The Vaselines!! w/ Adam Green @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 5/18/2009

Well here we are, at the SOLDOUT Music Hall of Williamsburg for the 12th edition of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert series to witness the greatest band to ever come out of Glasgow, Scotland: The Vaselines, with the opening act being Adam Green. I get to the door and am briefed with the event staff saying “Opening act is at 9, headliner is at 10 there is no re-entry”. I looked at the time it was a quarter after 8, so I let them scan my ticket and headed on in to the bar area. This is going to be fun.

Got myself a beer and was asked by the bartender “did you get that shirt at the show the other night?”(I was wearing my Melvins tee shirt). I said “Yea, and I’m hoping to get one here tonight too”. I guess hope doesn’t always spring eternal as when I made it to the merch section there was only CD’s. I asked the dude and he said they sold out of shirts and only have a couple more CD’s left being that this was the last of 6 US shows. He said “This is probably there last show ever in the United States being that Frances has three kids, she has a family how long can they do this you know”. But I did happen to pick up “Enter The Vaselines” the deluxe edition which includes re mastered versions of there only two EPs (Son of a Gun and Dying for It), their only album (Dum-Dum), and demos and live recordings from 1986 and 1988. Also it’s issued by SubPop; even though the Vaselines weren’t even on SubPop records while they were still together. Remember I’m here to see a band that broke up in 1990. 

Around 9 I was at the door smoking a cigarette(did you notice all that “no re-entry” bullshit?) when I heard the sounds of a live band at which time I walked myself inside, looked up on stage and said to myself “ who in the hell is the weirdo flailing his arms around up on stage like a flaming homosexual?” Well, turns out that was Adam Green. Former member of the Moldy Peaches; he’s a character to say the least. He flails around seemingly imitating a poor man’s version of Iggy Pop only funny instead of violent with the bantering with the crowd constantly. In between each song he’d pull out a bag of mushrooms (of the magical variety I would assume) and start eating-keeping pace with their set. Then he says “This a song called “the Crack House blues”” and busted into a bunch of funny songs. If you’re not paying attention to him, those songs are harder then you’d expect. They have a keyboardist to add to the goofness of it. At 9:30 someone threw a water bottle on stage, I don’t know why. This guy was a crowd favorite, and I’ll admit I laughed at a lot of his jokes. An attempted crowd surf left him on the floor, which I most certainly was laughing at, but he got at it again and crowd surfed for I would was 15 successful seconds. The set was funny, the sound of the band didn’t piss me off even though there was a keyboard dude. Ten o clock was approaching. The finale was a song called “Jessica”, which is about Jessica Simpson and just utterly hilarious not to mention kind of catchy. I’m not going out and buying the discography or anything, but I’ve seen a lot worse opening acts then that. 
 

People, let us get down to business. It’s 10:02, and here comes the roadie bring out the set of effects pedals. I’m getting my camera ready. During the Adam Green set I had actually been tapped on the shoulder by event staff and told to stop recording the set; pictures only, what the hell dude. I can’t get good pictures with my camera, I take the video so I could capture the image without having to take a damn picture. Like that stopped me, I recorded SEVERAL of the songs that were to be performed. At 10:11 was the first appearance of Eugene Kelly and Frances Mckee, who came on stage and tuned up for about five minutes and then headed off. Ten minutes pass and the whole band hits the stage to a rousing roar from the packed in crowd.

They kick the night off with ‘Son of a Gun’ which is one of the three songs of there’s that Nirvana covered (by the way, did not spot ONE Nirvana tee shirt. I really thought I would) and from opening strands the tone of the night was set. The riffs were melodic yet so fused with noise and distortion but in a controlled sort of way. And with the male-female vocal harmony dynamic, it was abrasively blissful to say the least. They had a third guitarist with them to add to the boisterousness sound. Once Frances starting talking (being from Scotland) some dude screams out in the ultimate ‘drunk dude at a rock concert’ voice “YOUR ACCENT MAKES ME FEEL SENSUAL!!” It was funny, but even more hilarious when Frances responds with “well, I’m feeling a bit moist me self I’ll tell you what” and then got into the song “Monsterpussy” followed by “The Day I was a Horse”. The Frances says something to the effect of “we had the oral sex discussion when we played a couple years ago right? Eugene, have you learned how do to it yet”. Eugene, not paying attention says “Learned out to do what?” and when she says oral sex he says “Oh no, no I haven’t” paused while tuning and then said “but I’m pretty sure I understand the concept and am capable”. We’re all just cracking up at this point when Eugene is like “what Frances, you want me to just bend over and suck your cock now?” That was all before getting into “Molly’s Lips”, because Frances had added “we didn’t know exactly what it meant when we penned it”. Then she said “You know, we’ve been broken up for almost 20 years already and we have our entire recordings on sale at the back-we’re really milking this aren’t we? Anyway, a special treat for you, here’s a new song. The song rocked too. I didn’t think I’d hear any new songs from them, they’ve only played a handful of gigs since sort of re-uniting in 06. After the new song they get into “Oliver Twisted” and that’s when I look down (I’m up on the side ramp like three steps up from the floor leaning over) to notice the crowd in an absolute frenzy, and a frenzy of the good variety. Heads nodding with circles of people just running into each other just getting totally loose to the loud, exciting punk rock that the Vaselines ensue into you. The show just totally kicked ass overall. After Oliver twisted they played “Jesus Doesn’t want me for a sunbeam”, and it sounded really cool with the added guitarist playing the riff in a different style. I hope I can upload the video. Then came “LoveCraft” followed by yet another really good new song, another one of which they didn’t tell us the name of. Then “Slushy”, a sort of lovey dovey song but beautiful in terms of musical excellence. After that they played “Teenage Superstars”, “Bitch”, “No Hope” and “Sex Sux (Amen)”. After that Eugene says “I’d like to thank you all for coming out. this is the last song of the evening….well you know how the industry goes I saw it’s the last song we run off stage and come back and do a few more” and follows it with “Dying for it” which is one of there best unknown songs (well, most of there songs are unknown) and head off stage at 11:27.  When they come back out and they're tuning up for the next song someone screams "Who are you guys opening for?!!". Everyone chuckles, then Eugene hits him with a: "Who are we opening for? We're opening for your mother." Then followed by the ceremonial "ohhhhhhhhh!" from the roaring crowd and the energy level in this place is floating at the top of the radar.They then proceed rock out hard with the song “Rory Rides me Raw”; I mean the tongue and cheekness with them is so great. They sing in harmony very sweet sounding to a song with the lyrics “rory rory ride me rory/ rory rory ride me slowly/ ride me raw raw raw”. The Eugene is like “Okay, is disco time”, referring to their reworked version the song by Divine “You think you’re a man”. That song is fucking cool man, its got the greatest riff ever. A must listen. And then last but not least they played “Dum-Dum” the title track to their only actual studio record, released in 1989. everyone in that place was jumping at that point-total rocking and the only problem was that they hit the last note, unplugged the amps bowed and said good night. That was the end. We’re going to call it at 11:45. The end to night where I couldn’t have asked for more

What an absolutely amazing show. I loved it from 10 minutes in until the end. Once I realized that he wasn’t retarded and Adam Green was just a funny musician-from that point on the night was marvelous. The Vaselines played every song they have in their catalog plus two new songs, which by the way who knows if those songs ever make it to an album-remember they’re broken up, this is more a reunion tour. These 6 shows they played in the US was their first US tour. The 2006 show at Maxwells was their first time performing IN the united states; so they’ve played 7 US shows in 25 years almost and I’ve was at one. And if I did my job correctly, you too the reader kind of feels like you were at one. Well, we have a week and a half off before I hit up Terminal 5 in NYC to catch the band “Cake”, most popular for their song “The Distance” but are a well oiled machine and have tons of great songs. Catch all you concert goers there. Thanks for taking the time.

The Melvins! 25th anniversary show 5/15/2009

Thank you for all patiently waiting but after almost a three month lay off we’re back in business. I would like to welcome you all to the eleventh installment of the Jay Porks Never Ending

Concert Series which brings us back to Webster Hall to witness The Melvins on their 25^{th anniversary tour advertised as playing “Houdini in its entirety”.}

 

Shocked by the turnout; utterly stunned is more the phrase. Doors are set to open at 6:30 with the Melvins hitting the stage at 8 and I’m on line at 6 o clock, on a line that is stretching down the block just about to 4^th avenue (The door is closer to 3^rd avenue on East 11^th). I seriously thought that it would be me and about seven other people there. I didn’t know the Melvins were big in NY, considering that for four months I’ve been telling people I’m going to see them and there response would be only a puzzled look.

 

So I’m inside, it’s about 7PM. After I hit coat check I head upstairs to the floor area and I  begin to notice the subtle difference between this show and other. I can honestly say that I didn’t see not one person I would label as a “hipster” but instead saw a sea of people from all shapes and sizes: Long hair with skull caps, bald guys with Santa Claus beards and most importantly- saw a few dudes in flannel. I was taking note of the band tee shirts I saw fans sporting as they came in. From the likes of Kiss and the Ramones to the token Led Zeppelin tee shirt on Mr. Macho Man over there downing his beer. I mean, I knew I’d see a Nirvana tee shirt and even the Sonic Youth, but I wasn’t expecting to see the Wu-Tang shirt. I like the eclectics. But what I’d like to know is where in the world did that one dude get the Devo shirt? That shit was one hundred percent cool. I even saw a Wipers tee shirt. I swear, besides the $7 draft beers and the balloons hanging from the ceiling along with the chandeliers; I now feel as if I’m at a true Melvins show.

