Eddie Van Halen

Man, you gotta feel for Eddie Van Halen. For someone who's been labeled as a control freak by more than 1 ex band member, he sure has lost control. It's sad when one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time can't perform at their own Hall Of Fame induction. Summer tour, cancelled.

(Speaking of Van Halen/Van Hagar, for an interesting bit check out the Van Halen listing on Wikipedia...they go through the history of the band's lineup)

Vegas, Baby!

Ah, the joys of Las Vegas!

So far, the only bust has been Crazy Horse II. For what's supposed to be one of the premier strip clubs in Sin City, it was actually boring. We sat around for a few minutes while nothing went on, finished our drinks and left. Total cost, 2 beers and entrance fes = $60 for a whole lot of nothing.

Hoover Dam was infinitely more impressive. The damn thing is like an egyptian pyramid...hell, they kept comparing it to one, which is no joke when you see the thing.

Speaking of pyramids, Luxor rules. As does Excalibur, Treasure Island, and (for cheap and easy gambling) Palace Station. Roulette rules (both Randy and I have easily doubled our money, and it's fun).

Well, I've gotta get back to the fun!!!

Peace Of Mind

Brad Delp, lead singer of Boston, killed himself last week. He left multiple suicide notes, referring to himself as "a lonely soul" (per the AP report).

This man had a great voice, his range was incredible. I got to see Boston live when they toured after releasing their greatest hits (8 Jul 97 in what used to be called the Garden State Arts Center). Unfortunately, by then his voice was just starting to give; he faultered on a couple of his high notes, the new lead singer had to quickly step in and cover for him.

I don't know if this is part of what bothered him, but I do know that depression can be a cruel beast.

Y2K7

Looks like another non-event, same as the original Y2K as well as 9/9/99.

300

I may have just seen the greatest man-movie of all time.

I just saw 300 and was completely and utterly blown away. This movie totally rocks! A must-see for the big screen. The fight scenes, they blow Gladiator away. The experience is truly epic.

Beside You In Time

Today I picked up a copy of Beside You In Time, a concert DVD just released by Nine Inch Nails.

I saw this group twice last year, in Cincinnati at the beginning of summer then in Camden in the fall. Both concerts were good, the one in Cincinnati was excellent as it had a superior set list (lots of powerful songs, almost no fluff), whereas the set list for Camden featured less of the latest album With_Teeth and more from The Fragile (my personal favorite album, so I can't complain too much). Both shows also had different presentations, the Cincinnati show featured what appeared to be fractured, stylized "teeth" above and below the stage that lit up strategically, plus in the middle of the show a translucent curtain covered the stage and images were projected onto it. In Camden a large digital screen filled the background (I think it's the same one from the Fragility tour), plus a metal curtain covered the front of the stage at times (the kind that protects store fronts in bad areas), this had lights on it that turned on so precisely that they were used to render crude images onto the curtain.

Okay, that's a lot of boring explaination. The point is, the DVD was filmed during the first ("stronger set list") leg of the tour, which it represents very nicely. There are some additional songs included as bonus tracks, all from the second ("Fragility") leg. These include Non-Entity, a track that doesn't appear on any NIN album.

My favorite concert DVD of all time is Pink Floyd's Pulse; Beside You In Time ranks a very close second. For anyone who's really, really into Nine Inch Nails, this is a better DVD than And All That Could Have Been (from the Fragility tour).