Well…last night I went to see Incubus at the White River Amphitheater. There weren’t as many Kyles and Codys here as there were at the Five Finger Death Punch concert two weeks before. No Monster Energy Giga-Chad vibes here, just the sweetness of Incubus’s brand of rock and roll. They played a lot of songs from Morning View, which is understandable considering how almost perfect that album is. Songs like “Megalomaniac” and “Sick Sad Little World” will always get a rise out of me. But the one song that I was waiting all night for was “The Warmth”, which I’ve often used as an anthem for healing from my mental illnesses. “Don’t let the world bring you down. Not everyone here is that fucked up and cold. Remember why you came and while you’re alive, experience the warmth before you grow old.” Poetry. Absolute fucking poetry. There wasn’t a bad song on that whole show, and that goes for the openers as well. Sublime will never fully replace Bradley Nowell, may he rest in peace, but Roman Ramirez definitely helped take them into a new direction. He’s younger than me, so he’s got his whole life ahead of him. The other openers were The Aquadolls and The Naked Giants, both of which made instant believers out of me despite never hearing their music before that night. This was only my second concert since the pandemic and I’m glad I got to go out in public for my dose of serotonin. Up next: Roger Waters at the Tacoma Dome, which takes place on the 17th of September. He’s going to debut a new song called “The Bar”, which I’m excited for.
Showing posts with label Pain in the Grass. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pain in the Grass. Show all posts
Saturday, September 3, 2022
Friday, September 2, 2016
Open Bar Superstar
VERSE 1
Drink that beer like you’re dying of thirst
Let the poison set in then do your worst
Ranting and raving is what you’re craving
Putting up with you is considered slaving
You belong in the back of a police car
And nowhere near the cacophonic bar
Come back when you gain some IQ points
Realize the annoyance of your own noise
CHORUS
Open! Bar! Super! Star! X4
VERSE 2
You don’t have to be a nuclear scientist
Just have to sit down and be silent, bitch
You act foolish as you feel the drugs
I wish I had a gun with a chamber full of slugs
Use your fucking head before it explodes
Your body is dumped on the side of the road
It’s only fantasy, but it’s a damn good one
Killing your ass would be so much fun
CHORUS
Open! Bar! Super! Star! X4
VERSE 3
Don’t you dare get behind the wheel
Or a kick in the nuts is what you’ll feel
You’ve done enough damage for one day
To our ears and brains and it’s not okay
You stole the music from underneath us
The band drove away in their big tour bus
I guess being an idiot is punishment enough
For guys like you with your beer belly stuffed
CHORUS
Open! Bar! Super! Star! X4
BRIDGE
You’re an alcoholic, far from anonymous
Far from Einstein, far from an economist
Far from the fan that you claim to be
If you’re stealing music from guys like me
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Disturbed X Breaking Benjamin Concert
***DISTURBED X BREAKING BENJAMIN CONCERT***
I’ve been to a lot of concerts this year. It all started
with Nightwish back in March and it continued with Rob Zombie X Korn in July
and Slipknot X Marilyn Manson in early August. This coming Sunday, I’m going back
to the frontlines with Disturbed and Breaking Benjamin as the main acts.
They’re going to be part of a much larger festival called Pain in the Grass, a
concert which starts at 1:00 in the afternoon and is supported by Alter Bridge
My therapist Rachel and her husband Michael have tickets to
this show, so they’re going to be the ones who drive me to and from Auburn . Maybe this badass
heavy metal show could be a form of psychological therapy for me and Rachel is
writing the prescription. I’ve always said that music is my drug of choice.
It’s the soundtrack to my screwed up mind and a generator of creative fuel for
as long as I continue to write deliciously violent stories, which means
forever.
Just like any other concert or vacation, I’m going to need
some downtime afterwards to recharge my batteries. Introverts love downtime.
They get cranky whenever they don’t get it. But seeing as how this concert is
on a Sunday, there’s going to be more work to be done as far as moving
furniture and ripping up carpets goes. This time, we’re spending the weekend on
Reina’s room. Not to worry, because Reina’s room is a microcosm compared to
downstairs. I may not be Brock Lesnar, but I’ll take her furniture to Suplex City
What does this mean for my creative life? It may be
interrupted due to tiredness, but that’s nothing new for me and I always
recover in time to make a difference. I still have Andy Peloquin’s “Lament of
the Fallen” novel to read and review. I still have Marie Krepps’ “Never Again”
story to beta-read and give smart-assed critiques to. As far as the WSS
goes…well….