 

So it’s about 8:10, 8:15 and the place is packed to the point where I am leaned up against a wall bent over some....some… thing-I can’t even name it, it was like a big block sort of, with like a foot of space between it and the wall. That’s what I was using to write my notes on. Note to self: don’t take notes in the dark because it all makes no sense when you read it later at home.

 

     And the clock strikes 8:16, and here they are ladies and gentleman: THE MELVINS! There’s Buzz Osbourne with his crazy hair and nutty looking self.  He plays a Les Paul Custom, as usual. Over the years the Melvins have undergone some line-up changes if you will, but this is the original Melvins line-up from like 1983. Buzz puts it “The original, original drummer Mike Dillard! Who has just gotten out of prison”. Mike Dillard drummed on a demo for Kurt Cobain’s first band, “Fecal Matter”. “On bass we have Matt Lukin who has just gotten out of prison-and needs a place to stay”. Matt Lukin would go on to form the band Mudhoney after leaving the Melvins in 1988. Buzz to start off the night says something to the effect of “This is our 25^th anniversary tour….and uhhh…I was thinking man that’s a long time. Why the hell did I do this?  I could have done anything. I could have been a fucking lawyer like three times already!” while the crowd laughs he says “ We’re going to first play some stuff that we used to play like way back in 83, 84. back then I used to be totally drunk performing these songs so…”

      Those first couple of songs, the old school ones before they went into Houdini was some really cool sounding stuff. More punk rock-ish, but at the same time not as punk as advertised. It was faster paced too, unlike a lot of their later stuff. But man it was hard rocking. I bet Buzz couldn’t play those songs like THAT back in 1983.  It was so rocking that I hadn’t noticed Lukin leave the stage at about 8:40. The absence of the bass was a non factor, Buzz and Dillard were just getting at it, as if they didn’t just recently reunite after 20 something years. Also not to be lost in translation here, there is an extra drum on each side of the stage, and at times the drummers get going into cool beat sessions. Then 9 o clock and Lukin is back and they get into the performance of Houdini (which I’m certain they threw other songs in there) starting off with “Hooch”. I have to say throughout the set, the drumming from beginning to end was intensely vicious, and they had a hug cymbal behind the drum set which was used in one song. At first hit you can tell this thing is going to fall over. Sure enough a few minutes later, I think it was during “Hag Me”, that the thing fell over backwards and the crowd, of course, we all cheered loudly in love with destruction. My opinion, from the roars of the crowd on each song, “Set me Straight” and “Lizzy” were the biggest fan favorites of the night. It’s a great song. Lots of quiet-loud-quiet dynamics there. Both Dillard and Lukin sang lots of harmony(can you call it ‘harmony’ when it’s as sludgy as the Melvins?). To put it to people who don’t know much-imagine Black Sabbath with a  Fuzz box. Buzz riffs heavily while maintaining elements of experimental noise and lots and lots and lots of feedback. Towards the end Buzz walks off stage at about 9:48 and two drummers drum along with Dillard (I’m assuming one of them in Lukin, but I’m stuff in a corner) and they jam for a while. It’s extraordinarily continuous and that’s when I look to the far left and notice that Buzz hasn’t really left the stage, he’s just chillin out behind the amp watching them rock. Around ten he came out and they did their last song and after that Buzz thanked the crowd and said “and now we leave you with a killer bass solo” and he walks off as Lukin plays a pretty cool solo. I noticed he faded out around 10:08 and they unplugged the gear as we all filed out.  

 

What a show; what an atmosphere. True Melvins fans rocking out to Melvins tunes. No one left disappointed. I hopped took a cab to the ferry, first time I ever hailed a cab in my life. I’m a high roller now I do those sorts of things. I kid, of course. Anyway, it’s a very quick turnaround as the Jay Porks Never ending Concert Series moves to the Music Hall of Williamsburg for the “Vaselines” May 18^th. Thanks for reading if you did. 

Concert Review: Witch w/ Earthless and Children @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 02/25/09

“Oh I’ve been waiting for Sweet Sue”… And the night at last arrived. Welcome one and all to the tenth installment of the Jay Porks Never Ending concert series which brings us back to the Music Hall of Williamsburg for the second straight event. The headliner, the main event, the band I came to see: “Witch”. The newest band Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis is in, only in Witch he returns to his first instrument; the drums. Two other bands playing are “Earthless” and “Children”. Both of those bands are new to me, and hence probably new to the general public. To put it plainly, this is probably the closest thing to a “metal show” (and I use that term exceedingly loosely) than I’m going to get in a real long time. So it’s fit for an interesting night to say the least.

The supply and demand factor of the happy hour didn’t seem to make much sense. From 7-8 its 3 dollar drafts beers, something that was advertised on the ticket last time I was here but it wasn’t lived up to. but here it is, happy hour. And who’s here? I mean, the doors open at 8 so I’m guessing the crowd is going to be a little not so weighty; but I didn’t expect it to be 6 bartenders talking about when they’re getting weed and myself at the bar. I wish I could have got in on that conversation but I had weed, what I didn’t have was paper; and I don’t mean the type you roll with. I mean, I left home with not a sheet of blank paper to take notes on, I brought the pen for some reason, but no paper, pad, nothing. I got lucky to have left my ticket in its envelope, so I took notes on the back of that. It worked out okay. 

Sat at the bar for what felt like hours, maybe days in anticipation for this show to start. So finally nine o’clock rolls around and I see out of the blue bunch of people start heading in. Where we’re all of you 5 seconds ago was the question I asked myself personally. For an opening act a pretty good amount of people there, most only show up for the headliner.

So I was camped more towards the back of the room when Children hit the stage. They have two guitars(one of which is the vocalist on occasion) a bass and a drummer; a given. Then when they hit that first chord; it was LOUD. It was deafening. They played hard for like a few minutes and I started to think that they were a jam band sort of like Earthless with no vocals but then one of the guitarist started singing. It was a harsh scream, not a “screamo” scream or a real deal death metal sort of sound. Quick, everyone make sure your hair covers your entire face!! It looked as if they were doing it on purpose, the way they swing they’re hair right back towards the front, it got a little annoying. I was getting into the sound though, I felt I wasn’t getting any less then I expected. Then they played a song called “Deathtrap”. The dude sounded like he wanted to cover Megadeath so bad. The vibe was so face paced too, and the guitar work was not one of amateur proportions I’ll say that too. They played skillfully with reckless abandonment. Not necessarily my genre of choice, but for what they were going for, which is full fledged metal band; they did well. After their set when I went out for a cig I noticed I was feeling a little deaf-ish . They were really loud.

Hailing from sunny San Diego, California, the next band up is Earthless. I heard from a friend that they’re were insane (in the good sense) so I was pretty excited. Plus, if J Mascis has them on tour with his new band and they also did a split 7’’ together. I read up on them and they’re labeled as “psychedelic rock” (in addition to maybe other attributes) and known for instrumental/free flowing 15 minute jams. Also, Allmusic.com has the lede into they’re bio on the band is “The San Diego-based stoner rock trio Earthless feature the talents of Nebula guitarist Isaiah Mitchell, Electric Nazarene bass player Mike Eginton, and Hot Snakes/Clikitat Ikatowi drummer Mario Rubalcaba (who also played with Rocket from the Crypt under the alias Ruby Mars).” Stoner rock? They’re MySpace page says they’re a psychedelic jam band. I love it either way. And they did not disappoint. Imagine just an in-between song jam then adding some really “acid” guitar in there, playing heavy off the feedback and just keeping certain parts going for minutes and minutes and minutes at a time. And I have to tell you, this dude Isaiah Mitchell has amazing hand speed and switches extremely clean for someone in a free form psychedelic stoner rock jam band who I’ve never heard of. During their last song, the drummer Mario lost grip on the drumstick but I swear it like hit the pad and bounced right back in his hand and his totally saved it. A majority of the crowd noticed it, and I heard people going “ohhhhhhhh”, you know stuff like that. But they we’re just non-stop, the hypnotic solos that absolutely mesmerized everybody in the place. The jam underneath the noise, tight rhythm section; Great freaking band. You can sample their music for free at TEEPEERECORDS.COM
 
Now on to the one and only Witch; the question that really needed to be answered was: is just another J Mascis facade in which he is the band or not. It became clear after about the first or second song that this was not another case of J Mascis and the Fog, with him in the back drumming (he had to take off his usual think geeky looking glasses so they wouldn’t be in the way); you really get to notice Kyle Thomas’s front man ability. He had this cool guitar that was like a shade of blue or something with a sticker on it. He wore a baseball cap that said Las Angeles on it, long hair, green flannel and jeans that look like he’s owned them since he was ten years old. That’s what I call hard rock right there. Powerful riffs that had such melody yet at the same time break down and take turns you wouldn’t normally expect to hear. The start-stop aspect, the way the lyrics aren’t sang normal, but its not like a scream at all. It’s not even a howl or growl. It’s more like just loud singing. Like, just saying the words louder; the aesthetic was soothing. Almost as soothing as the thick, spellbinding guitar riffs. The distortion levels were amazing, made my pants vibrate at times. They played everything anyone needed to hear, I think they’re whole catalog. When “Gone” came on I think second song I was already on the “holy shit-this rocks” mode. The way they slow down and get all murky on you and then they say that heaven doesn’t know your name and. Sweet Sue, you’re a sinner. That song was second to last, that might be my favorite song by them. The place ended up getting pretty packed out; a lot of people during my outings smoking cigarettes were talking about Dinosaur Jr. This is a long cry from Dino. Its great stuff, its not only new stuff but it’s NOW stuff. From the murky slums of Dave Sweetapple and J Mascis’s minds spawns some music that is far superior then most of this non sense that’s out now. Witch totally rocked it.

