Powderfinger

QUOTE (Sheldon Cooper @ Aug 13 2012, 05:15 AM) Thorn In My Pride - The Black Crowes Right on! When push comes to shove that might be my favorite Crowes tune. I am an absolute diehard, obsessive BC fan. I assumed I was the only member of the forum who would identify as such.

Pink Floyd - Echoes. By no means a new discovery; I've been listening to if for 20 years. But I've recently reconnected with it. Of all things, you know what I've been most impressed by on recent listens? Waters's bass part. He's typically dismissed as a hack, and to be sure, I've lodged that accusation a few times myself. But his basswork on Echoes is so fluid, smooth, and warm--just perfect for the song.

Tough decision between Yes, Genesis, and the Floyd. Genesis released seven excellent albums in a row (Trespass-Wind and Wuthering), a singular achievement. And I have been on a massive Pink Floyd kick the past two weeks. But I went with Yes, simply because they made my favorite album of all time: Close to the Edge.

I don't personally consider Sgt. Pepper's the greatest album of all time, or even the greatest Beatles album. But I can understand why many critics identify it as such. To fully appreciate it one should consider its historical context and subsequent influence.

QUOTE (default236 @ Aug 4 2012, 11:38 AM) QUOTE (Powderfinger @ Aug 4 2012, 09:04 AM) QUOTE (default236 @ Aug 3 2012, 10:40 PM) QUOTE (ColdFireYYZ @ Aug 3 2012, 05:21 PM) QUOTE (default236 @ Aug 3 2012, 06:34 PM) QUOTE (ColdFireYYZ @ Aug 3 2012, 03:37 PM) They're pretty good. I have Wilco (The Album) and The Whole Love. I've listened to them both a couple of times and enjoyed them. Same here. Wilco is playing in town in September and I look forward to seeing them, can't wait! I know a couple of people who have seen them and they said they were excellent live. Yeah, I can't wait! Their playing at a nice outdoor opera house on September 18. They are incredible live--one of the best live acts out there today. I actually prefer them in that capacity. Some of their material that I find a little flat on record really wakes up in a live setting. Great musicians. All Rush aside, Nels Cline and Jeff Tweedy have to be my favorite guitarists. Their playing style, song composure, and overall tone is unmatched. I absolutely adore Tweedy's new signature Gibson SG. Tweedy has incredible tone. I actually prefer him to Cline, crazy as that sounds. Tweedy just has a dirty, rougher-around-the-edges, Crazy Horse-esque style and tone that I adore. Gets a great fuzz tone out of his SG, not unlike Gary Louris in that respect.

QUOTE (default236 @ Aug 3 2012, 10:40 PM) QUOTE (ColdFireYYZ @ Aug 3 2012, 05:21 PM) QUOTE (default236 @ Aug 3 2012, 06:34 PM) QUOTE (ColdFireYYZ @ Aug 3 2012, 03:37 PM) They're pretty good. I have Wilco (The Album) and The Whole Love. I've listened to them both a couple of times and enjoyed them. Same here. Wilco is playing in town in September and I look forward to seeing them, can't wait! I know a couple of people who have seen them and they said they were excellent live. Yeah, I can't wait! Their playing at a nice outdoor opera house on September 18. They are incredible live--one of the best live acts out there today. I actually prefer them in that capacity. Some of their material that I find a little flat on record really wakes up in a live setting. Great musicians.

One of my ten favorites. I predict it will be in the setlist again this fall.

Not too many people care for them? Everyone I know loves Wilco. I'm a pretty big fan. But I may be in the minority in thinking the latest album is incredibly weak. It bores me to tears. Favorites are Being There and Sky Blue Sky. I suppose I'm in the minority there too...

Alex has some great 70's lead tone happening in his tasteful solo--get in, get out.

QUOTE (LeaveMyThingAlone @ Aug 2 2012, 06:47 PM) Gets a ton of radio airplay. One of the more recognizable Rush songs. It's a good question why it never became a concert staple like all the others...in fact when is the last time they even played it? But the time has come and gone to play it....ain't no way Geddy is coming anywhere near those high notes these days I was considering whether or not he can even sing it at this point. But they have played old material like Working Man and By-Tor in recent years. Even 2112 and Closer to the Heart, for example, are way up there. But your point is taken.

QUOTE (OGr8imL84AD8inF8sBlackSedan @ Aug 2 2012, 05:51 PM) Yes...Great song...but you were right my cool cat...nobody here digs it 'cuz it just ain't hip....Now gimme some skin. (but none of that infected shit that The Thing brought from space) (ALERT: Nerdy The Thing reference ahead!) In lieu of a high-five perhaps we can just share a bottle of J&B... But seriously, why is it not cool to like Fly By Night? Does it not contain one of Lifeson's ten most iconic riffs? Rush hipsters be damned!!! Ever since that damn documentary the world of Rush has been overrun with hipsters... !

