Two shows
15th September and 16th September 2007
It was an unbelievable weekend where we got to see Trent in action. These concerts were far better than what I have seen before. They were even better than the concerts back in 2005. Unbelievable shows with so much energy and passion. I don't know how they pull it off again and again with the same intensity.
The most amazing part of these concerts was that they almost played a totally different set list in both concerts. I took the decision of standing in the mosh pit for the first and sitting in the stands in the second. Unusually, Trent had a lot to say in the concerts. One, which has been reported all over the world, was when told us to steal his music until the record companies lower the prices of the albums. He also mentioned the fact that they are going back to the US now and will start working on the new album and will be back in Australia by mid next year, which I really find hard to believe...but here's hoping for the best.
I managed to take some pictures of the concerts, those will follow soon. Overall, an amazing experience which I'm sure I'll cherish for years to come....
First show set list:
1. hyperpower!
2. the beginning of the end
3. last
4. sin
5. march of the pigs
6. something i can never have
7. closer
8. survivalism
9. burn
10. gave up
11. me, im not
12. the great destroyer
13. eraser
14. only
15. wish
16. the good soldier
17. no, you dont
18. suck
19. the day the whole world went away
20. dead souls
21. down in it
22. the hand that feeds
23. head like a hole
24. hurt
Second show set list:
1. hyperpower!
2. the beginning of the end
3. heresy
4. terrible lie
5. march of the pigs
6. the frail/ the wretched
7. closer
8. ruiner
9. survivalism
10. piggy
11. gave up
12. me, im not
13. the great destroyer
14. eraser
15. only
16. wish
17. the good soldier
18. no, you dont
19. reptile
20. the day the whole world went away
21. hurt
22. the hand that feeds
23. starfuckers inc.
24. head like a hole
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
60 years and counting....
The people of Pakistan recently celebrated 60 years since gaining independence from the British Empire. When the new country was created, hopes and dreams were high. People looked forward to living their lives in a country where there were equal rights to all Muslims of South Asia in peace. Muslims of South Asia rejoiced at the fact that they will no longer be persecuted either by the Hindus/Sikhs or the British. Little did they know that the country will be set upon an uncertain direction, you see there were many kinds of Muslims who wanted to start their lives in Pakistan. You had the moderates, who wanted to establish a new democracy and start progressing towards the future inclined towards the west and modernization. On the other hand you had the Muslim far right who embraced the fact that the country was going to be founded in the name of Allah. (One of the only 2 countries in this world that were created in the name of religion, the other being Israel).
Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Islamic Republic, I always thought this term was a bit ambiguous. Rule of the people by the people living in an Islamic society. There certainly no rule by the people if you take it purely in Islamic terms.
Democracy is a system that has its roots back in the Ancient Greece and Romans etc. But true acceptance of Democracy only came after World War 2. Democracy emphasises the importance of an individual in the entire nation ie every person has a say in the overall country’s leaders/decisions etc.
Islamic society started with the Caliphate (at least the Sunnis did) which had the concept of one true leader ie the Amir Ul Momineen, who was mostly either assigned as the best leader/general or even hereditary. So you can understand where I am coming from, both really don’t truly mix.
Pakistan has been at this cross roads since day 1, whether to truly embrace the Islamic way of life or by modernizing itself fully. Should Pakistan be more like Saudi Arabia and embrace Sharia Law in full or modernize itself by completely aligning itself with the west like Turkey?
This has been the question all Pakistanis have faced throughout their lives. Its quite interesting to note that the people of Pakistan are truly divided. There is a big number of people that really want both and be Islamic as well as a true democracy for eg Indonesia; one can see how that is working out.
This is just one area where all the conflicts lie within Pakistan.
The country’s leaders have taken many a controversial decisions to make the country constantly unstable. The establishment of the language of Urdu being the official language alienated a large majority of people. The dismissal of the election results from East Pakistan effectively starting the independence movement for what is now called Bangladesh. The countless dismissals of civilian governments by the military right from the start of Pakistan’s history. Out of the total 60 years, more than half the years of this time were under military rule. This allowed for Pakistan to be left behind by its neighbours in terms of democracy and freedom.
The threat posed by its intimidating nuclear neighbour, India. The Pakistan military had to be powerful enough to ensure the country was safe from external threats. 3 wars with its neighbour over the jewel in the crown of either country, Kashmir, made sure that the defence budget was always high on the budget spending.
On top of this Pakistan found itself stuck in between the cold war. The bigger powers of the world offered support in return for access to the big fight occurring in Afghanistan. This allowed the military government to stay in power for more than a decade with support of the international powers that be.
Mind you the democracy in Pakistan has done its duty (even in its short time). By duty I mean people who have come into power have not only plundered the country, but have taken decisions that have made sure that the economy has gone from bad to worse. One that I remember being freezing all the people’s foreign bank accounts. What a good way for the government to increase the confidence of its people.
