Meshuggah’s Live DVD Wrecks Faces… Mostly.

Early this last year, Meshuggah released their first-ever live DVD, simply titled: Alive. Being that I have never caught Meshuggah live, I was ecstatic. I now know this: watching Meshuggah perform live is like watching your brain get beat up by a group of super buff Mathletes after you tell them that Pi is exactly 3. You know what I mean.

Between the Buried and Me & The Ocean are Coming to Wreck SF. Be There.

As most of you probably know, Between the Buried and Me just released the incredible EP, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues this past month, and have already set out on a full US tour in its support. Brad gave the album a stellar 4.5/5, saying it’s the best thing BTBAM has done since 2005’s Alaska. On Wednesday, May 4th, BTBAM will be visiting our neck of the woods at Slim’s in San Francisco. I’m here to tell you how imperative it is that you all attend this show. It will be legendary!

I Hate Protest The Hero Live

I really do…

This hate does not spawn from anger because one of the members killed my cat or stole my girlfriend, but rather because this band showed me that I have a long way to go before I can write and perform music of this caliber. Needless to say, I went home the next day and feverishly practiced scales for the first time in months, maybe even years.

Of Shape And ‘Stache

Part of me hates going to local shows. Between 2002 and 2006, I would go to shows on a weekly basis. Normally Friday and Saturday nights and even if there was something going on during the week. At some point, I ran out of spending money and got a life. I hated being around all the scenesters and, later on, hipsters. Furthermore, all of the bands I gave a shit about ceased to exist. So, it may come as a surprise to some that I actually made a conscious effort to go see a band at all. Luckily for me, Of Shape and Sound were playing at a bar nearby last Thursday night, so I had a really good excuse to go to one.

Primus Sucks The Catalyst

Baby Matthew is Les Claypool’s nephew who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) only two months into his life. Being the good uncle Les is, a benefit show with MIRV was organized in order to raise money for ridiculously expensive medical costs.

One morning, a few weeks back, I saw the following post on Primus’s Facebook: “Tickets on sale today at 10AM for the Benefit show featuring Primus & MIRV at the Catalyst Friday March 18th.” AWESOME! I gave Ben a call, who, unless he has school or…well I guess just school, doesn’t normally get out of bed until at least 11:00AM.

“…ugh…hello?”
“DUDE! Primus tickets. Less than an hour. I’m coming over.”
“WHAT?!…ok…”

I got to his house with about 15 minutes to spare. Immediately at 10:00AM, the tickets were purchased and we were on for the 18th.

All Good Junkies Go To a Glassjaw Show (And Get a Free Coloring Book!)

Post-Hardcore outfit Glassjaw rolled through the SF last weekend to lay some sonic destruction on the Regency Ballroom and support their newest release Coloring Book. Yours truly just happened to be there with one thing on my mind: I had to finally discover if one of my favorite bands could hold their weight live. In the back of my mind, I was very worried that this show may be a deathblow for my Glassjaw obsession. Despite all the pieces there for this show to bring nothing but SUCK, I ended up leaving with an even bigger music boner for this New York foursome.

All of my fears about this show can be justified when you look at the history of Glassjaw, spanning from the bands inception in ’93 until now. Line up changes, the shift from a 5 piece to a 4 piece, years of waiting for a follow up to 2002’s Worship and Tribute, and a full band hiatus from ’02 to ’08 are all factors working against the band. Despite all of these facts, however, Glassjaw still holds it down like a champ live.

The Dillinger Escape Plan Defend Their Homefront

“Free Dillinger show in SF at noon on March 2nd” was the text message I received from Fernando at 6AM a week ago. No greater sentence has ever been written or uttered in the English language, with the exception of “free beer”, until that moment. We had no choice but to round up the troops and head into San Francisco to experience it.

Because that’s what The Dillinger Escape Plan is…an experience.

The Game Developers Conference was going on this week in San Francisco and The Dillinger Escape Plan were enlisted to help promote THQ’s upcoming first-person shooter Homefront, due out March 15. I have to wonder if the planning committee understood what they were getting themselves into by hiring one of the most explosive, unpredictable, and physical bands on the market for this endeavor. Must have top-notch lawyers.