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Tag: music

Heavy Devy: Redux

Published on August 2, 2022

Last time I went to see Devin Townsend live was back in 2019, and it didn’t exactly go as planned, as I detailed in my blog post back then. Little did I know what absolute fuckery was about to come out of a wetmarket in Wuhan, China before long.

“Say hello to my little friend.”

A couple years have passed, where mother earth was playing a very exciting game of Pandemic with real people. We’re not out of the woods yet, but things are returning to normal, and the disease is no longer considered quite as big a deal as it once was.

Devy’s back, let’s go!

When I saw Devin Townsend was returning to Oslo for his Lightwork tour, of course I just had to have tickets, and so I bought them.

Yay, Lightwork!

Turns out Devy was releasing a new album called Lightwork, and was promoting it on an album tour, including Europe. Sweet!

New album by Devin Townsend! Yay

But the album release was pushed back, and Ticketmaster decided not to let me know that until quite a lot of time had passed. However, Mr. Townsend still went on tour – playing various older songs, and he’s got an amazing discography, so that shouldn’t be a problem. I was able to refund the original tickets, and buy new ones for the other tour, which it turns out he was doing along with Dream Theater.

Being someone who listened a lot to Dream Theater in the mid 2000s, I thought that sounds good to me, and I ordered tickets for me and my girlfriend, and planned a stay with some relatives living a quick train ride away from Oslo. That way I can see relatives, cut costs, and drive my own car most of the way, without having to deal with Oslo traffic and parking and all that jazz. Sounds like a win to me!

Cool & good! They even have a cute kitten.

The logistics went perfectly this time around. No hiccups at all.

If anything went a bit wrong this time around, it might be that Devin Townsend was a warmup act for Dream Theater. His set wasn’t very long, and the audience was mostly there to see Dream Theater, which means they weren’t mostly there to see him, and I think they made that very clear unfortunately.

Devy must have picked up on it, because although he delivered a good show, he seemed almost depressed. Lacking some of the joy and spark I’ve come to appreciate about him. The technical aspect of the performance was great, and he played a very good setlist, so I’m pleased to have seen his show in it’s entirety – including finally hearing Deadhead live without having to leave the venue as it starts, as happened last time. But yes, something was amiss.

Poozer

The evening devolved into Devy making constant fart jokes, and telling the audience he doesn’t care that they’re not excited, he gets paid either way.

We enjoyed the show regardless, but I hope to see a whole show of him at his best. Then again, he’s weary of touring now from what he’s said. Still, he’s supposed to be back in February 2023, and I might catch his show then.

James LaBrie of Dream Theater

In my teens I used to listen to Dream Theater daily, but that night they were not my cup of tea, to put it mildly. Being a prog band, it’s to be expected that some of the music gets too esoteric and technical to be enjoyable to most people, and while I like a lot of their discography, I simply didn’t enjoy them that night. It didn’t help that James LaBrie seemed to have gotten hold of some bad amphetamine, with his uncoordinated whirling and jogging around the stage. We left pretty quickly.

After ditching Dream Theater, we headed to a bar called Brewgata instead. Although a bit hipstery, I found it enjoyable regardless. We enjoyed some drinks and a little people-watching before we headed to the train and went home, feeling like the night was a good experience all-round, even though I was a little bit disappointed the crowd bummed out Devvy, which in turn made his performance a little bit less exciting for those few of us who were there for him.

Better than last time, but let’s hope next time is even better!

Buckethead

Published on June 28, 2020
Soothsayer, performed live. Starts at roughly 25 seconds in.

The story of the guitar virtuoso known as Buckethead is that of a robot raised in a chicken coop – by chickens – wearing an expressionless white Mike Myers-esque horror mask concealing circuit boards and severe chicken scratches.

In memory of his fallen chicken-family fried for food, he dons the KFC bucket as a hat, and plays some of the most mind-blowing guitar play you’re ever going to experience.

A beginner’s guide to Buckethead

This guy is easily one of – if not the – best guitarist(s) in history. He was lead guitarist for Guns ‘n Roses back in the early 2000s, but decided it wasn’t for him. Instead, he decided to do smaller and more informal gigs on his own, and I can’t even begin to say how much I respect that. It shows he’s not about the money. He’s got plenty, but is focused on doing what he loves, rather than what will rake in even more cash.

