My brother and I saw Judas fuckin' Priest last night near Ft. Lauderdale. It was at the Hard Rock Seminole Casino, very nice venue. The location was really posh, it was hilarious seeing metalheads roam the place amongst rich tourists.
First video-game related rant:
In that second picture, you can see some of the rock radio station tents. The one on the left in this picture had Guitar Hero Metallica. While I may not be a total gook at Guitar Hero, I am nevertheless good enough to 5-star nearly every song on Expert in that game. As you can probably tell, GH: Metallica is my favorite entry, and I came in my pants with joy once they released Hammer Smashed Face on Rock Band, but I digress.
Why is it that in every music event like this that's non-game related, they always have to fuck up Guitar Hero? The little thing here was that you could try any song on any difficulty and you would've gotten a shirt. Fair enough, I decided to be a jack-ass though and put Expert despite the fact that I knew for a fact that it was BADLY out of sync (my brother told me not to do it on Expert for that reason exactly). But no, I had to show people I had a big dick in this game. People were choosing your typical songs like Enter Sandman, but fuck them! This is a Judas fuckin' Priest concert!
HELL BENT FOR LEATHER! I failed in about 10 seconds...
Fuck. My brother is about as good as I am in the game, but he was smarter than me. He retried the same song, but on Hard. So fuck them, even though I lost, we still got our shirt :P too bad it's a lame white shirt that just advertises the Rock station... Oh well. I was also mad because whoever won a shirt got their pic taken. The reason why this bothered me was because everyone held up their shirt
WITHOUT DOING THE METAL HORNS! WTF? This isn't a Green Day concert faggots! But I digress again: music stores, radio stations, other non-game stores, if you're going to put up Guitar Hero, AT LEAST
CALIBRATE IT. STOP FUCKING UP GUITAR HERO. IT'S NOT THAT HARD. JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT DIRECTLY ASSOCIATED WITH VIDEO GAMES DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO BE A CLUELESS TOOL. I think the ONLY music related place I was ever at that actually bothered to calibrate was at the Mayhem Fest a week back, they had a Rock Band 2 station set up, I had fun showing off my Death Metal vocals to Hammer Smashed Face, which was fucking surreal because I met them an hour before (
I ASKED CORPSEGRINDER WHAT HE THOUGHT ABOUT WRATH OF THE LICH KING AND HE SAID IT WAS AWESOME/HE WROTE "HORDE!" AND "FUCK THE ALLIANCE" ON HIS TABLE), and then an hour later I saw them play right in front of me (I was able to get right up to the barricade).
Back to the Judas Priest crowd, it was also fun seeing old people there rock out to Priest, I wonder if they saw them back when British Steel was
NEW. They recorded the concert I was at for a DVD release of the 30th anniversary of British Steel, I can't wait to fucking get it and relive this night. Here's a picture of the stage before Priest came on.
For some reason the drummer from Iron Maiden was in this section. You can't see him in this pic, but he was there! Shouldn't he be in England? Whatever. A lot of people stood up and waved at him, gave him the horns, etc. I saw one woman up there take a picture with him.
My phone is shit so I couldn't take any pictures during the show, especially with all the lights and the lasers and what not. Here's a picture of the set after they were done, they finished off in an epic way with "
You've Got Another Thing Coming," which I say is also video game related due to Vice City.
This whole thing is video game related, also due to BRUTAL LEGEND, which I pre-ordered for the 360. \m/
FAST AND FURIOUS!
WE RIDE THE UNIVERSE!
TO CARVE A ROAD FOR US!
THAT SLICES EVERY CURVE IN SIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to Fallout 3 while listening to all of Judas Priest's albums again.
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To quote Ron Workmeng: First.
no u
I saw Judas Priest last year. I'd say out of all the older metal bands left (Sabbath, Maiden, Dio w/ Heaven and Hell) Judas Priest seems like they have gotten heavier with age, same deal with Motor head.
But you know, out of all the shows I've been to in my life time, I'm only 20 so it's about 30 shows give or take, Judas Priest was a REALLY rough crowd. Priest took forever to go on and everybody got really rowdy and it was about 90 something degrees and people started blacking out from all the crowding. And remember this is in Kansas City, Missouri around mid September so the humidity is pretty bad.
Great show though, just a little too much free flowing booze, the security seriously couldn't handle it.
