The Zombieslayer

No. Queen is not my favorite band. They’re not even in my top 20 of all-time.

However, I will say this. When they’re good, they’re really good.

Queen, for all their records, had only two that are listenable the whole way through - Night At The Opera, and Innuendo. Sadly, shortly after Innuendo was released, Freddie Mercury died.

His death didn’t hit me like a ton of bricks though because I had known about it for several years before he died. There were rumors at the time that Rob Halford, Freddie Mercury, and Perry Ferrell all had AIDS.

I dismissed the Halford and Ferrell rumors as rumors, but knew the one about Mercury was true. He had stopped touring for years and people actually had the decency to stop taking pictures of him, for he looked horrible. In his last year, I heard he rarely left his surroundings.

As for their music, when they’re good, they’re really good. Night At The Opera is without a doubt one of the best albums of all-time. I remember in the late 80s and early 90s, I’d be listening to the album and there was always some ass clown who would say “how could you listen to that? It’s just so weird!” Then after that stupid Wayne’s World movie came out, those same ass clowns would be saying “oh! It’s that song from Wayne’s World! I love that song!” You see why us pretentious critics sometimes look down on people’s taste in music?

The movie Highlander was everything that was right about the 80s. You had a hero that was genuinely cool, not some “reluctant hero” from the 90s who’s cynical and selfish, and only becomes a hero out of necessity. (As you can probably tell, I hated the 90s and everything about it).

Queen did the soundtrack and the songs on it were some of the best movie songs ever written. The song Who Wants To Live Forever? builds up into a huge crescendo, then Freddie Mercury tragically utters “our love must die.” It’s like you finally bed that person of your dreams and right after climaxing together, that person turns to you and says “it’s not going to work.”

Queen and Freddie Mercury have a way of pounding your heartstrings like no other band before them. Their music is timeless, and transcends perfectly into whatever time period you play them. They are without labels, and it’s a good thing. They’ve played literally dozens of types of music in their career.

I’m well-aware that they’ve reformed with a new singer, but just have no desire to see them in their current form. I’m sure the guy’s a good guy and a good fit, but I’d rather not have my memories of this band altered in any way. You simply don’t tamper with something that works.

So here’s to Queen, and the memory of Freddie Mercury. May he live forever.

As you may already know, H.I.M. is one of my favorite bands.  I got their newest CD Venus Doom the weekend it hit the stores, own all their CDs,
but missed seeing them at the Projeck: Revolution show.  Luckily, the second time around this tour in San Francisco, I got a chance to see them with fellow pretentious critic Kate and two other beautiful friends of mine from the softer gender.

Bleeding Through opened for them, and they were mostly forgettable except for their keyboardist Marta, who looks like she just put some clothes on after a Penthouse photoshoot.  Wow! She could also play.  But their music was nothing spectacular.  Kate told me she had already seen them this year when she went with fellow pretentious critic Badman to see Marilyn Manson and Slayer.

They played a short set, then left, leaving HIM’s six or seven roadies to design a strange set - rugs and stained glass lanterns, with weird lighting fixtures.  I was thinking it looked tacky until the lights went off and it actually looked pretty good.

H.I.M came on and the crowd went wild.  They played mostly songs from their newer two albums, neglecting entirely Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights, my favorite H.I.M album.

As a band, they were tight and hit all the right notes, but their sound engineer needs to be fired, ASAP! He was horrible, horrible.   This was my fifth concert this year, and of the major acts, H.I.M had the worst sound.  As big as they are (they’re all over the charts in Europe), they should have had bigger sound.  The ladies who went with me agreed, so it wasn’t just me.

The Warfield is a good venue, so that’s not an excuse.  I’ve seen Judas Priest there and they were perfect.

They did play Bleed Well, my favorite song from Venus Doom.  H.I.M knew how hard-core their fans were, so they played a lot of more obscure stuff, non-singles.  It’s always a pleasure to see a band do that.  I get sick of seeing bands play only their singles, and it’s usually their singles I get sick of first anyways.

Besides the sound, ’twas a good show.  Ville Valo has a gorgeous voice and Linde played some sick leads.  Gas is one heck of a drummer as well.  He did things live he doesn’t do in the albums.  They all have wonderful stage presence, and you could tell they liked being there.

After the show, I was in the bathroom and some guy in his 60s (probably a Warfield veteran) asked who the singer was.  I told him Ville Valo from Finland.  He said he had a beautiful voice and that they’ll be around for awhile.  Always a good thing to hear someone you could tell who’s been to hundreds of shows say something like that.

Here are the last ten albums I listened to.  I don’t like listening to individual songs.  I’ll listen to the whole album.

I got this idea from Just a Cool Cat, so giving credit to where it’s due…

01. The Killers - Hot Fuss
02. Alcatrazz - No Parole for Rock & Roll
03. Manowar - Gods of War
04. The Birthday Massacre - Nothing & Nowhere
05. HIM - Razorblade Romance
06. Dimmu Borgir - Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia
07. Bon Jovi - New Jersey
08. Nightwish - Century Child
09. Cradle of Filth - Bitter Suites to Succubi
10. Leaves Eyes - Vinland Sega

You don’t have to give me ten, but what’s on your speakers right now?

