Weird Al Yankovic 07/02/2015 Stir Cove Harras
Going to a Weird Al Show is the kind of thing in years past people wouldn't freely admit, but not me. I have always been a weird al fan and proud of it. Not even that but, the kind of fans I was expecting at this show were not even close to what I got. After his most recent number 1 album he has experiencing a whole new audience of rather normal pop music fans. He started the show right at 8 coming out in his normal Hawaiian shirt and crazy pants leading with Tacky and Lame Claim to Fame before bringing out the accordion for the newest polka medley of pop songs Now That's What I call Polka. Then he left the stage and played videos of his or others he has cameos in before coming back as an Ice Cream Cone for Perform This Way and Dare to Be Stupid. Another video came on as he came back in his trademark fat suit for Fat and brought the entire crowd to it's feet and danced.
Weird Al Yankovic performing The Saga Begins.
He came back out for First World Problems and dawned a metal hat for Foil. He dawned a blonde wig and did his best Kurt Cobaine impression for Smells like Nirvana, thrashing about and head banging. He led the crowd in a medley of his songs starting with Party in the CIA, It's all about the Pentiums, Handy, Bedrock Anthem, Another One Rides the Bus, Ode to a Superhero, Gump, Inactive, and Ebay. Next was another medley but a very different one. He brought out a string quartet and did lounge singer versions of Eat It, I Lost on Jeopardy, I Love Rocky Road, and Like a Surgeon. Up next he rode out on a segway for White and Nerdy, schooled us in english on Word Crimes, and came out as an amish man for Amish Paradise that ended the set. He taunted the audience and improvised a song about all having cellphones before come out in full star wars gear for the american Pie parody the Saga Begins and ending the Night on Yoda, but not before busting out some tribal chanting with his band. he is a true all around master entertainer. This a show designed more like a musical than a show and because of that it is perfect for people of all ages.
Against Me! 07/05/2015 Wooly's
I got to Woolys a little late because I had to finish watching the US women win the world cup, duh history in the making. I got there just before Laura and co came on stage. Throught the night they would play 9 songs off of the new landmark album Transgender Dysphoria Blues. It was a good thing a message worth hearing and the crowd was full of supporters. They opened with Unconditional Love into New Wave. Next came a few from the older albums As the Eternal Coybow and Reinventing Axel Rose, before playing Transgender Dysphoria Blues and watching the very LBGTQ crowd lose their collective minds. After that came 4 other new ones followed by the song that means so much more now that we know what it means. The Ocean has a line it about if he would be born a little girl and you realize that he can finally be happy to be that girl, the room erupted during that song. The nest three were my favorite new songs Dead Friend, True Trans Soul Rebel, and Black Me Out. Black Me Out especially, is a great live song that has the perfect chanting section. The ended the set with what has become the transgender anthem I was a Teenage Antichrist, before coming back to play a Replacements cover of Androgynous and end the show with Thrash Unreal and Sink, Florida, Sink. The crown screamed their lungs out feeling the whole time that they were taking part in something great, not just a show but part of a real movement, like when punk used to mean something. Being there at that show with all of them screaming your lungs out, you can't help but to think that there is something magical happening here.
Slayer and King Diamond 07/07/2015 Stir Cove Harras
A lot of people complained about this years Mayhem lineup, but I think they are nuts King Diamond and Slayer! Are you kidding me? How is that not cool enough? We only went to Mayhem fest for King Diamond and Slayer so I will only review them. King Diamond came out in his usual all black outfit and face makeup that has become Iconic. He puts on a very theatrical show that uses props, extras, and human birth rituals. He snarls and screams an holds his cross mic like he's ready to stake a vampire. The whole show was a one long metal musical. His set was an hour long and ten very long songs. Starting with The Candle into Sleepless Nights, Eye of the Witch, and Welcome Home. Next came a very ritualesce medley Tea/ Digging Graves/ A visit From the Dead. Next came two covers from his older band Merciful Fate, Evil and Come to the Sabbath. They were incredible and the crowd loved it. He ended the show with The Family Ghost, The 7th Day of July 1777, and Black Horseman. The show was awe inspiring, and proof of his legendary show status.
