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They are. Different, I mean. From…everything.

This was at least my 8th time seeing them. I say “at least” because I don’t remember how many times I saw them as a teenager in Seattle. At least once but probably more. I took Nathaniel and Dillon, and also a new show buddy I’ve met, Meg. She works at my husband’s company. She’s young and into all kinds of music and totally willing to go to shows with me whenever. I love it. I have friends that will sometimes go to shows with me, but they’re not very into music, and it’s hard for some of them to be out late, they have small children. And a lot of the shows I go to, I’d feel bad dragging them along—they just wouldn’t enjoy it. But Meg’s up for anything.

We got to the Troubadour pretty early because I know Melvins fans. They are die hard. And I wanted a stage spot. We ended up getting there even earlier than I meant to, and I felt a little stupid, until I saw that there was already a line forming. By the time they let us in, it was the longest line I’ve ever seen at a Troubadour show. And they were playing two nights, Friday and Saturday—we went to the Friday show.

I checked out the line for anyone I knew when we first arrived and immediately spotted two. One is a guy I know from Facebook, I see him at shows occasionally–mostly Melvins shows, I think. He’s a cool guy. Another was a kid Nathaniel, Dillon and I have seen at different shows. He’s the lurker who always shows up in my pictures! (You can see him here and here, and here he is at this show.)

First band to play was a band I’ve seen before called Porn. They’re different now—Coady and Dale, both drummers in the Melvins (yeah they have two drummers), played drums. Tim Moss played guitar and made a bunch of noises with some kind of other equipment, and another guy played a toy keyboard hooked up to a bunch of effects pedals. They didn’t play that long.

Then Big Business played, and the guy who played the toy keyboard for Porn played guitar. Jared on bass/vocals (he also plays bass and sings in the Melvins), and Coady on drums. So Coady was on stage for all three bands’ sets. I’ve seen other Melvins shows where it was Dale on stage all night, either playing drums or guitar in different bands.

I like Big Business with a guitar. I like them without a guitar, too, though. Since the songs were written without one, the songs are very bass-oriented, and I like that. Jared is funny, too. At one point he said there was something near him that smelled good. My Facebook friend Will raised his hand to indicate that it was him. Jared told the guy behind him to smell his hair and verify that it was actually Will that smelled good, but the guy wouldn’t do it. Jared said, “Come on. Are we not all adults here?” Then he leaned down, grabbed Will’s head, and buried his nose in his hair. He said, “That is the best smelling-hair in L.A.” (or something like that).

I thought maybe Big Business wouldn’t even bother leaving the stage and the Melvins would just come out, but they left for a few minutes while the guitarist removed his equipment.

I was standing directly in front of Buzzo.

The coolest hair in all of rock, and possibly the world. It looks like Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons.

Nathaniel and Dillon were standing a couple people away from me, around the side of the stage.

Buzzo kept stepping away from the mic and playing right in their faces. He’d look right at them, it seemed at times like he was glaring at them. He can be really intimidating, like he might be mean, but he’s actually just really goofy. I met a guy at a Melvins show once who had done an interview with them, and when he met Buzzo, Buzzo had cracked some joke. The guy said, “Oh, you’re a comedian?” And Buzzo, referring to the set they’d just played, said, “Yeah, what do you think that was?”

The Melvins typically wear goofy outfits on stage. Buzzo usually wears a long dresslike garment. It used to be a black one with a big red cross on it. Now it’s one with nurses all over it.

Jared wore a wig, and fringe leather vest, and a scarf. I think he was going for a hippy look, but I couldn’t tell exactly.

Meg and I definitely had the best vantage point in the place—we could see both drummers really well. It’s interesting to watch them play, to see the cues they give each other. Coady really has to watch Dale carefully. It must be really challenging and fun for them to play together like that. It’s amazing how in sync they were.

Dale’s daughter was there, she looked like she was about three. He let her come out and play his drums in between bands, it was really cute, and everyone was cheering and clapping for her.

