Monday, October 10, 2011

The Sound of Winter

No, I'm not hearing things nor am I hoping for the cold and snowy season of Winter. The Sound of Winter is the latest single released by the band Bush. The once extremely popular band had gone their separate ways in 2002 only to reunite and release a new album, The Sea of Memories, in 2011 that is both new in sound but also continues Gavin's amazing lyrical content. I do recommend you check it out.

You might be asking. "Why is he mentioning Bush's new album?"  I can tell you that I am not getting paid for this advertisement. I mention Bush's new album because I saw them in concert on Saturday, October 8, and it was an amazing show. I saw three bands - Filter, Chevelle, and Bush - that each could have been the headliner and all for less than $30. In fact, each of them has been a headliner at Summerfest in years past, though you would most likely never be able to see them in the same night.

A quick gripe...the venue website said the show started at 7:00. I arrived at The Rave at 6:30, because I wanted to check out the merch booth, only to find out that Filter was already playing. They must have started closer to 6. I ended up missing the first three songs, but still heard a few of my favorites, including Take a Picture and Hey Man Nice Shot. They did a pretty cool cover of ZZ Top's Gimme All Your Lovin' and also played (Can't You) Trip Like I Do, a collaboration with Crystal Method. During the performance of The Best Things, Richard Patrick body surfed through the crowd while singing. Pretty cool!

Taking the stage next was Chevelle. I love this band! Two brothers and a brother-in-law, I love the sound these three guys put out. Awesome bass grooves! These guys just get on stage and jam! This tour was a double-headliner, so Chevelle and Bush both played longer headliner sets. Chevelle played all of the usual favorites - Jars, Antisaint, Sleep Apnea, Well Enough Alone, Send the Pain Below, The Red, The Clincher - and played a new song called Face the Floor off their forthcoming new album. At one point, I believe it was during The Red, Pete's guitar wasn't working. The roadie brought out another one, but that one was apparently not tuned correctly. Third time's a charm. He was visibly annoyed. Finished out the set and tossed the guitar into the crowd and slammed his mic. Entertaining to say the least.

And finally...we've got Bush! Reunited after a ten year hiatus...well Gavin and the drummer are original members at least...fans packed The Rave for an awesome show! Kicking off the show with Little Things and then performing I Believe in You from their new album, they did a great job of introducing fans to their new songs while appeasing cult followers with some of their all-time hits such as Comedown, Machinehead, and Everything Zen. During their encore, they did a fantastic version of The Beatles' Come Together that had the crown singing along.

As with all of the concerts I see, I usually take some pretty good pictures. Check them out.

Thanks for reading. Rock on!!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Time sure does fly when you're having fun

And a lot of fun I have had over the last month or so. Let's see, my last post was August 23. Guess I never mentioned my birthday did I? I had a really great birthday (August 26). I took the day off work. Just a relaxing day. Weather was beautiful. I went golfing. Met some of my good friends for drinks at The Iron Horse. They have an awesome patio. Afterwards a few of us went to the Potawatomi Casino and played some Black Jack. My two friends left after about an hour. A couple hours after that, I left just $10 down. Not bad.

The following weekend, on September 3, I attended Milwauktoberfest, which was a part of the Made in Milwaukee festival at Cathedral Square Park. That was a really great time. The Milwauktoberfest showcased a dozen or so Wisconsin breweries. In case you are just tuning in, I'm a beer aficionado and any time I can sample some of Wisconsin's best beer, I'm there. Aside of Milwauktoberfest, the Made in Milwaukee festival showcased all kinds of art, crafts, and products that are made right here in Milwaukee. Several local bands played music throughout the day and night and the evening culminated in a fashion show. Never been to one of those before. It was quite interesting.

Fast forward just a little to September 17th and the Warrior Dash. This was a highly anticipated event. Described as a 3+ hellish mile run with about 12 obstacles, including fire, it was everything I had hoped it would be. Sure I have been nursing a stress fracture to my right foot for most of the year, but a bad foot wasn't going to keep me from running in this race. Oooh Rah!!! Attack!!!  Even with a bad foot I was able to finish in 30 minutes. What may be an even better part of this day was the discovery that I am a pro at axe throwing. I split an axe handle with another axe.  Check it out.

Sprinkle in rounds of golf throughout September and then I went to the WI Beer Expo. Yes, another beer tasting event. This one, however, was the worst one I have ever been to. First of all, all of the people behind the tables were volunteers and not from the breweries. So I couldn't really ask them about the beer. Second, for the price of admission, they could have done a lot better than hand-written signs. How about a few giveaways?  Ehhhh. Disappointing.

On September 29, I went on a VIP tour of the old Pabst Brewery. This was a really great event. A few cold Wisconsin beers and a behind the scenes look at the historical Pabst Brewery. Very nice.

Friday, September 30, was Brew Madness, a fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. I went last year with a friend and we sampled pretty much everything there. Fortunately the event is held at the Zoo, which is within walking distance from home. The unfortunate part of last year was that there was a bar, Mo's Irish Pub, in between the Zoo and home. Probably shouldn't have stopped. This year, my friend couldn't go, so I attended solo. Hell, I made friends. ;)  Since I had sampled most of the beer that was there, I concentrated on the ones that I had not had before. There were several really good brews. A couple of my favorites were Autumnal Fire from Capital Brewery and Orange & Black from Moylan's. I even showed a few people how good Buffalo Water's Bison Blonde tastes with vanilla ice cream. Yum.  Check out the pics.

Now the weather is getting cooler. Opportunities for golf are getting slimmer. One thing about Milwaukee though, is that no matter the season, no matter the weather, there is always something fun to do.

Coming up (so far):

  • 10/8 - Bush, Chevelle, and Filter
  • 10/29 - Milwaukee Haunted Tour & Dinner
  • 11/2 - The Southern Gentlemen Tour featuring Ed Roland of Collective Soul and Kevin Griffin of Better Than Ezra
  • 11/4 - Five Finger Death Punch, All That Remains, Hatebreed, and Rains