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

jamie wrote this on 03/08/10 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | 2 comments | TAGS: 10s tv, 80s music, ABC, heidi montag, jeffrey osborne, joel mchale, miss universe pageant, on the wings of love, soup awards, the bachelor, the soup, toasted owl

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

"When change comes around, men swim in me!"

John Mellencamp (John Cougar? John Cougar Mellencamp?) is a mainstay on mix 93.1, which I listen to daily in my office. Jack and Diane is one of his more popular hits, and I hear it at least a couple times a week. One of the lines from the song is, “change comes around real soon, makes us women and men”, but if I’m not paying attention, it sounds like he says, “makes us swimmin’ in men”. I know those aren’t the real lyrics, but if you listen, it really sounds like that’s what he’s saying. Listen for yourself! (As an aside, how oss are the handclaps at the beginning?):

jamie wrote this on 10/07/09 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | 1 comment so far | TAGS: 80s music, handclaps, jack and diane, john cougar, john cougar mellencamp, john mellencamp, makes us swimmin in men, makes us women and men, mix 93.1

But it didn’t stop there. In this episode, Leslie Knope staged a penguin wedding at the local zoo, only to find out they were both male. This created a political firestorm in which the gay community embraced Leslie as a champion for their cause. So they invited her to a party in her honor at Pawnee’s gay nightclub, The Bulge. She goes with the intention of setting the record straight (no pun intended) that the wedding wasn’t a political statement, but is soon won over after a few drinks and hearing all the gay guys chant her name. She dances with them, and then does a stirring rendition of Lady Gaga’s Poker Face, only to have it incessantly stuck in her head the next morning. I can relate, as the song was stuck in my head as I was trying to fall asleep last night after watching the episode:

Two splendid examples of songspeak in the first episode. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for Parks and Recreation.

jamie wrote this on 09/18/09 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | 2 comments | TAGS: 00s music, 00s tv, 80s music, amy poehler, dj jazzy jeff, gay marriage, gay nightclub, lady gaga, leslie knope, parents just don't understand, parks & recreation, pawnee, poker face, the bulge, the fresh prince

jamie wrote this on 08/27/09 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | no comments yet, be the first! | TAGS: 00s music, 80s music, 90s music, air flute, american sunshine, be good johnny, brian, cecilia noel, colin hay, crazy, den of the wolf, down under, iron horse, it's a mistake, men at work, mohegan sun, northampton, overkill, whimsical, wolf den

Well, everyone, as far as I can tell. But that doesn’t stop them from playing his songs on the radio. It’s one of those unfortunate facts of life. The song that I tend to hear the most by him on mix 93.1 during the workday is Heaven.

When I hear it, I recall a songspeak moment from Matt’s and my past when we shared an office. We were diligently working, as usual, and Heaven came on the radio. And the chorus begins:

Baby you’re all that I want
When you’re lyin’ here in my arms
I’m findin’ it hard to believe
We’re in heaven

"Yeah, you like that?"

But as the song was playing, I sang along, “I’m findin’ it hard to believe, you’re just seven”. I was amused by the thought of Bryan Adams having a torrid affair with a child and writing a song about it. I mean, after all, he’s Canadian. It wouldn’t be that surprising.

I still think of that whenever I hear the song. And the next time you hear it, just replace the words “we’re in heaven” with “you’re just seven”, and every other instance of the word “heaven” with “seven”. The song will take on a whole new meaning, I promise you.

Screw you Bryan Adams, you pedophile.

jamie wrote this on 06/18/09 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | no comments yet, be the first! | TAGS: 80s music, bryan adams, facts of life, heaven, mix 93.1, pedophile, seven, we're in heaven, you're just seven

These guys don't look so tough.

It comes from Living Colour and their big hit Cult of Personality. I still hear it on the radio all the time, and I remember Matt telling me that when he was younger, he thought Corey Glover was singing “tough tough personality” instead of “cult of personality”. I guess I can see how that would make sense, except at the end when he would be shouting, “I am a tough tough! I am a tough tough!”

