Friday, May 30, 2014
Black Metal Project Update
Today was the first day I sat down with some of my partners-in-music and discussed the project in a serious matter. Many things were decided and as far as things are right now (which isn't very, by any means) I like where this is going. We found some very cool keyboard patches that will sound epic along with the songs. The keys will sound very Emperor-esque, but the guitar riffs I have been coming up with have been influenced by so many different bands. Inquisition and Darkthrone are two that come to mind right away. As for vocals, I am not sure where I want to take them right now. I am by no means a skilled vocalist with any sort of screaming or clean vocals so I sort of ruled myself out for the time being. If forced into a position, I might have to attempt to learn and do the vocals. I have written out lyrics to 3 songs so far which will definitely be making appearance on the first demo sometime within the next month, hopefully!
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Delay
Wow, it has certainly been a long time since I have written anything for my blog. Finals were kicking my ass and I took on a heavier work load at work to make a few extra bucks. In the last month, a lot has developed in terms of my music. I have been delving into black metal more and more recently. The darkness and atmosphere that it creates is unlike any feeling I've ever gotten from music and the fact that it has stayed with me for months is amazing. I have recently started writing for a black metal project of my own that has yet to be named. I must thank bands like Emperor and Darkthrone all the way to more obscure bands like Vallendusk and Austrial for inspiring me to start my own project and to channel my feelings into a musical form.
I will hopefully have more time to start posting about new records that I purchase, along with updates on how my black metal project is coming along in the next few weeks. I have two songs written for a demo release and my plan, as of now, is to write 3 more and release an EP within the next few months.
I will hopefully have more time to start posting about new records that I purchase, along with updates on how my black metal project is coming along in the next few weeks. I have two songs written for a demo release and my plan, as of now, is to write 3 more and release an EP within the next few months.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Record Store Day albums
Myself, along with a couple friends, embarked on our yearly journey to 3 different record stores on RSD. As explained in my last post, Record Store Day is a day designated for people to go and support their local brick and mortar record store and score some awesome deals on music. The stores often get pretty packed and crazy so it's always a good idea to get there early to get what you really want to buy before it gets snatched up!
In the early hours of the morning on Saturday, I awoke after just 3 hours of sleep (I was at a concert out of town the previous night) and went to stand outside my local record store. While that record store doesn't offer any deals on their merchandise, it does offer a good selection of RSD exclusive releases, even for a small town store. The only 2 things out of the 500 RSD releases I was interested in was the very limited re-release of Slipknot's Vol. 3 album on clear vinyl and Machine Head's new 10" LP featuring a demo of a new track of theirs and a cover. When we got into the store, I did manage to grab the Machine Head 10" but instead of buying it for myself, I let my friend take the Slipknot record since the one he really wanted was gone.
Once we were out of that store, we hit the road to a record store around an hour away. The store was part of a large chain of stores, so they had some sick deals on used CD's and vinyls along with a ton of new CD's and vinyls on sale all day. Since the store was in quite a large city and it was open for 5 or so hours before I got there, there wasn't much that I wanted. I picked up a copy of Atrocity's Okkult (I heard the band was amazing so I couldn't pass it up) along with Metallica's cover album, Garage Inc. I also picked up Elvis's christmas vinyl (Don't judge, it was for my girlfriend.)
Once we were all done with that store, we headed to yet another one, of the same chain. Once there, I found quite a bit that I wanted. Being an avid fan of black metal in all forms, Dissections The Somberlain was a must for me when I saw it. While it is a remastered CD, which I'm not huge on, it is still an amazing piece to add to my collection of black metal masterpieces. I also picked up Carcass's Surgical Steel on vinyl, which has one of the coolest vinyl designs I have ever seen. Other buys included Emperor's In The Nightside Eclipse and Live Inferno DVD, Atrocity's Atlantis, and Pat Benetars Crimes of Passion (on vinyl.)
