Heavy Metal Documentary

For those interested, able and curious about the heavy metal sub-culture, please check out Sam Dunn's "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey". This is an excellent documentary that looks at the some of the social issues surrounding metal, and is highly recommended. Sam Dunn is an anthropologist by training and a heavy metal fan. This makes for a somewhat sympathetic, but insightful look into the world of metal. Recommended for those who carry typical misconceptions about the heavy metal scene.

However the most important aspect of metal - the music - is never discussed. Apart from a very brief talk about how metal grew out of blues + punk, and why metal singers (that's a funny phrase) tend to be operatic and higher pitched (this is because opera singers had to perform in massive auditoriums and thus needed to be able to project their voices to the back - thereby they had to amplify their voices. A microphone is nothing but a method of amplification. Put the two together and you have amplification squared. Now, you need that kind of voice, because the guitars are going loud, fast and with a heavy bass.)

For a somewhat deeper look into the origins of what is called "thrash metal", which is combination of punk and the more classic rock inspired british heavy metal of the early '80s, check this thrash metal documentary out. It's in Swedish; however, most of it consists of some of the legends of thrash metal talking about how they grew up as musicians.

Also a very interesting theory in Sam Dunn's film. Metal is mostly a boy's club. Less so today perhaps but still...anyway, one of the more interesting ideas put out in the film is that glam bands (with the make up and the big hair etc) came about as a result of the consistent leather-and-chains sort of look that most metal bands in the late 70s, early 80s had adopted. The best way to "show" your "manliness" was to become partly a woman...it is twisted logic, but it makes sense because really how much more leather can a guy wear?

Scream for meeeeeeeee

I went to heaven last night. It is pointless to write how good Maiden are live, suffice it to say my expectations were high and they went beyond that. It is almost machine like, their ability to play live. No mistakes, no mess ups, everything and everyone working perfectly together. Apart from their faces, it was impossible to tell this was a 50ish average aged band...

Dickinson was, as always, amusing. He has an ability to interact with the crowd which I've seen with very few other frontmen. My favourite part? "When we were in Europe, MTV came to us and said "We've just remembered something called heavy metal exists, and would like to do a show with you"; we told them to stick it up their ass! (Crowd cheers lustily) We do NOT need any favours, all right! Especially from people who don't understand our music!" (Crowd cheers more). Ha ha, sticking it to MTV.

And, this lovely dig at Metallica, who are struggling with their alcohol addictions (at least Hetfield is). Bruce Dickinson was talking about the celebrity culture that's grown up these days, and ends his little speech with "We don't need rehab! Beer and rock and roll, that's all we want!" I don't know how many got the joke, though.

Surprisingly, not a single word of profanity, (unless you consider ass profane) was uttered by anyone on stage throughout.

Maiden sometimes in their songs will get all their guitarists together in one tight circle playing, and it is such an amazing visual spectacle, apart from their music. I had to constantly remind myself that they were also playing, and there was this constant battle in my mind whether to hear or watch.

Favourite parts - surprisingly, 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. When they started that song, I was scratching my head thinking a 14 minute song has no place in a 2 1/2 hour live show. Boy was I wrong. It was unbelievable, how wonderful it sounded. There was electricity in the air when they played that...

Revelations was very powerful, and it was done very well I thought.

Of course Hallowed be thy name was an almost religious experience, and I will never forget it. Dickinson is something else when he sings that, and it was a very special 7 minutes.

They also got some fans to get up on stage and sing the chorus to Heaven Can Wait, which was a very warm fuzzy moment, for me anyway.

It is also nice to see how much the band enjoys playing live. They were smiling and running around like little kids on stage. This is one of the reasons they're so good live - they really love playing in front of people.

Things I didn't like -

Can I play with madness. Blech, I hate that song. Plus it didn't sound good at all live. Or maybe this is personal bias, I dunno.

How the sound kept cutting out of Adrian Smith's solos. Given that his solos are of such high quality, I was really looking forward to hearing it live. The constant cutting out was irritating.

