by a band I had never heard before called The Murder City Devils. I listened to the album a few times and LOVED it, but my real appreciation of the album came about when it was a large part of the soundtrack to driving around the South while a co-worker/friend and I spent a week following one of the bands we worked with on Ozzfest that year. I got to see them live once in October of 2001 before they broke up and called it quits. It was an amazing show and I still have the t-shirt I bought at it buried somewhere. I was disappointed that I hadn't gotten the band on my radar earlier and taken more opportunities to see them live (especially when they were touring with another band who called it quits around the same time they did...At The Drive-In). As seems to be the trend these days, the band recently reunited and went on tour. I caught their set at Nokia Theater back in February and the band was just as good as when I saw them almost 9 years earlier (and it was the one show I've attended this year that I haven't written a review for...I moved that day and was just caught up with unpacking for a while and forgot to write something about it). When I heard they were playing Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ which is less than 10 minutes walking distance from my house, I bought tickets without hesitation. Maxwell's is a very small room and it'd be really easy to get up close and personal with the band while they performed.
And up close and personal with the band is exactly what I got. The sweltering, brutal July heat followed all of us inside of Maxwell's, so I eventually had to retreat towards the back of the room to catch some fresh air, but the show still ruled from that distance too (the back of the room is maybe 35-45 feet from the stage, so we aren't talking large club distances here). Singer Spencer Moody comes across as a less chubby punk rock Zach Galifianakis, but without the goofy comedic appeal. The guy is all business and he delivers one of those performances that is hard to take your eyes off of. The band is tight as hell in a sloppy way as befits their music. The guitarist Dann Gallucci looks like he could be in Madball or Earth Crisis, but certainly doesn't play anything resembling uninspired hardcore. Drummer Coady Willis is also the drummer for Melvins and Big Business, so his drumming abilities don't even need to be qualified. The rest of the band is awesome as well and put all together they create some beautiful noise. Being able to see the band perform personal favorite songs of theirs like "18 Wheels", "Idle Hands", "Rum To Whiskey", "I Drink The Wine", "Press Gang" and "Midnight Service At The Mutter Museum" made taking a couple elbows to the ribs and getting my glasses knocked off my head and almost crushed by a bunch of stomping feet 110% worth it. Proof of how much fun I was having even made it to the internet as my beautiful mug wound up in 4 shots of the crowd in Brooklyn Vegan's coverage of the show (they also have infinitely better pictures of the band than I do).
I hope I get many more opportunities to see The Murder City Devils, but if they decide to break up again after this tour, then at least I got to experience them at their best in an intimate venue and that might just be the most satisfying memory I could have of them.
Not only could I not resist buying a shirt, but I couldn't resist buying a vinyl (for only $10) so that I could frame it and hang it up in my music room.
is a tasteful nod to Killing Is My Business-era Megadeth and Kill 'Em All-era Metallica. Neither of those bands will return to those eras of their sound, so mine as well enjoy a quality tribute.
will be right up the alley of fans of instrumental "metal" acts like Russian Circles, Animals As Leaders, Pelican, etc. Since I like all those bands, it seems these guys might be worth giving a shot.
. As the song started, I was ready to dismiss them as the generic rip-offs I had guessed them to be. Then the vocals kicked in. Terrible. Definitely terrible. But sort of appealing just like Paul Baloff (Exodus), Steve Souza (Exodus), Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth (Overkill) and John Connelly (Nuclear Assault) who this singer no doubt idolizes. Then I found myself nodding my head and tapping my feet. Maybe I do like this? No, it is definitely terrible. But I want to hear it again. And once more. Maybe just two more times. I think I might like this. No, I don't. Yes, I kind of do. I don't know. I'm just going to keep listening until I figure it out. 
. It is a combination of Aliens, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars which in theory sounds like it could be pretty fantastic, but in practice is not. The video also looks fairly expensive and I'm not sure why Maiden would drop this much money on a music video that will never really get played anywhere except possibly VH1 Classic. It isn't like MTV is going to play this in between Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber videos....that is when MTV actually ever plays a video.