Corruption is common throughout the system, from the very low end workers to the very top; common all the way to the top office of the country. If you don’t have the connections and the right base, one will find it hard to make it in Pakistan.
Political differences, ethnic differences, religious differences are some of the conflict arising factors in the country. People are ready to fight and kill on all fronts. Sometimes crime is linked to all of these.
I can go on and on about problems in Pakistan. It is clear that the country has some deep rooted problems that won’t go away easily. It will take time and effort from the people and leaders of Pakistan to make a change and stick to it. But this goes back to my earlier predicament, moderate or extremist. Till the day the people of Pakistan don’t understand where they want to take their country and what future they would like to see, the problems would not be solved. All I can say is that Pakistan can only get better from this (maybe)
Happy Independence Day and God bless Pakistan.
Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Islamic Republic, I always thought this term was a bit ambiguous. Rule of the people by the people living in an Islamic society. There certainly no rule by the people if you take it purely in Islamic terms.
Democracy is a system that has its roots back in the Ancient Greece and Romans etc. But true acceptance of Democracy only came after World War 2. Democracy emphasises the importance of an individual in the entire nation ie every person has a say in the overall country’s leaders/decisions etc.
Islamic society started with the Caliphate (at least the Sunnis did) which had the concept of one true leader ie the Amir Ul Momineen, who was mostly either assigned as the best leader/general or even hereditary. So you can understand where I am coming from, both really don’t truly mix.
Pakistan has been at this cross roads since day 1, whether to truly embrace the Islamic way of life or by modernizing itself fully. Should Pakistan be more like Saudi Arabia and embrace Sharia Law in full or modernize itself by completely aligning itself with the west like Turkey?
This has been the question all Pakistanis have faced throughout their lives. Its quite interesting to note that the people of Pakistan are truly divided. There is a big number of people that really want both and be Islamic as well as a true democracy for eg Indonesia; one can see how that is working out.
This is just one area where all the conflicts lie within Pakistan.
The country’s leaders have taken many a controversial decisions to make the country constantly unstable. The establishment of the language of Urdu being the official language alienated a large majority of people. The dismissal of the election results from East Pakistan effectively starting the independence movement for what is now called Bangladesh. The countless dismissals of civilian governments by the military right from the start of Pakistan’s history. Out of the total 60 years, more than half the years of this time were under military rule. This allowed for Pakistan to be left behind by its neighbours in terms of democracy and freedom.
The threat posed by its intimidating nuclear neighbour, India. The Pakistan military had to be powerful enough to ensure the country was safe from external threats. 3 wars with its neighbour over the jewel in the crown of either country, Kashmir, made sure that the defence budget was always high on the budget spending.
On top of this Pakistan found itself stuck in between the cold war. The bigger powers of the world offered support in return for access to the big fight occurring in Afghanistan. This allowed the military government to stay in power for more than a decade with support of the international powers that be.
Mind you the democracy in Pakistan has done its duty (even in its short time). By duty I mean people who have come into power have not only plundered the country, but have taken decisions that have made sure that the economy has gone from bad to worse. One that I remember being freezing all the people’s foreign bank accounts. What a good way for the government to increase the confidence of its people.
Corruption is common throughout the system, from the very low end workers to the very top; common all the way to the top office of the country. If you don’t have the connections and the right base, one will find it hard to make it in Pakistan.
Political differences, ethnic differences, religious differences are some of the conflict arising factors in the country. People are ready to fight and kill on all fronts. Sometimes crime is linked to all of these.
I can go on and on about problems in Pakistan. It is clear that the country has some deep rooted problems that won’t go away easily. It will take time and effort from the people and leaders of Pakistan to make a change and stick to it. But this goes back to my earlier predicament, moderate or extremist. Till the day the people of Pakistan don’t understand where they want to take their country and what future they would like to see, the problems would not be solved. All I can say is that Pakistan can only get better from this (maybe)
Happy Independence Day and God bless Pakistan.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
The big come down
Its been a while since I have posted. What can I say it's been a couple of busy months. During the past couple of months I have come across many different things that I wanted to express my feelings about...unfortunately didn't get around to posting anything. One of the things that just happened last week is none other than the tour of Nine Inch Nails to Australia.
Warning: Groupie Alert!