The setlist:

That paper was actually facing away from me, and I flipped the picture in Photoshop so it’s readable. At the show I couldn’t quite make out a lot of it, but I did managed to see “Revolve” on there, and I was anticipating it all night. Only my favorite Melvins song ever:

They did mostly new material, stuff from the last two albums. Which was fine by me: I love the two recent albums. They did “A History of Bad Men,” one of my faves, and then segued right into the Star Spangled Banner. Somehow it’s not something I’d expect the Melvins to do. I got it all on video, too.

The Banner begins at about 5:35. I love how they harmonized.

During the last song, Jared took a mic out into the crowd. He was singing, well mostly just making noises, and wandered through the crowd, sometimes on the floor. I couldn’t actually see a lot of what he was doing, but tried to get video of it. At the end he got back up on the stage, then climbed on their roadie’s back for a piggyback ride. Video:

After that, the band all left the stage except for Buzzo, who sang a Merle Haggard song, “Okie From Muskogee.” In the video above, it starts at about the 6:00 mark.

It was an awesome show.

People have posted a lot of video from the Buckethead show on youtube. Soooo awesome.

Here he is doing his robot dance:

And this one shows him doing the robot while playing guitar, which I think may be the sickest thing I’ve ever seen:

Sorry, the sound quality on that clip is bad. The robot bit is best shown at 1:48 to the end of the clip. It was even more impressive live in person.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I’m grateful for talented people like Buckethead.

Almost as much as I’m dying to talk about it.

BUCKETHEAD
Nov 22, 2008
House of Blues, Anaheim

I was excited for this show because it meant so much to the boys. I took Nathaniel, his friend Dillon, and Elijah. All three are Buckethead fanatics. Buckethead tends to inspire that, so I was thinking we should probably get to the venue really early to get a stage spot. But I left it up to the boys, and they thought getting there an hour early would be ok. Nope. The line was huge, and we ended up in the back of the place. Fortunately we were right in front of the sound mixing booth, which gave me something to lean against.

The opening guy was this weird performer who goes by That One Guy. He plays this custom-made instrument. It’s shaped kind of like a harp, all made out of metal. He beats on it and it makes noise. He has all these buttons on it too with pre-programmed sounds and samples. In concept, it’s really cool. However the music itself was rather blah. And his lyrics were just ridiculous. Singing about butterfly bones and scones. He was entertaining, though, and the crowd loved him. The boys really liked him, too. At one point he pulled out a cowboy boot that was wired and played that. Tapping on the sole. He also played a saw, with a bow, which I’ve seen done before. It was funny when he started reeling off words that rhymed with “scones” and then got the audience in on it. I yelled out “moans” but he went with “Tom Jones” and then “Sylvester Stallones.”

After the curtains closed on him, instead of playing music, they played the audio to an old Frankenstein movie. Which was entertaining at first, but then it just went on too long. And then some sort of carnival/polka music came on, which people were clapping along to and stuff. Again, went on too long.

I was dying and on the verge of screaming “BUCKETHEAD” when finally the curtains opened.

And the entire crowd rushed the stage.

I haven’t seen a stage rush like that since I was a teenager and they made you sit on the floor of the venue before shows started. Suddenly I had all this room in front of me. Dillon managed to squeeze his way much further up front. Nathaniel got blocked behind two giant guys. Elijah was just behind him. Eventually Nathaniel got up to where Dillon was. Elijah stayed back by me.

I could not believe how cool it was when Buckethead came out. If you’re not familiar with him, this is what he looks like:

He wears a bucket over his head and a white face mask. He looks creepier in the pictures I took then he did live. He’s really tall (like 6′7″) and gangly. And he does the robot, while he’s playing guitar. I think it might be the sickest thing I’ve ever seen.

I was yelling and jumping around and dancing just like everyone else. Finally I really understood the whole hysteria over Buckethead. And now I’m obsessed. Who is this guy? How can he have been around so long and never been revealed?

His fingers are really long. He’s a phenomenal guitar player. And with those veins, I think I could recognize his fingers anywhere. Combined with his height, I’m positive I could know him if I saw him without his mask.

It’d be funny if when he’s not masked, he wears gloves everywhere.

