So I've been keeping a ton of busy lately (and also have been drinking waaaay too much soda ... need to chill w/ that...)
In summary: went to 3 concerts, finally made a professional looking website, started a video improv. series, potentially have another student, potentially am doing duets, am reading through cello/piano music & have gotten in touch w/ some people who are also doing the Summit Music Festival ...
In more detail:
Iron Maiden: About time I saw them!! This was an amazing show, and brought back a lot of memories from when I was younger and first getting into metal (Hallowed Be Thy Name is particularly reminiscent of a lot of things!) ... It was my first time seeing Maiden, and they had a ton of energy ... their setlist was very standard, but also pretty perfect & it was great to get to watch their various orchestrations (they are one of the only bands where having 3 guitars doesn't actually seem obsessive). Bruce Dickinson was amusing to watch & ranted quite a bit btwn. songs ... at one point, the sound went out & they played soccer for about 10 minutes!! I thought it was a prank since Bruce had been ranting about Football vs. Soccer earlier that evening ... either way, very special, and I'm able to hear their music in new ways now ... got a lot of stuff of theirs that I don't listen to enough really, so I'm gonna try and cover that when I can ... I love the intellectual bent of so much of their music ... it's such a pleasure to see that...
The Cure: This falls under one of the most interesting concerts I've ever been too (it's also utterly bizarre that I saw 2 British Rock groups at MSG in the same week) ... first of all, the opening band, 65 Days of Static, was very creative & interesting ... very worth checking out ... The Cure was amazing ... they had a very full sound live - very bass driven, and I loved the vocals/the singer's look in general (though I later discovered he was wearing white face paint from watching a vid, but w/e ... it comes from a different time ... I'm more of the old school Metallica mentality of walk on in whatever the fuck you're wearing ...). I missed them having a keyboard player, especially since I had met Roger O'Donnel (previously the keyboard player) within the last year. The music was incredibly interesting though, especially given that I didn't know what to expect and I'm much more into this band now than I was before ... the venue staff were extremely irritating, but w/e, was still a great night ... also, they played for like 2 hrs. straight & then did 3 encores ... um, holy crap!
What I was even more amazed to discover though was how different they sound on cd/video ... um, they sounded much better live ... maybe it's just b/c I was all the way on stage right (which kinda sux ... much, much better view on stage left...)
Liquid Tension Experiment: The best concert of the 3 ... first, I ran into a high school friend there (well the day before and there, technically) ... but anyway, it was great to be back in BB Kings, especially after all these big venue shows (smaller venues are soooo much cooler) ... it was also incredible to be so close to the stage (like 5-10 feet back maybe) ... this show had one of the most intense energies from the crowd that I've experienced in a while ... it was so refreshing ... on top of that, getting to watch Tony Levin was an experience in itself (If you haven't heard of an instrument called the Chapman Stick, I suggest checking it out ... a whole new world of bass playing) ... as if that weren't enough though, you've got Jordan Rudess, John Petrucci & Mike Portnoy on the same stage ... I almost got to meet Tony/John after the show, but they went back in unfortunately ... now that I realize it's so easy to meet ppl at BB kings, I'm definitely staying after for any show I go to!!
They played a ton of songs I knew & some I didn't (I've never actually owned the Liquid Tension cds... must fix that) ... most importantly, they played State of Grace (a duet between Rudess & Petrucci, which I'm going to play on my senior recital as a cello/piano duet) ... I loved the more Jam-oriented bent of the material they played, and I think a lot of the stuff they did for this gig was a huge step up from Dream Theater (or at least exemplifies what I think some of the better aspects of Dream Theater are) ... there were some great improv parts, and apparently they jammed on Rhapsody in Blue for a bit, though honestly, I did not catch on to that ... but then again, I barely know what Rhapsody in Blue sounds like ...
It was really interesting to watch Jordan ... he seemed a bit stressed at first, and I think was having technical issues w/ his equipment or monitors or something ... the sound balance was really ... unbalanced ... very bass heavy, you lost the treble sometimes, which meant you lost JR at times :( you could catch him most of the time, and he was very watch-able (I mean I was like 5 feet away from him) ... some of the improv. moments in general were absolutely amazing and ambient & there was some great, incredibly technical playing from Portnoy ... it's great to see them all do this stuff, and go beyond just the Dream Theater style ... it's encouraging to see how much they can transcend that, but also how human they are ... really cool people & great musicians ...
Sooooo, now that the concerts over ... I've made a professional-looking website (finally!) ... you can view it here: http://mluna87.googlepages.com/ ... It's kind of in bare-bones mode for now (well a little past that), but will expand as I grow and expand ... I'm going to use it as an outlet for a lot of my teaching philosophies & ideas, as well as for articles on music and anything I can basically ... of course, I also have to not overlap it too much w/ the blog, so it will be a bit more formal ... tell me what you think ... tell me if there's any broken links too while you're at it :-P
And on to the video improv. series ... I can't even begin to think of all the different things that inspired this, but obviously Jordan Rudess' Piano Diary/Wizard's Log is one of them!! Anyway ... it's going to give me an outlet for all my improvisation & Electric Cello work & give me a chance to get a good look at my progress, as well as giving me the ability to show others what I do & work on playing metal on cello, along with developing my concept of improvisation & what the cello can do ... it's already gotten some pretty positive feedback, though I've been having some technical issues with YouTube ... check out the first video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99a_qGcHphA
In other news, my first student who I don't have to drive to is coming over for a lesson tomorrow ... her name is Lynn & she's an adult beginner ... it's a pleasure to potentially have another adult student ... also, some good music reading in the near future, I think ...
Alright ... I think that post is long enough for now ... on to the next thing...
