Concert: Goblin

Last night we had the insane privilege of seeing Goblin perform live.  Claudio Simonetti is still out there touring the world with his amazing music catalog and seeing Goblin live has been on my very short bucket list for forever.  Thanks to Jenna, we did it.  And it was absolutely incredible.  It was a perfect venue for this show, and it was a full house.  Hearing all their classic hits was blissful.  Jenna even got the opportunity to briefly talk with Claudio.  Blissful.

Click here to listen to some clips over at my IG.

Halloween III Screening With LIVE Music

Live music by Alan Howarth, that is.  At the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville.

Man, last night was quite the evening.  We had the amazing pleasure of watching Halloween III:  Season of the Witch on the big screen, as composer Alan Howarth augmented his and Carpenter's brilliant score, playing along on stage.  It was bliss.  

After the movie, he spoke about his insanely interesting life and then fielded questions from the crowd.  After that, he did a little guitar playing to cues he put together from his film scores.  It was ludicrous.  What a night.

Some photos below, with two short videos at the bottom.

Night After Night

Critically acclaimed film director, producer, and screenwriter M. Night Shyamalan will host an evening to celebrate one of the most successful collaborations between a contemporary film director and a composer—Shyamalan and the Emmy® and GRAMMY®–winner, James Newton Howard. This performance highlights Howard’s haunting scores that became part of the identity of eight of Shyamalan’s eerie, mind-bending thrillers—The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village, The Last Airbender, and more. Howard will lead Your Philadelphia Orchestra with special appearances by pianist Jean Yves Thibaudet, violinist Gil Shaham, and cellist Maya Beiser in this incredible one-night-only event!

Click below for tickets...

Concert: Tangerine Dream

Never thought I'd be hearing anything by Tangerine Dream live in a concert hall.  Never.  Ever.

Thanks to a truly amazing gift, last night was one of those magical nights that becomes a permanent memory.  So many incredible songs blasting out over the most perfect sound system.  It was unreal.

Click below to hear a couple cues.

Better Late Than Never

A current theme in my life:  Late is definitely and absolutely better than Never (you might recall this old blog post.)

This past weekend I got to experience Alice Cooper being beheaded in a guillotine, the Satanic doo-wop sounds of Twin Temple, Behemoth's Blackened death metal, and Danzig.  We drove two hours to Scranton Friday afternoon right after work to see Alice Cooper, where he and Rob Zombie were doing their Freaks on Parade tour.  If you told me back when I was watching him on the Muppet Show as a kid that I would one day see him in person, my young bashful self would probably have silently thought you were bananas.

At 75 years of age, he has the exact same voice and an insane amount of energy.  His set was absolutely incredible and the crowd, and us, ate it up.  He did so many of his classic songs, ending with the greatest version of School's Out that I've ever heard.  We blew out of there before Rob Zombie took stage and headed back where a summer night sky lit up the entire way home with massive flashes of lighting.  

On Saturday, we headed to Atlantic City to the Danzig show.  Twin Temple and Behemoth were amazing opening acts (and polar opposites celebrating a common theme - Satan).  I think my biggest surprise was how much I loved Behemoth.  It's harsher than anything I have ever listened to ... extreme metal.  

I've only recently become familiar with the sound of Danzig, but just when he was singing with the Misfits.  I can't think of a better way to encounter Danzig for the first time - a live concert with a crowd that worshipped him.

Below are some photos and some videos from this wonderful weekend.  

And for anyone curious about Behemoth, here's a video of theirs of a song that was played at the concert.  Definitely my favorite song by them in the set...

Concert: Ghost

We saw Ghost for the first time in concert last Friday night, and it was bananas.  I was curious what the crowd would be like.  I didn't really know what Ghost's target audience was.  I figured there would be plenty of Goth folk, and a sea of black attire (and I was right).  Happy to report that Ghost's demographics include literally every age.  We saw small children, and we saw some older people whom I first thought had made some kind of grievous error and would soon be asking when Neil Diamond would be coming out.  We saw costumes and loads of face paint.  Someone even had antlers on their hat.  And everyone seemed to be jittery with excitement.  Imagine an audience filled with the Hellfire club from Stranger Things.   