So there you go, Witch w/ Earthless and Children. A show that I really couldn’t have asked for much more out of. I got two extremely talented and good opening acts and Witch live is so much better then the CD I’m listening to right now. They open up the bottom a little more, if that makes any sense. Next stop on the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series may not be until the Melvins come to Webster Hall on May 15th. It's their 25th Anniversary Tour  and they're set to be Performing 'houdini' in its entirety. Also tickets are purchase for 'Cake' at Terminal 5 for May 29th AND on June 6th the summer series kicks off with Nine Inch Nails and Janes Addiction at the PNC Bank Arts Center; Homedel, NJ. See everybody there I guess.

++Please if you know of a good show that would be right up my alley E-mail me at Jayporks.yahoo.com I don’t see much going on, maybe someone has some inside information++

Concert Reveiw: The Meat Puppets w/ Oakley Hall and The Soviet Machines

         “I think we’re going to go on about 10:30-10:45” says Cris Kirkwood, bass player for the Meat Puppets. Here we are on the ninth installment of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series, and the venue is the Music Hall of Williamsburg which is 66 N 6th street in Brooklyn. The band: The “Meat Puppets” headlining the show with “Oakley Hall” and “The Soviet Machines” as opening acts. Doors are at 8pm and the show is at 9pm. So of course, I show up at the doors like at about a quarter to 6(the ticket says “happy hour 6-9”, a misprint I guess) and I see one person outside smoking a cigarette and one of the event staff talking to him then he goes in. So I walk up and I say “doors at 8 right?” and the dude was like “Yea. Your making me feel bad man its cold out here” I said I’d find something to do in the meantime, then I stopped and realized who I was talking to. I said “Wait a minute, your Cris Kirkwood aren’t you?”. He nods as he takes another drag. How cool is this? I’m smoking a cig with Cris Kirkwood, I got him to sign my ticket stub. Then I got into how I saw them a few months back at Terminal 5 with Dinosaur Jr. and we got into a little musically centered conversation for a minute. I mentioned how I saw Stone Temple Pilots in May and Cris started telling me about how the Deleo brothers called "us up"  and told him about the whole going on an hour late because of Scott Wieland being Scott Wieland situation . The Meat Puppets and STP go way back...  they have played a few recent shows over this summer/fall but way back when STP went on a US tour in the early nineties they had the Meat Puppets opening for them.. I mentioned that too and Cris started telling me “the Deleo brothers man… those guys can really play. Their good friends of ours”. Maybe it’s the whole brothers in a band thing. And that’s when he also said that Oakley hall had played with them the night before and they were really cool so that was another thing to get excited about. Then he says, get this, “we’re going to go on about 10:30-10:45, we’re doing an acoustic set; well Curt is playing acoustic I have my bass. We did it in Philly the other night and last night in Hoboken, I really dig the sound, it’s really cool man”. I was very impressed and suddenly more excited for the show when he said that. I started getting into how they deserve more credit then they get. I said “I tell people “oh man I’m going to see the Meat Puppets tonight” and they are like “who’s that”” and that’s when Cris says “yea that’s been the moniker of us like, we’ve had this band for what now?... 29 years…” I cut him off to say “yea man like almost 30 fucking years, people don’t realize that you guys rock and gets me mad” and he nods and takes a drag. “Well, it’s always been like that. We came out, then around that time MTV formed there were all these bands making videos and then all of a sudden its was like..” a bewildered look on his face “you know?” I agreed. I'll make the assumption that he was speaking about those bands we all see, hear and know that do whatever will get them on MTV or mainstream and it furthers the point that band these days only care about money. The sell outs. Of course, one can only wonder from implying,  he wasn't screaming sell outs on the freezing sidewalk of Brooklyn, but that’s what is inferred by the conversation we were having. Trying to keep words flowing, I said “At the Terminal 5 show I saw when the chord from your bass unplugged and you were like jamming it back in and shit”. Cris laughs and says “yea man Curt's been giving me so much shit about it, he told me to make sure I plug it into the top on the amp this time”. We shared a chuckle, then that’s when the cigarettes had reach their filters. He stuck his hand out and said “well it was good talking to you Jay(he had asked my name when I got the autograph earlier) I’ll see you inside later” I said “ thanks man seriously you have no idea. You guys are gonna kick ass tonight”. What a cool guy. There was no one else there, only one person actually passed by the whole time and it was a chick and when while walking by the heel of her shoe or whatever made a noise when it hit the concrete and Cris said “you see, in my mind I imagined that she just farted right there”. We were both laughing, he had already smoked a cigarette, he stayed out there to light another one seemingly because I lit one and to talk music with the first Meat Puppets fan that showed up, then again I was there like five hours before they went on. Now that's what I call an accommodating member of a band . You know, he probably would have  given me a cig if I didn’t have one, I bet he would e was that nice a guy. So that’s my “Conversation with Cris Kirkwood” . I didn’t do like a full court press interview the guy-I really  didn’t wanna  bother him I really wanted to hear his thoughts on things; still that’s like the first time I got to do some real deal journalism type stuff. Good start to a great night.  

     The first band to go on was “The Soviet Machines”, a band from Minneapolis. Young too, the dude selling their merch said that two of the members we’re 15 years old. Maybe this is what it’s like to see Silverchair pre-“Frogstomp”. When they went on there was seriously, like twenty people in this place. Put it this way, we could have moved up and leaned on the stage, but didn’t. A whole bunch of people listening to this new band that they’ve never heard of; they won over the crowd by end of their set. They have this garage, punk sort of sound with heavy injections of pop sound as well. Lead singer “Jack Swagger”(that’s the name listed on their MySpace) has stickers all over his guitar ala Billy Joe Armstrong. And their drummer was good too, he actually thought it was hilarious when they got on stage and I said really loud “I hope their not communists”. It was good to have like dialect with the band sort of after the show, because no one was there. The band drove down here from Minneapolis, and had to take a week off of school to come to NYC and play a show with the Meat Puppets. How cool is that? Where did the brothers Kirkwood find these guys? How long can they have been playing together if two of the members are 15 is what I’m trying to say. And I’ve been seeing some really bad opening acts as of recently, so it was a breath of fresh air to have a band come through, play there songs to 20 people or whatever and just try to rock as hard as you can. No pretensions, no bullshit. When there set ended, I saw the drummer, Marcus Jones, packing his stuff up and I’m like “hey man your not throwing sticks?” because most of the bands I’ve seen have done that, you need to throw your drumsticks into the crowd. So he looks and he I guess caught by surprise when he says “ohh, yea man” and flips one to me. It hit me right between the eyes because I’m not the most athletic person on the planet, but I didn’t let anyone know at the time how much that shit hurt. I picked it up and got him to sign it for me. And to be honest, I didn’t really understand how long an actual drum stick is. So now I have a drum stick in my pocket for the rest of the night, plus the Cris Kirkwood autographed stub from earlier. So far this is a great night. Right when they were coming packing up there stuff I said to “Jack Swagger” something to the effect of “Seriously dude, I’ve seen some really shitty opening acts as of late, and that shit far from sucked”. He came over and shook my hand and said thanks, and it seemed pretty sincere. 

    Up next was a band called “Oakley Hall”, which I was able to read up about on Wikipedia.org. Yes, I know it’s not a quoted unquote “reliable source”, but it worded things pretty well. I had never heard of them either, but since Cris Kirkwood said he “digs their sound” it can’t be bad. The group's songs seem to combine elements of hard rock, bluegrass sort of folk , and an old-time music, prominently featuring the male-female vocal harmonies stuff that I like, its sort of Pixiesque( the Pixies a personal favorite of mine) if I may invent a word. The lead vocalists Patrick Sullivan and Rachel Cox who also play guitar. Rather than imitating the style of commercial country cowboy hat, “lets try to sell records” sort of stuff. Actually the group's melodic tone that had me singing along I must admit, sounded like old American folk like ballads sort of, but at the same time there is a prevalent driving rock beat with elements of noise/distortion/acid-folk sort of stuff going on with guitars and the organ and keyboard. When I saw the organ I thought “ohh no here we go” but whenever the keyboard or organ was being played it was loud and fast and vicious. I didn’t know an organ can provide feedback to the point where it sounds like Thurston Moore’s(Sonic Youth) guitar. Seriously it was really cool stuff, I was digging it, my friend Joe who was at the last Puppets show I went to said they we’re like a Fleetwood Mac meets the Talking Heads way harder. It was a great analogy. Pat Sullivan had a “Bad Moon” tee shirt on and after the set when he was unplugging his pedals and switches he had from the amp he was like right there, because by this time I’m leaning on stage because I needed something to lean on. So I said “What, not giving out picks?” referring to his guitar pick, and he was like sort of had the same reaction the drummer from The Soviet Machines had, he said “oh.. yea man definalty” and reached in his pocket for it and gave it to me. Then I saw Rachel Cox autographing something and I ask her to sign my drum stick that I had in my pocket. She said “Are you serious?” sort of laughing and I when I said yea she signed it “Rachel from Ohio!”. That was pretty cool. They rocked, I told Pat that and he thanked me for it. These two bands were really cool, both musically and socializing with the couple of us who were up in front and out spoken. Good stuff.

