2004-06-18 - 23:01

Ready for war

Last weekend included the traditional birthday feast of Chinese food. This year's version was a few days late and held at the New Hong Shing, rather than downtown; but was as fun and filling as ever.

Afterwards, people came over to watch the Rollins Live at Luna Park spoken word DVD. That is another quality release. Some of the material was also present on the A Rollins in the Rye CD; but the DVD is worth the price just for the Rollins vs. Iggy Pop saga.

Speaking of Hank, he is doing a radio show now on Indie 103.1. It airs Monday nights at 10:00 Eastern and you can stream the audio from the web site. I caught his first show, but missed last week's. He plays some varied, interesting songs. Check-a-check It out. (I may have to retire that line, now that the Beasties released "Ch-Check it Out"; but extracting it from my brain may prove difficult.)

In other musical news, I made a trip to Montreal on Tuesday to see Slayer. Or, as I should say, Slaaaaayyyyyeeerrr!!! Due to some bad luck with the bus, I missed the majority of Damage Plan; but that omission was made up for by Slayer.

Even considering the fact that the band may be pausing to catch their breath while Tom offers stage banter every few songs, they still set an unbelievably fierce pace, especially accounting for the twenty years that they have been playing. I get tired just watching them.

As expected, it was a fantastic concert. The crowd was very amped--when the night ended, people left the club chanting, "Slayer, Slayer," which earned a few amusing looks from passersby. The band's song selection was great, pulling songs from throughout their long career.

I must confess that I don't work it like I used to in the crowd; but I still made my way into the mosh. (What are you going to do, not move when the second song of the show is "War Ensemble"?) If I had bailed on the mosh before the set closer, "Raining Blood," I may have been able to catch the 11:00 bus home, rather than the midnight (it passed me on Beri), but I made the right call.

So, Hayden and Slayer in a week . . . pretty much covers the musical spectrum. (Speaking of the former show, I managed to add recaps for it and the Eyedea & Abilities gig to my concerts review page.

Other than that, work has still been kicking my ass, with a lingering customer issue hounding me. I think that we may be resolving that very soon, although it was a semi-stressful week in that regard.

Summer is in full force lately, which is a bonus, but I am now lacking concert plans. Hopefully, something interesting will be decided again soon.

J.