I've always loved this tune, but no one ever mentions it. Is it not hip to dig Fly By Night? If loving Fly By Night is wrong, I don't want to be right. This was one of the first songs I fell in love with as a young Rush fan. It's catchy as hell. Great Lifeson solo. Sounds great! I wouldn't at all mind if they dusted this off for the live set.

The Tom Sawyer video, when they used to play it on MTV, made me a nascent fan. Then, when I began playing drums around the age of thirteen, I became a fanatic.

QUOTE (rushgoober @ Jun 15 2005, 10:16 PM) Even though I've had these two Rush albums since the early 80's, I must admit that I hadn't listened to them in years and years. I had always remembered them as really good, but a bit challenging and not nearly as accessible as what came afterwards. Recently, I tried my hand again at Caress of Steel, to find out that I loved it, with the exception of I Think I'm Going Bald and The Necromancer, which I think are ok, but considerably weaker than the other tracks. It took me a few days to get up the guts to tackle Fly By Night, thinking that this one was going to be even more of a challenge to fathom. To my shock and surprise though, I LOVED it! I even rate it higher than Caress, but it's a tough call. I think that Bastille Day, Lakeside Park and The Fountain of Lamneth are stronger songs than any song on Fly By Night, but I have to give the prize to Fly By Night on consistency alone, as I think every single track is strong. Admittedly, it has a slightly raw early feeling and Geddy could sometimes sing a little more clearly, but I think they really kicked some ass on this album. I kind of assume that most people prefer Caress, but I'm not really sure, hence the poll. Lemme know what you think! P.S. - Please only participate in the poll part if you've heard both albums, otherwise it kind of defeats the purpose... I love Bastille Day and Lakeside Park, but I'm a much bigger fan of Fly By Night. Fly By Night is just such a blast to listen to.

QUOTE (deathlikesilence @ Aug 1 2012, 01:03 AM) but yeah good performances, downes wasnt sloppy, davison has a lot of energy, i had a good time crowd was pretty weak though, i'm guessing 400-500 people in a place that holds 12k what's bad is they played same venue with styx last year and almost packed the place, and davison is definitely better than benoit Did you mean 4000-5000? Yes is only drawing 400 people on a $19 ticket?! Good lord...

QUOTE (big lou @ Jul 30 2012, 12:24 PM) Old is new again -- I predict they will open with 2112 - Overture and Temples. This is my prediction too. I was thinking Subdivisions might work, but 2112 would be more effective in getting the crowd up and moving. The opener needs to be a classic that most of the crowd knows. If they want to move away from Tom Sawyer, TSOR, and Limelight then 2112 makes sense. Unless they go the Far Cry route, similar to when they used Dreamline as an opener for the Counterparts tour...

Agreed! I hope they stretch it out live. Should be stellar!

I'm tempted to predict a Subdivisions opener. It opens Signals, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary. But then again, I don't know if it's up tempo enough to get butts out of the seats. So then I think The Analog Kid makes sense, but that's an album cut that they typically drop in the second or third slot. I'm at a loss...