     Of course now on to the main event, the Meat Puppets!! The second time I get to see them(See show review 9/26/2008).The acoustic set that I had heard they were going to do I was interested in seeing. Especially since a roadie laid down a who set of pedals and switches and all these knobs I started to think that this alleged acoustic set was going to be short and maybe Curt Kirkwoodwould switch to electric like half way through. To tell you the truth, If I was blind, I wouldn’t have even known that Curt was playing an acoustic, its sounded so loud with all these weird noises and just amazing solos a lot of the times “fingerpicking” as they call it, which is sort of self explanatory and the way Curt’s eyes are closed and he’s in this zone like. And at the same time you have brother Cris on bass and he’s just doing all weird funny ass stuff. His bass chord didn’t unplug this time, but Curt busted a chord like a song or two in. So he ran off stage to get it fixed, at which time he and Ted Marcus the drummer, would jam and Cris would say dumb funny stuff and try to make up songs. Really cool. So Curt gets back on stage, and they get into “Commin’ Down”, I love that song they didn’t play it last time they came around so that was cool and they got into “Up on the sun”. I was trying to copy down songs but I was only able to get ten because I was right there, again only this time like two feet from Curt as oppose to the five I was at Terminal 5 because they had a barricade at Terminal 5, as where here at the Williamsburg Hall of Music I could have basically got up on stage I’m leaning on the amp the whole night. Another reason you can’t get every song they play is because it’s seriously like a trip being there, hearing their music live. It’s an experience that I think everyone needs to do in life, you wouldn’t regret it I promise. Anyway I believe it was after Up on the sun, maybe one of their ten minute jam sessions where you have no idea what’s going on; it’s so intoxicating, Curt broke busted two chords on his guitar this time, leading to him running off stage again. Cris says “okay, Curt quit the band, but we got some stuff we wanna play” and they just start jamming as Curt goes to put two more strings on. At this point I’m wondering how a band that’s been together for almost 30 years doesn’t have like an extra guitar, but some musicians have pet peeves about that sort of stuff and its not like he got all pissed of and stormed out he was laughing, I bet he wanted to break the strings. That’s the type of intensity he plays with. The played “Why” before getting into “Oh Me”, that song “Oh Me” rocks man, it was so musically fulfilling to be at this show. They did “Plateau” somewhere in the first 5-10 songs, hard to place where it was I didn’t write that down I was singing. Later on one of my favorites “Look at the Rain” along with “Severed Goddess Hand” and “Flaming Heart” Through all this craziness and totally rocking out as the venue is now completely packed of course as soon as the Meat Puppets came on I notice it was approaching 1 AM. So I knew “Lake of Fire” was coming up, and it did. And then they did a song that I was dying to hear that they didn’t play last time I caught them was “Backwater”. Hearing it acoustic, if we’re even going to call this acoustic because throughout the set the sounds that were coming out of this thing was unbelievable. I didn’t know an acoustic guitar can produce similar sounds to a police siren, just out of space sort of stuff. That’s what they are, they’re from space. They bring you up to their spaceship when they play live, which is the reason why it’s a seemingly hallucinogenic experience being in the crowd, losing yourself in the music. They really are like the Grateful Dead, every show is different. I didn’t see an acoustic set in this night, and when I heard it was acoustic I thought we were going to all sit on stools and sip hot coco. But that wasn’t the case of course, because once again the Meat Puppets prove why they’re so far and beyond a large majority of the music that it out there today. 

     That was most defiantly the best show I’ve attended in my life. Not only just from a Meat Puppets blowing the roof off stand point but overall, all the bands were good. The whole atmosphere was great, I got to talking to some really intelligent and musically intellectual people. So check this out I’m going to give you links to The Soviet Machines and Oakley Hall because they’re two pretty cool bands.  

http://www.myspace.com/thesovietmachines
http://www.mypace.com/oakleyhall 

Photos taken By me, Jay Porks via AT&T Pantech Matrix 

    Next up on the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series is a band called 'Witch',  I've recently gotten into them and they friggin rock. Its like this dark sort of sound but includes all the distortion and feedback driven guitars to keep me entertained. The opening acts are 'Earthless' and 'Children' is what the bill says, It's back at this same location, The Music Hall of Williamsburg on Feburary 26th.. Catch you then...

Concert Review: Local H @ Webster Hall NYC 11/22/2008

       So tonight was the night. The eighth installment of the “Jay Porks Never Ending Concert series” and the venue: Webster Hall located in NYC @ 125 E 11th St. The band I was here to see was the one and only “Local H” who I have been fans of for a while. They've only got two guys in the band: Scott Lucas, the lead singer/guitarist (who devised a way to put bass pick-ups in his guitar, to make up for the non-bass player) and Brian St. Clair, who was the drummer in Illinois based band Triple Fast Action(and Liz Phair's former tour manager)..  Only sad thing about tonight is that they are Sandwiched between two bands I’m not too familiar with but thats what you get when you’re a narrow minded guy like me who doesn’t listen to the radio because its filled with garbage(or bands like the other two I saw tonight). Doors opened at 6, and the opening act was a band called “Fall on your Sword” then “Local H” followed up the headliner, let me foreshadow the dreadful,  “Electric Six.”  

      Webster Hall, now there’s one over rated place to be to see a concert. I’m sorry, but if I’m indoors seeing a show I want the place to be intimate not a place that is going to pack it out after the concert and blast techno music all night. If you want to do that then do it, I’m fine with it. Just don’t try to appeal to all masses of inward capital, that’s something I can’t stand. But the place was roomy, therefore very simple for me to the front. I wasn’t leaning on the stage, but the guy in front of me was. 

     So here we go, Fall on your Sword hits the stage. I’m hanging toward the back checking out the crowd building up for Local H. I was talking to some of my peers; most of the people I ran into were in the same boat as I was having never heard of either band and just there for Local H. Anyway, I notice a screen behind the band with this like slideshow sort of weird interesting funny things mixed with a little bit of Atari-like video game sequences. I thought that was pretty cool. Other then that, nothing was cool about these guys. I saw duel male vocalists, the primary was on keyboard and the guitar player was singing too; sometimes. Their drummer had this stupid Afro puff hairdo going on and after the set walked around Webster Hall unnoticed and not paid attention to. The vocals and or lyrics were a little whiney whether it was subject manner or just a whining sound. At one point during a song the guitarist/half singer stopped playing and started playing that thing with the bells that you bang on your hand. Definatly not the type of rock and roll and I came to see. And I herd a kick-drum! New rule, do not ever EVER attempt to incorporate “techno/house” into music your calling rock. That only leads to more genres breeding, more confusion and most importantly more garbage music. So to the band “Fall on your Sword”, I say do it. Please.

     As I entered the place before the show started I walked over to the “merch” table so I could purchase my ‘Local H’ tee shirt. I asked the dude if he had a XXL he said no so I said “XL then, whatever gets me in my Local H gear” he said cool and it cost me $15 bucks, the lowest price I’ve ever paid for a band tee at a show. The dude who was selling the stuff looked familiar. I walked away thinking about where I knew him from. While I was talking to the two dudes who noticed me taking notes during the Fall On Your Sword set. The dude said “what’s that the hitlist?”, jokingly because we were making fun of this band their whole set. I told them I review the shows. Then the other dude says “Scott said they go on at 7:45. I was taken for a second, I said “Scott?? Scott Lucas?!” (the singer/guitarist for Local H). They were like “yea, he’s right there at the merch table. Always is, every time we’ve seen them”. I looked back and he wasn’t at there anymore as 7:45 was approaching, But lets stop for a second here. Scott Lucas sold me my Local H shirt! Are you kidding me?!?! This isn’t a new band or anything, they toured with Stone Temple Pilots back in 1996 and just put out a new album (which is very good, I recommend it). I had a brush with celebrity stardom and didn’t even realize it at the time. If you think I’m ever loosing this tee you have another thing coming.

       

Now on to the main event in my eyes, one of my favorite bands: Local H. The set was amazing as now I have moved up to the front, like very front. Not leaning on the stage, but the guy in front of me was. Songs ranged from new to old to the mildly obscure unknowns and it was all amazing. Some douche-bag was attempting a mosh-pit sort of out of his drunken mess of a self but he was thrown to the floor on many occasions. At one point during a solo Scott went over to them and hand gestured, in a non-prick sort of way for them to chill out (Axel Rose would have stopped the show until they were escorted out). The only real problem I had with the set was that they we’re not the headliner therefore had to play a sort of abbreviated set. The first couple of songs were (I don’t have the first song because I had to run out to give my partner in rock/photographer her ticket.) “Fine and Good”, “Michelle(Again)”and “California songs”. During the song “California Songs” there’s a lyric “and fuck New York Too!” which Scott did not shy away from being in the city. Another lyric in that song is “California Dreamin’s on the radio”, which was changed to, get this “Mother fucking Weezer’s on the radio”. Wow, is that beef right there? Is that fighting words? I like Weezer, actually if you read back I was at the show at Madison Square Garden and it rocked. Love Weezer, since 94. But I get what he means by it. It may not be a jab at Weezer as a band but that most of their songs are just that, California songs. It was very interesting at the time. Did I mention Brian St. Clair? He’s the drummer, let me tell you something you need to be a good drummer if your in a two man band get what I’m saying? This guy was relentless with every hit just kicking the shit out of that drum set. Hair swinging, reminded me a little bit of a poor man’s Dave Grohl, just with a shirt and pair of gloves on. The drumming in Local H is never slow and soft it’s a very busy drum sound. Okay, they got into “BMW Man”, “White Belt Boys”(off the new record), and “Hands on the Bible”. Then they finished up with they’re biggest hit “Bound for the Floor” followed by a song I hadn’t known by them titled “F—k Yeah, That Wide”. If you’re a Local H follower your saying to yourself “what? They left out all those other songs like ““Eddie Vedder”, “All the Kids are right” “Cooler heads”” this list goes on”. And that’s all valid statements, but you have to take into account that they’re not the headlining band and this band Electric Six is about to play a 17 song set.