Also, one last thing. I personally think the "metal horns" are pretty lame these days. From one metal head to another metal head, way to many people that don't know jack about heavy music...they just abuse the horns too much, ti doesn't mean anything anymore. It's like whenever someone hears a nasty guitar lick, solo, or something that sounds heavy, they'll just throw the horns and go "rock on!", and most of those people are not metal heads, they never listened to megadeth or slayer or anything like that before guitar hero and rock band came about. Remember the late 90's? Metal barley existed back then! And the people that want to act like it's sudden;y cool to be a metal head again? I remember those nu metal kids, I remember the grunge kids...they didn't say to many nice things about metal when it was on it's death bed about to die, but now all the sudden old school metal is having this huge resurgence and it's cool again? Excuse me, but fuck that. Say what you mean & mean what you say.
If your in my house, YOU DON'T EVER SAY "ROCK ON", or you will be exiled.
That's all I got to say on that, I'm pretty cool with most people, but It was not very long ago that people we're still embarrassing themselves listening to Limp Bizkit and ICP...I still remember those kind of kids, and if they are that quick to abandon things they used to say and all just because metals cool again? I cannot think of any greater lack of integrity and honesty. I don't have respect for those people.
So to anyone that it applys to: YOU ARE LAME.
@Mushman
"Cool story bro" would've made more sense. Lurk moar, or whatever it is you 4fag kids do. :)
@Super
Yeah, I understand what you're saying. Thing is, I've put my elitist days past me. I'm 21, so I grew up in the 90's too. I remember when grunge was the cool thing to listen to, then alternative metal/rapcore/nu metal/rap metal, and let's not forget pop punk. So when I was a kiddie, the first bands I knew were Nirvana, The Offspring, Limp Bizkit, Marilyn Manson, Korn, Rob Zombie, etc. Family Values Tour '98 was pretty much THE concert for me. When Slipknot's debut came out in 99 (since they don't count MFKR), and they were this new "heavy underground metal" band, I was all for it. Slipknot became my favorite band.
As I got older and roamed the internet more I started to discover other bands via these nu metal acts for two reasons: because real metalheads would constantly say things like "FUCK SLIPKNOT! LISTEN TO SLAYER!" and because the bands themselves would list Slayer, Metallica, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, etc. as the bands they liked. Before you knew it, I was 16, knew a shit ton of bands in practically every genre, and I was a sucker for any Extreme Metal band that came out (I'm using this as an umbrella term for grindcore, death metal, and black metal). I was the type of person that would brag about knowing super obscure Black Metal bands with terrible production. I remember going to a Death/Black Metal festival with my cousin at this age and criticizing all the kids wearing Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth shirts. Because of Thrash, I also got into Hardcore Punk, so I'd criticize a lot of punk kids a lot of punk kids at my school for being into The Clash, as opposed to Black Flag. I also remember criticizing them if they only knew of one or two punk bands like the Sex Pistols and the Dead Kennedys. A friend of mine was a bit more elitist than me though, she criticized anyone for liking the Sex Pistols, claiming that they were the Good Charlotte of the 70s, and while I understood completely what she was saying, it seemed a bit too much.
As I grew older though I slowly got out of this mindset. I don't remember what exactly triggered it, but I know my musical tastes broadened (for some reason it took me until this point to get into Led Zeppelin, I think it was because they weren't "metal enough"). The main thing I realized is this: yes, posers are lame, but does it really matter? Why should I care about their problems? Metal never died, all it died was become obscure again. Thrash never died, Metal simply evolved. Nowadays, metal is making a comeback to the mainstream, and eventually, it will have another decline in the media, but metal will continue in the underground, just as progressive rock has.
I also came to believe that the whole elitist mindset was just really sad in and of itself. It reminds me of people that take things too seriously on the internet *cough*. When it comes to metal concerts and what not, I think the important thing is to have a good time. Yeah, those kids may be lame, but let them have their fun! Everyone grows up eventually. A big reason why this changed in me over time is I became more of a people person as I grew up. I learned not to be as judgmental and value human life. What this brought about was that it forced me to try to find good in people, so yes, while I acknowledge the lamers and the posers, I also acknowledge the fact that they're just kids having a good time and being happy. What's wrong with that?
As for the "metal horns." I honestly don't find them overused in concerts. You're supposed to throw the horns a lot, bands like that, and if you headbang and get more into it, it also helps the crowd around you. There's nothing worse in a metal concert than seeing some tool just stand around looking bored, it's a buzzkiller for the people around you and makes people feel a bit insecure, so they don't loosen up as much. What I am against, however, are the people throwing up "love" symbols (metal horns but with the thumb out), and people fist banging (although this is at least a bit more acceptable). Why am I against this? Because it looks like something a lame parent would do when trying to connect with their kid about it in some cheesy family sitcom.