***WEEKLY SHORT STORY CONTESTS AND COMPANY***
I know you all were expecting a short story called “Hardcore
Hogan”, an action packed piece of science-fiction where a Hulk Hogan parody
beats the shit out of aliens and earns his freedom from being probed and
prodded. However, the week of that contest was exhausting on so many levels,
whether it was public life, sleep apnea problems, or doing piss-soaked chores.
Aside from that, there were too many plot holes in my story for it to be taken
seriously. I repeat: WAY too many plot holes. I pride myself on getting my
first drafts right the first time, because that way I won’t have a shit load of
work to do when the time comes to edit them. Never fear, loyal readers, because
even though “Hardcore Hogan” may never get off the ground, “Fairytale” did and
it’s a much superior story despite its lack of delicious violence. Well,
there’s verbal violence, but that’s not the same thing.
***COMEDIC QUOTE OF THE DAY***
“Now that multiple women have claimed Bill Cosby raped them,
black teenagers are telling Cosby, ‘Pull YOUR pants up.’”
-Bill Maher-
Monday, August 24, 2015
Recycling Buildings
***BEFORE I BEGIN***
The last journal was about how I went to the Pain in the Grass festival in Auburn, Washington’s White River Amphitheater. In case you were thinking of asking, it was a badass concert from top to bottom. Three Days Grace was fucking awesome. Lamb of God was REALLY fucking awesome. I’m glad to be introduced to Bullet For My Valentine. But Slipknot? They were badass on a whole different level. The masks, the pyrotechnics, the devil’s mirror background, and most importantly, the music itself was a shit ton of fun. Aside from riding the shuttle bus with a bunch of drunken fans who butchered every jingle on the planet, I had a good time last night. I even had the cute clerk at the convenience store, Chelsea, tell me that she was jealous earlier today. That’s a damn good sign. Hehehehehe!
***RECYCLING BUILDINGS***
Apparently, going to a heavy metal show with a bunch of kick-ass bands inspired me to have a strange, yet poignant dream. In this dream, the QFC grocery store in my town was converted to a concert hall and Pantera got back together to play there. The freezers were replaced with seats, the checkout isles were ticket scanners, and the deli was replaced with one big ass stage where Pantera played “This Love”. And then I woke up and had a topic for a Deviant Art journal in mind already: recycling buildings.
When a business becomes defunct, it would seem like such a waste of construction to demolish the building. If you’re not going to use the building for a grocery store or restaurant, why not use it for a library or a toy store? This actually has a lot of merit in today’s world. In the cop dramas The Shield and NCIS: Los Angeles, both agencies use old churches and convert them to a fully-functional headquarters. Old churches, for shit’s sake. In Texas not too long ago, a Wal-Mart was closed and the building was abandoned until someone started using it for one big-ass library, thus turning Wal-Martians into wallflowers. The old headquarters in Wisconsin where Dungeons & Dragons was born was turned into a candy shop and a hotel after Gary Gygax lost the rights to his game.
Using old buildings for bigger and better things isn’t a new idea, but it’s one that should be spread more often. It would take a shit ton of imagination to convert something like a butcher’s shop into a nightclub (which has been done on an episode of Seinfeld). It’d be a lot of work, but it could technically happen. That QFC dream isn’t far off from reality. It technically could be converted to a concert hall and we could bring some heavy metal to Port Orchard, a city not known for such things. And what about the abandoned Taco Bell building on Mile Hill? Is it just going to sit there and do nothing or can it be converted to…a gaming shop! Can you imagine holding D&D sessions and reading graphic novels in a building that used to be Taco Bell? If your creative energies and imaginative juices aren’t flowing like a raging river, I don’ t know what to say.
Maybe this is all stemming from the fact that I see artistic merit in pretty much everything around me, including reusing condemned buildings, house flipping, and home improvement in general. In this case, the artists in question are working with a tainted canvas and making something beautiful out of it. It would be the same thing if I drew my picture of Daron Campos on the page of a Disney coloring book. It would be a tainted canvas, but it could be done….and it would be creepy to think about considering what Daron Campos is capable of.
Do you have any old buildings that could be something better in your neighborhood? Can you make a college out of a Wal-Mart? Can you make a wrestling school out of a Burger King? Can you make a barbershop out of an abandoned warehouse by a dingy dock? If your imagination is big enough and you’re having a constant flow of nerd-gasms, all of those things are possible. We’ve got ears, say cheers!