This is just for fun. Think of some songs you like that weren’t big hits that should have been. I’ll start with a few…

1. Simple Minds - Someone, Somewhere, in Summertime. Great song, but nobody’s heard it. They scored a huge hit with “Don’t You Forget About Me,” which is a song that I can’t stand. I know everyone liked that song but I don’t.

2. Tori Amos - Winter. This is the best song she ever wrote, and I love Tori so that’s saying something. Yet, it never was a hit. What’s wrong with people’s tastes?

3. Beautiful Creatures - Wish. Great ballad, but that band never made it and I don’t think they’re even around anymore.
4. H.I.M - Love You Like I Do. This is probably Mrs. Z’s and my song. We have several “songs,” but this is probably the one. H.I.M is big at Hot Topic, but they’ve only had one Gold album in America, and it wasn’t even their best album.

5. Slayer - War Ensemble. Slayer writes pretty songs the whole family can sing along to. Yet, they’ve never had a hit single. I don’t get it.

OK friends. Let’s hear some opinions.

So, you want a review of the BFD festival? Fine, I’ll give it to you. Let me first disclose my prejudices. I’m a Metal-head, and have always been one. Hate Top-40 with a passion. Despise it. The last thing I want to listen to is some overused melody singing songs that the “artist” didn’t even write about their boyfriend/girlfriend. Jeez, speaking of putting one’s brain on cruise control.

Anyways, the Badman’s date called in and couldn’t get the day off work, so he called me last week and asked if I wanted to go to an all-day alternative music festival. Being the stud he is, I assume she’s probably hot, so bummer for him having to take me instead.

When we got there, a young lady with a bone in her nose tried to get me to buy a magazine about having a revolution. I’m sorry, but as bad as the current regime is, it’s probably better than something led by a lady with a bone in her nose.

The festival had the usual malcontents for an alternative musical festival - Emos, Punks, LUGs, Goths, Grunge and Post-Grunge folks, etc. Badman brought smokes, which was cool. I enjoyed two that day, the first time I had one since Vegas, but didn’t drink even a single beer. Just out of general principle, I’m not spending $7 for a beer, especially something like Rocky Mountain Piss-water. Real beer was $12.

Live 105 is the big Modern Rock radio station in the San Francisco area, and they sponsored the event. They bill it as Live 105’s BFD - Northern California’s Biggest Alternative Music Festival. Profits go to the Lymphoma Research Foundation, a great cause, especially considering we know a wonderful young woman who’s currently going through Chemo with Lymphoma.

With my prejudices previously disclosed, I’ll rate the bands I saw. With 25 bands and three stages, keep in mind we only saw the following…

Sum 41 - I hate Scooby Doo punk. Kind of like Blink 182, I should have brought some tomatoes. They spent too much time trying to work the crowd and not enough time actually playing decent music. Yuck.

Cold War Kids - We only caught one song of them because we were busy stuffing our faces at the restaurant while they played. From what I remember, it wasn’t too bad, but nothing I’d go out and buy.

The Bravery - Very “New Wavish,” with guitars, a synthesizer, and pop melodies. Reminded me of The Killers. They played their heart out, and it reflected in the music.

Silversun Pickups - Badman really looked forward to seeing them, comparing them to Sonic Youth, his 2nd fave band. They have the same heavily distorted music and a chick bass player, but other than that, the comparisons die out. Silversun Pickups use more layering with the delay effects. Their drummer really gets into it too, and the bass player smiled a lot and waved to the crowd constantly. They put on a really good show, and looked like they were enjoying themselves up there in the hot sun. I was pleasantly surprised, and they stole the show of all the bands on the 2nd stage.

Scissors for Lefty - They came up on the stage preceded by cardboard cutout black 1940s cars. When the approached the stage, they were donning 1940s prison garbs, then later dressed into red outfits. They relied heavily on their highly gay (gay as in happy cheese, not Boy George) stage show, and their New Wavish music and pop melodies also worked. If I wasn’t busy this weekend, I’d go to their CD release party in San Francisco, I liked them that much.

Kaiser Chiefs - Bad Brit pop. The crowd loved them. The Zombieslayer couldn’t wait for them to get off the stage.

Interpol - I didn’t expect to like this band, but they weren’t bad. The singer had almost a boring, monotone voice, but it worked. He never moved (like Robert Smith of The Cure), and rarely looked up. Musically - early 80s Goth. I wouldn’t rush out and buy their CDs, but live, they were moderately enjoyable.

Queens of the Stone Age - This is the only band I wanted to see in the whole set. I wondered what they were doing here in an “alternative” music festival. Queens is more a metal band. I expected them to put on a decent show, and they definitely spent the most money on their stage props, with weird, futuristic lighting. But they sucked, big time. Their bass was way too loud, with the whump whumping glaring over everything else. They simply had horrible sound, and their sound engineer should have been taken out and shot. Both Badman and Yours Truly couldn’t wait for them to get off the stage.

Social Distortion - Straight up Blue Collar music. No frills, no fluff. Mike and the band stole the show for the main stage. Mike Ness may not have a beautiful voice, but he’s got charisma, something a lot of today’s musicians lack. No, their music wasn’t great, it simply did what you expected it to do - it moved you. Hats off to Social D, for although I’ll never buy one of their albums (not my cup of tea), I’d definitely see them again. Classified as punk, I saw it more as white folk playing black music. Unlike some other white bands I won’t mention, Mike Ness admits it.