Lauren Harris, Steve Harris' daughter. She wasn't in tune, and apart from one song, the other songs were all pretty pedestrian stuff. Made me wonder where the genes went.

That's it! I'm still in a daze, and am slowly coming to grips with the fact that I saw Iron Maiden live...

One last thing - all the white crowd, and it was mostly white apart from some Indians and fewer latino's, was of Southern (USA) origin. I mean, all. There was not one American who did not speak with a pronounced drawl. This was pretty interesting...and Maiden play only on the coasts of this country. Maybe they should think about going somewhere south, seems like that's where their fan base is.

One for the family album

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsuBTfaE9K4&feature=related

So, the show has ended.

The front man calls for the lights to turn on the crowd, calls for them to yell, and the whole band turns away from the crowd, grin and a photograph is taken.

"Goodnight, Sweden. Thank you! That's something for our grandchildren!"

Reason # 34478 for liking Iron Maiden.

Maiden Maiden Maiden Maiden

My most favourite band of all time, and I'm going to watch them tomorrow in the flesh!

Reasons why I like them are too many to list, but see the following video, or at least the first couple of minutes.

Bruce Dickinson gives it his all, on "Remember Tomorrow", a song about reincarnation. It's very mystical - the lyrics, at least for me. They've also changed up the song a bit to fit the three guitar framework.

They're all fifty-ish or so, and still have plans for the future! I mean, which band after doing so much for so long and earning so much, still plans for the future? The Rolling Stones? We know the Stones tour when they need money...I mean who else does this? On a consistent basis?

Their output through much of the 90's was sort of average, though at times very good. Recently, and especially with their latest album 'A matter of life and death' (with the exception of two songs) , I think they've made their best songs. Check out "Brighter than a thousand suns". It's pretty obvious what the song's about if you know a little about WW II...

And they still play to a football stadium full of fans younger than some of the songs they play? They are still relevant after so many years for a new generation. Heck, I'm part of that new generation.

And I'm going to see them LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!

Strong winds, Magic Mist

http://www.mythimedia.org/Achilles_age_of_metal.html

Dylan doesn't get it, but Manowar does. The idea of Achilles that is.

I always thought Dylan was pretentious and overrated. ha ha

Zeppelin express "a melancholic reflection about the futility of war, a nostalgic yearning for home, unusually expressed by means of a powerful sound and of a hammering use of drums"

Jag Panzer suffer from "a hasty and approximate use of rhyme"

Warlord make a technical mistake

and Manowar that most ridiculed band
"...imply a careful and scrupulous reading of the Iliad. The songwriter has focused his attention essentially on the crucial fight between Hector and Achilles, has paraphrased some passages of the poem adapting them to the melodic structure with a certain fluency and partly reinterpreting them, but never altering or upsetting Homer’s storyline."

Oh Achilles let thy arrows fly
Into the wind, where eagles cross the sky

The Many and the few

In the beginning there were many

While the many became one of two

There were left behind a few

Who would often get asked, "Well, what about you?"

Hypothesis Testing

If you put leisure time on the y axis

and # blog posts on the x

you will obtain a downward sloping curve.

From the amount of recent activity on any blog therefore, you should be able to roughly guess at leisure time available to the blogger.

So, does this mean Tyler Cowen and Paul Krugman have a lot of free time on their hands?

;-)

Drunk a lot of wine and Im feeling fine

So I got my first mystery anon commentator and Im all excited suddenly. I have a few questions for mystery anon:

(a) Do you not like your name?

(b) Have you done silly embarrasing things online?

(c) Do you eat children for breakfast?

(d) Do you enjoy listening to Arthur Brown's "Fire"?

(e) Have you dressed up in white and walked around at midnight spooking people?

Check this out, by the way, I mean everyone, not just mystery anon number 1. This is Arthur Brown, with "Fire". Done back in 1968. Genuinely scary, if I was kid this would have freaked me out a bit.