Archive for February 2012
Symphony X/Iced Earth/Warbringer Concert Review 2/28/12 Austin, TX
Austin’s metal scene was a bit lacking when I moved here 5 years ago. San Antonio has always been the metal capital of Texas but I think Austin has been picking it up a bit in the last few years. While we’re still not getting Maiden, Priest, Scorpions and other big headliners like that, we’re still getting a steady stream of smaller acts. Megadeth has come regularly and Motorhead always comes. Luckily I get to see them together this coming weekend for Gigantour 2012.
Emo’s has been pretty consistent for bringing good metal since I’ve been here. Now that they’ve moved to a bigger venue on the east 
side, they’ve been doing their due diligence and booking decent shows.
Last night was Symphony X/Iced Earth/Warbringer.
Warbringer opened up and I am indifferent about them. Solid retro-thrash, but not bringing anything new to the table. Like I said last night, “they’re just ripping off Testament.”
I once was a huge Iced Earth fan, then they released Something Wicked This Way Comes and I was out. I’ve tried listening to all of their albums and they’ve never got me back. I saw them in 1999 and filmed it. You can see the entire show on Youtube. They picked up another singer recently, Stu Block, who used to be in Into Eternity. The band was solid, as expected. Jon Schaffer makes sure he’s got good players in his band. They played 3 or 4 older songs and sounded good and the new stuff they played sounded fine. Stu has a really good and clean high range, but his “normal” voice is a bit too much like Matt Barlow, minus the Hetfield-ah! tendencies that Matt had. Whoever their lead player is these days is pretty good. One annoying note, I really hate the crowd participation songs and they did it in over hald their set. “hey hey hey hey!” Ugh.
I saw Symphony X in 2000 at L’Amours in New York when they opened for Halford. I thought they were good, but just not my cup of tea. I like a handful of tracks from their first 3 records, but prefer to hear them on CD than live. All very talented guys. I left after their first song.
Iced Earth
Iron Maiden returns to the USA!
From Maiden:
“We have great fun playing the History of Maiden Tours because it gives us an opportunity between new albums to go out and play songs from our earlier catalogue,” says frontman Bruce Dickinson. “It’s always fantastic seeing the crowd reaction from a new generation of fans who have never experienced some of these tracks performed live before, and of course we know our longstanding fans will enjoy seeing the original Seventh Son Tour re-visited – with many other surprises!
“Our intention is to play about two thirds of the original track list of Maiden England (shown below*), including some songs we have not played live in a very,very long time, plus other favourites we just know the fans are going to want to hear! We always try to give our fans a great show musically, but we have always tried to make it as entertaining and memorable an experience as we can visually. And we all feel this show is going to do that splendidly! We can’t wait to get started in Charlotte”.
For reference, the ‘Maiden England’ VHS tape has the following tracklisting:
Moonchild, The Evil That Men Do, The Prisoner, Still Life, Die With Your Boots On, Infinite Dreams, Killers, Can I Play With Madness, Heaven Can Wait, Wasted Years, The Clairvoyant, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, The Number Of The Beast, Hallowed Be Thy Name, Iron Maiden.
So a shitload of amazing songs to choose from, then.
Dates for the tour are as follows:
MAIDEN ENGLAND 2012 TOUR DATES
Thur 21st June Charlotte, NC Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Sat 23rd June Atlanta, GA Aarons Amphitheatre
Tue 26th June Boston, MA Comcast Center
Wed 27th June Wantagh, NY Jones Beach
Fri 29th June Philadelphia, PI Susquehanna Bank Center
Sat 30th June Washington, DC Jiffy Lube Live
Mon 2nd July Newark, NJ Prudential Center
Thur 5th July Chicago, IL First Midwest Bank
Sun 8th July Quebec, QC Colisee Pepsi Arena
Wed 11th July Montreal, QC Bell Center
Fri 13th July Toronto, ON Molson Amphitheatre
Sat 14th July Sarnia, ON Bayfest
Mon 16th July Buffalo, NY Darien Lake Performing Arts Center Wed
18th July Detroit, MI DTE Music Theatre
Thur 19th July Indianapolis, IN Klipsch Music Centre
Tues 24th July Winnipeg, MB MTS Center
Thur 26th July Calgary, AB Scotiabank Saddledome
Fri 27th July Edmonton, AB Rexall Place
Sun 29th July Vancouver, BC Pacific Coliseum
Mon 30th July Auburn, WA White River Amphitheatre
Wed 1st August Salt Lake City, UT USANA Amphitheatre
Fri 3rd August San Francisco, CA Shoreline Amphitheatre
Mon 6th August Phoenix, AZ Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion
Thur 9th August Irvine, CA Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Sun 12th August Albuquerque. NM Hard Rock Pavilion
Mon 13th August Denver, CO Comfort Dental Amphitheatre
Wed 15th August San Antonio, TX AT&T Center
Fri 17th August Dallas, TX Gexa Energy Pavilion
Sat 18th August Houston, TX The Woodlands
Lemonheads Concert Review Austin, TX 021112
Between 1993 and 1995 I played in a band called I AM I. We played a lot if cover tunes mixed with our originals and one of the bands we covered a lot was The Lemonheads, especially from their album It’s a Shame About Ray.
When I saw that they were coming to Austin and playing that album in its entirety, I had to go. I’ve always loved that album and that era if my life always brings good memories.
After the opening bands played, Evan Dando hit the stage opening his set with some acoustic songs. After 3 or 4 songs, his new backup band hit the stage and they went right into the album. They sounded great. It was an outdoor show and it was cold, right around the freezing mark. They blew right through the set and did some more songs from other albums.
Evan’s voice sounded great and his playing was solid especially for being that cold. One thing about that album, there are a lot of licks on there that remind me of Alex Lifeson. A few of the guys I was hanging with all felt the same way.
It was a good night of non-metal.
RIP Robert, my dear sweet brother
On January 20th one of my older brothers died in his sleep. He was 47. It was unexpected and quite a shock to the family.
Robert was 6 years older than me and really is the person responsible for my love of heavy music. In the mid 70s I can remember him bringing home KISS’ Dressed to Kill and that is what started it off for me. From there it was Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Alice Cooper, RUSH, Uriah Heep, Wishbone Ash and a slew of other bands in those years. It wasn’t all hard stuff though. He got me into the Rolling Stones, early Neil Young and Elton John as well. The Stones are my 2nd favorite band of all time behind Iron Maiden.
As we got older and he had moved out, I was able to get him into bands like King Diamond, Metal Church and some others.
Music was always our bond and even in these last few weeks, there are certain songs that I’ll hear that just remind me of him. I’m glad that I have that lifelong connection to him and his spirit.
I’ll always miss and love you, Robert. Even more than I have in recent years of not being able to see you.
I can’t thank you enough for helping me be who and what I am today.
The Metal Files 
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