Trent had given us a huge surprise right at the end of the With Teeth tour by saying that he had been working on the new album while touring. And then going ahead and announcing that the new album will be released in April and the whole Year Zero alternative reality game (ARG) kicked in. It was just unbelievable how quickly this was happening. All NIN fans were expecting a new album in the future....but never so quickly! Next came the tour dates, which of course started from Europe and then Japan and then came the dates to Australia. Come to think of it, this all happened in a flash! They announced 3 dates for Sydney and 3 for Melbourne, but they announced one after the other meaning if the shows got sold out they would announce another and so on. I purchased tickets for the two shows as soon as they were announced, I couldn't wait for them to announce any other shows. My wife being the accommodating person she is let me buy tickets to the first 2 concerts, but wasn't too keen in going to the third one, which is fair enough. So the dates we purchased tickets for were for Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th of May 2007. I couldn't believe that I was about to see them live again, considering how amazing the experience was last time around (refer to previous post Aug 2005).
As this time around both the dates were on weekdays, we had to figure something out regarding the work situation. Also the concerts were going to be held at Luna Park, which is not a very good combination with NIN. We caught the ferry from circular quay to get there as this was the fastest way possible. The doors were meant to be open at 7PM and we reached there at 6. I wasn't too fussed about the queue as I was a member of the Spiral, which had a separate entry.
Once we got in the venue, we were quite surprised to find out that there were no seats whatsoever, which was quite bad. We had planned on sitting in the comfort of seats for a better view, but had to settle for standing in the middle. The venue looked pretty small as compared to Hordern where the 2005 shows happened.
The band supporting NIN were called Sereena Meneesh, who are a Scandinavian band. They sounded pretty average in my opinion. I couldn't make sense of their music although I thought the drummer was pretty good. Once they were done with it was time for the main act. We were waiting in anticipation for Trent to come out and blow us away.
The Show:
It all started with Hyperpower! which is the first track of the new album and people just went cr
azy (along with us of course). Instead of me posting the set list, I reckon it's a better idea how the performances of each of them were. In total they sang 21 songs, it's amazing to think they can keep this momentum and energy up every time and still give amazing performances. In total they performed solid from 10 till 1130 non stop.
The Songs:
Hyperpower! ---> Great starting track really set the tone of the whole concert, combined with the theme of the whole album. The drumming on this track live is unbelievable. The noisy end to this song is just out of this world live. We could see the whole band besides Trent performing this one as this is an instrumental.
The Beginning of the End ---> Just like in the album, right after Hyperpower! I think this song sounds better live, it has a 'My Sharona' type beat which sounds great with all the noisy sounds in the background.
Survivalism---> Man! this song is a killer live. The sound is totally different to what it is on the audio track. The chorus was unbelievable!!! This was one of the best performances of the night. I like this song in general, but live its even better!
March of the Pigs ---> As usual this song really got the crowd worked up, showed how much energy Trent still has! Its amazing to think he has been performing this song for over 10 years now and he still gives it his all.
Heresy ----> One of my favorite songs off the Downward Spiral. I didn't have any clue that this would be performed live and it delivered. My wife doesn't like this song and doesn't like me singing it either as some lines go like 'God is dead and no one cares.. if there is a hell I'll see you there' and I think this line was sung even more passionately live.
Burn, No, You Don't, Suck, Dead Souls ----> I had heard these songs live before and they did not disappoint then and they didn't now. Before Dead Souls came on, Trent said "As you know we have a new album out which most of you have stolen, this song is not from our album and it's not even ours"
The Hand That Feeds, Closer, Gave Up, Wish ---> Star performances of the night
Help Me I Am In Hell, La Mer ---> Great interludes, Trent had a little trouble with the light over his keyboard during La Mer and had to abandon the song, it's so funny seeing Trent pissed! He just stopped the music and pushed the keyboard away
Me, I'm Not ---> The one performance I was expecting so much but didn't deliver. Maybe it was because of the fact that this was the first live performance of this song for NIN ever. Firstly, it had a little bit of problem getting set up (as this is totally computer generated) It was only him and Alessandro on stage for this. The tune of the song was not there most of the time. Trent said after the show in his blog, thats what you get when you make songs on a computer! I also believe just because these songs are so layered and so much work has gotten into them on the computer, they can't be matched live.
The Good Soldier, Only ---> I hadn't heard both of these songs live before and both were really funky tracks live. The good soldier had not been performed live ever before!
Mr Self Destruct ----> Mr Self Destruct was THE star performance of the whole show! It just went through the roof, the whole crowd was going nuts. I don't know why he hasn't performed that historically, but my compliments to him on that one.
Hurt ---> Out of the 3 NIN concerts I have been to, I definitely think that this performance was the best! He really looked as if he was totally into it and felt what he was saying. Unreal performance by him on the keyboard. It was so funny before this song started though. The roadie came and brought the keyboard to the center of the stage. Trent came and was jostling with the mike and ended up pushing it toward the keyboard which made the entire keyboard collapse. It almost fell toward to crowd! After all was settled, Trent said "Ever have one of those days?"
Head Like A Hole ----> Perfect ending to a NIN performance, it was full of energy and poise.
