Rolling Stone

I’m a little annoyed with Rolling Stone Magazine right now for two reasons: Their show, “I’m from Rolling Stone” and their latest cover featured here.

Have you seen the show? I don’t know if they realize it, and it could all be in the editing but it looks like they have the lamest group of writers interning for them and the expectations are not so high either. Maybe it’s the fundamental problem of trying to create a show about writing. I was really looking forward to watching this but it is really unnecessary.

The other problem I have is the photo on the cover of new guitar gods issue. How interesting that John Mayer, America’s favorite passive-aggressive pretty boy (see lyrics for “Waiting on the World to Change”) is front and center and the other guitarists are blocked from view. I bought this issue in the Dallas airport this weekend and held it up to my traveling companion. He didn’t even notice the other guitarists in the picture. Nothing against John Mayer (well, not in this case), but the article is supposed to be about ability and not looks, but the cover contradicts that. Maybe I’m the only one that didn’t buy it for John Mayer. As for their list of twenty new guitar heroes, I was surprised that Matt Bellamy from Muse wasn’t listed. An article I was very much looking forward to reading proved unmoving.

Come on Rolling Stone, this is unfortunate. Good concepts but poor execution. –J

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Scottrade Center

Bear with me, this may be long...

I have seen them twice before and enjoyed both shows. Going to the show with someone who had never seen them before is kind of like inviting someone to your house so you can show them one of your favorite movies. You’re kind of half watching the show and then half worrying about if the other person is enjoying it.

On a lark back in 2003, I entered a radio contest and won a meet and greet with Anthony Kiedis before their St. Louis show. My friend M babysat that night so I could attend the show and when I came home he asked me how it was meeting Anthony. My response was, “He has beautiful olive skin”. The next day at work M laughingly repeated this quote a number of times. Sometimes it takes someone quoting you back to yourself to realize what an ass you sound like.

High up in the arena Monday night, some fans held up a sign that said, “Show us your socks!” Wow, it was hard to believe that this was the same band that used to perform in tube socks. It was a way more mature set and this time around, all band members had more clothes on than I have ever seen them wear during a performance.

Thinking back about the setlist, all of the songs performed were songs from albums that John Frusciante played on. I wonder if that was intentional.

I have been semi-obsessed with John Frusciante since he cleaned up. He is a fascinating individual who seems to live and breathe music and I think his guitar playing is amazing. I mean the man put out something like seven solo albums in a year. I was reading an article that described his daily routine which consisted mostly of listening to records of whatever band he was fascinated by and learning all of the guitar parts for all of their songs. I think he must be going through a disco or a brothers Gibb phase because at the beginning of this tour, for his little solo song during the set he was doing the Bee Gees “How Deep is Your Love”. As K mentioned, this time he did Andy Gibb’s “Shadow Dancing”, which sounded awesome (I have a place in my heart for the Brothers Gibb). In our cluster of fans I think K and I were the only ones singing along to that cover.

Tuesday I went online to look for the setlist and found it posted on a French fan site. Isn’t that funny that a setlist for a show in St. Louis, Missouri would be posted there? Here it is:

Intro Jam

Can't Stop

Dani California

Otherside

Charlie

Fortune Faded
ReadyMade

Get On Top

Nobody Weird Like Me

Don’t Forget Me

Shadow Dancing (John Solo)

Snow (Hey Oh)
....

C'mon Girl

Californication

London Calling Intro / Right On Time

Hey

By The Way

Encore:

I Could Have Lied

Give It Away

Final Jam

The encore was puzzling. “Give it Away” was the highlight, but “I Could Have Lied”? Come on, that is not an encore kind of a song. It’s more of a we just played five fast songs in a row and we’re gonna throw this in to give everyone a moment to breathe kind of a song. To end with an instrumental jam as Anthony walked off the stage makes one wonder if there are problems in the band or if he was not feeling well.

Especially after reading Kiedis’ autobiography, when I listen to their music, I sometimes think how awesome of a band they would be without him. We got a taste of that from the instrumental jams performed in between songs as well as at the beginning and end of the show. Because of this “what if” thought of mine, I enjoyed the jamming where usually that kind of thing totally gets on my nerves.

Songs I would have loved to have heard that they didn’t play were:

Wet Sand
Around the World
Parallel Universe
Breaking the Girl (my brother S hates this song)
Dosed
Minor Thing

The Chili Peppers never talk much in between songs and Monday was no exception. Towards the end of the show, Flea thanked the fans for their support over the years and said that we had their “love and gratitude”. Is this a farewell tour? It kind of felt that way.

--J

Chicago Vol. 3 Playlist

Since the last “reorganization” within our company, work has become a little angsty for me. Everyone would rather be doing something besides work, right? Well, I never actually saw my job as being a shitty one. So, it has been particularly disappointing to face the bad taste in my mouth and find the motivation just to get out of bed every morning. I admit it, I’m stressed. You can probably tell how stressed I’ve been based on my Foo Fighters review. I know, boo-hoo. Whatever. It happens and it won’t be there forever, so for now I’m just getting by with getting by. My ways of decompression were and are a little schizophrenic, because on some nights I work out intensely or I just drink a healthy amount of Jaegermeister and smoke. Both do the trick for me, but on the latter nights I inevitably fire up the laptop, get onto iTunes, and test drive or purchase the latest pop songs that iTunes tells me everyone else is listening to.

J and I are into playlists for our road trips. Since we were going to an acoustic show, we both prepared playlists that had mellower themes. While mine was mellower than usual, it was also poppier. Shockingly so, in fact. Not only was it poppier, it also raised some eyebrows. I knew what I was doing, but some of the songs on the playlist show how outside of myself I have been in the last few weeks. I can justify it by saying that sometimes I need to cleanse my palate and start fresh. I can also say that I was clearly self-medicating when I purchased some of these songs and created the playlist. Listed are a select few to represent what the Chicago Vol. 3 playlist was like.

Stars Are Blind- Paris Hilton. You know, sometimes you just have to close your eyes and pretend the person you’re with is someone else. That’s what I do when I hear this song because as long as I forget who is singing, the song is good pop.

Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo- Bloodhound Gang. I love these guys, but I never expected to share this particular song with anyone in a car. It reminded me of hearing “Let’s Talk About Sex” in the car with my Granddad once, just not as awkard. More “unexpected”.

Suddenly I See- KT Tunstall- I heard this song when I watched The Devil Wears Prada. I don’t seek this song out, but it’s a good driving song.

Call Me When You’re Sober- Evanescence. J and I were both a little curious to see how all the internal drama of this band was going to translate into the material. If this song is representative of that, then it’s just another day in Evanescenceland. Take it or leave it.

Fidelity- Regina Spektor. I downloaded this song and then forgot about it until I saw the video. Pretty original. I can appreciate that she is doing her own thing.

Idlewild Blue- Outkast. I have always liked Outkast anyway, but this song is pretty amazing even though when the lyrics start I always want to continue singing Higher Ground.

Electricity- Anathema. I’m very new to these guys. It’s moody, ambient, and a nice background piece to any conversation. Like another band I like, as M would put it, “this music’s made for [luv makin]”. Yes, it is.

Murderers- John Frusciante. I’m not surprised that I added John to this playlist since we were on our way to an acoustic show and he’s just a fucking great composer. But I have no idea why I decided to add this song after a 30 second taste.

Sexyback- Justin Timberlake. Sometimes I need to sex things up a bit.

Baby Hold On- Dixie Chicks. I don’t give a shit what they say about politics- who cares! But, what surprised me for wanting to add them was the fact that I was SO SICK of them being played on Huntsville Radio all the time and would have been happy to never hear their music again. HOWEVER, this latest album is phenomenal. Also, J really likes this song and played it for me one night while we were having a “night”. It makes my heart melt.

Redemption. Here are some other tunes that made it onto the playlist. A little more K-typical…

Last Caress- Misfits
DOA- Foo Fighters
Dancing With Myself- Billy Idol
Paranoid- Black Sabbath
Exo-Politics- MUSE
Lonely Road- Daniel Lioneye
Goody Two Shoes- Adam Ant
Bad Reputation- Joan Jett
I Want to Be Buried in Your Backyard- Nightmare of You
Headfirst for Halos- My Chemical Romance

-K