      A 17 song set which made me absolutely sick. First off, there was way too much stuff going on up there on stage. We had a light show that almost put me in an epileptic seizure. They also had what I’m just going to generalize as “sound making machines”(kick drums, synthesizer, anything disco/techno related) in addition to the 2 guitarists, drummer, bass player and keyboardist. They even brought out a saxophone player at one point at which time I couldn’t hear one damn note, next time into the microphone please. Oh yea, and they’re amazingly arrogant, Andrew Volpe(From Ludo) wanna-be who’s not funny at all lead singer. And I had moved to the back because I needed something to lean on to write a few things down and I’m watching crowd surfing. Crowd surfing to this techno-rock garbage? Are you people kidding me? And at the beginning of like almost every song the singer was like “lets get some dance music going”. What? This isn’t a disco, it’s a rock concert. They play the type of music that someone who listens to techno/house/freestyle music would listen to and think they’re a death rocker because they like it. It was an absolute abortion I’m telling you. I guess that quote I read in the paper from Ringo Starr was right, the music business is not concerned in what anyone over 21 is listening to. And its sad really, that a band like Local H who have pretty much paid their dues with 4 studio albums has to be on the under card for such a terrible sad excuse for a band. One of the worst bands I have ever seen live. 

      Electric Six was so bad that halfway through their set (about the time balloons started being thrown from the stage; what a bunch of pansies) I look over towards the merch table and Scott Lucas was back over there, only this time with people realizing it was him. I went back over there because he was talking to everyone, shaking hands and taking pictures with people(while of course, selling merchandise). So I noticed they had 2003’s ‘No Fun’ EP for sale for 8 dollars. So when the crowd submerged I got over there and stuck my hand out, shook his hand and said “great show, you guys rock man” he said thanks then I said “Let me get the No Fun EP” and he said sure as I paid him I asked him to sign my ticket stub which he did without hesitation. Then and I notice Gina (photographer/good friend) is standing right there and I’m like “Scott can I get a picture with you” and this guy is like the coolest guy on the planet. Autographs, pictures, discussion; just an all around cool dude. The picture should be coming to me shortly and I’ll post it up here when I get the chance. 

     After the dreadful Electric Six set ended I was walking towards coat check when I see Scott, again at the merch table and I asked him “when’s the next time you guys are coming around” and he says “We’re goin’ on right after these guys”. Got to love the sarcasm, so I just said “I’ll stay on top of your MySpace page for tour dates” and he said “that’s the place to go”, I shook his hand again, thanked him for the great show and he said he’d catch me next time. 

     Incredible, absolutely amazing; I met someone who I sort of look up to. Maybe not a celebrity or high end rock star to you, but to me Local H is in my personal top bands list. And Scott is right, I will see them next time… and every other time they come anywhere close to my area. What a great night despite the other crappy bands, Local H rocked it.. and when they roll back through town you know the Jay Porks Experience will be there.... but until then, the next time you should hear from me is December 13th when I get to see the Meat Puppets at the Williamsburg Hall of Music in Brooklyn. No opening acts listed as of yet. Should be fun, catch you readers then. Late….

Special Thanks: All Photos Taken By Gina Sachi Cody 

Concert Review: Ludo @ The Knitting Factory NYC 10/20/2008

      I guess “My Addiction” is rocking out at concerts. Tonight was the seventh installment of the “Jay Porks Never ending Concert Series”, the place; The Knitting Factory NYC. The headlining act was the one and only Ludo who if you haven’t heard, are pretty good. The under card consisted of “Kids of Survival”, “House of Heroes” and “This Providence”, all bands I have not heard of. So let me run you down on them: This Providence is an “emo pop/ rock act from Seattle” so says All Music Guide. If someone can just explain to me what Emo is exactly, please do so because I’m more confused the more I look into it. House of Heroes is listed as a “Christian Rock” band on all the credible musical sites, they’re from Ohio, and to tell you the truth I didn’t hear them mention god at all so I’m not going to put that label on them. But lets start it off with the first act, Kids of Survival.

    Kids of Survival are from Queens, so we got some New York representation in the rock industry. I was sitting in a chair upstairs leaning on the balcony for them. There was this older guy standing next to me, I showed him where to get a chair. Before they start he turns to be and says in a sort of raspy older dude type voice “My son is the drummer in this band, so I want you to tell me what you think. Seriously.” I was like “defiantly “. They have a Myspace page and they’re listed as “Power Pop/Indie/Rock. Power pop sounds a little gay, but I like that sort of stuff. They didn’t sound power pop to me. Weezer and Fountains of Wayne are Power pop. These guys weren’t that, they had more elements of, I want to say emo because a lot of lost my girlfriend stuff was in there but they’re not that according to they’re myspace. They had some rocking songs though, and the drummer (who’s father I’m sitting next to”) hits it with strong conviction I noted to myself as they were playing. Probably the best song they played was a song called “My Addiction”, I’ll probably get it from iTunes later. They had thanked House of Heroes for letting them borrow some gear at the end of their set, which answered my personal question of “How does a band I never heard of afford Marshall amps?”.  

    After they went off I went downstairs to hit the bar, and then I finally found the spot where they were selling all the “merch”. Merchandise, is referred to as “Merch” at rock concerts, that’s like a rule. They had each band’s stuff set up in different parts of the room. I usually get a tee shirt but I was in a drinking sort of mood and with 6 dollar beers I wanted to conserve money, but I needed a Kazoo. In Ludo’s song “Love me Dead” there is a Kazoo crowd play along part at the end and I neew they had to be selling them. So I see a girl sitting down with one, and I start walking over and just when she’s about to say something I’m like “kazoo, where can get one?” and she replies with “oh, Ludo stuff is over there you should check out some of the Kids of Survival stuff.” So I’m like “what’s free?” and she says the sticker and I asked where do I put it and either her or one of the other Kids of Survival clerks said “Put it on your head”, And I was like “Hell yea, that’s a great idea” and proceeded to put it on my head. It was great, everyone loved it. this girl who obviously works with the band had a camera and was taking like a video of me with the thing on my head. She says “okay, do you know what band is on your head?” I stopped and remembered it and she was like okay and started recording and ask me who I just saw and she asked “did they rock?” and I said “ Absolutely, are you kidding me?” and she ended it there and was like “that’s great”. Another girl said to me “The band saw you, they thought it was great”. So I’ll probably be on they’re myspace page or something acting a fool with a sticker on my head. Great stuff. Then I turn to this other girl who’s standing by herself she heard me looking for kazoos and she asked “ Who you here for Ludo?” and I said “ Yea, you?” after she agreed I asked if she heard of any of the other band on the card she said “not the slightest”. So we were on the same page. I asked her if she came by herself and she said yea and I said me too and right there was the person I was hanging with all night. Her name is Amanda, and she recently moved here from Wisconsin(where she had seen Ludo 6 times already) and she was cool and showed me how to play the kazoo which I had purchased for, get this, ONE DOLLAR. Imagine? Something actually under priced because that’s not like a one time use kazoo, I will be carrying it around playing songs all day. So me and my new friend walked back towards the show floor. Now I’m on the floor level as oppose to upstairs, which did provide a great view but not a rock out effect I wanted to experience, and now I have someone to rock out with.

    House of Heroes, like I said I didn’t hear them mention god or anything so I’m ignoring the fact that they’re listed as a “Christian” rock band. They were very good, powerful hard sounding guitars. They had to be good because Amanda bought their CD after the show. I need to check out they’re catalogue; I can’t name a song they played because I can’t find they’re set list online anywhere. They’re from Ohio, so I guess Christian rock is different in Columbus. Played for about 45 minutes, they thanked the bands for having them and then the wait began for This Providence, which to my surprise had a lot of fans there.

     The wait was annoying, the previous bands were in and out and these guys where tuning up for what seemed to be hours. Amanda asked if I knew anything whatsoever about them I told her that I read that they were Emo. Now I’m an open minded guy, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a band live and said to myself “wow, this is horrible”. But let me tell you something: wow that was horrible!! These guys looked straight off the “worst band ever” train. So now I know what Emo is, it’s garbage music. They had a drum machine/ kick drum sort of thing going on, adding the techno element to their music which in return made bad songs worse. The lead singer was wearing a scarf, a FREAKING SCARF! With a white tee shirt. Then, later in the set he tied the scarf to the mic stand ala Steven Tyler, which isn’t cool considering he’s belting out ballads of weak, wimpy stories in his lyrics. I swear one of the lines I heard was “I’m a coward, not a fighter!”. What losers. What a bunch of pansy emo kids. I’m sorry, but that’s unacceptable. Amanda turned to me after their set and said “yea, too bad. That’s pretty much what I expected”. Me and her we literally leaning on the wall the whole time, and the worst part about it is after they went off I saw all these kids leaving. Like, a lot of people were there to see this band? I feel sorry for them. so we moved up a little bit.

