bobafred

I was all excited to go see Clutch last night, but when we got there we discovered that the show had been sort of canceled. Thankfully, we weren’t the group of people that drove six hours to be there. It seems the lead singer was having vocal issues, so they performed as their instrumental alter-ego The Bakerton Group. The security guards had a sign that laid out our options:

1. Enter the venue and enjoy The Bakerton Group.
2. Get a refund from the point of purchase.

We went with option 2. Hopefully Ticketmaster will be awesome and getting a refund will be a piece of cake. I know, not likely.

But, the night wasn’t a total loss. We decided to head over to The Highlander for drinks and some Women of Ninja Warrior. That show makes me laugh.

Tags: bakerton group, center stage, clutch, highlander, music, ninja warrior

The Sword’s new album, Gods of the Earth comes out today. As of right when I hit the publish button, it’s not available in the Amazon MP3 store or eMusic, but is on iTunes. I suggest you find it somewhere and buy it.

Tags: gods of the earth, metal, music, the sword

The Sword - Age of Winters

Plain and simple, The Sword is metal. I mean, just look at the track list: Celestial Crown, Barael’s Blade, The Horned Goddess, March Of The Lor, etc. All of that is metal. My favorite tracks are Winter’s Wolves, where at the end there are wolves howling (metal) and Iron Swan, which starts slowish and then just explodes with heavy (again, metal). While these stand out as my favorites, I also enjoy listening to this album from top to bottom. That’s kinda rare for me, so another reason this album kicks full ass.

Also, they were the best show I went to this year, which means they beat out the Deftones and The Shins — both excellent shows.

Here’s why:

1. It was a < $15 show.
2. A bunch of people from work, that also love The Sword, were there.
3. During Winter’s Wolves, everyone howled at the end.
4. Iron Swan was awesome live.
5. They played some new stuff from a new album that is likely to come out at some point in the future.
6. I bought a t-shirt that has a skull on it.
7. Most importantly, Lori was there and she loved it as much as I did.

Finally, this album actually came out in 2006, but like the title says, I bought it this year.

Lori, Robert, Sue, and I attended the Matt Pond PA show last night at The Loft. I very much enjoyed it. There was a fair mix of new and old tunes. When the crowd started to yell out song suggestions, I went with Athabasca, because it’s a funny word to yell and also a good song. While I appreciate the extra rockingness of the latest version of the band, I do miss the cello some. And, not just because the former cello player was hot. Still, they’re awesome.

Buy the new album, Last Light. And, when (not if) you do, get it from iTunes because it also includes the If You Want Blood EP. I picked up Several Arrows Later from the merch table.

Also, check out the haiku review of the show by Eskimo Bliss.

Here’s what’s been going on, in an unordered list:

• We had a very successful APWBWGTTD event on Tuesday night. There were old people there. There were new people there. I’d say most people had fun. Photos.
• Lori and I went to see The Shins last night. We had excellent seats and they sounded great live. One of the best sounding live shows I’ve ever been to, I’d say. Plus they played Sea Legs, so I was happy.
• New SDXE stuff was deployed.

I guess that’s it.

I’ve used Winamp for many years. I think Cyanbane first introduced me to it way back in college days, probably around ‘98. It’s better than iTunes. There I said it.

The default skin for the new version is pretty nice looking (and gigantic). Usually I use a compact style theme and let the player sit top-right on my desktop with a little transparency, but I figured I’d give the new look a go. I like it so far. This version also adds album art support and other things I probably won’t use much. Basically, they’ve just continued the solid music listening experience. That’s good.

Really, the best part about Winamp has always been the global hotkeys. Being able to pause the music without the app having focus is great — especially at work. I seem to remember this used to be a 3rd party plugin, but has been part of the default install for awhile now.

Now, if only there was a Linux port…