In the early hours of the morning on Saturday, I awoke after just 3 hours of sleep (I was at a concert out of town the previous night) and went to stand outside my local record store. While that record store doesn't offer any deals on their merchandise, it does offer a good selection of RSD exclusive releases, even for a small town store. The only 2 things out of the 500 RSD releases I was interested in was the very limited re-release of Slipknot's Vol. 3 album on clear vinyl and Machine Head's new 10" LP featuring a demo of a new track of theirs and a cover. When we got into the store, I did manage to grab the Machine Head 10" but instead of buying it for myself, I let my friend take the Slipknot record since the one he really wanted was gone.
Once we were out of that store, we hit the road to a record store around an hour away. The store was part of a large chain of stores, so they had some sick deals on used CD's and vinyls along with a ton of new CD's and vinyls on sale all day. Since the store was in quite a large city and it was open for 5 or so hours before I got there, there wasn't much that I wanted. I picked up a copy of Atrocity's Okkult (I heard the band was amazing so I couldn't pass it up) along with Metallica's cover album, Garage Inc. I also picked up Elvis's christmas vinyl (Don't judge, it was for my girlfriend.)
Once we were all done with that store, we headed to yet another one, of the same chain. Once there, I found quite a bit that I wanted. Being an avid fan of black metal in all forms, Dissections The Somberlain was a must for me when I saw it. While it is a remastered CD, which I'm not huge on, it is still an amazing piece to add to my collection of black metal masterpieces. I also picked up Carcass's Surgical Steel on vinyl, which has one of the coolest vinyl designs I have ever seen. Other buys included Emperor's In The Nightside Eclipse and Live Inferno DVD, Atrocity's Atlantis, and Pat Benetars Crimes of Passion (on vinyl.)
Record Store Day
As most album-collecting folks know, this past Saturday was a day called Record Store Day. It is all about getting out there and buying music! Not from a huge merchandiser or online retailer, but from your local brick and mortar record store. Record stores have been struggling to survive due to the online downloading frenzy of the last few years, but with the recent resurgence of vinyl and CD's being purchased to form a collection of one's favorite albums, they have seen a slight bounce back. RSD is the one day out of the year that gives record store's everywhere a chance to really bring in some money to help support them in the coming 364 days. Most shops offer deals on some of their merchandise or give incentives to come in and buy a record but the one thing that draws most of the crowd on RSD is the huge list of exclusive releases that are solely released on that day and that day only. For me, it becomes a competition to get to the store very early in the morning and stand outside, braving the cold for a chance at buying what could be a rare piece of history down the road. This year, compared to past years, was sort of weak for my style of music. The releases span every genre across the board. There was a picture disc release of Jungle Rots' latest album and right next to it was the Wizard of Oz soundtrack on vinyl. Weird, right? All in all, it is an extremely fun and enjoyable day for both record stores and customers, who get their hands on some rare music that will never be available in that certain format again.
Update
Damn, life has really been catching up to me! Homework, work, and family matters have restricted my free time in the last few weeks immensely. The time I have had was spent catching up on my recent music purchases and kicking back and reading my new book. Today, I will post a string of posts about what has happened to my collection in the last few weeks and a few pictures of the Volbeat/Trivium show I attended on the 18th.
Friday, April 4, 2014
Symphonic Metal
So I apologize to anybody who looks at my blog every so often to see what's been posted. Life got the best of me this week and I had very little time to even think about writing. Fortunately, I caught a little time right now and I want to bring up my recent musical addiction, symphonic metal. I use that term very loosely because the music I am going to talk about could easily be classified as folk metal with symphonic elements added in. Symphonic metal is a combination of a metal genre (whichever one the band prefers to play, it could be any) combined with a symphony, with the possibility of a horn or woodwind section behind it. Most symphonic metal bands choose to incorporate folk influences into their music, which is why it could be labeled as folk metal as well.
