METALLICA - Three Summer 2008 Shows

Well, last night I had a brand-new 500 gig hard drive catch a virus, zapping two solid months of music files. That may not sound like much, but I tend to download a great deal, and have now lost it all. I guess it was inevitable...but then, adding insult to injury, the drive itself completely melted down. As Queens of the Stone Age would say, "The Fun Machine Took a Shit and Died".

I guess that's what I get for straying from the true path, the brotherhood of boots, and attempting to download...well, items I shouldn't have been downloading (let's just say there were albums I was curious to hear, but not to pay for.) I can hear the RIAA laughing from here! So, lesson learned -- it's a sick and nasty and dangerous world out there, I'm tellin' y'all...

...and the best part? The cold realization that, unlike in nature, these goddamned computer viruses are entirely and maliciously man-made, designed solely to wreck your and my scene. So may their creators be "For Whom the Bell Tolls"...may "Creeping Death" hunt them down and, well...Kill 'Em All.

We all need to work out a bit of anger from time to time. And yet, tomorrow is the first day of summer. May these three perfect-sounding, face-ripping, ear-raping focking Metallica shows help you soothe your anger and enjoy your first weekend of summer.

METALLICA
Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre - Irvine, CA - May 17, 2008 (SBD)
DOWNLOAD

Slaski Stadium - Chorzów, Poland - May 28, 2008 (SBD)
DOWNLOAD 1 / DOWNLOAD 2 / DOWNLOAD 3

Nürburgring Racetrack - Nuremberg, Germany - June 7, 2008 (SBD)
DOWNLOAD 1 / DOWNLOAD 2

PARLIAMENT-FUNKADELIC - Hampton, VA and Washington, DC 1978

For the weekend, a double shot o' The Fonk fo' ya. Sometimes ya just needs it; this time ya flat gots it, for them what needs it. (And who don't?)

Both shows are from way way back in the day in my neck of the woods, ol' Virginny and Our Nation's Capital of Chocolate City. Both shows were recorded for a live album, so the quality is perfect. We're talkin' the One Nation Under a Groove tour here, the absolute peak of power and popularity for these particular Thumpasorus Peoples...

Misters and sisters, give it up for the Black Grateful Dead!

PARLIAMENT-FUNKADELIC
Hampton Coliseum - Hampton, VA - June 3, 1978 (SBD)
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Howard Theatre - Washington, DC - November 1, 1978 (SBD)
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IRON MAIDEN - BBC Session 1979

This is to celebrate the one-week anniversary of me scoring a free ticket!!! to Iron Maiden's Somewhere Back in Time show down at the former Irvine Meadows Amphitheater, a couple hours south of Hollywood. It was a long-ass drive, note-for-note the exact same show at The Forum three months ago, and 1000% worth it.

It comprises only four tunes, mind you, but they are perfect and pristine. Hell, anything from the brief Paul DiAnno era is worth a spin, 'cause there sure ain't much of it.

Thanks as always to my bestest fwend and boot-brother over at The effin' Amazing, Astonishing, Unbelievable Ultimate Bootleg Experience. Up the Irons, mate!

IRON MAIDEN "BBC Friday Rock Show"
BBC Studios - London, England - November 14, 1979 (FMB)
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WEEZER - The Black Sessions 1995 and KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas 1994

Sorry for the long break; too much work and not enough rock...

Since it's been a while, let's mix it up and post something relatively recent, to mark this week's release of Weezer's new album, which I might as well nickname the Big Red One. The disc seems to be getting mixed reviews, but to my mind it's their best since the classic 1994 debut. (Sure, the three tunes by the other boys in the band don't quite measure up, but the four bonus tracks on the deluxe version make up for it.) I especially adore "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived," a 6-minute epic which may well stand as Rivers Cuomo's peak moment of demented pop genius, his "Good Vibrations" or "Bohemian Rhapsody" or "Paranoid Android."

Anyway, I haven't found a whole lot of the Weez online, but these two are the best, no question...

You got yer pristine FM broadcast, originally on Paris radio station France Inter, from a series called the Black Sessions. The performance is spot-on, and between songs DJ Bernard Lenoir pronounces the band's name "Wee-zair" (I mean, when is a French DJ not funny?)

Then you got yer quick-n-dirty FM broadcast, originally on L.A.'s own KROQ, a station I haven't listened to in nearly 10 years (Korn, Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park killed it for me, permanently.) It's from the '94 Almost Acoustic Christmas show, just as the band was really taking off. They're introducted by Mr. Henry Winkler, The Fonz himself, and the show includes an early airing of the magnificent "Jamie", arguably my most beloved B-side of the '90s (besides a few stray Jellyfish and Ben Folds tracks, that is). Rivers even slips a few lines of "Creep" into "Undone—The Sweater Song"...who'da thunk, back then, that both Weezer and Radiohead would still be on top of the rock world 15 years later? (I wish their lesser contemporaries, like the dreaded Live and Oasis, would retire already, but no such luck.)

Nerd on, brothers and sisters!

WEEZER "The Black Sessions"
France Inter Radio - Paris, France - February 12, 1995 (FMB)
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WEEZER "KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas"
Universal Amphitheatre - Universal City, CA - December 11, 1994 (FMB)
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