainly had an awesome time and I think that rubbed off on her. It was also nice to visit the old neighborhood, too -- we used to live on 14th & 3rd before we moved up to where the married people go. Before the show we went to our old favorite local restaurant, Friendhouse, which is like a reasonable sushi and pretty good Chinese restaurant with a nice outdoor garden. It's not that fancy but it served a critical need in that it allowed my wife to get sushi, which I used to never ever touch, while I could get Chinese. I am more open to eating sushi now so this issue is lessened but at the time it was the primary restaurant where we could find something to satisfy both of our very different food tastes. Also, it was not quite as much NYU parents'-credit-card hell as most restaurants in the neighborhood.
While I am rambling about personal shit that is of no interest to any readers who may have optimistically subscribed based on my
OneNote/SharePoint post, I might as well note that my band Dudes of Doom played a show at a very cool establishment called Wild Spirits on Friday night. It was just a fun place and we had a good turnout. Also there was a big pedestal for me and the drum kit -- all clubs should have this so I can be truly worshipped for the awesome drummer I am! Next step: giant rotating pedestal with a whole spotlight set!
Uh, anyway, please go see the Dudes of Doom with Detroit's Electric 6 and Outrageous Cherry at Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ, Monday September 26th. This is the biggest show and with the most famous band and in the most famous venue we've ever played so I hope you all can make it.
Yours,
--sbreck
Technorati tag(s): High on Fire NYC Live Reviews
# posted by sbreck : 7:46 PM
