Bucket List!
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Continuing on with my year of finally doing some cool shit ...
Just back from a 2 week road trip from Denver to San Fran. Arguably one of the best road trips on the planet. Drove up pikes peak (14,500 feet high - breathing is tough!), across Utah (probably the best scenery Ive seen anywhere on the planet), cheeky weekend in Vegas (Wet Republic pool party at MGM is insane ... exxy as hell, but worth it), Death Valley (snore ... it's hot, but boring otherwise) then Yosemite (epic epic place).
Some highlights were Utah roads - great condition, zero cops and you can see for miles and miles ... between 6 of us had 3 motorbikes, a camaro and a charger. I'm not a biker at all, but had serious fun in the 2 yank tanks - on one stint we averaged just under 90mph for an hour!
Also went to exotics racing in Vegas and did a few laps in a Corvette & Ferrari 458. Corvette was seriously fast in a straight line and sounded heavenly, but felt heavy in the corners. I thought it was epic until I drove the 458 ... What. A. Machine. I don't think it'll ever be topped. Hung the arse out around a corner and the guide was like, thats not right as you lose some speed ... ummmm ... sure, thing!
This has only been posted to brag, no other reason. Epic trip.
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So I ticked off one of mine last weekend. At 16 I was a massive metal head absolutely obsessed with Brazilian group Sepultura, had all their albums, recorded their music video on to VCR from that late night rock music show in NZ (Mulch?) and even had a couple of way oversized shirts. Back in 1996 they were due to hit NZ for the Big Day Out which was going to be both my first trip to Auckland and first ever cool gig but tragedy struck and they broke up weeks before.
In 2013 I caught the reformed Sepultura sans the Cavalera brothers (singer and drummer) but it was sorely lacking, the brothers really were the heart and soul of the band. Well fast forward to last Saturday and Max and Iggor are touring Australia for their 'Return to Roots' tour playing 1996's 'Roots' album in its entirety.
It was absolutely terrific to finally see these guys play. To top it all off at the merch store I saw you could buy a meet & greet for $100.00 so I thought why the hell not?It was a little formulaic as you might expect but was great just to shake their hands and get a new ace as profile pic for facebook. One funny thing which really struck me was how I was actually taller than them both (I'm 5'8") in my mind they have always been 7 foot tall!
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With all the other "end of year" lists cluttering up other off-topic threads, thought I'd contribute one.
Gigs I saw this year:- Conor Oberst
The Naked and Famous
Ladyhawke
The xx
Cat Power
Japandroids
Alt-J
Stone Roses
The Roots
Cold War Kids
Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, The Lumineers
Feist
Regina Spektor
Nadia Reid
Car Seat Headrest
The Libertines, Seasick Steve, Jack Bugg, KT Tunstall, Fun Lovin' Criminals
Ryan Adams
LCD Soundsystem
Ghostface Killah
The National (x2)
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
The Naked and Famous
Dizzee Rascal
Lamb
St Vincent
Public Service Broadcasting
Katchafire
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Father John Misty
Sylvan Esso
Goldfrapp
Run The Jewels
Prophets of Rage
Queens of the Stone Age
Wolf Alice
Gorillaz
P.O.S.
Can't be bothered making notes on each, but highlights were certainly Nick Cave - turning a song like "Higgs Boson Blues" into a Stadium-Anthem absolutely filling the O2 Arena... pure class. And obviously, seeing Tom Petty before his passing.
Lowlights - Libertines, never really got the hype - seeing them live didn't change my mind. FLC was fun but. And Stone Roses - glad I got to see them, but Ian Brown sounded like a drunk pub karaoke singer.
- Conor Oberst
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@Kruse Woah! Quite the list.
What's 'Prophets of Rage' like? I'm going to Download fest next year in Melbourne and not sure if I will bother watching them, having seen both Rage and Public Enemy separately before. I'm probably more concerned about them being politically preachy. Saw Refused earlier this year who were awesome up until the singer gave the audience a speech about the gender wage gap and how all men in the audience should feel guilty over it. Left a bit of a sour taste so don't want to see anything like that again.
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@rembrandt Sorry, just checked Fern after some time.
(escaping Christmas by flying to Islamic Morocco)
Prophets (topical?)... pretty much exactly as you'd expect when you read the list of members. Plenty of Rage songs with different vocalists, plenty of old school Cypress/NWA songs. New stuff is pretty rubbish. A little bit of sermonising, but not much more than any gig I've seen the last two years.