He had people come out on stage at different times—women dressed in ceremonial robes; some guy in a weird mask. I actually could not see anything most of the time from where I stood. I’m too short. The venue really sucks. They have screens you can watch but the lighting was too dark on stage for it to really be any use. Dillon snuck his camera in (really impressively, too, by hiding it in plain sight), and gave it to me to use so he could go jump around in the mosh pit. I managed to take a whole ton of photos. They all basically look the same though—I mean it’s not like Buckethead does a lot of facial expressions. Well, I’m sure he does, behind his mask—and I’m dying to know what exactly does go on behind that mask. Is he smiling? Does he talk to himself? How hot must it be?

I could swear that sometimes the mask changed expression. I know it was just the lighting and how he moved his body but it was soooo cool.

Eventually I got too tired and went upstairs to use the bathroom, to get a drink of water, and to check out the merch. All of Buckethead’s tshirts had sold out. I was gonna get all three boys one, too. There was no vinyl, only CDs. I missed him doing his Willy Wonka/Candyman/etc. tribute.

Earlier he did the Star Wars theme, which was super cool. I took video of it. Dillon hasn’t uploaded any video to youtube yet, I’ll post it when he does.

Oh almost forgot—Buckethead also tosses out toys and stuff to the crowd. First he pulled out his num-chucks and started slinging those around. I couldn’t actually see anything, but I tried to get video of it with Dillon’s camera. Then he did his robot dance, which I totally missed. And then he took out these huge bags full of action figures and stuff that he started handing out to the crowd. I was way in the back but I still had my hands in the air hoping he’d toss something my way. Nathaniel said later he’d never seen people go so crazy for a bunch of Barbies. I guess they were action figures for girls or something. And *everyone* was going crazy. It was so fun.

That One Guy joined him at the end. He didn’t do an encore. Just played for about two hours straight and then the curtains closed. A lot of the crowd hung around, hoping he’d come back out. The venue made a slight change in the lights and everyone rushed back to the stage, chanting “Buckethead!” Then a hand appeared between the cracks of the curtains, waving, and security started telling everyone to leave. It was over.

And I’m converted.

I still love this song. Found a live version of it on youtube, and it sounds exactly like the studio version.

“Slow Show” by The National

My favorite lines are at the end, so if you have time, listen all the way through. Or just skip to the 2:30 mark.

–

You know I dreamed about you
for twenty-nine years before I saw you
You know I dreamed about you
I missed you for
twenty-nine years

And it was worth it.

When I first heard Danielson, or the Danielson Family, I thought they were basically unlistenable. Which doesn’t mean I didn’t like them. I listen to (and love) a lot of unlistenable stuff. It just takes awhile for it to become listenable. An acquired taste. I knew if I spent the time on Danielson, I’d come to love it. I just never did take the time to let it grow on me.

Then one day I was browsing through the music section of a DVD store and came across a documentary called Danielson: A Family Movie (Or Make A Joyful Noise Here). It looked fascinating. I picked it up. The documentary explains a lot about Danielson, whose real name is Daniel Smith, his music, his background, his family, and how they all came to be in a band together.

They’re a religious family, very much so, and they approach music as a vehicle for God. But while their songs have positive and Christian messages in them, I don’t necessarily think you’d peg them as Christian music. I mean, this is what they sound like:

After watching the movie, the music made total sense to me. And now I love it. He’s so far out in left field, doing stuff no one’s doing. He doesn’t tour that often, especially with the family, since they’re all married with kids now. I found out a few days before the show they were playing and knew I’d have to skip all the other shows I wanted to see this weekend for it.

I figured it’d be a rare experience, one that doesn’t come along that often. A band like this is just so unique. They’re not trying to fit into any preconceived ideas or any particular scene or genre. They are trying to make music that uplifts people. Which is ironic, because it is, like I said, rather unlistenable. Mostly Daniel’s vocals, I think—very high-pitched.

Did I mention they dress in uniforms?

They just released a new sort of “best of” compilation, so they played songs spanning their career. Danielson introduced one song as a “party song.” They played a few numbers he called “clap-along” songs, first they’d show the audience what beat they wanted us to clap to. Once we were all clapping they’d start playing the song.