    On to the main event, LUDO!!! An alternative rock band from St. Louis, Missouri. They came out and did not disappoint. Their lead singer Andrew Volpe is a hilarious guy, just all around humorous and so into it. He and Tom Convy who plays moog (yes, it’s a instrument) had a lot of funny banter back and forth throughout the set. They played two songs off they’re new album to kick it off. One of them was “Dunken Lamont” which is a really good song. They have two previous albums so some other songs I couldn’t sing along to but they all kicked ass, every single one of them. Their second album is a concept album/rock opera about how this chick dies in 1989 and he travels back in time to try and stop it, from what I hear (and heard) it’s a good piece of music. That song was called “Broken Bride”, which is also the name of that record which came out in 2005. They also played ‘Topeka’, Lake Pontchartrain, Such As It Ends all are off the latest record “You’re Awful, I love you”. Halfway through about, they play their new single “Go Getter Greg” which I currently have as my Myspace song. So catchy, so hard, and so witty and funny all at the same time; this is the point in the show when I realize that this band could be really big one day with songs like this. “Ima go getter guy with a gun on my hip/just searching for that someone to be firing it”, I love those lyrics. Another thing, I love the jumping up and down to the songs. That is cool, that is official rock out status, and that’s what the atmosphere was like, especially during go getter greg. Then the band went off stage to leave Andrew up there to do a song called “The Horror of our love” solo which is a good song, would have been a better song had a fight not broken out about ten-fifteen feet from me to the right. I couldn’t see much, just a pile with event staff breaking something up. This guy Andrew Volpe didn’t miss a beat, kept his composure and didn’t do something dumb like stop the show or whatever. He had to have seen it because as he put it “I’m glad we sold out this place, all 84 of you bought tickets.”. He also made sure to thank the record company in between one of the songs saying “Yea, we’re not one of those bands that’s hates our label, we love the man! So we’re not cool because we like our record company”. The way he says things he could be a stand up comic. Anyway, that fight got cleaned up before that song even ended so didn’t really distract anything, just something worth noting. Then after an utterly brilliant performance they get into they’re big hit “Love me Dead” which is all over any good radio station right now. That’s the song where the Kazoo comes into play. And that was kick ass, I was freaking livid jumping up and screaming the words along with everyone else in there, that place was rocking hard. Tom (the moog player) made all of us in the crowd squeeze in for a picture he took form stage, he said it came out good and that they’ve only done that in Japan and Brazil. Hope they put that on the website. But wait a minute, Love me Dead isn’t their last song? What song is more rocking then that? well, I’ll tell you what song is. Andrew gets into a story saying that the next song is about something that happened in NYC in 1986 and nothing was ever the same and a whole bunch of funny non sense like that, then I hear a pretty familiar riff. Then I’m singing the words, “When there’s something strange/in the neighborhood/who you gonna call?” and we all screamed “GHOSTBUSTERS!!!”. That’s freaking amazing, you encore with the Ghostbusters theme song, and it rocked don’t get it twisted it was not corny or anything it kicked friggin tush. Then I ripped one of the Ludo posters off the wall when after we chanted “one more song” for like 10 minutes. 

    What a show, Ludo is such a great band live. They’re so into it, so good at it. They grab the crowd and put you in this like complete ‘rockin’ zone you can’t control. It was absolutely amazing. Take me a few weeks to decipher where it stands on my best shows list but its top three at least. So all in all I suggest checking out that band Kids of Survival, they’re were pretty good. And defiantly support Ludo, they’re on the rise, I have a knack for these things.

    Next up on the Jay Porks never ending Concert Series: Local H at Webster Hall in NYC! November 22nd they're opening for a band called Electric Six.  It should be good times. Thats followed up by the Meat Puppets(yes, again) at the Music hall of Williamsburg. I don’t think I’ve been to Brooklyn in like 5 years, it ought to be amazing, December 13th that goes down. I guess I’ll check you people then. 

Concert Review: Meat Puppets and Dinosaur Jr. at Terminal 5 9/25/2008

THE MEAT PUPPETS!!!!! Wow, now that was something else. That was like a whole other experience. I still feel my pants shaking from the vibrations of the show. Tonight was the night, the last official installment of the Jay Porks Summer Concert Series. A band called ‘Built to Spill’ was headlining a show which featured the opening acts being the Meat Puppets and Dinosaur Jr(Dinosaur with all three original member Mascis, Lou Barlow and Murph) respectively. When I first got this ticket I was so psyched, so pumped to see them. This would be the first time I get tickets to a show because I’m more interested in the opening bands then the headliner, which is good because the first 2 hours don’t have to be boring. All this and now the night had arrived. The venue: ‘Terminal 5’, which is 610 West 56th street and like 11th avenue, right by that Saab dealership. Doors open at 6:30pm and I make it to the place at about 6:20 and much to my surprise, there a line of like 30 people. Because in my eyes I thought everyone was there to see Built to Spill, that’s the only band even listed on the ticket. So I get padded down and walk in. Inside, its a really simple set up-just a hallway you walk down and which leads to the doorway of the standing room section by the stage. Its set up sort of like the Fillmore Irving Plaza was set up, there was an upstairs that you could watch from(there's actually a 2nd AND 3rd floor to observe from), a balcony wrapping around the inside of the venue . Had the aforementioned third floor too, but I didn’t go up any stairs tonight. I grabbed my Meat Puppets shirt in the little vestibule between the doors and the stage for 20 bucks, (which wasn’t so bad considering I paid 35 for a Weezer shirt at Madison Square Garden last night). Grabbed a beer for 6 bucks, which again was not so bad, then I head over towards the stage because I noticed not many people were over there yet; the show doesn’t start for an hour anyway. So I walked over and landing myself a spot leaning right on the barricade about 5 feet from the stage. I reached out and touched the stage like, I thought to myself "Wow this is fucking sick". Then I met a few cool people standing in like my area. We’re right in front of the microphone that Curt Kirkwood is going to be playing at (vocals/guitar). So the two kids to my right they saw me and were like “hey dude, just can I ask you a question, have you ever heard Built to Spill?, who are they?” I shook my head and told them “never even knew who they were until I saw they were playing with the Meat Puppets” and they’re like “yea man! Exactly, we’re just here for the Meat Puppets, they kick ass” and I’m like “-and we’re right fucking here” and everyone’s in agreement that this is going to be a kick ass night. We ask the kid to the left of me, who is he here to see. He says “ I’m here to see the Meat Puppets and Dino, I never heard of Built to Spill until this show” and at that point I’m thinking, finally some people I can relate too. We were just shooting the shit for like the whole hour before the puppets came on. We made fun of all the “hipsters” who are just showing up to see Built to Spill and didn’t even know there was opening acts. After about 5 people, we found a Built to Spill fan. “And now the brothers Meat come up on stage..”, and here comes Curt Kirkwood with his Fender Stratocaster with little stickers on it. Looked like those things you get out of those 25 cent vending machines, and they appeared to be butterflies and turtles and stuff to that nature. Also, Curt was not only wearing pajama pants but the stains on them appeared as if he was just painting his garage or something. It was hilarious, then his brother Cris who plays bass came out looking like his same old fun self.. I hate when people sober up and forget how to be normal and fun-not the case here..he gets into these zones with the bass that look like a seizure that's really cool.. glad he's got it together.. . Curt pulls his pick out of the pocket of his very comfortable looking plaid pajama pants and we’re ready to go. What a set they did. Most of the songs there was no pause in between, just played straight through to the next one. And the Meat Puppets do things live so much differently then they do on record and not one show is ever the same. Someone I was talking to on Pandora.com who has seen the Meat Puppets 14 times once described them as “the Grateful Dead, for people who hate the Grateful Dead”. Now I like the Grateful Dead, but I understand the analogy. I think they maybe paused between a song once, and during that 10 seconds one of those kids who are on my right while everyone is screaming requests screams “SLAYER!!! …” laughs and says “yes, I’m going to be that guy”. That was great, that’s when they went into “Severed Goddess Hand”. Great song- Also played an effervescent version of “Look at the Rain” The guitar work during these songs is god-like. A classmate of mine was showing me on the ferry how to use the pick and strum up with your pinky like and I thought that was insane(coming from somebody who owns, but cannot play guitar). But Curt Kirkwood at one point was strumming with three separate fingers while cuffing the pick between his middle and ring finger. It might have been four fingers at times, dude is just that amazing. And he would constantly adjust the feedback and turn it all the way up causing this fuzz and distortion which was like the living end; it was like when Grant took Richmond. “Plateau” was outstanding, truly incredible. I was screaming the lyrics along with the rest of the apparent crowd. I wasn’t too sure what the atmosphere of the crowd was because everyone was behind me; I could smell the fact that Curt didn’t brush his teeth, that’s how close I was. They played a few songs off their latest 2007 album 'Rise to your Knees' as well.. It's as if whatever Curt feels like messing with distortion wise with his guitar he just goes, and its freaking incredible. “Oh Me” was great when they got into that, my little posse was rocking to that. They finished it off with “Lake of Fire”, which included a solo that lasted about 10 minutes and made everyone think they were starting like a different song. It was a really fast version of it, far from the one on “Meat Puppets II”. It rocked, during it Cris Kirkwood’s bass unplugged from the amp and he was like jamming the shit back in there. After that they went off, I don’t even think I they said one word to the crowd. In previous shows I’ve been to, the opening act spends half there night thanking the band for letting them open for them. Not the Meat Puppets, their epicness precedes them. They’re the effin’ Meat Puppets, been around since like 82. Interesting thing after their set, Cris and the drummer headed right off stage but Curt was on stage with the roadies packing up his own gear. Unplugging all the amps and his various fuzz box pedals. He had to lean over to unplug a wire right by me and I was right there and I didn’t know what to say, so I blurred out “Curt! You fucking rock man!” and he didn’t even look, good thing too, because I sounded like such a loser. What a performance, nothing could top it. The Meat Puppets!! I saw them!!! I could die happy now.    Let us not misinterpret what I’m saying here. Because Dinosaur Jr put on a set that kicked ass to the fullest extent as well, J. Mascis is very meticulous with his guitar and amp set up with 6 amps set up almost surrounding him, and every amp on stage has a microphone up against it which just continues in to the theme of distortion and feedback heavily used in songs. A great band to possibly set the tone for Dinosaur Jr seems to be the Meat Puppets because both bands use similar elements in their music. Not only that, but J had some big tall like control panel sort of thing next to him that he kept messing with. Wish I was closer to Mascis. See, I was near the microphone that Curt Kirkwood was at, but J.Mascis uses the opposite one. They kicked off with “Tarpit” which rocked and made me realize in person how good J.Mascis plays guitar even if it was from 20 feet instead of 5. Lou Barlow plays a mean bass though, he was right there and I mean right there because he kept leaning over to look at the piece of paper to see what the next song was. And the drum set was much closer too, Murph was like right there, and he’s a pretty powerful drummer. One of Lou’s bass strings snapped during like the first or second song, he looks to pick up his extra-but its not there.. So he like runs behind the amp looking for the roadie with his other bass. Murph was drumming and he looked up and didn’t see Lou, he made a face as if to say “wow, we’re gonna break up again already?”. It was great, Lou runs back and I’m thinking wow he got a new string on there pretty quick. No, he came back with it playing three strings. I guess he didn’t see his other one, which was brought out during that second song. Lou’s bass sound differs from Cris Kirkwood’s because his is a lot more relevant in the structure of the song, it’s much harder, nosier and more distorted. He was rocking out, I got some pictures of him on my phone but they suck because my phone sucks. I was hoping he’d throw one of his picks out into the crowd because Murph threw his drum sticks to someone. but he didn’t, he let the roadies pack it up. They closed with “Just Like Heaven” but to tell you truth I didn’t know the names of most of the songs they played because their vocals went virtually unheard the entire set.. I know the Mic was on because I heard J say “here’s a song” followed by noise.., I think the extent of the noise they use made it so loud that it was just overpowering. Or, maybe I was just so close that I was hearing the guitar and bass at such loud, blistering volume that it was just me who couldn’t hear it well. I felt my teeth vibrating in my mouth that’s how friggin’ loud it was. It kicked ass. I did end up getting the set list of the songs they played, but I didn’t have to search online to find it. while the roadies were cleaning up the stage I kept screaming “DUDE!!! Let me have the set list!! Its right there I need it for my blog!!! Come on!!!”. The list was literally just a inkling out of my reach from grabbing, it was duct taped on the amp in front of Lou. I saw them put it there before the show, and I wanted it bad. And one of the roadies finally saw me while he was ripping it off the thing and he tossed it to me, still with the purple tape on it and everything. I HAVE THE SET LIST!! How freaking awesome is that! Celebrity memorabilia right there. I was in fucking awe at the fact that I was holding that in my hand, something to always remember and not just the ticket stub and wristband. This is going right on my wall next to my Slash poster. As written on the paper, I will write it here. Some of the songs don’t have the whole title. It says: Tarpit, Been There, Back to Heart, Out There, Feel Pain, Wagon, Swan, Freak, Sludge, Heaven. Freaking amazing. Oh yea, Built to Spill played too right? Well, I really wasn’t sure because I was out of there once I got that set list.. I have just seen the Meat Puppets-a band that I wanted to know more about since they climbed upon that MTV Unplugged stage back when I was 7 years old.. I figured it would be best to cut my losses at this point and chalk up the night as a win...And besides, I have school the next day. Can’t