***COMMERCIAL QUOTE OF THE DAY***
“You will howl like a happy hound dog over these hushpuppies!”
-Popeye’s Spokeswoman-
***POST-SCRIPT***
Actually, no, I won’t. Popeye’s food is so bland and boring that I can picture one of their restaurants being converted to a record store slash punk clothing emporium. And we’ve come full circle yet again!
The last journal was about how I went to the Pain in the Grass festival in Auburn, Washington’s White River Amphitheater. In case you were thinking of asking, it was a badass concert from top to bottom. Three Days Grace was fucking awesome. Lamb of God was REALLY fucking awesome. I’m glad to be introduced to Bullet For My Valentine. But Slipknot? They were badass on a whole different level. The masks, the pyrotechnics, the devil’s mirror background, and most importantly, the music itself was a shit ton of fun. Aside from riding the shuttle bus with a bunch of drunken fans who butchered every jingle on the planet, I had a good time last night. I even had the cute clerk at the convenience store, Chelsea, tell me that she was jealous earlier today. That’s a damn good sign. Hehehehehe!
***RECYCLING BUILDINGS***
Apparently, going to a heavy metal show with a bunch of kick-ass bands inspired me to have a strange, yet poignant dream. In this dream, the QFC grocery store in my town was converted to a concert hall and Pantera got back together to play there. The freezers were replaced with seats, the checkout isles were ticket scanners, and the deli was replaced with one big ass stage where Pantera played “This Love”. And then I woke up and had a topic for a Deviant Art journal in mind already: recycling buildings.
When a business becomes defunct, it would seem like such a waste of construction to demolish the building. If you’re not going to use the building for a grocery store or restaurant, why not use it for a library or a toy store? This actually has a lot of merit in today’s world. In the cop dramas The Shield and NCIS: Los Angeles, both agencies use old churches and convert them to a fully-functional headquarters. Old churches, for shit’s sake. In Texas not too long ago, a Wal-Mart was closed and the building was abandoned until someone started using it for one big-ass library, thus turning Wal-Martians into wallflowers. The old headquarters in Wisconsin where Dungeons & Dragons was born was turned into a candy shop and a hotel after Gary Gygax lost the rights to his game.
Using old buildings for bigger and better things isn’t a new idea, but it’s one that should be spread more often. It would take a shit ton of imagination to convert something like a butcher’s shop into a nightclub (which has been done on an episode of Seinfeld). It’d be a lot of work, but it could technically happen. That QFC dream isn’t far off from reality. It technically could be converted to a concert hall and we could bring some heavy metal to Port Orchard, a city not known for such things. And what about the abandoned Taco Bell building on Mile Hill? Is it just going to sit there and do nothing or can it be converted to…a gaming shop! Can you imagine holding D&D sessions and reading graphic novels in a building that used to be Taco Bell? If your creative energies and imaginative juices aren’t flowing like a raging river, I don’ t know what to say.
Maybe this is all stemming from the fact that I see artistic merit in pretty much everything around me, including reusing condemned buildings, house flipping, and home improvement in general. In this case, the artists in question are working with a tainted canvas and making something beautiful out of it. It would be the same thing if I drew my picture of Daron Campos on the page of a Disney coloring book. It would be a tainted canvas, but it could be done….and it would be creepy to think about considering what Daron Campos is capable of.
Do you have any old buildings that could be something better in your neighborhood? Can you make a college out of a Wal-Mart? Can you make a wrestling school out of a Burger King? Can you make a barbershop out of an abandoned warehouse by a dingy dock? If your imagination is big enough and you’re having a constant flow of nerd-gasms, all of those things are possible. We’ve got ears, say cheers!
***COMMERCIAL QUOTE OF THE DAY***
“You will howl like a happy hound dog over these hushpuppies!”
-Popeye’s Spokeswoman-
***POST-SCRIPT***
Actually, no, I won’t. Popeye’s food is so bland and boring that I can picture one of their restaurants being converted to a record store slash punk clothing emporium. And we’ve come full circle yet again!