If I'd ever seen RATM, I probably wouldn't have bothered. Saw NWA & Cypress recently, so this was just the closest I'm likely to get to Rage.
Crowd was a clusterfuck of cocks. -
@rembrandt said in Bucket List!:
@Kruse Woah! Quite the list.
What's 'Prophets of Rage' like? I'm going to Download fest next year in Melbourne and not sure if I will bother watching them, having seen both Rage and Public Enemy separately before. I'm probably more concerned about them being politically preachy. Saw Refused earlier this year who were awesome up until the singer gave the audience a speech about the gender wage gap and how all men in the audience should feel guilty over it. Left a bit of a sour taste so don't want to see anything like that again.
They've done two great songs this year but I think the hypocrisy of multi millionaire rock/rap stars preaching inequality might grate a bit after awhile.
Still, as I say they do cool music and they're nowhere near as annoying as this fluffybunny.
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Just back from seeing the Finns. Fucking great night. Sat in a park eating cheese, drinking wine, and listening to some talented musicians play some amazing music.
And what a classic playlist. From the opening bars of History Never Repeats we were treated to Neil singing a raft of classics. Yes there was new stuff. But fir every one of Liam's prog rock theatrics we got 2 Crowded House ir Splt Enz songs.
Great show, great sing a long. Worth the effort
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I know that the bucket list thread has needed up as 'bands I really want to see' but can I add another?
You know how you watch sports on TV and think "that would be cool to try'?
How about Olympic Bobsleigh? I did a run down the olympic track in Innsbruck the other night. Wow! That was one of the most white knuckle things I have ever done. It was only a 'tourist bob' but still, the Gs pulled on the corners and the being thrown from side to side!
Can mark that of the list now and thankfully not go back.
PS: those dudes on the luge and skeleton must have some cajones.
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Finally got to see the Blockheads last night. Awesomely wow!
Norman Watt-Roy is a bass god. Got a great solo from him during Rhythm Stick.
Derek does a fantastic job of honouring his best mate Ian Dury while adding his own touch.Was worried my hopes would be too high travelling all the way up to Hertford to catch them but they were surpassed. So cool that you can still catch bands of this quality in small packed out venues.
On another bucket list note went to the Four Tops and Temptations earlier in the week. My hopes for this certainly weren't high and it pitched about where I thought. Old fellas doing cabaret versions of their hits. Was worth it though just to see a couple of original members still doing their stuff. Got to give kudos to someone that had million selling records before I was born (a long time ago) and are still strutting their stuff. Was a good sing a long anyway.
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@bones said in Bucket List!:
@crucial is this where I mention I popped to see Go West in March in the twells assembly hall thingy. It was bloody brilliant, more cheese than I ever could've hoped for.
No it isn’t. The two are not comparable.
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@catogrande said in Bucket List!:
@bones said in Bucket List!:
@crucial is this where I mention I popped to see Go West in March in the twells assembly hall thingy. It was bloody brilliant, more cheese than I ever could've hoped for.
No it isn’t. The two are not comparable.
The green eyed monster rears it's ugly head.
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@bones said in Bucket List!:
@catogrande said in Bucket List!:
@bones said in Bucket List!:
@crucial is this where I mention I popped to see Go West in March in the twells assembly hall thingy. It was bloody brilliant, more cheese than I ever could've hoped for.
No it isn’t. The two are not comparable.
The green eyed monster rears it's ugly head.
Oh no, I’ve been outed. Will I be able to hold my head high at the Culture Club fan reunion next week?
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@catogrande said in Bucket List!:
@bones said in Bucket List!:
@catogrande said in Bucket List!:
@bones said in Bucket List!:
@crucial is this where I mention I popped to see Go West in March in the twells assembly hall thingy. It was bloody brilliant, more cheese than I ever could've hoped for.
No it isn’t. The two are not comparable.
The green eyed monster rears it's ugly head.
Oh no, I’ve been outed. Will I be able to hold my head high at the Culture Club fan reunion next week?
Again.
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@bones said in Bucket List!:
@crucial is this where I mention I popped to see Go West in March in the twells assembly hall thingy. It was bloody brilliant, more cheese than I ever could've hoped for.
I want to hate this post but I can't. We close our eyes is one of the best songs of the 80s.