QUOTE (rushgoober @ Jul 26 2012, 04:43 PM) QUOTE (deathlikesilence @ Jul 26 2012, 01:00 PM) QUOTE (Powderfinger @ Jul 26 2012, 02:58 PM) QUOTE (rushgoober @ Jul 26 2012, 02:36 PM) QUOTE (Gompers @ Jul 26 2012, 11:52 AM) QUOTE (Powderfinger @ Jul 26 2012, 02:45 PM) I know we all loathe Rolling Stone, but the prog album poll results are in and Rush is included multiple times... RS Poll DT fans flooded the site to vote. I didn't even see a link here. I bet we could have given them a run for their money. Yeah, I noticed that during the voting. TONS of votes spilling in for Scenes From A Memory. Great album, yes, but best prog album of all time? Come on. It seemed to be somewhat of a clusterf*ck of people stuffing the ballot box, including Rush fans, due to links from fan websites encouraging people to vote, so I didn't even bother. Also, it seems most of the Rush entries I saw were for 2112, and that's far from their best prog album so I didn't even vote. I would have voted Hemispheres, but figured it had no shot and it was kind of an unfair fight anyway. In reality, however, my top prog albums would probably be something like: 1. Genesis - Selling England by the Pound 2. King Crimson - Lizard 3. Yes - Tales From Topographic Oceans 4. The Moody Blues - On the Threshold of a Dream 5. Can - Tago Mago 6. Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon 7. Rush - Hemispheres 8. Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom 9. Rush - Moving Pictures 10. Amon Duul II - Dance of the Lemmings These are cool choices. I especially dig the inclusion of Robert Wyatt. But I'm not at all familiar with Amon Duul II. Should I be? Also, I need help with King Crimson. I've only dabbled in ITCOTCK, Red, and Starless and Bible Black. I like some of what I heard, and definitely liked the material with Bruford a little more. I see Lizard is your favorite, but is that where I should begin if I decide to purchase an album? I was recently conversing with a real prog rock expert at a record store in Burlington, Vermont, and asking him about King Crimson. He said he loves the Wetton albums, but wished that Wetton would shut the hell up, that he couldn't stand his vocals. Vocals are important to me. So since then I've sort of let my interest in KC fall off. I mean, I wasn't letting one person inform my opinion, but you get the point. As for the poll, yes, it's sort of a mess that doesn't really prove anything. It's cool that Rush earned three spots, and even interesting that Hemispheres and 2112 beat MP, even if I don't personally agree with that ranking. We can debate the definition of "prog" (who's in, who's out), and reprimand RS for years of neglecting the genre. But some of my favorite albums of all time are on that list, and it's cool to see them get some attention. for some reason robert fripp never chose a very good vocalist for his band after greg lake wetton's a bad singer but i don't mind his voice, and adrian belew is a good frontman but he tries a bit too hard to sound like david byrne from talking heads lizard's a badass record but you have to be a prog freak like goober to get into it big time i think lizard is pretty hardcore prog! it's got an insane level of complexity. blows my mind every time. And Powderfinger - I'm really only into 70's Crimson. I have their 3 early 80's albums, and have one or two ones after that, but they don't do a lot for me. In terms of their 70's stuff, I would rate them as: 1. Lizard 2. ITCOTCK 3. Red 4. Larks' Tongues in Aspic 5. In the Wake of Poseidon 6. Starless & Bible Black 7. Islands (don't bother) I highly recommend you check out Lizard next! Thanks for the advice on KC! I will look into these albums. I did listen to the Prince Rupert Awakes segment of Lizard to hear Jon Anderson sing and I really liked it. Your inclusion of Rock Bottom encouraged me to give that a spin earlier today. Haven't listened to that in a while! I'm currently listening to Camel's Snow Goose, which I'm totally digging.

QUOTE (rushgoober @ Jul 26 2012, 02:36 PM) QUOTE (Gompers @ Jul 26 2012, 11:52 AM) QUOTE (Powderfinger @ Jul 26 2012, 02:45 PM) I know we all loathe Rolling Stone, but the prog album poll results are in and Rush is included multiple times... RS Poll DT fans flooded the site to vote. I didn't even see a link here. I bet we could have given them a run for their money. Yeah, I noticed that during the voting. TONS of votes spilling in for Scenes From A Memory. Great album, yes, but best prog album of all time? Come on. It seemed to be somewhat of a clusterf*ck of people stuffing the ballot box, including Rush fans, due to links from fan websites encouraging people to vote, so I didn't even bother. Also, it seems most of the Rush entries I saw were for 2112, and that's far from their best prog album so I didn't even vote. I would have voted Hemispheres, but figured it had no shot and it was kind of an unfair fight anyway. In reality, however, my top prog albums would probably be something like: 1. Genesis - Selling England by the Pound 2. King Crimson - Lizard 3. Yes - Tales From Topographic Oceans 4. The Moody Blues - On the Threshold of a Dream 5. Can - Tago Mago 6. Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon 7. Rush - Hemispheres 8. Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom 9. Rush - Moving Pictures 10. Amon Duul II - Dance of the Lemmings These are cool choices. I especially dig the inclusion of Robert Wyatt. But I'm not at all familiar with Amon Duul II. Should I be? Also, I need help with King Crimson. I've only dabbled in ITCOTCK, Red, and Starless and Bible Black. I like some of what I heard, and definitely liked the material with Bruford a little more. I see Lizard is your favorite, but is that where I should begin if I decide to purchase an album? I was recently conversing with a real prog rock expert at a record store in Burlington, Vermont, and asking him about King Crimson. He said he loves the Wetton albums, but wished that Wetton would shut the hell up, that he couldn't stand his vocals. Vocals are important to me. So since then I've sort of let my interest in KC fall off. I mean, I wasn't letting one person inform my opinion, but you get the point. As for the poll, yes, it's sort of a mess that doesn't really prove anything. It's cool that Rush earned three spots, and even interesting that Hemispheres and 2112 beat MP, even if I don't personally agree with that ranking. We can debate the definition of "prog" (who's in, who's out), and reprimand RS for years of neglecting the genre. But some of my favorite albums of all time are on that list, and it's cool to see them get some attention.