The band that really started me on this craze was Ensiferium. I was introduced to them a few months ago and, at the time, never thought much of them. They sounded like another cookie cutter folk metal band to me and i'm not a fan of that. So I threw the album onto my Ipod and forgot about it. While on the hunt for new music to listen to, I came across the name again and decided to give it another shot and man, am I sure glad I did! Their newest release, Unsung Heroes, is a real piece of art. While criticized by some fans, I think the style that they try to strike up with this album is beautiful and frankly, a perfect combination of their old music and new influences. Their combination of clean, gorgeous vocals and dark, deep screams make for a very diverse listening experience. The aspect I enjoyed the most was the layered vocals they used in songs like "In My Sword I Trust" and "Burning Leaves." These guys have really sparked my interest by what little I have heard from them and while I haven't delved into their older stuff yet, I will eventually and I am sure I won't be disappointed.
While reading some articles about this year's 70,000 Tons Of Metal cruise, the name Haggard came to my attention. While I would have passed over the name if I was just reading about how cool it was to be watching them play on a cruise ship, the article stated a fun little fact about the band. They have NEVER played on U.S soil. Not once! They have been around over two decades and have played just about everywhere, except for the US! How crazy is that? That little fact just blew my mind, so I read up on the band a little more and picked up some of their music. They are a very unique band. The lineup is constantly changing around the mastermind of the band, who does the growls and guitar playing. They play a very unique mix of classical music, folk music, opera, and doom metal. Sounds strange, right? That's because it is, and it is awesome!
Therion is a band I found while reading about Haggard. Therion has been around a little longer than Haggard and is definitely different in their sound, but at the same time a lot of it is very similar. They both have operatic vocals mixed with harsher vocals and they both have very heavy folk influences. The one difference between the two is while Haggard is going some crazy huge shifts in genres, Therion likes to stick it to the folk metal/symphonic metal genre and incorporate other genres into that. It does make it a bit more mainstream (for lack of a better term) than Haggard, but still 100% worth the listen!
The band that really started me on this craze was Ensiferium. I was introduced to them a few months ago and, at the time, never thought much of them. They sounded like another cookie cutter folk metal band to me and i'm not a fan of that. So I threw the album onto my Ipod and forgot about it. While on the hunt for new music to listen to, I came across the name again and decided to give it another shot and man, am I sure glad I did! Their newest release, Unsung Heroes, is a real piece of art. While criticized by some fans, I think the style that they try to strike up with this album is beautiful and frankly, a perfect combination of their old music and new influences. Their combination of clean, gorgeous vocals and dark, deep screams make for a very diverse listening experience. The aspect I enjoyed the most was the layered vocals they used in songs like "In My Sword I Trust" and "Burning Leaves." These guys have really sparked my interest by what little I have heard from them and while I haven't delved into their older stuff yet, I will eventually and I am sure I won't be disappointed.
While reading some articles about this year's 70,000 Tons Of Metal cruise, the name Haggard came to my attention. While I would have passed over the name if I was just reading about how cool it was to be watching them play on a cruise ship, the article stated a fun little fact about the band. They have NEVER played on U.S soil. Not once! They have been around over two decades and have played just about everywhere, except for the US! How crazy is that? That little fact just blew my mind, so I read up on the band a little more and picked up some of their music. They are a very unique band. The lineup is constantly changing around the mastermind of the band, who does the growls and guitar playing. They play a very unique mix of classical music, folk music, opera, and doom metal. Sounds strange, right? That's because it is, and it is awesome!
Therion is a band I found while reading about Haggard. Therion has been around a little longer than Haggard and is definitely different in their sound, but at the same time a lot of it is very similar. They both have operatic vocals mixed with harsher vocals and they both have very heavy folk influences. The one difference between the two is while Haggard is going some crazy huge shifts in genres, Therion likes to stick it to the folk metal/symphonic metal genre and incorporate other genres into that. It does make it a bit more mainstream (for lack of a better term) than Haggard, but still 100% worth the listen!
