I must reflect on the King of Pop.

I think it is hip to honor him, just as much as I would give praise to any of my favorite bands of the moment- Fleet Foxes, Passion Pit, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, etc.. You have to love his solo albums, like “Off the Wall” and “Thriller” in particular, which generated such incredibly catchy tunes, great dance music, forward thinking videos, and on and on. To this day, my favorite album of his is still “Off the Wall”. The album as a whole bursts with enjoyment, a celebration of life and dance. It encompasses incredibly catchy arrangements, with sophisticated production from Quincy Jones. There’s no mistaking of that quirky falsetto of a voice- lyrics sung with such heartfelt emotion…word had it that he was an absolute workaholic on the making of this record- Quincy would often say later that he was very much impressed with his work ethic paying attention to every little detail imaginable, down to correct vocal phrasing and nuances, brass arrangements, bass playing- that he was considered the illegitimate offspring of Brian Wilson.

Upon hearing the album on my way into work today, I feel regenerated and filled with immense gratitude for Michael Jackson, leaving us with such great treasures in his musical catalog.
I should also reflect at this moment that I have not listened to “Off the Wall” in its entirety in quite a few years. Too many to count if I want to be absolutely truthful. Well, not anymore. I can sing the praises of many an indie band and artist and wax poetic with the best of them at any given time…but I will also sing the praises of Michael Jackson and his music, and I don’t feel ashamed to admit one bit admitiing this.

Nothing really tops sophisticated, thoughtful, catchy pop. Nothing.
Thank you Micheal for your huge contributions to this genre.

Instead of just babbling on and on about Opeth and Enslaved (two extraordinary live bands by the way), I thought I’d keep this part of my review nice and simple, and do my best to get you to the pictures.
Keep this in mind- No signs of slowing down for both bands- and they deserve all the respect and praise that gets thrown their way.
As much as  I feel drained from this intense onslaught, It’s for good reason..you can’t help but be drawn into every single note from all of this insanely dark beauty- and as much as I admire Mikael Akerfeldt and his tight-knit band Opeth, the same holds true for Ivar  Bjornson and Grutle Kjellson of Enslaved, and their commitment to all of this dark and brutal beauty that they muster up live and in person…I’m drenched from head to toe and love every minute of it!
What’s the sign of a good show? When you finally get home, hug your wife, and she says “you’re stinky!” Success indeed..

Find out what bands are playing when

Friday, Aug 7th

Saturday, Aug 8th

Sunday, Aug 9th

Lets start off with: Nerd is the new black… If you have not realized this as of yet, you have been hiding under a rock and im going to throw said rock at your head.

If you go looking for I Fight Dragons, you will run into a large banner on their Myspace page showing the group of six wearing superhero t-shirts, and a top down scroller ( fixed shooter ) flash game where you are a knight shooting  (fighting) dragons. Once you are done playing with the video game you proceed down further to see who the heck these guys ( and girl ) are, as described by them:

They Fight Dragons [ ok i got that ], and they are the premiere, nay only  NES-Rock band. That is descriptive enough but still confusing. What the hell is an NES-Rock Band?

Well that’s easy enough to guess from listening to the music; They use NES sounds to create music. There is more to it than that though, these guys create music with game pads hooked up to a computer for on the fly sampling. That’s pretty incredible and über nerdy. The music in itself is rock pop-ish and very good, you don’t listen and think to yourself: “enough with the 8 bit sounds!” … absolutely not. I enjoyed listening to their debut EP, “Cool Is Just A Number” short but just enough.

Check them out at myspace.com/IFightDragons and twitter @IFightDragons

If this is truly the “Wave Goodbye Tour” as Trent says it is, then his band NIN, is going down with guns ablazin’, heavy mortar fire and all.

The first three songs- “Somewhat Damaged”, “Terrible Lie”, and “Heresy”-are a sampling of what’s for dinner tonight..fiendish music that has to be played at volume 11 with the utmost intensity. The whole show from beginning to end is set in this vibe- with a couple of instrumentals added in for good measure, just barely long enough to catch your breath before the mosh pit and body surfers get their due… Blinding white light darted in and out the entire show, with heavy, dense fogs of dry ice added in for good measure- firing off an eerie WWlll post apocalyptic vibe that sends you reeling and ducking for cover…it absolutely makes you feel like it’s the end of the world..party while you still can, and pick up the remaining scraps for good measure.

What an immense sound system Trent has deployed for this tour- clear and crisp throughout- low end jolting through your sternum like an exchange of canon fire outside of Kabul. Trent is delivering this entire set like a champ: totally convincing with his delivery with his songs, some of which are dated 20 some odd years. Having written these lines, I’m now realizing why he might be wanting to take a break from this type of tour… If I’m feeling worn out after photographing this spectacle, imagine how Trent must feel, 15 some odd dates into this current tour, with another 10 or so to go..it can’t be easy on the body, let alone the vocals..Jack Johnson, this is NOT… And for a man whose 44, give him kudos…lots and lots of kudos. Trent’s totally blown me over, and I imagine I’ve seen Trent approximately 30 times by now.

Accolades have to go to Trent’s band as well…Robin Finck, genius on guitar as always..Justin Meldal-Johnsen, riveting on bass..Ilan Rubin on drums..man can he pound out the beat from beginning to end!
If I had to wrap up this show in one word:

I’d use FRENZIED.
How about two? DENSE and FRENZIED.
How about three? DENSE, FRENZIED and CONVINCING!!

You’ve got to go out and wave goodbye with a bang..a BIG bang..Trent and his band did this and so much more… Street Sweeper Social Club opened the show..I believe Tom Morello and Boots Riley are onto something huge…I mean HUGE..they deserve a separate review of their show, which I’ll provide in the next coming days…stay tuned!

All images © Bobby Talamine and are provided by the photographer for skipthedial.com