One song was a “snap-along” song. He started us out snapping too fast and had to get us restarted a couple times until he got the tempo right. One woman started cheering and he said, “This isn’t a party song. It’s a snap-along.” See here:

The music isn’t for everyone. But it’s been awhile since I’ve been to a show where everyone was enjoying themselves so thoroughly and I didn’t have drunk guys slobbering on me. One guy next to me brought a tamberine and danced all night.

One of those shows I feel lucky to have seen.

They ended with a sing-along:

Pics here.

More video clips here.

@ Troubadour, Hollywood, CA 11-15-08

I think the closest fires are about an hour’s drive from us, but they sure look closer. I was planning a trip to Downtown Disney today to take pictures. Headed out this morning and stopped at a Goodwill store on the way. By the time I got back out of the store there was smoke and ashes in the air. So I headed home. The air was clear at our place then.

But Daniel and I went for a bike ride shortly after that and the smoke moved in fast. When we got back from that I went out with my camera to take some video. Here it is, me walking through our complex, and sped up so it doesn’t take too long. (But it’s pretty jerky.)

The video cuts off 4 seconds before it should. It’s supposed to end with the line, “Now it’s….smoke.”

And here are a few pics.

If you ever knew them to begin with! This post was inspired by shazbraz.

Guadalcanal Diary:

Let’s Active:

The Chameleons:

The Northern Pikes:

B Movie:

My memories of these bands:

Gaudalcanal Diary opened for REM when I was a teenager. We didn’t have tickets to the show, but we went down to the venue anyway. GD walked right by us on the sidewalk and I didn’t know who they were until the next day. I also had the book they took their name from, but never finished reading it.

Let’s Active I don’t really have any specific memory of, just one of those songs I know really well and couldn’t tell you how or from what.

The Chameleons are still one of my favorite bands. I saw them in the 80s, they were really good live. We met the drummer before the show and tried to get into the venue for their soundcheck but security threw us out.

The Northern Pikes were a Canadian band, I had that video on a VHS tape, so I used to watch it all the time. I think I saw them open for some other band at some point but I can’t remember who it was.

I have B Movie’s album, and while this song was the best on it, I always loved it. Still a song I really love. I guess I can relate to it a little too much.

Happy Friday!

He wrote this song when he was 16.

Well I’ve been out walking
I don’t do that much talking these days
These days–
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do
For you
And all the times I had the chance to

And I had a lover
It’s so hard to risk another these days
These days–
Now if I seem to be afraid
To live the life I have made in song
Well it’s just that I’ve been losing so long

I’ll keep on moving
Things are bound to be improving these days
These days–
These days I sit on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten, my friend
Don’t confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them

This song has been covered a lot:

Nico
Glen Campbell
St. Vincent
Elliott Smith
Greg Allman and Warren Hayes
Mates of State
David Allan Coe

Actually, I think the song was written for Nico to record, and Jackson recorded it later.

–

I’m seeing Van Morrison tonight. TONIGHT! And Daniel’s seriously overloaded at work. I’m assuming he’s not going to be able to go, although he says he will. If not I’ll probably make Cat go with me. “Brown-Eyed Girl” has always been her song.

It doesn’t seem real. I’m seeing Van Morrison tonight.

Cat told me she was going to go the entire day without using her cell phone, ipod, or computer, because her econ teacher didn’t think anyone could.

I asked if she’d get extra credit. She said no. Just the sweet, delicious victory of proving him wrong.

Have you seen these funny “literal” videos people have been making? My brother sent me some links. Here’s one for “Under the Bridge:”

Here’s one for “Take On Me.”

They reminded me of some videos my son told me about. Do a search on youtube for “misheard lyrics.” Some of them are really funny. Here’s my favorite that I’ve seen so far, Nightwish:

Hamster! A dentist! I still don’t know what she’s actually saying.

Some fun for a Friday.

I already did a post about PJ Harvey, so I won’t include her here. But I suspect she could line up all these female singers and kick their asses with one arm tied behind her back (and in spiked heels).

Still, these chicks are pretty dang awesome.

OK, here’s PJ too:

Who’d I leave out?