Monday, March 31, 2014
In the Nightside Eclipse
It finally arrived today!!! My copy of In the Nightside
Eclipse on vinyl! I have been waiting for this for almost a month due to it
being such a rare record.
Emperor has just lately become a big part of my playlist and while I have only been listening to them for a short time, they are rapidly becoming one of my all-time favorite bands, mainly due to this album. Their later work, especially Prometheus, was not as Emperor-ish as I would have liked. Insahn changed his writing style over the years to incorporate progressive themes into the music and for me, that didn’t create an Emperor album. Prometheus sounded like it should have been the first Insahn solo album. The atmosphere the first album creates is unlike anything I have ever heard. The only album that, in my mind, is even remotely capable to be compared to ItNE is Darkthrone’s A Blaze in the Northern Sky, a landmark album in the history of black metal.
Emperor has just lately become a big part of my playlist and while I have only been listening to them for a short time, they are rapidly becoming one of my all-time favorite bands, mainly due to this album. Their later work, especially Prometheus, was not as Emperor-ish as I would have liked. Insahn changed his writing style over the years to incorporate progressive themes into the music and for me, that didn’t create an Emperor album. Prometheus sounded like it should have been the first Insahn solo album. The atmosphere the first album creates is unlike anything I have ever heard. The only album that, in my mind, is even remotely capable to be compared to ItNE is Darkthrone’s A Blaze in the Northern Sky, a landmark album in the history of black metal.
I started the search for this album once I fell in love with
the re-mastered version of the CD. After
doing a little digging, I found that it was only a special edition release and
I quickly became obsessed with securing myself a copy of such a rare piece of
music. I searched on some of my favorite
marketplace forums and sites like Ebay to try to find a copy, but to no
avail. I finally stumbled upon a company/label
called Back on Black. They are dedicated
to bring back classic albums, re-master them, and put them onto vinyl, sometimes for the first time. This album was not a vinyl virgin, but BoB turned it into a double LP, including a cover of Bathory's "A Fine Day to Die" and Mercyful Fate's "Gypsy." I ordered my copy of this album all the way from the U.K and had to wait a few weeks for it to arrive.
Now that I am listening to the album, it was well worth the wait!
Now that I am listening to the album, it was well worth the wait!
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Two more for the collection!
I took a trip to another branch of the Exclusive Company yesterday to look around and I found 2 very nice items to add to my collection. Because Record Store Day is coming up, where I end up spending way more on music than I should be allowed to, I had to limit myself to only two for this trip.
The first thing I grabbed instantly when I saw it was Skeletonwitch's Forever Abomination on vinyl. I have written about Skeletonwitch before and for a good reason. They are so good and I want to make sure everybody I can get to knows about them! Who knew such extreme metal could have come out of a tiny town in Ohio?
Anyways, I bought the special gatefold version of this vinyl. It is a 180g heavyweight record and it sounds absolutely beautiful while being spun. Vinyl always brings out the best sound in metal music. Every cymbal crash, every bass note, every scream is accentuated in such a way that it makes the music as a whole seem so much more alive. When I get the best quality out of my player, I usually like the sound of the vinyl record better than the sound I get from a CD.
The only CD I picked up yesterday was Anthems of Rebellion by Arch Enemy. I was not a fan of Arch Enemy when they were fronted by Johan. I was always into Micheal's main project, Carcass, more. Once the band recruited Angela for vocals, I started listening to the band a little more. Anthems of Rebellion spawned three of my favorite AE songs, Silent Wars, We Will Rise, and Dehumanization. These songs, along with the rest of the album, sounds like a definite high point in the bands career. Arch Enemy's latest release, Khaos Legions, was a falling out for me. It didn't keep my interest, nor did it resemble the old sound they had that I grew to love. I was greatly disappointed. The recent news of Alyssa (former The Agonist frontwoman) taking over on vocals excited me once again for the new album and the video premier of War Eternal now has me more excited than ever for an Arch Enemy album! Hopefully they deliver an album just as crazy as Anthems of Rebellion!