Buckethead with Claypool Bernie Worrell and Brain

A highly experimental and extremely prolific artist, Buckethead has produced 314 studio albums, spanning various styles, genres and string instruments. He can play sentimental, tender melodies dedicated to close family members, and he can play faster, heavier stuff on the other end of the scale. The man is most definitely a master of his craft.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sYbbk2yN0o
Buckethead – Siege Engine (album version)

So say we all!

Published on September 10, 2019

A quick recommendation to those who haven’t seen Battlestar Galactica (2004 reboot version) – Go watch it. You don’t like sci-fi? That’s mostly a backdrop for a story that at it’s core is quite down to earth. This saga has been described as a space opera, and if neither of those words sound remotely interesting to you, please keep reading; because if I can’t convince you you’re wrong, at least you can round off this read with a warm self-satisfied feeling that you were right all along.

BSG has an overarching storyline about the last remnants of humanity fleeing for their lives, for reasons you’ll want to find out for yourself. This is a story of survival, of tough decisions, of holding on to existence by the skin of your teeth, with the black veil of uncertainty about what the next moment might bring, creating a tension you could cut with a knife.

There’s also smaller storylines, all about interpersonal tensions, the interesting dynamics between people, some who shared a past before the events of the first episode, others who meet for the first time somewhere in the show, and it’s in these interpersonal storylines we see a lot of raw humanity in BSG. People brought together, people driven apart, alliances, rivalries, conflicts and resolution.

The many stories of Battlestar Galactica are expertly woven together by phenomenal acting, with names like Edward James Olmos, Katee Sackhoff, Mary McDonnell, Michael Hogan, and many many others. There’s a fantastic and I daresay highly integral musical score by Bear McCreary, there’s detailed set designs, great camera work, the lighting is excellent, and all in all there’s almost nothing to dislike about this show, at least in my opinion. There’s a few things, but they only apply to the last season, and is entirely a matter of personal opinion.

Looking up trailers for it on youtube is not recommended, as they’re all terrible and often full of spoilers. Instead you can enjoy this highly misleading BSG in the style of Friends intro.

Abandon all hope ye who enter here.

I know many people don’t like sci-fi, some of these people claim it’s simply childish, and all nonsense adventures with no grounding in reality, and apparently therefore not worthwhile for an adult to engage with.

To them I say that actually, fiction is an excellent way to learn more about what it means to be human, and it’s through the genres of sci-fi, fantasy, mythology and suchlike that we can easily pose questions you’d have a very hard time conceiving of without the altered reality you are presented with in these genres.

Battlestar touches upon central questions of politics and philosophy such as what does it mean to be human? Is being a person the same as being a human? It deals with questions of the rights of prisoners, of workers, of citizens of all kinds. It deals with the freedom of the press, power structures, civilian vs military, it deals with xenophobia, and greed and a number of the darker sides to humanity that some people refuse to face, because it’s too disturbing. But it also deals with loyalty, friendship, love, hope, faith, kindness, altruism, warmth, democracy, truth and justice too.

If you liked Game of Thrones, I think you’d enjoy Battlestar Galactica, and even if you didn’t, you might still enjoy it, and I suggest you at least give it a chance. There’s not been anything quite like it, to my knowledge.

Jinjer

Published on August 19, 2019

About a year ago I was introduced to this interesting Ukrainian band called Jinjer. To say this band has become a sensation is like saying water is moist.

Composed of vocalist Tatiana Shmaylyuk, guitarist Roman Ibramkhalilov, bassist Eugene Kostyuk and drummer Eugene Mantulin this is a formidable group of musicians.

Most widely known for their vocalist, for reasons that will become obvious when you listen to their music – we shouldn’t forget to appreciate the amazing musicianship of her bandmates, who are all fantastic in their own right. But of course, Tatianas vocal performance is undeniably something quite special. I’m convinced that whatever genre she decided to embrace, she’d become a highly successful performer within it.

Pisces. The real breakthrough for Jinjer. Now everyone and their cat is posting ‘reaction videos’ of this one, and it always delivers.

So, Pisces is the golden goose for Jinjer. This video has spread like ebola, or wildfire if you want something a bit more cliché. But Jinjer has a lot of interesting songs, including but not limited to Astronomy, Captain Clock, Teacher Teacher, Sit Stay Roll Over, Who is gonna be the one? and Just Another.

Jinjer – Who is gonna be the one?