Does it really sound like that? Watch the video and judge for yourself…

jamie wrote this on 05/11/09 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | no comments yet, be the first! | TAGS: 80s music, corey glover, cult of personality, living colour, tough tough personality

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

The first one is for Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Under the Bridge:

And the second is for Billy Idol’s White Wedding:

What won’t these guys think of next?

jamie wrote this on 03/25/09 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | no comments yet, be the first! | TAGS: 80s music, 90s music, billy idol, dust films, dustball, dustin mclean, goth wedding, literal, literal videos, red hot chili peppers, song interpretations, under the bridge, white wedding

My co-worker has alternate lyrics for the chorus, though, that she sang either back in high school or college. Instead of “we built this city on rock and roll”, they used to sing, “we all got shitty on rum and coke“. And though we occupy different offices at work, we both typically have mix 93.1 playing throughout the day, and whenever the song comes on, she’ll usually send me an IM with her alternate lyrics.

***Note: This is NOT my co-worker.

It’s nice to know that long before the term songspeak was conceived, people were songspeaking their hearts out.

jamie wrote this on 03/16/09 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | no comments yet, be the first! | TAGS: 80s music, alternate lyrics, IM, instant message, mix 93.1, starship, we all got shitty, we all got shitty on rum and coke, we built this city, we built this city on rock and roll

Seether is already partway to becoming Wham! themselves. I mean, three-quarters of the band are already about as well known and recognizable as Andrew Ridgeley. All lead singer Shaun Morgan needs to do is get caught having sex with some dude in a public restroom or be stopped while driving high on the weed, and the transformation will be complete.

jamie wrote this on 03/11/09 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | 1 comment so far | TAGS: 00s music, 80s music, andrew ridgeley, broken, careless whisper, cover, Dale Stewart, george michael, John Humphrey, remedy, seether, shaun morgan, Troy McLawhorn, wham

The best part about these commercials is that they utilize the 1984 Rockwell classic Somebody’s Watching Me. I used to love the video when I was a kid:

Chalk this up as another advertising win for Geico. I may not use them for my car insurance, but I sure do love their quirky out-there commercials. And any company that uses Rockwell in their commercials is gold, Jerry, gold.

jamie wrote this on 01/23/09 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | 5 comments | TAGS: 00s tv commercials, 80s music, car insurance, geico, geico commercial, geico gecko, gold jerry gold, jerry seinfeld, kash, kenny bania, money you could be saving with Geico, money you could save by switching to geico, rockwell, so easy a caveman could do it, somebody's watching me

It’s riddled with songspeaks. Most notably when he shouts, “All aboard! Ha ha ha ha!”, and then when he suggests the director has been riding a crazy train.

Who knew an octegenarian rocker like Ozzy played a MMORPG? One thing this commercial does prove, though, is that after all these years, Ozzy still rocks sweet balls and can do no wrong.

jamie wrote this on 12/18/08 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | 1 comment so far | TAGS: 00s tv commercials, 80s music, all aboard, crazy train, massively multiplayer online role-playing game, MMORPG, ozzy osbourne, prince of darkness, we rock sweet balls and can do no wrong, world of warcraft

I thought I was safe. You know, watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC while we’re getting ready for the day. Waiting for Matt Lauer, Al Roker, or Meredith Vieira to tell me what float, performer, or balloon was passing by at any given moment.

Then a float came by for some new show on the Cartoon Network called Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. I wish I’d heard Matt Lauer’s warning that there would be a musical surprise when I initially watched it, maybe then I could have braced myself for something. But alas, I was vulnerable.

So these puppets start singing some cutesy song. Fair enough. What happened next made me feel violated beyond anything I could have ever imagined. In the middle of their song, a record scratch is heard, and then, well…see for yourself:

I was in my own home. It was Thanksgiving. I thought I was safe. How wrong I was. Rick Astley and those bastards at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade pulled one over on me. They pulled one over on all of us. I wonder now whether I should even watch TV or leave the house anymore.

The only saving graces were Rick Astley’s expression when he sings, “Never gonna run around and desert you!”, the fact that those kids dancing on the float were born well after that song was released and probably have no idea who Rick Astley is, and the fact that probably 80% of the people at the parade had absolutely no clue what was going on.

The kicker was the announcer at the end talking about how that was “Rick Astley singing the rickrolling phenom”. He may as well have said, “That was Rick Astley. And I’m such a square.”

So just be careful. You never know when it’s going to happen. If it can happen to Vince McMahon, it can happen to anyone.

As for me, I’ll be thankful when that God-awful fad goes away for good.

jamie wrote this on 12/04/08 for SONGSPEAK which is a pretty awesome blog. | post permalink | 2 comments | TAGS: 80s music, al roker, cartoon network, foster's home for imaginary friends, macy's thanksgiving day parade, matt lauer, meredith vieira, nbc, never gonna give you up, puppets, rick astley, rick roll, rickroll, thanksgiving, vince mcmahon