QUOTE (Gompers @ Jul 26 2012, 01:52 PM) QUOTE (Powderfinger @ Jul 26 2012, 02:45 PM) I know we all loathe Rolling Stone, but the prog album poll results are in and Rush is included multiple times... RS Poll DT fans flooded the site to vote. I didn't even see a link here. I bet we could have given them a run for their money. If you read RS's commentary on each entry they admit that Dream Theater fans stuffed the ballot box via a link on DT's official website. Dream Theater may have landed at number one, but Rush has the lone distinction of landing a total of three albums in the top ten--without the band instructing fans to vote, mind you.

I know we all loathe Rolling Stone, but the prog album poll results are in and Rush is included multiple times... RS Poll

September 30, 1990, Dubuque, Iowa, Five Flags Center: KISS Winger Slaughter I was fourteen years old, and attended with two friends. The experience completely blew me away. I had pored over MTV and my cassette collection of hair bands since second grade. But this was my first concert! When I was five years old my parents bought me a plastic KISS guitar. I used my father's belt for a guitar strap and a nickel for a pick, while trying to strum along with my Quiet Riot Cum On Feel the Noize 45 that I played on a Fisher Price record player. I also regularly listened to KISS's Double Platinum on said player. Point is, KISS was entirely appropriate for my first real concert. And I had been digging Hot in the Shade. But my two friends were more excited to see Slaughter and Winger. Slaughter, in particular, was really blowing up at the time. Up all Night had already stormed the airwaves and Fly to the Angels was making its climb. And one of my friends, a burgeoning guitarist, was also a huge fan of Reb Beach, lead guitarist for Winger. It all went by so fast. But a few things stuck out to me. I remember how exciting it was when they began cranking AC/DC's Back in Black to season our ears for concert-level volume. House lights were still on, but everyone was rocking out and I was mesmerized by the rocker chicks and the party atmosphere. Before long Slaughter took the stage and ran through their debut album material. All I remember is that Blas Elias performed a drum solo with glow-in-the-dark sticks, and that Dana Strum's vocal harmonies were terribly off key. But still, I thought they ruled. I wasn't so excited about Winger. I wasn't a big fan of their album, although my friends were. The crowd ate up Seventeen, of course. But I was amped for KISS. So finally the house lights go down and the giant Hot in the Shade Sphinx is unveiled, to roaring applause and cheering. I remember laser lights shooting out of the Sphinx as the mouth opened and KISS clamored out. I'm a little confused because before composing this post I checked the KISS setlist database and it claims they opened with I Stole Your Love the entire tour. But I've always remembered them opening with Detroit Rock City. I don't know, must have been all the second-hand weed smoke in the air. So I'm totally digging KISS and hoping to hear all my favorite cuts. But after the opening song, my friends tell me they want to leave, that they don't even like KISS, and that they want to go outside to try to meet members of either Slaughter or Winger. You have to be f&*$ing kidding me, I pleaded! Outvoted, I had no recourse. They were my ride, and I was honestly a little overwhelmed by the whole experience and didn't want to stay in the arena alone. So we left... I eventually managed to catch KISS a few times on subsequent tours. Notwithstanding my disappointment, the three of us ventured to the back alley where the tour buses were parked. And sure enough, Kip Winger and Rod Morgenstein ambled out of the back door. Rod had a beautiful blonde on his arm, but Kip one-upped him with a girl on each arm!!! At that moment, I forgot everything I had expressed about not caring for Winger. To my fourteen-year-old self these were now the two coolest dudes on the planet, because they were right there in front of me! I was taken aback by how short Kip Winger was. But I thought he was cool because of the girls and the fact that he was sporting aviator shades at like 10:30 at night in a dark Dubuque, Iowa alley. We quickly mustered the courage to approach them. Rod was really nice. I had been playing drums for two years by that point and I remember asking him for advice. He told me to practice my ass off, and he autographed my ticket stub for me, which I still keep to this day. I think I shook Kip Winger's hand. And my friend Phil asked him if he gets a lot of girls, and I'll never forget his response, verbatim: "Girls? Pffssshhh, I had three at the same time last night." The two girls currently on his arm didn't bat an eyelash. These dudes were officially my new idols. So I essentially missed KISS, but I met real life rock stars! I was sold! And never looked back. I don't care for any of those bands today, but my first concert experience is forever etched on my mind. My appetite only grew as I caught tons of shows going forward, and eventually became an accomplished musician myself. And I did indeed heed Rod Morgenstein's advice: I practiced my ass off, every day...

Tough call, but 2001 cannot be denied.

Dream Theater fans have been stuffing the ballot box...