Alice In Chains Listening Party

I haven't even recapped the Rocklahoma event and I'm already going to new events in LA. Monday night I got a text from a friend inviting me out to a listening party for Alice In Chains' new album, Black Gives Way To Blue, scheduled for a September release.

I landed back in LA Tuesday morning and then that night 4 of us went out to the listening party. The set up was nice, free open bar, free In 'N Out Burgers, and was set up in what looked like a modern multimedia theater. Two small screens flanking both sides of the stage and a very large screen in the middle.

I had never been to a listening party so I didn't know what to expect. As we walked in they had the video for "A Looking In View" playing on the big screen over and over again. One of either the marketing or label people got up and stage, welcomed everybody and then they played the CD with accompanying still visuals on the large screen.

The artwork accompanying the songs was distorted views of reality. My favorite was of an eclipse of the Moon covering the Sun, however the Moon was much larger than the Sun which is not a perspective you can see from Earth. Other distortions included two people sitting around a table with a child standing on the table that looked to be only 10" tall. Very fitting artwork for this band.

The CD is fairly steady consisting of heavy, dark material and material that started in the acoustic world. You would never notice that Layne Staley isn't on this material. Will DuVall, their new singer blends perfectly with Jerry Cantrell, and this material is fidelity wise an evolution of the band although the songs may not be.

After the CD the screen lifted and revealed Alice In Chains on stage in an acoustic setting. They were a five piece featuring Derek Sherinian, from Dream Theater fame, on keyboards. They ran through three songs and then left the stage. One classic, and the performance premiere of two of their new tracks.

Alice In Chains
July 14, 2009
The Ricardo Montalban Theater
CD Listening Party

Down In A Whole
Your Decision
Black Gives Way To Blue

They took our phones at the door so unfortunately I don't have any pictures from the event itself, although I was able to get a poster promoting the album, and a guitar pick.

My Pictures are on the Dream Theater Tour Site

I just saw that many of pictures I took on Friday have been used on DT's official tour site.
http://progressivenation2008.com/tour/photos

They pulled my pictures from my Flickr stream.
http://flickr.com/photos/drumdave/tags/progressivenation/

This is a pretty cool way for bands to interact with fans and use content from the audience. Let's hope more bands do this in the future.

Also since I didn't post it last year, here are a couple of picture with me and Dream Theater from the meet and greet last year.

Dream Theater at Gibson Amphitheatre

This past Friday I saw the opening night of the Progressive Nation 2008 tour featuring Three, Between The Buried And Me, Opeth and Dream Theater. One of Jacki's friends flew into town with her husband and son for the show. So we left the wives at home and headed out for a night of Progressive metal music.

I was only familiar with Dream Theater so I didn't know what to expect from the other openers, although I had heard good things about Opeth. The first band was 3, or Three, I saw it written both ways. These guys were great, and combined progressive metal with a latin / fusion flair. After their set I went and bought their most recent cd from the merch booth. After doing some research it seems these guys have been around awhile although I don't know how they've continued to stay below the radar. Do not miss these guys, one opening band you'll regret not seeing years from now.

The next band up was Between The Buried and Me. Not bad but not great. I'm not into the cookie monster vocals but overall the music and the set didn't bother me. After seeing 3 though it made this bands set fairly forgettable.

Opeth hit the stage next and had a great reaction from the audience. I hadn't heard any Opeth material but the crowd seemed fairly familiar with the material. This was another set that was good but not great. I did like how they combined elements of metal, and the more atmospheric moods of someone like Pink Floyd or even the softer side of Sabbath from the Ozzy era. Unfortunately I don't see myself running out and buying an Opeth cds.

This marked my 11th time to see Dream Theater and they were the only band on this bill I was here to see. I would still rather have an "Evening With" set but all things considered they played a good length set. Although my seats were better last summer, 1st row center, I was close to the stage and could hear the music and vocals much better this tour. Last year all I could hear were the subs on the front row.

I also enjoyed the set list on this tour more than last year's, and I must give Mike Portnoy credit for bringing a show that only had one common song from last year's tour and even comparing it to the other two shows I've seen in the LA area nearly zero repeats from tour to tour.

Dream Theater
May 2, 2004
Gibson Amphitheatre
Los Angeles, CA

(Intro Video / 2008: An Ant Odyssey)
In The Presence Of Enemies Pt. 1
Beyond This Life
Blind Faith
Forsaken
Erotomania
Voices
The Ministry Of Lost Souls

Encore
(The Dark Nintendo Night - intermission)
Medley:
I. Metropolis (w/ extended solos)
II. Learning To Live
III. A Change Of Seasons: The Crimson Sunset

The highlights for me were Forsaken, and Erotomania into Voices. For the encore break they showed The Dark Nintendo Night clip that has been making the rounds on YouTube. This is a mashup of our favorite character Mario from Nintendo fame disguised as Mike Portnoy running through Mario Bros world with the music of The Dark Eternal Night. I had seen this before but based on the reaction of the crowd I think this was new to most. It brought a much needed sense of humor to an otherwise serious night of music.

The Progressive Nation web site links in fans photos and video so with any luck you will see the photos I took published on the official Progressive Nation 2008 Photos Page.

Now below is The Dark Nintendo Night for your viewing pleasure.

