Soo… it’s a new section here at the temple. But I was thinking, I write down these silly reviews not for my nonexistent readership but for myself. It’s a notebook, public but not personal, about what I thought of things. Someone asked me the other day my favorite PS3 games, I said I’d check my blog. I was entering Netflix ratings last week and couldn’t remember if I liked M, I checked my blog. I write these so I remember what I thought, as those thoughts won’t last the week, so why not for concerts and the like? I include “the like” because though this is being kicked off with a electric rock music show (that’s said in a midwestern accent), it will soon include The Kiterunner and if I had started it several months ago would have included my first opera. So, here goes my digital memory.
Ryanhood (opened by Telescope) – So I went out tonight to see Telescope. They are an arizona band. They are just pop rock, nothing amazing, I have no illusion that they are particularly unique. But I do occasionally like the pop rock, and all things being equal I’d just assume pay an indie band, and all indie bands equal I might as well support arizona music. They are a good band, I do legitimately like them, they just aren’t revolutionizing music. Their stage show is a bit iffy, they don’t have the presence yet. The lead singer guy is the best of the bunch, but doesn’t have an excess of personality. The other singer is fine, but he has a permanent uncomfortable looking smile on his face while he performs, it’s like he’s forcing it. The bassist is just weird, jumping around in his shorts (never a good idea) and trying to rock the bass guitar. There’s something odd about watching a rock band, it’s never settled with me. Go to a jazz-ish concert and I buy some guy rocking out on his sax, or piano, or bass. But watching white boys in their 20s jump around with a gee-tar, and it seems too cliched, too corny. Not their fault, definitely my issue, just funny. Anyway, they were good, I should buy their new album. They gave their first one away for free, and that deserves compensation.
Ryanhood I had never heard of, though it seems they are a Tucson band (they referenced Rincon High and Beaver’s Band Box) and clearly had a local following. They are absolutely the better musicians of the night, at least the guitarists (Ryan Green and Cameron Hood) are, the bassist and drummer are average, not better or worse than Telescope. But they, especially Ryan, have some legitimate skillzuhzuh. The song writing is solid, there’s some very good music in there. The lyrics are less so, 80% of them are about chicks, and that’s just tiresome to me. I get that everyone has boy/girl troubles, and so everyone writes songs about them, and they relate to everyone. But we’ve been doing boy/girl troubles songs for a about a 100 years in a mass-distributed kind of way, there’s not much more to say. But there are some good bits in there, and generally I don’t listen to lyrics much anymore, so if they aren’t overt, love song stuff doesn’t bother me. They have a very strong stage charisma, especially Cameron. They are funny and tell stories and get along with the audience well. They were certainly the better show, though I went for the first. Overall a very satisfactory night for 10 bucks.
Can’t Stop The Serenity 2009 – So I guess this is a thing, I didn’t know about it. For the past 4 years Whedon fans, nationally, have organized local charity events where they watch serenity and the proceeds go to Equality Now, an organization for women/girls. This year it included Dr. Horrible, held at the Loft, gonna be a big party. The event was fun, they had this “shadowcast” group which is apparently where you stand in front of the movie and pantomime what’s going on. They were pretty good, timing wasn’t exquisite, but they had clever ways of handling various scenes. The show is awesome, of course, but then I watch it about once a week, so it’s not like I went for that. There was an intro by fans and featuring whedon, tudyk, and fillion, which was neat. Though honestly, the quality was shit. I mean, did they film that on a webcam? From 1995? Made by “Lojitek”? A flip cam is like 20 bucks at this point, guys. Even an iphone can record better looking video than that. Not that you can really give any shit to people who put so much effort into something for charity. I’m just saying, a better looking video would help the cause, yeah? Anyway, it was fine, the celebrity bits were funny, quotes by fans were often funny. Here’s the problem with this event: people. Attention all people everywhere ever: YOU ARE NOT FUCKING FUNNY. Jesus christ! I know it’s a sing-a-long, and that was great. I know it’s a big party event, so of course people are going to be talking and saying lines and being silly, I don’t have a problem with that in principle. I have a problem with the fucking morons who yell out their stupid shit that they clearly planned out and is at best not funny, at worst annoying as hell. People just think they are so damn clever, even the people who say the thing someone else JUST SAID. Even the people who yell jokes I’m fairly convinced their 5 year old niece wrote for them. It was really obnoxious. Even the people who are just saying the obvious joke, or stealing the joke from the movie, which we obviously all know! I know I’m an anti-social misanthrope and have a general and abiding dislike for the majority of our fine race, but christ. It was tolerable for dr. horrible, it was fun to sing a long, and it’s a show that’s built for that environment. But there was no way in hell I was staying for serenity. I don’t need these jackasses ruining a great movie for me. As such, I missed the costume contest and raffle, but I didn’t see anyone in the audience dressed particularly amazingly. A friend did win a signed lunchbox with a lucky fortune cookie (they passed them out at entry), which was funny. It was a fun event, I bitch too much, I wouldn’t discourage anyone from going, most people probably wouldn’t mind the jackassery as much as me anyway. ‘sides, charity and all that, yeah? Oh, also, people: they can’t hear you in the movie when you clap for them. If you clap and have a litlte mini orgasm in your pants because your make believe boyfriend nathan fillian is on the screen, he can’t hear you, and I miss his next three sentences, shut the eff up, k? … jesus, I really am a misanthrope.
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