Concert Reveiw: Weezer @ Madison Square Garden 9/24 (with Angels and Airwaves and Tokyo Police Club)

Another show attended and yet another reason why I choose correct all the time when it comes to this whole concert thing. Unbelievable show tonight, Weezer at Madison Square Garden with Angels and Airwaves and Tokyo Police Club. Weezer just rocks plain and simple, music critics shun them all the time and I don’t get why. They’re fucking amazing; they never sold out money or shit like that. Same types of tunes keep coming out. The latter two bands I’m not to familiar with or at least wasn’t until tonight. Good bands, and by the end of the night, they had earned there spots on that MSG stage even if it was as an underlying gig play to a cavernous arena at the moment.

So me and my father get to city like before 5 a clock, find a parking space and sit in the car and pre-game for a little bit. Show didn’t start until 7:30 and we bought lots a beer anyway so we chilled. So we’re sitting there listening to the radio and getting fucked up when we decide to head over there because we’ve been listening to the Tokyo Police Club record in the car for the ride there.

Let me inform you people, considering I wasn’t to up on the where’s and when’s of Tokyo Police Club, it’s quick and to the point. They’re from Canada, they had a band, it broke up and they formed this band after performing at the Montreal Pop festival and being noticed. This year they released they’re major label debut and I would recommend checking out they’re MySpace page, they have a blog is what I hear. So they play 7:30 till 8:00 o’clock, I can’t name any of there songs but they didn’t suck at all. I think one of there songs had an extra kick-drum used which was a little to my chagrin, but all and all they could have been a lot worse, my father was digging them and he know a whole lot more about music then I do.

The e-mail I got from MSG gave me some “show details” so the deal was that after Tokyo Police Club there was going to be a “brief” intermission before Angels and Airwaves come on at 8:30. Again I’ll explain, since I really didn’t know I doubt you people do; Angels and Airwaves are a band from San Diego formed in 2005 after singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge was out of a job because his former band, Blink 182, just never ended hiatus. It’s funny because the drummer from that band was like in a plane crash recently and almost went down Buddy Holly style, and I’m at the Weezer show!! Get it? If you don’t then you think I’m really mean but whatever. With Atom Willard (formerly of The Offspring) on drums they’d from this band. They’re major label debut “We Don’t Need to Whisper” was released in 2006 and they’ve been chugging along since. And apparently have a huge following because they’re we’re a lot more cheers and love shown for this band by the people in the lower levels and the standing room only area in front of the stage. It was that surprising to me because I never really had heard of them, in fact I knew exactly as much about then as I did Tokyo Police club. But these guys actually had a like back round thing with there name and an actual light show. That’s the thing I’ve noticed about the shows I go to with opening acts. The bands equipment and stage props get better as the show goes on, the first band is usually shitty sounding (not tonight, but at other shows) and it improves. As did tonight, and Angels and Airwaves rocked it, the rest of the people I mean. Listen, I’m not saying that I didn’t like them, I just don’t usually have judgments on stuff when hearing it just one time. so the jury is still out, but the crowd was loving them. Maybe because it had gotten later and people had enjoyed more beer and got louder, whatever the case may be the band got a pretty good ovation when they went off stage at 9:45. that’s when I went to grab another beer.

And it finally getting towards the main event, the band everyone came to see. A band that’s been rocking since 1992 (says Wikipedia but there debut came out in 94, I bet anything) ladies and gentlemen here is Weezer!!

Rivers Cuomo, the lead singer and guitarist for Weezer comes out sarcastically speaking Spanish and says “Como es tas?”, which was fucking hilarious. Then when we’re laughing at him he says “Muy Bien…”. After that they kicked off the show with “My Name is Jonas”, a great song from disc two of the Weezer(Blue)Deluxe that came out few year back. The place was crazy everyone standing including us everyone singing along, and that’s a constant theme to the night; me knowing the words to every song because they frickin’ rock. And guess who was smart enough to bring a pen and paper this time to mark down the set list. I didn’t write the first couple I had forgotten I had I might be missing a song. Anyway, they went in a song off there 1996 album Pinkerton called “Pink Triangle”, its about being in love with a lesbian. Great song, then they played “Susanne”, another song that’s amazing and exactly what needed to be played at that time. They move swiftly into “Dope Nose”, which is off there 2002 record Maladroit. I didn’t know the title until they went into the chorus I will admit. At this point I’m thinking “wow, they’re being pretty obscure, not what I expected”, because I was expecting them to play all the stuff off the new album Weezer(Red) but they only played 5 songs off it, and all rocked. Anyway after dope nose they get into “Say It ain’t so”. One of there best songs by far; it’s about an alcoholic father or step father or both it’s kind of confusing. Love the guitar feedback on that song, what an amazing experience, and my dad approves. Then if my list is correct they brought out Tom DeLonge from Angels and Airwaves to sing on “Undone: The Sweater Song”, was a huge radio hit back in the day and it seems that every song that comes on it everyone’s favorite song. That’s how good this band is, all there songs are great. After the sweater song the had the crowd eating out of there hands so they busted out “Dreamin’” from Weezer(Red). That’s one of my favorite songs off there new album, its just so classic Weezer and at the end there’s a lyric repeated (4x) where River’s Cuomo is screaming “NO I DON’T WANNA GET WITH YOUR PROGRAM!!”. Song is intense man, I suggest you give it a listen. Then of course “Pork and Beans”, which with me being Jay Porks is pretty cool. That had the standing room only section in front of the stage rocking, I peeped that. Then Rivers says they need to end the show with a bang so they play “Troublemaker”, which is another song I like off they’re latest record. Then Rivers runs off stage as if the shows over, because he’s doing the rock star “encore” thing. So with him absent from the stage, the band gets into yet another quality track off the new album, a song called “Automatic” which The drummer Pat Wilson (who moves to guitar for that song) actually sings on it, a few songs on the album are sang by other members, another reason why its so good. After that song, Rivers blasts back on stage and the band gets into everyone’s favorite Weezer song; “Hash pipe”. Everyone is banging to hash pipe, anyone can relate. After that with the energy at its peak they get into a song off Pinkerton called “El Scorcho”. The opening lyric is “God dam you half Japanese girls do it to me every time”, very catchy. I love that damn song, and my half Japanese friend Gina from jersey does too.

