There are many different things you might find me doing on a weekend: sports bar, beer, football, strip club, movies, napping, growing a beard, and lounging. None of these things would be considered particularly “classy”. This weekend was a little different. Everything I did either supported the arts or was a notch above what you otherwise may find me doing. I had culture shooting out of my ass.
A recap:
Friday Normally my musical tastes skew toward a combination of Death Metal, 70′s Country, and Gangsta Rap but my girlfriend has a thing for Jazz. I decided to humor her (once!) and we headed to Jazz at the Bistro in Grand Center to see her friend Shaun Robinson play. They were a very talented group of guys and while Jazz is typically not my thing I would go back and see them again. We capped the evening with a couple martinis at Jimmy’s On The Park.
Saturday While I did allow myself some time to watch my beloved Tide stomp Mississippi State 32-7 football did not dominate my Saturday for the first time in 11 weeks. Instead we headed to Frontenac with some friends to see Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) at the St. Louis International Film Festival. This was a Swedish film which “tells a darkly atmospheric, poetic and surprisingly tender story of adolescence … and vampirism.” It was excellent. It tells the story of a 12 year old loner who befriends a vampire of the same age. After awhile the subtitles were not at all distracting and the film had some great visuals. Unfortunately Let the Right One In is scheduled to be remade and bastardized by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield). We finished the night discussing the movie over a bottle of Syrah at Sasha’s Wine Bar in Clayton.
Sunday Since I’ve given up on the Rams this season I figured I’d stick with the theme of the weekend and see what other educational experiences I could drum up. I ended up at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park. While I typically find history somewhat interesting this place is a bore. It basically consisted of the history of beer, Charles Lindbergh, and the 1904 World’s Fair. I didn’t see any of the more interesting subjects like Harry S Truman, Missouri during the Civil War, history of architecture in St. Louis, etc. Mo History needs to step it up. I really think St. Louis needs to step up and build some world class museums like Chicago. I then spent some time walking around the park and Wash U – where I’m considering going to business school but probably won’t ($68,000????). After the walk I headed over to the Tivoli and saw another movie being featured in the festival, a documentary called Number One With A Bullet. It “explores the interrelationships between guns, poverty, drugs, hip-hop culture and cultural violence”. It featured interviews with Mos Def, KRS-One, Obie Trice, Ice Cube, and others discussing the institutional violence in the innercity. This one was good but not great.
So there you have it. Jazz, martinis, foreign films, and museums. This was definitely a different type of weekend for me. It was nice but I’m ready to get back on track by attending the Metallica show tonight!!!
Last night I took a group of my friends down to the Scottrade Center to see the Foo Fighters. I say I took them because about 2 months ago I got all boozed up and decided to buy four of the most expensive seats I could find. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
I’ve never really been a Foo Fighters fan and I haven’t followed their career closely so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I never had a problem with the band they were just sorta there. They were the guys with a few catchy songs and the goofy videos. Harmless at best. But then two things happened: The band released Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace which has 3 really good songs: The Pretender, Long Road to Ruin, and Let it Die and I caught their acoustic concert DVD Skin and Bones on TV. I was now a full fledged Foo fan.
I was excited to see this show. After settling into our seats around 7:15 the opening act Year Long Disaster ended it’s set within 10 minutes and Supergrass’s set was almost as short. Perfect. I wouldn’t have to put up with crappy opening bands while I waited for the real rock to start.
The place was absolutely packed and The Foo Fighters did not disappoint. They played a blistering 3 hour set. It is easy to forget how many Foo songs you’ve heard before. They really have a lot of popular tunes and they pumped through all of them including Let it Die, One by One, Big Me, All my Life, The Pretender, Learn to Fly, Breakout, My Hero, and Best of You. In the middle of the set a second stage was lowered from the rafters and the band was joined by 4 other members to play an acoustic set. This second stage was literally 30 feet in front of us and some of the highlights included Skin and Bones, Marigold, and an acoustic version of Everlong.
The show was also filled with Dave Grohl’s humorous comments such as "Stay in school kids. You don’t want to drop out like I did. I mean look what happened to me." and "You guys have to work tomorrow. Sucks for you." But the absolute best part was Grohl telling a story from when he was in Nirvana in 1991 and the band stopped at Mississippi Nights and nearly caused a riot when they invited the entire audience on stage. It’s nice when the band goes for more than just reading your city’s name off the back of a microphone stand.
