Hum @ The Asylum Underground, Toledo, OH (Fall 1995/Spring 1996)

It’s odd how, when the internet fails you, you have to piece things together via random bits of information in order to figure things out. Case in point, there is no info that I could find when exactly this show occured. Now, I know it happened because A) I have an autographed You’d Prefer An Astronaut cd from and B) I bought a gray Hum t-shirt with a blue logo that I had for year before time eventually devoured it.

I know that Hum released this album in the spring of 1995, and I know that I didn’t even really discover the band until that summer when I saw the video for Stars late one night on MTV. And here’s the third bit of sleuthing I used to deduce the timeframe: I know I went to the show with a girl I was going out with named Tracey, who I believe I met in the fall of 1995 and continued to go out with into the spring of 1996. How do I know that? Because her friend, Jenn, and I shared an apartment in the summer of 1996, and Tracey and Jenn lived next door to me and my roommates Ben and Charlie that following fall, which is when I stopped seeing Tracey. So, that means this show had to have happened between fall of 1995 and spring of 1996, and I’m betting it’s spring of 1996.

Now, how about the show?

The room, the Underground of the Toledo venue The Asylum, held maybe 100-150 people. It was small with a low celing, and basically looked liked someone’s unfinished basement. A band called Idaho opened, don’t remember much about them and didn’t bother to track down any of there recordings, so I guess I didn’t care for them much.

Hum were insanely loud. Both Tracey and I wore earplugs, but it didn’t matter, the sound obliterated them. The band played there album in full plus a few that, at the time I didn’t know, but as I would track down their back catalog, learn were on their earlier release Electra 2000. As I mentioned, I bought a t-shirt this show and I got an autograph. There’s a story to that.

After Hum finished (I don’t recall if they did an encore or not, don’t think so), they began packing up their gear and a few people approached the stage to chat, ask for autographs, etc. As I was still a novice guitar player, I decided to ask a question about how to play a particular song. I approached lead singer/guitarist Matt Talbot, asked if he would sign my CD cover, and then inquired about how to play the song I’d Like You’re Hair Long, which remains to this day one of my favorite Hum tunes. He explained the song was in Drop D tuning, which I had just learned about, and that the chords in the verses were at the 12th, 9th and 10th frets, but reversed for the chorus sections. I thanked him, went home, grabbed my guitar and played that riff over and over again. I even, after some practice, figured out the lead part played by second guitarist Tim Lash.

This Week In Music: 11/19-11/25

This week in music listening, featuring patent-pending two-word reviews (shortened week due to Thanksgiving holiday:

Cabaret Voltaire: Micro-Phonies – pulsing beats
Lita Ford: Wicked Wonderland – not wonderful
Funkadelic: Uncle Jam Wants You – deep funk
Genesis: Wind & Wuthering – more complexities
Juliana Hatfield: Made In China – edgy Juliana
Kix: Midnight Dynamite – pop metal
L.A. Guns: Waking the Dead – better effort
Ministry: Work for Love – light weight
Mr. Big: Mr. Big – addictive rush

Concert Review: Soul Asylum @ Mekka, Columbus, OH (10/31/1998)

In the fall of 1998, having just moved to Columbus, my former college roommate Charlie and I headed down to Mekka here in Columbus to catch Soul Asylum at the tale end of their tour supporting the just released Candy From A Stranger album. We got much more than we bargained for.

From what I recall, the band came out dressed in costumes. Hey, it was Halloween afterall. If I remember correctly, and I’m probably not, they were dressed as the Village People, or at least made half-assed attempts as Village People. To the best of my memory, it was a pretty raucous, good-sloppy show, filled with covers (TLC’s Waterfalls, School's Out by Alice Cooper, some others) and the hits you’d expect.

Mekka disappeared a few years later. I was kind of a big open space that occasionally had bands (Guided by Voices played there once, oddly) that was usually a dance club. I tried going once when it was the dance club. I lasted a half hour and left, just not my scene.

This Week In Music: 11/12-11/18

This week in music listening, featuring patent-pending two-word reviews:

Soundgarden: King Animal – welcome return
Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Psychedelic Pill – much meandering
Paul Banks: Banks – Interpol interplay
Deftones: Koi No Yokan – dreamy metal
Ministry: Rio Grande Blood – politically charged
Genesis: A Trick of the Tail – pleasant enough
Guided By Voices: The Bears For Lunch – familiar territory
Pete Townshend: Psychoderelict – performance piece
Quiet Riot: Guilty Pleasures – barrel bottom
Poison: Native Tongue – bluesy reinvention
Queensrÿche: Q2K – streamlined sound
…And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead: Lost Songs – found sound
Lita Ford: Stiletto – familiar sounds
Funkadelic: Tales of Kidd Funkadelic – funky kids
Juliana Hatfield: Juliana’s Pony-Total System Failure – total failure
Mike + the Mechanics: Word of Mouth – weird religiosity
Mr. Big: Bump Ahead – bumpy road
Rush: Permanent Waves – permanently good
Cabaret Voltaire: JohnnyYesNo – interesting instrumentals
Grandaddy: B-Sides & Rarities – better forgotten
Parliament: Motor Booty Affair – successful affair
Saigon Kick: Water – more confusion
Tindersticks: Waiting For The Moon – still waiting
Skid Row: Thickskin – thin sound