But yeah that's my rant about it. I think people should worry less about others and just have a good time, not just in metal, but in life overall. A big part of metal is not really giving a fuck about how people look at you and just doing your own thing, being happy with yourself despite it being "weird." I'm not talking about all the Hot Topic kids that all dress the same and conform to the "metalhead" stereotype. Those kids are doing it wrong. Metal is just about listening to whatever you want to listen to (I listen to non-metal stuff that would make an elitist frown, like old school gangsta rap for example, I kept that a secret back in my elitist tr00 kvlt Black Metal days), dressing however you want to dress (if you want to dress in all black because it's how you feel, as opposed to doing it because metalhead's expect you too, then by all means), and as stated prior, being yourself, unrestrained and happy.
That's what it means to me at least. And there's the end of that rant.
@SUPER-WEEDGAN:: So, I hafta ask... Are you a ninja or a juggalo?
@FuSoYa:: In regards to your comment to SUPER-WEEDGAN, I've had VERY similar conversations with some of the scene kids in my town. I used to be a strictly metal man, especially Black and Symphonic Scandinavian shit. My horizons have expanded with age. I can still appreciate metal, but mostly I'm meh about it.
I've listened to so much metal that it has all become fairly predictable. It's still pleasing to listen too, but doesn't possess much excitement (in terms of a different music theory perspective) like some of the avant garde rock and experimental music that I'm currently enjoying.
It's kinda like Hollywood action movies. We know there will be guns, explosions, and the good guys win. It's entertaining, but not necessarily refreshing like an old Kevin Smith flick, or something as equally driven by character interaction and dialogue. Perhaps we're not "hardcore" enough, or we're just getting old.
Just know that there's at least one other person that lives by that same philosophy. I was "metal" back in the day because that is what I chose to be, not because it was expected of me -- and that is precisely why I've expanded my horizons. To reach a state where your philosophy is uninhibited is divine. As long as the "metalheads" are at peace with themselves and what they represent, more power to them. It's an unfortunate truth that most do it for the image -- both physical and societal.
I know what you mean about a lot of metal becoming stale. Honestly I think that's the mark of a good metal band in my opinion, whether or not they can be memorable. I used to know hundreds of different goregrind, death metal, and black metal out there, I don't remember over 90% of them. After so much of it I realized how generic and uninspired most are, I supposed what happened is that the whole novelty of "extreme metal" wore off (similarly, this happens with a lot of explpoitation/gore movies out there, I used to love Guinea Pig and August Underground, but I can't stand them now).
Honestly I think this tends to happen in every genre of music, there are only a handful of bands that have that spark. I listen to a grand variety of bands, and most of what I listen to is metal, all the way from the classic to the now. While I must admit that I have a large music collection, my collection of bands is nowhere near as huge as it was when I included in all the generic, shitty ones into the mix. I also have to say that my collection is not entirely limited to Extreme Metal as it seemed to be in the past. Despite this, I have to say that everything I listen to does have a certain "roughness" to it, be it in Classical music, Rap, or Rock music, I can say that my music tastes lie with anything that sounds harsh.
Metal Horns?
Pfft. It's all about The Claw. Well, it was until people started doing it for ironic purposes.
k, no.
By the way, I forgot to mention this, but my rant about elitist extends to both movies and video games. As someone who's heavily into those areas as well I can say that at some points I developed an elitism in those areas too that also went away. The video games one is interesting though, I think a lot of people are falling victim to it.
There was a time when I would wear quite a few gaming shirts and "be proud of it" so to speak. I guess the moment I stopped was once I noticed people were starting to get a bit too serious. Pardon me, but the whole "games = art" issue, the whole Jack Thompson/Faux News/media/watchdog groups/gamepolitics garbage bores me to fucking tears and just screams at me to find something more meaningful in life. While games have artistic merits and qualities and can be thought provoking, just as movies, at the end of the day I want to be fucking entertained. If I want Plato, I'll stick with the source thank you.
Too many people are more concerned with being a "gamer" than actually playing games and having fun, it's fucking sad. As for the elitism I touched upon, I mean for example hating on people for getting into the Wii. Yeah, I hate casual games, I think shovelware is trash, but I could honestly give a fuck if some college bro is into it. If that's what he considers a great game and a great way to spend his spare time, good for him, that won't stop me from enjoying my games, nor will it sway my dislike for that garbage. The best way to "fight back" against that trash is by not buying it or talking about it, and wasting your energy on hatred. It's not like shovelware has never existed.
That's my rant on that.