Next Slayer came out and within seconds and made their presence known with an explosion of sound the mosh pit opened up. It was one of the fiercest ones I have ever seen. Within minutes there was an serious injury and a guy had to be carried away on a stretcher. The opening song was the title track from the new album and one of three new songs played. Throughout the set fire would burst randomly from the stage while Slayer pounded away unnoticed. The show was mostly a greatest hits show with songs from every album including South of Heaven, War Ensemble, Hate Worldwide, Chemical Warfare, Reigning Blood, and Angel of Death which ended the set. During that epic and instantly recognizable Reigning Blood riff everyone lost it including me and I ran into the mosh and eventually did the robot through the middle, because I could. They ended the show with Angel of Death and did not play an encore, but none was needed. It was an hour and a half of brutal moshing to one of the heaviest bands around. I was just happy to leave the pit uninjured, unlike many others.
Rush 07/09/2015 Sprint Center
I have seen Rush once before and skipped the last tour because of expenses, but after they announced that this tour was going to be their final major tour I had to get out and see them. We got there a little late and after they played their opening video they walked out to Clockwork Angels, The Anarchist. The whole 40th anniversary show worked like a backwards trip through their discography starting with 2013's Clockwork Angels and playing The Anarchist, Wreckers, and Headlong Flight. About this time they started the running joke of slowly changing the picture above into a Laundromat, one washer at a time. The next two from Snakes and Arrows were Far Cry and The Main Monkey Buisness. The rest of the first half was one song each of of 2000s and 90's albums like How It Is, Animate, Between the Wheels, and Subdivisions. During Roll the bones they played a video of various celebrities lip-syncing the song. After subdivision they broke for an intermission and played a video of bloopers from their various tour videos before little Rush introduced Tom Sawyer and the band broke into the hit. The crowd all lost it and rose to their feet. After that they played The Camera Eye and moved on to Permanent Waves with the rarely played Jacobs Ladder and the explosive Spirit of the Radio.
Rush Performing Tom Sawyer Live.
They played Cygnus X-1 and book II before breaking into the huge and now famous Neil Pert drum solo that still blows minds. He proves again and again why he is called the best rock drummer ever. More Farewell to Kings with Closer to the Heart and Xandu came next. They ended the set with most of the prog epic 2112. They played for 20 minutes and left the stage after. Eugene Levy introduced them as Lakeside Park and Anthem from Fly By Night came next. They ended the set on their debut's What Your Doing and Working Man. The video after the show show them getting kicked out of their own dressing room by all or their album covers. This show was the kind of show you have young performers study like a film maker would study Pulp Fiction. They are the best of the best in every aspect of performance. The sheer ability is one thing but to do it for 40 years and still be as good as they were in the beginning, if not way better is noting short of awe inspiring. Getty may loose a note here and there but he improvs with the best of them to make the songs work and seem fresh. If you have seen Rush live than you know why this last tour was truly a farewell to kings. Melt Banana and Torche 07/16/2015 Woolys
Everyone has that one thing they went to with no idea of what they were getting themselves into. It could be great or it could be horrible, this show was that for me. It was recommended by people who's opinions I respect, so I went. The first band I made it for was Torche a classic doom metal band that had literally noting in common with the headlining band. They blasted bass heavy music and the audience head banged along while drinking bear. It was great set. Melt Banana is an experimental noise rock band from Japan with two members a beast of a guitarist like the guitarist from Mad Max and a female vocalist with a drum machine. They played fast and loud in a style I had never heard before. This whole show was like nothing I had ever seen before. They were unbelievably loud even for me, but it was so intense that it matched their energy. During the show they even appeased the audience and played a couple of 80s covers for their american audience. This whole audience was very mixed and seemingly all there from word of mouth. I plan to continue that chain. What I saw was strange, intense, and awesome.