Concert Review: Imperial Teen & Howlin’ Maggie @ Little Brothers, Columbus, OH (5/23/99)

I didn’t know who Imperial Teen were when I went to this show. I knew they had a couple of albums out in the 90s, and one guy had been in Faith No More, but beyond that… nothing. I went to see Howlin Maggie, who in a transitional period between the original line-up and a new line-up of various Columbus musicians.

HM primarily drew from their only album (at that point), Honeysuckle Strange, with a few covers included, but did debut some new tunes that would end up on either the second (and last) HM album three years later, and even on lead singer Happy Chichester’s solo album in 2007.

As a band my friends and I discovered in college, completely unaware they were based on two hours away, it was kind of thrill to see them playing together again. Little did we know that just a few years later we’d be sharing the same stage with them.

This Week In Music: 11/5-11/11

This week in music listening, featuring patent-pending two-word reviews:

FireHouse: Prime Time – heavier riffage
Cabaret Voltaire: Hai! – more disjointed
Mike + The Mechanics: Rewired – electronic indulgence
Tindersticks: Simple Pleasure – bare bones
Poison: Look What The Cat Dragged In – party rock
Rush: Moving Pictures – classic riffs
Soul Asylum: While You Were Out – ragged punk
Stereolab: Transient Random Noise Bursts with Announcements – noisy atmosphere
Queensrÿche: Rage For Order – intelligent metal
Pete Townshend: Scoop – demo indulgence
Winger: IV – political overkill
White Lion: Pride – essential listening
Warrant: Ultraphobic – grunge pandering
Vixen: Tangerine – trend following
Juliana Hatfield: Only Anything – classic alternative
L.A. Guns: Tales From The Strip – Tracii-less triumph
Grandaddy: Sumday – sharp pop
Brian Eno: Flux – rhythmic minimalism
Funkadelic: Stranding On The Verge of Getting It On – smooth grooves

Concert Review: Buckcherry @ the Newport Music Hall, Columbus, OH (11/29/99)

Buckcherry are an acquired taste. If you dig the harder end of the hair/glam metal of the 1980s, you probably could relate to them. At at time when bad teen pop, nu-metal and hip-hop were dominating the radio, Buckcherry appeared with an ode to cocaine and hedonism.

In short bursts, Buckcherry is a fun band. Live, that’s another matter, as the band basically had two modes – over the top scuzzy sunset strip rock, and ballads. Or, at the time, a ballad. The repetitiveness got old quickly, as the band didn’t have much of a catalog (re: diversity) to bring to the table for a band that isn’t going to stray from a rather predictable formula to begin with.

Openers Cupcakes (or at least I think they opened) were a boring, post-punk mess that belonged on a different bill. Maybe if I saw or heard them now I’d like them, but at the time they were just…awful.

This Week In Music: 10/29-11/4

This week in music listening, featuring patent-pending two-word reviews:

Genesis: Trespass – Floyd-esque prog
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones: Ska-Core The Devil And More – boss tones
Cabaret Voltaire: Groovy, Laidback & Nasty – club friendly
Firehouse: O2 – average rockers
Lita Ford: Out For Blood – decent debut
Rush: Hold Your Fire – lacking heaviness
Pete Townshend: White City – emotionally wrought
Warrant: Cherry Pie – genre nadir
Saigon Kick: The Lizard – variety overkill
Dancing On Your Graves: A Rockabilly Tribute To The Hellacopters – interesting interpretations
Kingdom Come: Kingdom Come – Zeppelin riffage
Mike + The Mechanics: Mike + The Mechanics – satisfying soft-rock
Juliana Hatfield: In Exile Deo – mature pop
House of Heroes: What You Want Is Now – emo riffage
Funkadelic: One Nation Under A Groove – booty duty
Kix: Kix – poppy metal
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers: You’re Gonna Get It – mutliple classics
Quiet Riot: Metal Health – uneven quality
Ministry: Pslam 69 – evil industrialized
L.A. Guns – Shrinking Violet – misfired Guns

Power Ballad Book Update 11/1/12

I am happy to report after a year of rewrites, additions, subtractions, formatting, building an index, the book is finally done. Or, what I think is finally done. I’m now starting on phase two, what to do with it. My goal is: literary agent and publisher. My back-up plan: self-publish on Amazon.com.