Glad I can provide a bit of amusement once in a while..
By the way, a friend (who's always good for witty repartee) had something to say about the 'Ryche, is est:
This video, shot in kind of a 'brown and white' film (as opposed to black and white, that's the only way I can describe it, but trust me it ain't in color -- which is kinda appropriate, really, when you think about the sound of Queensryche today -- it's brown and white, and has no color!) apparently made during Queensryche's 2003 tour with Dream Theater, was, as DirecTV described it, supposed to be 'Queensryche finds its roots' ... bah ... it would be better described as 'Queensryche paying its bills while STILL trying desperately to sound like a 90s grunge band' ... they need to redo their abysmal song 'Sign of the Times' and change the lyrics to 'Behind the Times' ... I've never in my life seen such pandering -- remember how goofy they looked back in the metal-crazy days of the late 1980s, with the hairspray and makeup? Well, now they've swung all the way around to the OTHER extreme ... now their hair (except for Tate, who is BALD now) obviously hasn't been washed in years, and they all (save Tate and Rockenfield) have three-inch long goatees! I mean, c'mon, guys, find a happy medium ...
Guitarist Mike Stone, the latest in the Spinal Tap-style guitarist revolving door replacing Chris DeGarmo -- could this guy have ANOTHER tattoo somewhere, please? I mean, he doesn't have nearly enough, you can still see skin on his arms ... and the guy is quite simply a poster-boy for a friggin Stone Temple Pilots reject ... at one point in the how he not only was wearing the requisite grunge-esque toboggan -- but he put the hood of his jacket on his head as well ... need I go on? Okay, who cares how they look, right? It's the music that matters. Well, I wish that were true, because the look isn't the only thing they're going for ... they want to SOUND like Stone Temple Pilots as well. Guys, that band was popular 10 YEARS AGO ... geez ... The first half of the hour was simply awful. I swear you wouldn't know it was them. It would be too painful to attempt to describe this -- it was simply a mishmash of everything -- seriously, they left nothing out -- I hate about 90s grunge. But the low point of the show HAS to be their unplugged version of 'Roads to Madness' ... arrggh ... I had to go listen to the real version five times in a row -- it was like getting a really bad taste out of your mouth, like after you've eaten something spoiled ... they basically took a whiz on their own history ... Highlight(s)? Okay ... in the second half of the hour when Michael Wilton finally put down that friggin Les Paul (which more-or-less matched Stone's), picked up the ESP Strat-style axe, turned the fargin bass/mid-level heavy grungifier distortion off, and started playing cleanly and honestly for once. Thusly, the songs 'Della Brown', 'Breaking the Silence', 'The Needle Lies', and 'Best I Can' were almost tolerable (I never liked 'Della Brown' much before but boy if you compare it to the newer stuff it sounds like the best song you ever heard lol), and even good in spots (albeit mostly during Wilton's solo breaks). What made this part of the show extraordinarily painful, however, was the guitar solo section of 'Breaking the Silence' ... ugh ... it was torturous, really, to hear Wilton nailing his solos only to then hear Stone absolutely butchering the DeGarmo parts. Chris, you may have weirded out on us and may have killed the band back in 1997, but man they need you now. The band should at least find a replacement who can mimic DeGarmo's guitar solos ... there has to be at least a few out there lol ...
To be fair, when the music required it (which wasn't often during the first half) Scott Rockenfield sounded great as usual, and Eddie Jackson did his usual quite capable job. Geoff Tate cannot hit those high notes anymore, although I guess I can't ride him too much for that -- few older singers -- particularly metal singers -- are able to hit the notes they could when they were younger.
The point of all this is to say: what other rock band, metal or otherwise, has fallen so far? From 'Operation: Mindcrime' to this? From genius to pitiful obscurity? How could one of my all-time fave lineups do this? When they were making that great music years ago, were they just extraordinarily lucky, the equivalent of winning the lottery? I have to wonder again if they were being honest back in the day -- O:M and Empire -- was that really the music they wanted to play, or was that only what they felt like would sell records? Were they going backstage after a concert and horselaughing their fans for digging that stuff, and wishing wistfully that they could play something different? If not, how did they so easily slip into this sickening parody of themselves? Aaahh ... I need to listen to Mindcrime about ten times in a row. That'll make me feel better ... lol ...
L8r,
Bill"
Pretty much sums it up, don't it?