The first thing I grabbed instantly when I saw it was Skeletonwitch's Forever Abomination on vinyl. I have written about Skeletonwitch before and for a good reason. They are so good and I want to make sure everybody I can get to knows about them! Who knew such extreme metal could have come out of a tiny town in Ohio?
Anyways, I bought the special gatefold version of this vinyl. It is a 180g heavyweight record and it sounds absolutely beautiful while being spun. Vinyl always brings out the best sound in metal music. Every cymbal crash, every bass note, every scream is accentuated in such a way that it makes the music as a whole seem so much more alive. When I get the best quality out of my player, I usually like the sound of the vinyl record better than the sound I get from a CD.
The only CD I picked up yesterday was Anthems of Rebellion by Arch Enemy. I was not a fan of Arch Enemy when they were fronted by Johan. I was always into Micheal's main project, Carcass, more. Once the band recruited Angela for vocals, I started listening to the band a little more. Anthems of Rebellion spawned three of my favorite AE songs, Silent Wars, We Will Rise, and Dehumanization. These songs, along with the rest of the album, sounds like a definite high point in the bands career. Arch Enemy's latest release, Khaos Legions, was a falling out for me. It didn't keep my interest, nor did it resemble the old sound they had that I grew to love. I was greatly disappointed. The recent news of Alyssa (former The Agonist frontwoman) taking over on vocals excited me once again for the new album and the video premier of War Eternal now has me more excited than ever for an Arch Enemy album! Hopefully they deliver an album just as crazy as Anthems of Rebellion!
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Adding to the Collection Once Again!
While I was out of town this weekend, I hit up one of Wisconsin's premier record store chains, The Exclusive Company, to grab some new music. I love the Exclusive because along with a massive selection of rock and metal CD's and vinyls, it also has a very extensive selection of used CD's and vinyl's. That is the section I always hit the hardest. This time, I picked up 3 albums that I have heard before, but never picked them up until now!
First up was Cradle of Filth's Damnation and A Day. By the time CoF released this album, many thought their career was declining and this was their transition into mainstream metal. While this album has more "mainstream" metal tracks on it, like Better to Reign In Hell, it is still a very solid album. It has elements of Cruelty and the Beast mixed with new influences mixed in, which to me, makes this album stand out as well written. Cradle also switched up the style of the track listing and split the album up into movements and adding a concept along with the lyrics, which adds a lot more depth to the album. Overall, even for abandoning their roots, I think it is one of Cradles more solid releases.
I also snagged HIM's Love Metal. HIM is a band that I got into through Jackass's Bam Margera. I love their image, their lyrics, and their logo (The Heartagram). This album in particular is one of their harder hitting albums to date and has quite a few classic HIM songs on it. Songs like Buried Alive By Love, Funeral of Hearts, and Soul On Fire are tracks you will hear at any HIM show you go to. When I first heard the album, I disliked it. I didn't feel like it flowed as well as some of their older works and didn't hit as hard as their newer works, which I was more acquainted to. After giving it a few more listens, I learned to love it and found that it was a hard album to locate in a physical form, so when I saw it in the used bin, I couldn't pass it up!
The final album being added to the collection for now is Amon Amarth's latest album, Deceiver of The Gods. I caught Amon Amarth on their headlining run across the states not too long ago and they absolutely blew me away! Their energy on stage was like none I have ever seen and the way they delivered their music in such a powerful yet extremely enjoyable way was great to watch. Seeing as it was the Deceiver of The Gods tour, they played quite a few songs off of their new album and I fell in love. While I'm not too familiar with their back catalog, I am a huge fan of Twilight of The Thunder Gods. Even within a two album span, these guys have greatly improved their song writing skills and technical ability, which made for one kick ass album!