The opening act was Amon Amarth, a Swedish death metal band that's been around since the early 90s.  Their stage props were so impressive, and they were the perfect warm up for Ghost.  

For their song Put Your Back into the Oar, they ordered us to sit in our seats... and row.  And we did.  We rowed and laughed and cheered.  Then it was time for Ghost.

I've never seen such a beautiful production.  There was a theatricality there that was electric.  Hearing all of our favorite songs live was utterly insane.  And Tobias Forge is hilarious, so there was an extremely fun atmosphere behind it all.  It was a hot night too, so I found myself wondering what it must be like performing for hours under those heavy costumes and head gear.  They never slowed down.  It was an exceptional show.

Below are some photos and some video from that night.  We will definitely be seeing Ghost again.  

Concert: Das Mörtal, Dance With The Dead, And Magic Sword

My first blog post about Dance with the Dead was back in 2014.  I've been a huge fan ever since.  And I certainly never really thought I'd see them in concert.  Prior to seeing John Carpenter live in 2016 (which was more of a sit-down theater event), I hadn't been to a concert since the late 90's, when I had the chance to see Juno Reactor in Philadelphia.  

Last night's concert was at Underground Arts, a small venue with the perfect atmosphere for something like this.  Every location and angle in the joint was a great spot, and we happened to get there early, so we found a table off to the right of the stage that had a terrific view.  So we stayed there for the opening act Das Mörtal and for Dance with the Dead, but moved towards the back of the place for Magic Sword.  And that proved to be the best decision as I had no idea Magic Sword was such a visual band.  Three hooded guys (assumption) with glowing visors and an actual illuminated magic (assumption) sword, which would be raised like He-Man's.  The crowd, and us, went nuts every time.  

The opening act of Das Mörtal turned out to be incredible.  I was unfamiliar with this guy and it was the perfect way to get the crowd excited.  I recall sitting painfully through the opening act for Juno Reactor.  And I think I just assumed that all opening acts were necessary evils.  But when Das Mörtal finished his set, we were bummed.

But then it happened.  Dance with the Dead came out and began.  And it was glorious.  Like TRULY glorious.  I'm a huge fan of their lighter stuff (like their song Oracle), but they played their heavier stuff last night, and I have no complaints at all.  None.  At one point I became aware of the fabric of my shirt vibrating from the giant speaker nearby.  Glorious.

So they played their amazing set, with a ton of songs I didn't even recognize.  The crowd went crazy during every single note.  And then it was over, and they disappeared off stage.  We all went nuts again.  This, we were convinced, would be the moment where the crowd demanded an encore (are encores even a thing anymore? [John Carpenter did an encore]).  But then the crew started taking apart the equipment, and we knew Dance with the Dead wasn't coming back.  So they start playing some house music and the lights come back on, so we got up and moved around to check the place out and get some more drinks (this was a common theme [the drinks part]). 

So we see some movement up front and the lights go dark.  We are dead center in the back of the place, leaning comfortably against the back control booth.  With our drinks.  Then Magic Sword appears.  I posted one blog entry featuring their music, back in 2017, so I wasn't extremely familiar with their work.  I knew I liked their sound back then, but wasn't expecting the visuals of the hooded figures.  The band members consist of The Keeper (mask illuminated in red; keyboard, audio-visual), The Seer (mask illuminated in blue; guitar), and The Weaver (mask illuminated in yellow; drums) (Thanks, Wikipedia).  

Cloaked characters, playing synthwave, with neon strips of light peering out from black hoods;  all three Knights from a Digital Medieval Age (I made that up).  Now I don't know if it was the spirits, or their music, or the fact that I'm a theatrical guy and was in heaven witnessing this, but Magic Sword is my new favorite thing as of tonight. 

I took off from work today to recover.  My voice is shot from yelling.  And I may or may not have a hangover for the first time since the late 90's.