"? If not, then I highly recommend seeing it if you are a fan of the band. I think even folks who aren't particularly interested in Rush, but enjoy a good documentary would get a kick out of it. With excellent archival footage, interviews with the band and testimonials from Gene Simmons of Kiss (who unbeknownst to me actually gave Rush their big break in America by taking them out on tour on their first record), Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters, Vinnie Paul of Pantera, Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, Kirk Hammett of Metallica and others, you get a good look at the band from their humble beginnings in Canada up until their last release, 2007's 
. 
and 
for many years and enjoy them, but about two months ago really started to dig deeper into their catalog. This may or may not be related to my current obsession with another power trio known as 
(which at the time of my purchase was maddeningly only available in MP3 format on iTunes...nothing irks me more than paying their higher prices and then getting charged sales tax on top of that) and then moved on to their 
. The first album is great just like the two that followed it, but I was struck by how many songs from the self-titled that I actually remembered from the early 90's when it was released. "Lost In Germany" and "Black Flag" are particular stand outs, but the whole album is pretty great.
, 
and 
from their catalog which leaves me missing only 5 of their 12 studio albums. What I'm finding with King's X is that they are one of those bands who might have a few misses in their catalog, but overall they are a band who I want to hear all of their recorded work because I will at least like it a little bit. They are often heralded by rock crticis as a phenomenal band that is criminally underrated. I will certainly agree that they are a phenomenal band, but I can also see how their music has never quite reached the masses. Back when they first debuted and were receiving the most attention, they simply weren't metal enough for the metal crowd and weren't mainstream enough for audiences who eat up whatever is played on rock radio. They seem to have done alright with their niche though and people I know who love King's X are diehard fans. While I'm not quite diehard, with a few more spins of these records, I think I'll just about be there.
tour (which is often criticized as one of their, if not the, worst Bruce Dickinson-era records, but personally I love it) with 
. I think it is fair to say that when Maiden tours, that is the type of setlist that the majority of fans want to see, so it wasn't a big shock that when they announced that this tour would concentrate more heavily on albums released in the '00s that most fans were disappointed. Personally, I think 
, 
and 
are all great records and have no problem hearing songs from them played live. Would I prefer a more '80s centric song selection? Of course I would, but the fact of the matter is that Iron Maiden is awesome live, so I'm happy to see them when they come to town regardless of what era of their career they are concentrating on. [For the record, I saw Maiden when they toured on A Matter Of Life And Death and they played that album in it's entirety followed by four or five classic songs. That was not a fun show and while the band defends the decision, I still maintain it was a bit much to shove a brand new album down the audience's throat before they had had any time to get familiar with it.]
) were all incredible. "Fear Of The Dark" and "Iron Maiden" closed out the set and the encore was the three undeniable classics "The Number Of The Beast", "Hallowed Be Thy Name" and "Running Free" (which I'm still humming in my head two days later). It is truly hard to believe Bruce Dickinson is in his early 50's the way he moves about the stage, but I guess all those years of fencing are keeping him in shape. Speaking of the stage, it was designed to look like a space station or spaceship which is in keeping with the theme of the artwork for the new album. The light show was fun and there were plenty of cool Eddie backdrops. And of course it wouldn't be a proper Maiden show without an appearance from their mascot Eddie who came out and chased the band around the stage (I use the term "chased" loosely because it implies that the person in the Eddie suit had a degree of mobility which they most certainly didn't). Another stand out moment (and perhaps THE stand out moment) was when Dickinson had the crowd make the devil horns and raise their hands to Heaven in salute to Ronnie James Dio. Definitely a touching and happy moment for every metalhead in attendance.
, 
, 
and 
are all fantastic albums from beginning to end and since both night's setlists drew heavily from those albums, both nights were subsequently absolute winners.
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