This was a real rock show. It wasn’t My Chemical Romance or The Killers or whatever bullshit is passing for music these days. I would recommend everyone give the Foo Fighters another listen. They have some really good songs and put on a great live show.
When I was about 7 years old I saw the video for Metallica’s “One” on MTV. It was about a war veteran who lost all his limbs, sight, hearing, and speech and was left to twitch in a hospital bed trapped inside his own mind for the rest of his life. It was the coolest damn thing I’d ever seen. This wasn’t the Motley Crue/Poison/Paula Abdul I was used to seeing. This was something special. I was in a second grade and I knew it then.
(“SOS – Kill Me” — Brutal)
Jump to 1999. I’m a senior in high school and a magical new program called Napster is released. You could now share your friend’s (and anybody else’s) playlists to download and listen to music. It was a great way to learn about new bands. It was like exchanging cassettes on the playground except so much more efficient. These were great times even with the dialup speeds we were using.
Unfortunately my old favorite band Metallica caught word that they’re newest song, “I Disappear” from the MI:2 soundtrack had been leaked to Napster in advance of the album release. Apparently this pissed drummer Lars Ulrich off to no end because he ended up suing Napster and a few universities where students were using Napster. Lars testified before Congress and made several PSAs telling us we were “stealing” by sharing our favorite music. WTF? How could he accuse us of stealing? We were fans of his band. Because of Napster Metallica’s music could reach an even wider audience. He just didn’t get it and it pissed everybody off.
(Metallica Good. Napster Bad.)
Eventually Napster has to close up shop and move toward a pay for play model. Metallica releases another subpar record, 2003′s St. Anger, and I forgot about how upset I was about the lawsuit in 2003. I just wanted my old band back.
The newest record is supposed to be released this fall and I was shocked to find out that Metallica was planning to embrace the online community this time around. Mission:Metallica will allow you to download the full album without DRM and create a Metallica social network among other things. Sure they’re just trying to make more money and copy off of Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails but it was a start. Maybe we didn’t have to be pissed at Metallica anymore.
Not so fast. News this week broke that Metallica had allowed a group of journalists to listen to a pre-release mix of the album. Fine and dandy so far but when these journalists wrote their reviews on various websites Metallica’s management demanded they be taken down. What the hell? The writers weren’t even required to sign an NDA. This was troubling indeed.
A few days later Metallica came out and said they had nothing to do with the request to delete the posts and they were giving Q Prime Management an “ear spank”. I hope that’s true. I just can’t understand what this band has against people being excited about their music.
I’m a sucker. I still look forward to the newest album and I’ll get it. Napster or not.
Just across the river there’s a lawless tribal region of Metro St. Louis. A place where the bars never close, alcohol is served 24 hours a day, and strip clubs outnumber churches ∞ to zero. That place is Sauget, Illinois.
A friend and I made the trip to this great American city and went to Pop’s to see Cemetery Gatez, a tribute to the greatest groove/power metal band of all time, Pantera.
I never got to see Pantera live when they were still together and ever since Dimebag Darrell was murdered onstage in 2004 I’ve felt like I missed an opportunity to see something special. Dimebag was one of the best heavy guitarists ever so I was excited to see if Cemetery Gatez could pull off this tribute.
The show was intense. The band opened with A New Level and kept the energy up through all the hits including Walk, I’m Broken, This Love, Cemetary Gates, Cowboys From Hell, Fucking Hostile, and Drag the Waters. A large circle pit opened up bringing most of the Pop’s floor into a flurry of legs, elbows, tables, and beer. This wasn’t a dead on tribute however. The vocals did a decent job emulating Phil Anselmo’s growl but the guitar solos weren’t exactly up to Dimebag standard. Cemetery Gatez got the job done however. I was happy to scream along with my favorite jams and ended up having a pretty good time. As I sit here 20 hours later my voice is hoarse and I can still hear ringing in my ears. Maybe I’m getting old quicker than I thought. I will definitely be going to the next show Gatez plays in St. Louis.
The show was opened up by Soul Descenders. Though they all looked like they were 17 these boys could shred. Probably one of the best local bands I’ve heard in awhile. Though I can’t figure out the band name. What exactly does Soul Descenders mean? Shouldn’t the name really be Descending Souls? Well nobody said they were geniuses but they can play.
For those of you uninitiated here is a collection of Dimebag Darrell solos:
