I left work promptly at 5pm and made it to Mohegan Sun in an hour and 40 minutes. Not too shabby. My friend arrived shortly thereafter and we went to the ticket window to get the tickets about a half hour before the start of the show. No offense to the first opener, Angel Taylor, but our first priority was getting dinner rather than catching the opening act. Luckily, we were able to get an immediate seat at Big Bubba’s BBQ and had a nice meal (I opted for the chicken and ribs combo, and she had meatloaf. Because two out of three ain’t bad.).

After dinner, we headed into the arena in the middle of Ben Kweller’s set. He was pretty darn good. I especially enjoyed Sawdust Man. After Ben Kweller, though, it was the moment of truth. Barenaked Ladies were going to take the stage and this was my first time seeing them without Steven Page.

And you know what? I didn’t miss him at all. They opened their set with Who Needs Sleep? (an always odd choice, in my opinion), and then broke into The Old Apartment. It was as it always is with them. They rocked the house. It wasn’t long before Ed Robertson was freestyle-rapping about playing at Mohegan Sun, and then him and the band started talking about how he’d gotten schooled at poker that day. It appears he played a $200 buy-in tournament and learned a couple lessons along the way. Lesson 1: Trip 9’s aren’t worth a damn (“I was outkicked!”), and lesson 2: Queens full of 10’s? Fold ‘em! (“He slowplayed me!”). All was right with the world. I’m not familiar with much of the new stuff, but Angel Taylor did come out to sing with Ed on one of the songs I DO know, Every Subway Car, and it sounded really good. They even played a song called Eraser from their kid’s CD Snack Time, which was great fun. The other band members (mainly Kevin Hearn) took over a lot of Steven Page’s vocals, and his absence was barely felt. In fact, the only time I really thought about him was when they played You Run Away, off their new All in Good Time album, which is clearly about him.

And as always, as I was hoping, they did their famous medley finale. It started with Kevin Hearn playing the piano and singing Magic by Pilot. This led into the band doing a song and dance routine that included Empire State of Mind by Jay Z, I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas (who were coincidentally playing the XL Center in Hartford the very same night), Baby by Justin Bieber, and California Gurls by Katy Perry, topped off by “Mohegan Sun, won’t you come” at the very end to the tune of Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden (which they’ve done at their previous Mohegan Sun shows). The crowd, of course, clamored for an encore, and BNL gladly obliged. They played 3 songs for their encore, and for the first, Ed Robertson played drums while Tyler Stewart stumbled across the stage belting out Alcohol (that song was made for him to perform), and they finished the night with Brian Wilson (the song, not the Beach Boys singer).

We left thoroughly satisfied with the show, and continued to do a little gambling on the penny slots. And even though it only took me an hour and twenty minutes to get home, it was still 2:15am. But who needs sleep, right?

jamie wrote this on 08/09/10 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | no comments yet, be the first! | TAGS: 10s music, 70s music, 80s music, 90s music, alcohol, all in good time, angel taylor, baby, barenaked ladies, beach boys, ben kweller, big bubba's bbq, black eyed peas, black hole sun, bnl, brian wilson, california gurls, ed robertson, empire state of mind, eraser, every subway car, hartford, i gotta feeling, jay z, jim creegan, justin bieber, katy perry, kevin hearn, life in a nutshell, meat loaf, mohegan sun, pilot, poker, sawdust man, snack time, soundgarden, steven page, the old apartment, two out of three ain't bad, tyler stewart, who needs sleep, xl center, you run away

As disturbing as it is that this has become such a phenomenon (I mean, can you imagine being on the bus on the way home from work and witnessing something like this?), at least we’re getting some fine entertainment out of it.

jamie wrote this on 03/09/10 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | no comments yet, be the first! | TAGS: 70s music, amberlamps, ambulance, black betty, epic beard man, oakland, phenomenon, ram jam, tosh.0, transit bus fight, video mash-up, viral video

It looks like the soundtrack does a good job encompassing AC/DC’s whole career with some classic old Bon Scott songs right up to a song off their most recent CD Black Ice. You can see the track listing at the link above, but here it is anyway:

1. Shoot to Thrill
2. Rock ‘N’ Roll Damnation
3. Guns for Hire
4. Cold Hearted Man
5. Back in Black
6. Thunderstruck
7. If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)
8. Evil Walks
9. T.N.T.
10. Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be
11. Have a Drink on Me
12. The Razor’s Edge
13. Let There Be Rock
14. War Machine
15. Highway to Hell

And here’s the first video for Shoot to Thrill from the movie:

Keep your eyes on Brian Johnson. There’s something about a 62 year old grinding his hips that isn’t disturbing at all.

NOT.

jamie wrote this on 01/27/10 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | 2 comments | TAGS: 00s music, 10s movies, 70s music, 80s music, 90s music, ac/dc, AC/DC: Iron Man 2, angus young, back in black, big gun, bill, black ice, black sabbath, bon scott, brian johnson, cold hearted man, emilio estevez, evil walks, greatest hits, guns for hire, have a drink on me, hell ain't a bad place to be, if you want blood (you've got it), iron man, iron man 2, jon favreau, last action hero, let there be rock, maximum overdrive, rock 'n' roll damnation, shoot to thrill, stephen king, t.n.t., that was awesome, the razor's edge, thunderstruck, trucks, who made who

This is so weird, like, bein' on this burnin' towel!

The year was 1996, and it was our then-annual Lake George camping trip. I believe this trip took place not long after a group of us had gone to see Kingpin (the Farrelly Brothers movie starring Woody Harrelson, Randy Quaid, and Bill Murray). Disco Inferno by the Trammps was featured in the film, and must have remained in our friend Kevin’s head for quite some time afterward, because we would be singing it quite often. Then this songspeak moment occurred: A group of us were playing games at the campsite picnic table (probably Scattergories or some other such party game) while a citronella candle burned at the end of the table to keep the bugs away. Then, the unthinkable happened. One of us tossed a towel aside, and it landed in a most inopportune place. Smack dab on top of the candle. The towel, of course, caught fire, and we immediately threw it onto the ground and stomped it out. Kevin, meanwhile, started singing “Burn, baby, burn…” What we all expected him to sing next was, “It’s a towel inferno!”, but no. Instead, he sang, “It’s a disco towel!”. This made no sense, and due to the tensions being high and our near brush with death*, we all laughed more than we should have. It’s been over 13 years since that fateful day, but Matt and I still remember that songspeak quite fondly.

*And by “death”, I mean “charred towel”.

jamie wrote this on 10/21/09 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | 1 comment so far | TAGS: 70s music, 90s movies, bill murray, camping, campsite, citronella candle, disco, disco inferno, disco towel, farrelly brothers, kevin, kingpin, lake george, randy quaid, scattergories, the trammps, towel, towel inferno, woody harrelson

"Help! It's cold down here, and I'm lonely..."

jamie wrote this on 07/09/09 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | 1 comment so far | TAGS: 70s music, eric clapton, lay down sally, slowhand, stop and shop, way down cellar

jamie wrote this on 07/01/09 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | 1 comment so far | TAGS: 70s music, 90s movies, classic rock, come on and dance, dazed and confused, death and despair, kevin, let's make some romance, no doubt, steve miller, steve miller band, swingtown, take off your pants

I think my favorite part is when the douchebag boss sings “ba ba bow ba ba bow”, fistbumps his employee, then blows it up.

After McDonald’s and Burger King’s latest efforts, the fast food commercial has become a whole new bag of potatoes. Congrats, Taco Bell, on stepping up your game and bringing the commercial songspeak to a whole new level.

jamie wrote this on 06/11/09 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | 8 comments | TAGS: 70s music, burger king, douchebag boss, escape, fruitista freeze, mcdonald's, pina colada, rupert holmes, taco bell, the pina colada song, whole new bag of potatoes

The KISS Army (feat. the ex-Mr. Lisa Bonet) says, "We want YOU...to abolish tennis!"

They would take over the TV and watch it all day long. Rather than stab my eyes out with a fork, I decided to try to make the most of it. Lenny Kravitz had just released his cover of KISS‘ song Deuce, so it had been getting a lot of airplay back then. I know nothing of the rules of tennis, but I know every now and then something would happen with the score and the commentators would announce a deuce. So whenever that happened, I belted out my Lenny Kravitz impression, singing, “You know your man is workin’ hard…he’s worth a deuce!” I did this to be funny the first couple times, but then I did it mainly to annoy them into never wanting to watch tennis on TV with me in the room ever again. It didn’t work, as they would still watch it whenever there was a big event.

Tennis fuckin’ blows goats.

jamie wrote this on 05/04/09 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | no comments yet, be the first! | TAGS: 70s music, 90s music, deuce, kiss, lenny kravitz, queer guys in shorts, tennis, u.s. open, wimbledon, wpi

Matt's ticket, which he promptly washed.

Flash! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

This past Friday night was a night 17 years in the making.  Matt and I attended One Night of Queen at Springfield Symphony Hall in Springfield, Massachusetts. The ticket stub can be seen on the right. Would we play games with you?

You see, our relationship blossomed 17 years ago in high school, where we would talk about music on the bus ride home.  Wayne’s World had just come out and repopularized Bohemian Rhapsody.  This was my first real exposure to Queen, but Matt would tell me about all the quirky songs in their vast library of work, like Fat Bottomed Girls and Bicycle Race.  This prompted me to get Classic Queen and Queen’s Greatest Hits on cassette.  So when we found out that One Night of Queen was coming to Springfield, we realized that a bromantic evening of dinner and music must be had.

Before the show, we went to Theodore’s Booze Blues and BBQ.  We started with a heaping plate of nachos, and we each got a ribs combo dinner.  I opted for the popcorn shrimp, while Matt went with the brisket.  Don’t we look thrilled?

After dinner, we arrived at Springfield Symphony Hall. The smokers were stinking up the front steps as we saw the huge banner for One Night Of Queen. We took our seats (after a quick trip to restroom to drain our bladders of the 3 or 4 soda refills we had at Theodore’s) and anxiously awaited the start of the show.  We had been curious about what kind of crowd this show would attract, and it was surprisingly diverse.  The audience was comprised of a few middle-aged folks dragging their kids to the show (and most of these kids couldn’t look less enthused to be there, and likely have no idea who Queen was), quite a few people our age, lots of other guys out for a bromantic evening themselves, and quite a few older folks who were probably our age when Queen was in their prime.  Matt even spotted a celebrity in attendance; the guy from the local Bertera Chevrolet commercials.  We found it odd that they were playing Queen songs over the speakers before Gary Mullen and The Works took the stage.

And speaking of Gary Mullen, he really channelled his inner Freddie Mercury.  He must have really studied old Queen concert footage in preparing for this role.  He leapt fabulously, pranced flamingly, slapped his ass, spit water, used the mic stand as a guitar, swung it like a golf club, drop-kicked his bottled water (Matt was slightly mad that he was drinking bottled water, as it didn’t exist in the 70’s and ruined the illusion of the era we were supposed to be in), supplied plenty of innuendo, and walked through the crowd, looking to have sex with anything that moved. At one point, he left the stage for an extended period of time while the band played. We assumed it was a costume change, but the only change we noticed when he came back on stage was that he had no shirt on.

The setlist was as follows:

• One Vision
• Seven Seas Of Rhye
• A Kind of Magic
• Somebody To Love
• Under Pressure (no David Bowie lookalike was present, unfortunately)
• Another One Bites The Dust (featuring an interlude of the Sugar Hill Gang classic Rapper’s Delight)
• Save Me
• Killer Queen
• Now I’m Here (featuring an extended guitar solo)
• Don’t Stop Me Now
• Theme From Flash
• Tie Your Mother Down
• Keep Yourself Alive (featuring an extended drum solo)
• Fat Bottomed Girls
• Love Of My Life
• Jailhouse Rock (yes, the Elvis Presley song)
• Bohemian Rhapsody
• Hammer To Fall
• Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Encore:

• We Will Rock You
• Friends Will Be Friends (WTF?)
• We Are The Champions

And here, my best friends, is choppy cellphone video for ya… (with annotations!)…

We were disappointed that Radio Ga Ga wasn’t performed. This was especially shocking considering Gary Mullen’s affinity for having the crowd put their arms in the air and clap to the beat.  Of course, there’s Matt’s disdain for the presence of bottled water.  We also weren’t thrilled that Gary Mullen forced us to stand for most of the show as he maintained that the seats were “redundant” and that we should be off of our asses dancing.  We were also convinced that Gary Mullen was putting on a fake British accent to stay true to his Freddie Mercury character, only to find out that he’s actually British!  And one of my personal favorite moments was near the beginning of the show, when he said, “How are you doing Springfield?” *crowd cheers* “Where’s Homer Simpson?”  Who doesn’t love an antiquated Simpsons joke? It’s like having your grandmother forward you an email about how Bill Gates is going to pay everyone a bunch of money for forwarding said email. In other words, topical.

And good God, the guitar player sure did look like Dave Mustaine from Megadeth. But his name is really Davie Brockett, or so we’re told.

All in all, we had a great time, and it was much better than we thought it would be. Gary Mullen and The Works have been doing this for a number of years and are currently on tour.  If you’re a Queen fan, you would be stone cold crazy to miss this show.

jamie wrote this on 04/06/09 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | no comments yet, be the first! | TAGS: 70s music, 80s music, 90s music, bbq, bertera chevrolet, bicycle race, bill gates, booze blues and bbq, bottled water, brisket, bromance, bromantic, classic queen, dave mustaine, david bowie, davie brockett, elvis presley, freddie mercury, gary mullen, homer simpson, i'm going slightly mad, innuendo, massachusetts, megadeth, nachos, northampton high school, one night of queen, play the game, popcorn shrimp, queen, queen's greatest hits, radio ga ga, rapper's delight, ribs, simpsons, springfield, stone cold crazy, sugar hill gang, symphony hall, the works, theodore's, wayne's world, you're my best friend

For years, Matt and I would bring this up and/or sing it randomly. Then one day I noticed Matt sang the second line of the song as, “set an open course full of urgency”. I had to correct him and let him know the actual lyric is “set an open course for the virgin sea”. Though, if you aren’t really paying attention, I can easily see why Matt would get it wrong.

Here is the clip that started it all:

jamie wrote this on 12/05/08 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | no comments yet, be the first! | TAGS: 00s tv, 70s music, 90s tv, cartman, come sail away, eric cartman, i'm sailing away, set an open course for the virgin sea, set an open course full of urgency, south park, styx

I wasn’t playing this hand, but was just observing along with everyone else at the table. It was a guy and girl in in the pot together (I’ll withhold the names to protect the innocent), and the flop was J 8 8, I believe. They both checked. The turn was an A, the girl made a substantial bet, and the guy called. The river was another J, the guy bet big, and after thinking for a minute, she finally felt like she had to call. After she called, but before they showed their cards, I was singing The Jack by AC/DC at the end of the table, “He’s got the jack…he’s got the jack”. The woman sitting next to me commented that she loves that song. The guy indeed showed a jack for a full house, beating the girl’s 2 pair, aces over 8’s (this isn’t the blog or place to analyze how horrible his move of calling her turn bet was when it was obvious she had an ace or 8 and he was only drawing to 2 outs, but I digress…)

The Jack is one of my favorite Bon Scott-era AC/DC songs. It’s basically a song about an STD, but uses playing cards and poker as a clever metaphor. Lyrically, one of AC/DC’s better efforts. At least, the studio version. The live version now performed by Brian Johnson has alternate lyrics and is more of a straightforward to-the-point description of said disease.

*Disclaimer – The point of this story is that guy had a jack playing card in his hand. I have no idea if he has the disease “the jack” or not.

jamie wrote this on 11/17/08 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | 5 comments | TAGS: 70s music, ac/dc, bon scott, brian johnson, full house, he's got the jack, no limit texas hold 'em, playing cards, poker, poker night, sexually transmitted disease, STD, the clap, the jack, two pair

"Red looooooobster, is a little ol' place where, we can eat some shri-imp!"

It’s my favorite time of the year.

No, not Halloween. Not even Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Autumn is Endless Shrimp season at Red Lobster. It only happens once a year, and only for a limited time. It has become a tradition of sorts for Matt and I. The closest Red Lobster is about 45 minutes/an hour away, but that won’t stop us. Tonight is the night we go and eat as many shrimp as humanly possible.

I’ve been looking forward to this day since we walked out the Red Lobster’s door last year after partaking in the Endless Shrimp extravaganza. And all morning, in my head, I’ve been singing “Red Lobster!” to the tune of Rock Lobster by the B-52’s.

This will be the greatest night in recent memory.

jamie wrote this on 10/28/08 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | 2 comments | TAGS: 00s restaurant promotions, 70s music, autumn, b-52's, christmas, Cindy Wilson, endless shrimp, favorite time of the year, Fred Schneider, halloween, Kate Pierson, Keith Strickland, red lobster, rock lobster, thanksgiving

They play 80s metal versions of popular Bee Gees songs like Stayin’ Alive, Jive Talkin’, How Deep Is Your Love, More Than A Woman, Tragedy, and others.

From MetroMix:

How does one combine heavy metal and the Bee Gees?
It’s easy: We love disco, and we love metal. On the surface, they’re polar opposites, sort of like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, I guess. But it works, and it’s fun to go against the grain.

How did you get so popular so quickly? You’re headlining an 1100 capacity venue.
We’re fucking awesome, that’s the main thing. As we like to say, we rock sweet balls and do no wrong.

What’s with the popularity of tribute bands now?
Our success doesn’t really come from the tribute band scene. We play with some, like this weekend, but we play with some non-tribute bands as well; we’ve played with jam bands like Umphrey’s McGee and punk bands like Murphy’s Law. This isn’t a standard tribute—I mean, it’s songs people know, and that does help—but it’s a concept turned on its head.

Who’s your fanbase?
It varies. See, I think almost everyone like the Bee Gees, and almost everyone loves heavy metal, either genuinely or an ironic way. Admittedly, we don’t get many hardcore Bee Gees fans, but they have a universal appeal.

What’s your stage show like?
It’s mayhem. We have the three brothers up front, singing, playing cowbells, wearing tight white satin. And we have our beautiful back-up singers: Women’s Gibb, Angelpussy, Olivia Newton-Chong and Linda Gibb. Oh, and we have an intern/towel boy named Lance. He’s kind of an idiot.

Tragedy has an album coming out on October 20th called “We Rock Sweet Balls And Can Do No Wrong”. You can hear many of the songs on their website, letsmaketragedyhappen.com. Here’s a video for “Stayin’ Alive”…

songspeak wrote this on 10/15/08 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | 1 comment so far | TAGS: 70s music, 80s music, bee gees, decimate, disco, heavy, how deep is your love, iron horse, jive talkin, let's make tragedy happen, massachusetts, metal, more than a woman, new york city, northampton, nyc, stayin alive, tragedy, tribute band, we rock sweet balls and can do no wrong

It was a bit funnier than we expected, but it was your standard romantic comedy fare. This isn’t a movie review site, so I’m not going to waste your time telling you how average it is. Or how utterly “Dane Cook” Dane Cook is.

My reason for bringing it up is because the movie gets its title from the Cars song of the same name (from 1978’s self-titled album). This makes sense not only because of the plot of the movie, but also because the movie takes place in Boston (why they didn’t name it after a Boston song, I’ll never know). Though for a movie that shares its name with the Cars song, it’s surprising that the song isn’t used in the film. Oh, wait a minute. Yes it is. Repeatedly. I mean, really. To the point of ridiculousness.

Movies using song titles as their own title is definitely a form of songspeak, and there are many others. Some Kind of Wonderful, for one. I’m sure there’s a whole laundry list of them. Can you think of more? Post ‘em in the comments.

jamie wrote this on 09/24/08 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | 3 comments | TAGS: 00s movies, 70s music, alec baldwin, boston, dane cook, jason biggs, kate hudson, movies with song titles, my best friend's girl, romantic comedy, some kind of wonderful, the cars

Though dominated by Roger Waters and later, David Gilmour, Wright had a heavy influence on the band’s sound and wrote songs as well. Some of his more recognized compositions, like “Us And Them” from Dark Side of the Moon as well as his early keyboard and synthesizer work introduced the rich synth sound to other bands in the 60s and 70s.

From the New York Times

A Pink Floyd spokesman says founding member Richard Wright has died. He was 65. Wright died Monday, September 15, 2008 after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain. His family did not want to give more details about his death… He wrote “The Great Gig In The Sky” and “Us And Them” from Pink Floyd’s 1973 “The Dark Side Of The Moon.” He left the group in the early 1980s to form his own band but rejoined Pink Floyd for their 1987 album “A Momentary Lapse of Reason.

matt wrote this on 09/15/08 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | no comments yet, be the first! | TAGS: 60s music, 70s music, 80s music, a momentary lapse of reason, dark side of the moon, david gilmour, dead, death, died, nick mason, pink floyd, regent street polytechnic, richard wright, roger waters, sigma 6, synth, sythesizer, the final cut, the great gig in the sky, the university of westminster, the wall