Ben Folds 07/18/2015 McGrath Amphitheatre
A last minute trip to see Ben Folds in Cedar Rapids isn't even surprising anymore, it's just standard, for me anyway. This show was after he got off the road with yMusic so it was set to be a solo show. I had never seen him solo. With his band or with Ben Folds Five, but never solo. Right around 8 he took the stage as the sun was setting and jumped right into Anne Waits. From there he broke right into Ben Folds Five's Kate and the bouncy Effington. After a few more he told the story of his new single Phone in a Pool where got so frustrated with getting calls during a show that he threw his phone into a pool only to have Kesha get it out. Next he broke out his nightly improve song Rock this Bitch and improved a song about being on the beautiful river surrounded by corporate shit. Next he broke out a couple of crowd favorites with Zak and Sara and Jesusland. He told us that the song Still Fighting it was actually written to his son on the day he was born exactly 16 years ago. He introduced the next couple songs with the most depressing story of the night. It was about how Steven from Steven's Last Night in Town died a week ago and the producer from way to normal died last night so he played Stevens Last Night in Town and You Don't Know Me in their honor.
Ben Folds Performing Song for the Dumped Live.
The next segment of the show was the break out the ballads section. As lighters came out for Ben Folds Five's Brick, Landed, Gracie, Not The Same, and The Luckiest. During The Luckiest he assigned the crowd different vocal lines to sing and conducted us in a crowd participation choir. He ended the main set with the one two punch of Song for the Dumped and Rockin the Suburbs. They were the most fun and liveliest songs of the night. The entire crowd got to do a whole new kinds of crowd participation as Ben led them screaming the F work in unison a the end or Rockin the Subburbs. Their is something so cathartic about cursing as a crowd. After that he walked off stage and did a fake exit before coming back to end the night on Ben Folds Five's Army. After the show me and a ton of others ran to the side of the stage to try and meet Ben Folds, but they planned for that and escorted him away in a van parked back stage. The night was proof of something Ben Folds fans have known for years. All you need to have a good concert is a talented piano player with fun songs.Between the Buried and Me with Animals as Leaders 07/29/2015 Woolys
This whole night was a prog metal fans dream. After a short but great set from The Contortionist, next came the instrumental greats Animals as Leaders. In my opinion they are the best instrumentalists I have ever seen. Both of them play 8 stringed instruments while the drummer sits in the back and pounds out the most complex lines you will ever hear. For the most part they play prog metal but they also have a tendency to jump across genre lines adding in bits from reggae, classical, r and b, jazz, and blues. Most of the show was from the new album The Joy of Motion with the exception of the set closer CAPO from their debut. Watching them is like watching a one long dream sequence of beautiful instrumentals, or the hypno toad from futurama. During the last song the crowd went nuts and jumped into the mosh pit. Next was Between the Buried and Me.
Between the Buried and Me performing Ants of the Sky live.
The last time I saw these two bands play animals was closing, but since then the awesome album Coma Ecliptic came out. The show was an hour and a half at only 9 songs. They opened with Alaska's Selkies: The Endless Obsession and instantly the mosh pit was raging. Next came the title track from the new album The Coma Machine. The song may be new but don't tell the crowd because they knew every word, and screamed and moshed along with the prog masterpiece. The Next Astrial Body and Lay Your Ghosts to Rest two came from The Paralax II. The band was absolutely perfect and the singer could sing beautifully and scream with more intensity then most bands around, he did both perfectly. They played two new songs before breaking out the hits of Prequel to the Sequel and Ants of the Sky. If you thought the crowd was wild before, then this was a whole new level. The entire floor turned into one giant mosh pit and stayed that way for 20 minutes until they left the stage. They came back for the encore of the coolest cover of Queens Bohemian Rhapsody that I have ever seen. It started off normally, before turning into a prog metal epic and instigating one final mosh pit. This was one of the best nights of metal I have been to in a long time.
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