Dream Theater goes Platinum

I just got back from seeing Dream Theater at the Gibson Amphitheater in Universal City. For this event I bought the DT Platinum experience which included a meet and greet, a picture with the band and a great seat for the show, more on that later.

Being a Friday afternoon I ended up leaving work early in the event of a worst case scenario with traffic. Fortunately it wasn't that bad and only took about an hour to get to the venue. Once at the venue the DT fans began to congregate outside of the gates and then the Platinum pass holders ended up finding one another.

I picked up my backstage pass around 7pm and headed into the venue. The meet and greet was nothing special. They ended up having about 50 people backstage and just ran us through. First run through was to get a picture. No idea how mine turned out, the person taking the photo said the shots looked fun and I could tell Mike Portnoy was having fun in the pic so I'm hoping it will be a fun picture.

The second run through was to get an item signed. I brought a copy of their most recent cd and had the band sign their picture in the booklet. They also gave us a signed 8x10 of the band as we left the meet and greet. All in all I probably had 90 seconds with the band. If you are wondering if the Platinum pass is worth it, I would say no and stick with the gold ticket that will get you a seat in the first few rows. Maybe it was just LA... The one nice moment during the signing was when the guy in front of me asked Mike what was in the setlist tonight and I said don't tell him. Mike laughed and thanked me so he could tell the other guy he can't say because of me.

Outside of the meet and greet I went and purchased their newest official bootleg of Deep Purple's Made In Japan. I passed on the other merch and made it to my seat. The seat was second row dead center. Can't get much better than that. I caught the last half of the second opener Redemption, featuring Ray Alder from Fates Warning.

During the set break a guy sitting first row center said the subs were too loud and he was going to move back to the second row. I ended up swapping seats with him and ended up front row dead center. The best seat in the house. At this point the camera and I were ready for the show to start.

Once the band came out they had a very clean stage with giant ants hanging off amps, sitting on the ground and hanging on Jordan's keyboard rig. Pretty wild and tied into the theme of the new album cover. They ran through some of the new cd, avoided their hits, and picked some deep tracks from previous albums. A very creative setlist. Although the sound wasn't great due to the subwoofer problem, you could tell the band was spot on and were as tight as ever. At one point I saw Jordan give John Myung a sign of approval after John nailed the closing of a song on bass.

Highlights of the set for me were Surrounded, Lines In The Sand, The Spirit Carries On, and from the medley Learning To Live and Octavarium.

Dream Theater
July 27, 2007
Gibson Amphitheater
Los Angeles, CA

Intro Movie
Constant Motion
Panic Attack
Scarred
Surrounded
The Dark Eternal Night
Keyboard Solo
Lines In The Sand
Misunderstood
The Spirit Carries On
In The Presence Of Enemies

Encore
Medley
i. Trial Of Tears
ii. Finally Free
iii. Learning To Live
iv. In The Name Of God
v. Octavarium

Dream Theater July 27, 2007

Dream Theater Show #2

Sold out show number 2. Tonight was much better than night number 1.

Set 1
The Root Of All Evil
Another Won
A Fortune In Lies
Take The Time
The Mirror
Lie
Raise The Knife
Strange Deja Vu
About To Crash(reprise)
Losing Time/Grand Finale

Intermission

Set 2
As I Am
These Walls
I Walk Beside You
Sacrificed Sons
Octavarium

encore:
Sheep (Pink Floyd cover)
Wait For Sleep
Learning To Live

The show was so much better than last night in Anaheim. Even the performances of the same songs were much cleaner tonight. Terry was hoping for Strange Deja-Vu and Wait For Sleep / Learning To Live, he got them both. I was waiting for Lie, I got it. Plus we got to hear Raise the Knife, a b-side neither of us had seen performed live as well as Sheep by Pink Floyd. Total suprise.

Fortune In Lies, Take The Time, and Mirror -> Lie back to back was probably the best set of DT back to back songs I've seen them perform.

Dream Theater Show #1

With the continued spirit of multiple Dream Theater show experiences Terry flew to Los Angeles last night for a weekend of DT. We actually had not planned to go to the Thursday night show in Anaheim, but with some hopeful thinking and a little luck we were able to catch the show last night.

Terry landed at LAX at 7:10, got out to curbside pickup about 7:20, of course it took me an hour to drive the 6 miles to the airport. We made a judgement call and decided what the hell, the venue is only 40 miles away and the show starts at 8. Why not?

45 minutes of 80 mph and we get to the venue shortly after 8. Score the sweet seats, the last two seats on the very last row :-), (I think we made it a sell out) and get to our seats about 20 seconds before the band hit the stage. Perfect timing.



Setlist:
Set 1
The Root of All Evil
Never Enough
Another Won (Majesty)
Afterlife
Under a Glass Moon
Innocence Faded (1st time played in 10 years)
Just Let Me Breathe
Home

Set 2
The Glass Prison
This Dying Soul
The Answer Lies Within
Sacrificed Sons
Octavarium

Encore
In the Name of God

Nice, clean venue. Horrible sound. Surprisingly interesting set list, but a very long show that lost both Terry and I about 2 hours in. Show clocked in right at 3 hours with a 15 minute intermission.

Tonight we will see them at the Pantages in LA on the 7th row center so it should be a completely different experience.