First up was Cradle of Filth's Damnation and A Day. By the time CoF released this album, many thought their career was declining and this was their transition into mainstream metal. While this album has more "mainstream" metal tracks on it, like Better to Reign In Hell, it is still a very solid album. It has elements of Cruelty and the Beast mixed with new influences mixed in, which to me, makes this album stand out as well written. Cradle also switched up the style of the track listing and split the album up into movements and adding a concept along with the lyrics, which adds a lot more depth to the album. Overall, even for abandoning their roots, I think it is one of Cradles more solid releases.
I also snagged HIM's Love Metal. HIM is a band that I got into through Jackass's Bam Margera. I love their image, their lyrics, and their logo (The Heartagram). This album in particular is one of their harder hitting albums to date and has quite a few classic HIM songs on it. Songs like Buried Alive By Love, Funeral of Hearts, and Soul On Fire are tracks you will hear at any HIM show you go to. When I first heard the album, I disliked it. I didn't feel like it flowed as well as some of their older works and didn't hit as hard as their newer works, which I was more acquainted to. After giving it a few more listens, I learned to love it and found that it was a hard album to locate in a physical form, so when I saw it in the used bin, I couldn't pass it up!
The final album being added to the collection for now is Amon Amarth's latest album, Deceiver of The Gods. I caught Amon Amarth on their headlining run across the states not too long ago and they absolutely blew me away! Their energy on stage was like none I have ever seen and the way they delivered their music in such a powerful yet extremely enjoyable way was great to watch. Seeing as it was the Deceiver of The Gods tour, they played quite a few songs off of their new album and I fell in love. While I'm not too familiar with their back catalog, I am a huge fan of Twilight of The Thunder Gods. Even within a two album span, these guys have greatly improved their song writing skills and technical ability, which made for one kick ass album!
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Reel Big Fish
Last night was my 2nd time seeing Ska masters Reel Big Fish live. Just as the first time was, I had way too much fun than someone should have at a concert. The atmosphere all night was all around fun and crazy! It was definitely well worth the trip and that will not be the last time I go to see a Ska show!
First on stage was Ryland, the drummer for Reel Big Fish doing a short acoustic set of his songs that he wrote for a solo album. While not ska, or anything close, it was still entertaining and fun to listen to for a quick 15 minutes. Any longer and I don't think the crowd would have been into it anymore, everyone was there to get their skank on to some ska music!
Beebs and Her Money Makers were on next. Before I go any further, I just want to say that I didn't have any sort of expectations set for the two opening bands. I didn't know their music, nor did I care to listen to it before hand. All i wanted was to party to Reel Big Fish! Now that that is said, I would like to also say that I was a completely ignorant to the sheer talent that both opening bands possessed and I was absolutely blown away by both of them. Beebs came on stage and after just a few seconds, the crowd was hoping around and grooving to the low, jazz oriented bass lines and blaring horn melodies. Beebs knew how to control a crowd, even one that didn't know her music very well. That didn't matter to her, she still tried (and succeeded very well at) getting the crowd jumping along, singing, and high fiving her during their half hour set. I was very disappointed their set only lasted 30 minutes because right from the get go, I was entertained and wanting more!
While all good things have to come to an end, that didn't mean the fun was done for the night at all. In fact, we were just getting started! Suburban Legends were on next and man, did they kick some ass! From the first symbol crashes until the last horn notes hit for their set, the energy on stage and through out the venue was plentiful. The crowd was nicely warmed up from BaHMM and wasted no time being shy for Suburban Legends. Clearly influenced by the crazy antics and sometimes absurd lyrics of RBF, they won the hearts of the crowd over in an instant. The highlight of their set is when the guitarist and vocalist switched places and cranked out two super fun cover tunes. First, a clever rendition of Kiss The Girl from the popular Disney movie The Little Mermaid. That was only a warm up tune for when the band quickly transitioned into Neil Diamonds Sweet Caroline, and boy, was it SWEET!! I don't think I have ever had so much fun when hearing a cover song live. The entire sold out venue was screaming the lyrics along while the singer crowd surfed and sung along. Their set seemed to end just as quick as it began and it was disappointing to see such a fun band have to walk off stage, but knowing what was coming made it all worth it.