Friday, August 21, 2015
Pain in the Grass 2015
***PAIN IN THE GRASS 2015***
This coming Sunday (August 23rd), I’m headed over to Auburn, Washington’s White River Amphitheater for the Pain in the Grass festival, which is basically a heavy metal concert with an ass ton of bands. I’ve been to a lot of concerts in my lifetime, but never to a festival-style concert. The show is expected to go from 2:00 in the afternoon to about 10 or 11 at night. Since the venue is at a grassy lawn, I’ll probably bring a blanket and rest in between performers. The last time I stood up for an ungodly amount of time was when I saw Cavalera Conspiracy this past May in Seattle. There were four opening bands that night before the main act and my legs were killing me. Laying on the grass during this upcoming event will feel like laying on one of heaven’s clouds. Here are the bands that will be performing:
MAIN STAGE:
Ayron Jones & the Way
Crobot
Motionless in White
Theory of a Deadman
Bullet for My Valentine
Three Days Grace
Lamb of God
Slipknot
ANOTHER CENTURY STAGE:
Varsity Week
Like a Storm
Stitched Up Heart
Awaken the Empire
New Years Day
Good God almighty, that’s a lot of heavy metal and hard rock bands. I’ll only be gone for one day at this concert, but the recovery time will probably keep me from participating in my usual internet festivities. I’ll probably still compete in that week’s WSS contest, but not until later in the week when I’m fully rested. Everything else that I do on the internet such as writing Blood Brawl chapters, editing American Darkness stories, editing Marie Krepps’ Slayers chapters, and anything else artistic I’ve neglected to mention will be put on hold, but for a very short time.
This may not be a week-long vacation, but it has the same feel: limited internet time and lots of snoozing. It’s funny, because my last journal entry was about “hanging around”. This time, I have an actual reason to idle. Come to think of it, I’ve always had a reason to idle, but didn’t realize it until now. Whenever I’m done with a creative task, I need to “cool off” and “recharge my batteries”. Creativity can be taxing on the mind, but not enough to keep me from enjoying the fruits of my labor. Isn’t that why working people have lunch breaks and coffee breaks? We’ve got ears, say cheers!
***TELEVISION DIALOGUE OF THE DAY***
ZIVA: I would have loved to see Gibbs shoot that computer.
MCGEE: If I don’t get his email working, you might get a second chance.
-NCIS-
This coming Sunday (August 23rd), I’m headed over to Auburn, Washington’s White River Amphitheater for the Pain in the Grass festival, which is basically a heavy metal concert with an ass ton of bands. I’ve been to a lot of concerts in my lifetime, but never to a festival-style concert. The show is expected to go from 2:00 in the afternoon to about 10 or 11 at night. Since the venue is at a grassy lawn, I’ll probably bring a blanket and rest in between performers. The last time I stood up for an ungodly amount of time was when I saw Cavalera Conspiracy this past May in Seattle. There were four opening bands that night before the main act and my legs were killing me. Laying on the grass during this upcoming event will feel like laying on one of heaven’s clouds. Here are the bands that will be performing:
MAIN STAGE:
Ayron Jones & the Way
Crobot
Motionless in White
Theory of a Deadman
Bullet for My Valentine
Three Days Grace
Lamb of God
Slipknot
ANOTHER CENTURY STAGE:
Varsity Week
Like a Storm
Stitched Up Heart
Awaken the Empire
New Years Day
Good God almighty, that’s a lot of heavy metal and hard rock bands. I’ll only be gone for one day at this concert, but the recovery time will probably keep me from participating in my usual internet festivities. I’ll probably still compete in that week’s WSS contest, but not until later in the week when I’m fully rested. Everything else that I do on the internet such as writing Blood Brawl chapters, editing American Darkness stories, editing Marie Krepps’ Slayers chapters, and anything else artistic I’ve neglected to mention will be put on hold, but for a very short time.
This may not be a week-long vacation, but it has the same feel: limited internet time and lots of snoozing. It’s funny, because my last journal entry was about “hanging around”. This time, I have an actual reason to idle. Come to think of it, I’ve always had a reason to idle, but didn’t realize it until now. Whenever I’m done with a creative task, I need to “cool off” and “recharge my batteries”. Creativity can be taxing on the mind, but not enough to keep me from enjoying the fruits of my labor. Isn’t that why working people have lunch breaks and coffee breaks? We’ve got ears, say cheers!
***TELEVISION DIALOGUE OF THE DAY***
ZIVA: I would have loved to see Gibbs shoot that computer.
MCGEE: If I don’t get his email working, you might get a second chance.
-NCIS-
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