Then, they make another attempt at trying to make us think they’re ending the show and proceed to come back out and play “I’m the Greatest Man that Ever Lived”, off the new album and I also had on my MySpace profile for a while, I thought I was the only one who digs that song but the building almost came down. After that they said goodnight and went off stage.

Here’s where thing being to get interesting. 9.23 K-Rock had this contest going on where you could win a chance to play on stage with Weezer during this show if you can play an instrument and text message fast enough. So the first actually encore they came out for was with like 30 people ranging from kids to young adults all with different instruments like one dude with a trumpet and even a dude with a cowbell, I am not kidding. And they come out acoustic. So they play “Island in the Sun”, with this recently formed 30 piece orchestra of non-professionals and you know what, that shit sounding great. Some of the instruments you couldn’t hear, but I’m amazed that no one messed that up at all, sounded great. Rivers turned during the song and said “who’s got the solo??” and this dude with a saxophone started playing it note for note just absolutely perfect. The crowd was going nuts. Then they did one more song with the contest winners and it was a lighter version of “Beverly Hills”, obviously it’s not going to be as hard because it’s acoustic. Those kids rocked that song too, and when he asked who had the solo for that one, someone with a trumpet just let it rip. Those dudes rocked, how do you win a contest, get on stage at the Mecca, Madison Square Garden and not do anything stupid. Not only that, but perform well?? I thought that contest was like a joke and when it got late I thought they forgot about it but they brought them out there. Then after those two songs they left the stage again to a huge hand. A minute or two later an old school looking record player was set up in the middle of the stage and it had a spotlight on it while it was playing “Heart Songs”, another great song off the new record. Not even 20-30 seconds into it just playing that song with nobody there Cuomo runs over to it and kicks it over, breaking it I believe an they plug there guitars back in and jump into a familiar sounding song that I couldn’t name. I found out it was a cover of an Oasis song called “What’s the story morning glory?”. They do it better then Oasis, it rocked.

Then all of a sudden, I hear a bass riff that made me jump out of my seat. I didn’t think it could be true, could all my dreams have finally been lived? I thought it might have been one of those jams in between songs but no, they played it. They played “Sliver”, one of the best songs ever by the best band ever: Nirvana. They covered it good too, and when Rivers covers Nirvana songs he never tries to sound like Kurt Cobain, he does the song in a Weezer way. And I was freaking rocking while Sliver was on, that’s like in my top five songs of all time probably. That caught me by total surprise, I didn’t think they’d do anything “outside the box” sort of say. And while that song was playing there was crowd surfing down in front of the stage, I saw at least two bodies surfing along the crowd. It was amazing, that right there made that the best show I’ve probably ever seen. Hearing a Nirvana song performed live by Nirvana-influenced band is great stuff. I love that damn song. After Sliver, they played “Buddy Holly”. Which turned out to be the last song, the solo was bliss though. That’s the song you got to end with, it was such perfect timing. The set list was so balanced, every song placed in the best possible position, no songs that I was expecting to hear were left out. The best show I have ever seen.

This is a show I really wish I could just sit and revel in the greatness of, but it a quick turn around for me as I have a ticket to see the Meat Puppets and Dinosaur Jr. tomorrow in the city. So you could stay tuned for that show review, I hope I was able to pass along the enjoyment I had tonight to you. That’s if you made it through this whole thing, I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t

CONCERT REVIEW: Lez Zeppelin @ the Fillmore New York Irving Plaza 9/13

Okay, so the Fillmore East is no longer in its same location, but it’s pretty damn close. And no band could possibly be Led Zeppelin, but I must say that Lez Zeppelin is pretty damn close. There’s nothing like a nice cool almost autumn breeze coming from the open window of the ferry on the way back from yet another long night of hard rocking.

So I get into this place like right when the doors open at 8 (show starts at 9) and I’m directed to the wristband station and I’m just looking around scoping the joint out. The building looks really classic like as you walk up the stairs you have the framed pictures on the wall of all the acts that have been at the Fillmore. Photos of Eric Clapton, the Grateful dead, Pete Townshend, Elton John, Willie Nelson, Elvis Costello and this is all off memory, im leaving out like 40 others; Radiohead, The White Stripes, Tom Petty and Jane’s addiction. I felt the rock and roll history flowing through my veins right there while walking up that stairway to heaven even though it’s 2 blocks away from the original. They (Livenation and Irving Plaza) did a very good job in making that place an exciting venue to see a show, I wonder what Liquid Swords is going to be like tomorrow night.

I get done looking around, scouting out where I’m going to be situated. There are two floors, the top balcony upstairs where people are soon to be hanging off ledges rocking out and the main floor which is like 50 feet of free roaming space to stand and cause a complete “moshpit”; that’s where most of us wanted to be and ended up. It’s sick because the floor looks like a gym floor with the wood finish and shit, and the stage had a theater-like screen in front of it before they pulled it up so the band could play; the place was smaller then a one of the theaters at the South Avenue United Arts, which is a fucking incredibly great thing if your seeing a rock concert. And there are bars everywhere. 2 upstairs, like 3 downstairs and a beer on tap like near the door. And the “Smoking section” is one of the exit doors only they gated off like 15 feet of space for us to smoke. Because us smokers nowadays need to be confined to little hidden corners and back doors because we are not human because we smoke cigarettes (and by the way, yes I did light up some pot right there just for spite of it). So since I’m early, it is time to get drunk and quick. I had already smoked mad pot outside and sticked up to an entire different extent. So I hit the bar grab a beer or two before the opening act “In Flight Radio” comes out to do there set.

From what I’ve read about the band “In Flight Radio” I really wasn’t looking forward to it too much. I thought they would get the absolute opening act treatment considering who the fuck are these people to rain on our Lez Zeppelin parade? To my surprise, the band wasn’t bad at all. Not going to say that I’ve joined the fan club or anything, just saying that they had my head nodding and had won over the crowd by the time the lead singer known as “Peira” put her powder blue electric guitar down and starting tuning an acoustic for a song. It’s kind of quiet for like a minutes already and I’m waiting for someone to scream it, I’m looking around like where is the dude who’s going to say it? Well, I had to do what needed to be done. I screamed “Freebird!!!!!!!!” and a shit load of people near me were busting out laughing and Peira while chuckling says “I was waiting for that one”. She didn’t see me personally I was too far back at this point, but her being able to hear it makes it so great a place to see a concert. I’m fucking deaf right now.

A little while after In Flight radio went off I went to the bar to get a vodka tonic (look at me, I’m a baler ordering 9 dollar drinks). So I see a familiar looking face coming towards the bar from like this side of the stage door thing where they kept spare equipment and shit. Guess who the fuck is coming to bar to order a drink? It’s fucking Peira, the lead vocalist/guitarist of In Flight Radio. And like I’m leaning on the end bar and Peira orders a drink. No one is like coming up to her or anything, so I say “hey great show, how bout an autograph?”. This chick looks dead in my eyes, sips her drink and walks away from me without saying a word. Memo to people in bands: You can’t big time someone when your small time yourself.

And to the main event, Lez Zeppelin: The only credible Zeppelin cover band I could think of and the crowd that was there knew that. I was actually wondering how the atmosphere was going to be, but everyone there kicked fucking ass, everybody was cool. I hung out with like 5 different pairs or trios of people like just shooting the shit smoking cigarettes.

When these chicks hit the stage, it was freaking insane the amount of energy they brought with them and bounced those vibes off to us the audience. I was seriously no more then 25 feet(estimated because I’m not taking a Math class this semester) from the guitarist Steph Paynes who I can’t say enough good things about. No, of course she’s not Jimmy Paige but she holds her own without a doubt. Along with bringing out the double neck 18 string guitar for a song or two, some of her solos(along with drugs and the light show) put me in a dazed and confused sort of state. And they were moving into each song quickly as if you didn’t know the other song stopped. They performed all of Led Zeppelin II, and of course they did “Heartbreaker” then going directly into “Living Loving Maid”. And they lead singer of Lez Zeppelin Sarah McLellan was like fucking amazing hot looking. I was singing the songs, looking at her and her on stage movements and shit and I was like “this chick is getting me pretty horny right now”. And that’s probably the effect Robert Plant gave off to the females (or gay dudes[not that there’s anything wrong with that]) at the old scholl Led Zep shows. She was wearing these jeans and the way she held the microphone wire, damn. That show was friggin’ great. Are they a band played on the radio? No. Have they ever toured Japan? No, but in two weeks they’re going. Point is, this shit fucking rocked, and I’ll go to any show at the Fillmore NY Irving Plaza now, anytime any day. What an amazing show, great venue and such good times.

But, as the song says “Good Times, Bad Times”. One flaw to the show, which was very peculiar to me, was the fact that they didn’t play “Stairway to Heaven”. Are you freaking kidding me? No stairway?? I had half a blogged mapped out on the amazing solo I was going to see when they encore with that song. But it was not to be as they encored with Kashmir, which is a great song and was performed top notch but just I’m sitting there wondering where the hell “Stairway to Heaven” is? It Led Zeppelin’s like signature song!! I leaned on the stage as they took apart the set just to make sure that they weren’t going to come out and play it. Well, I guess when she gets there she knows that the store are all closed.

All and all as rambled on in this thing, it was a great show. Next up on the Jay Porks Never ending concert circuit is Weezer at Madison Square Garden September 24th. I guess that’s the next time you’ll be hearing from me.