Reel Big Fish entered to the Imperial March from Star Wars and it was mighty impressive. Starting out with an oldie but goodie, Everything Sucks, they cranked out ska tune after ska tune with perfect precision. You could tell they were very well rehearsed with their setlist and knew every little trick they decided to throw into it. Since RBF has a back catalog spanning over 20 years back, they created a lot of medleys out of their songs, making it possible for the crowd to get a piece of almost every hit RBF song spanning their entire career. They highlighted a lot of the newer stuff, as well as trying to pick out songs that featured the bands stellar horn section. The band definitely knows how to work the crowd and have a good time on stage and thats exactly what they did all night!
First on stage was Ryland, the drummer for Reel Big Fish doing a short acoustic set of his songs that he wrote for a solo album. While not ska, or anything close, it was still entertaining and fun to listen to for a quick 15 minutes. Any longer and I don't think the crowd would have been into it anymore, everyone was there to get their skank on to some ska music!
Beebs and Her Money Makers were on next. Before I go any further, I just want to say that I didn't have any sort of expectations set for the two opening bands. I didn't know their music, nor did I care to listen to it before hand. All i wanted was to party to Reel Big Fish! Now that that is said, I would like to also say that I was a completely ignorant to the sheer talent that both opening bands possessed and I was absolutely blown away by both of them. Beebs came on stage and after just a few seconds, the crowd was hoping around and grooving to the low, jazz oriented bass lines and blaring horn melodies. Beebs knew how to control a crowd, even one that didn't know her music very well. That didn't matter to her, she still tried (and succeeded very well at) getting the crowd jumping along, singing, and high fiving her during their half hour set. I was very disappointed their set only lasted 30 minutes because right from the get go, I was entertained and wanting more!
While all good things have to come to an end, that didn't mean the fun was done for the night at all. In fact, we were just getting started! Suburban Legends were on next and man, did they kick some ass! From the first symbol crashes until the last horn notes hit for their set, the energy on stage and through out the venue was plentiful. The crowd was nicely warmed up from BaHMM and wasted no time being shy for Suburban Legends. Clearly influenced by the crazy antics and sometimes absurd lyrics of RBF, they won the hearts of the crowd over in an instant. The highlight of their set is when the guitarist and vocalist switched places and cranked out two super fun cover tunes. First, a clever rendition of Kiss The Girl from the popular Disney movie The Little Mermaid. That was only a warm up tune for when the band quickly transitioned into Neil Diamonds Sweet Caroline, and boy, was it SWEET!! I don't think I have ever had so much fun when hearing a cover song live. The entire sold out venue was screaming the lyrics along while the singer crowd surfed and sung along. Their set seemed to end just as quick as it began and it was disappointing to see such a fun band have to walk off stage, but knowing what was coming made it all worth it.
Reel Big Fish entered to the Imperial March from Star Wars and it was mighty impressive. Starting out with an oldie but goodie, Everything Sucks, they cranked out ska tune after ska tune with perfect precision. You could tell they were very well rehearsed with their setlist and knew every little trick they decided to throw into it. Since RBF has a back catalog spanning over 20 years back, they created a lot of medleys out of their songs, making it possible for the crowd to get a piece of almost every hit RBF song spanning their entire career. They highlighted a lot of the newer stuff, as well as trying to pick out songs that featured the bands stellar horn section. The band definitely knows how to work the crowd and have a good time on stage and thats exactly what they did all night!
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