All in all it was a very different performance of NIN that I had seen. The lights were not that impressive, Trent said in his blog a couple of months back that he was really pissed at the lighting as he couldn't pay much attention to that part of the concert experience due to the whole album experience. I have seen better performances from him, but then again maybe I expect too much from them. I was seeing them perform 9 songs that I hadn't heard live before. Trent looked as if he was pissed generally and didn't seem his usual self, even though he looks pissed normally anyway, this time it was different. We had been wondering about his voice in some of the songs as he was sounding different?!?
As I mentioned earlier in the post, I had tickets to see them live on Thursday as well. We rocked up to the place the same way only to find out that the show had been postponed due to unforeseen circumstances. Really disappointing as we had been anticipating eagerly to see them live again. They ended up canceling the 3rd Sydney show as well citing the same reasons. No one knows what happened and why they can canceled although rumors are everywhere. I suspect that he had a sore throat or something (as we did notice him sounding different) They did reschedule for the dates in September, which was quite a relief considering its not just a city in the US where they can just fly to. They would have to especially fly out to Australia to perform, but I'm glad they announced the dates. I had my heart set to see them live again and will have to wait another 4 months.
It's so weird to see so many NIN fans in the same place, normally I hardly ever meet people who are actual NIN fans. This time around I saw a far less goths though, maybe it was because I was in the spiral entrance?
As I said in the 2005 NIN concert experience, my wife was totally supportive and amazing throughout the experience. I definitely wouldn't enjoy as much if I had gone without her (which I noted in the Tool concert)
Can't wait for September!!!
Warning: Groupie Alert!
Trent had given us a huge surprise right at the end of the With Teeth tour by saying that he had been working on the new album while touring. And then going ahead and announcing that the new album will be released in April and the whole Year Zero alternative reality game (ARG) kicked in. It was just unbelievable how quickly this was happening. All NIN fans were expecting a new album in the future....but never so quickly! Next came the tour dates, which of course started from Europe and then Japan and then came the dates to Australia. Come to think of it, this all happened in a flash! They announced 3 dates for Sydney and 3 for Melbourne, but they announced one after the other meaning if the shows got sold out they would announce another and so on. I purchased tickets for the two shows as soon as they were announced, I couldn't wait for them to announce any other shows. My wife being the accommodating person she is let me buy tickets to the first 2 concerts, but wasn't too keen in going to the third one, which is fair enough. So the dates we purchased tickets for were for Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th of May 2007. I couldn't believe that I was about to see them live again, considering how amazing the experience was last time around (refer to previous post Aug 2005).
As this time around both the dates were on weekdays, we had to figure something out regarding the work situation. Also the concerts were going to be held at Luna Park, which is not a very good combination with NIN. We caught the ferry from circular quay to get there as this was the fastest way possible. The doors were meant to be open at 7PM and we reached there at 6. I wasn't too fussed about the queue as I was a member of the Spiral, which had a separate entry.
Once we got in the venue, we were quite surprised to find out that there were no seats whatsoever, which was quite bad. We had planned on sitting in the comfort of seats for a better view, but had to settle for standing in the middle. The venue looked pretty small as compared to Hordern where the 2005 shows happened.
The band supporting NIN were called Sereena Meneesh, who are a Scandinavian band. They sounded pretty average in my opinion. I couldn't make sense of their music although I thought the drummer was pretty good. Once they were done with it was time for the main act. We were waiting in anticipation for Trent to come out and blow us away.
The Show:
It all started with Hyperpower! which is the first track of the new album and people just went cr
azy (along with us of course). Instead of me posting the set list, I reckon it's a better idea how the performances of each of them were. In total they sang 21 songs, it's amazing to think they can keep this momentum and energy up every time and still give amazing performances. In total they performed solid from 10 till 1130 non stop.The Songs:
Hyperpower! ---> Great starting track really set the tone of the whole concert, combined with the theme of the whole album. The drumming on this track live is unbelievable. The noisy end to this song is just out of this world live. We could see the whole band besides Trent performing this one as this is an instrumental.
The Beginning of the End ---> Just like in the album, right after Hyperpower! I think this song sounds better live, it has a 'My Sharona' type beat which sounds great with all the noisy sounds in the background.
Survivalism---> Man! this song is a killer live. The sound is totally different to what it is on the audio track. The chorus was unbelievable!!! This was one of the best performances of the night. I like this song in general, but live its even better!
March of the Pigs ---> As usual this song really got the crowd worked up, showed how much energy Trent still has! Its amazing to think he has been performing this song for over 10 years now and he still gives it his all.
Heresy ----> One of my favorite songs off the Downward Spiral. I didn't have any clue that this would be performed live and it delivered. My wife doesn't like this song and doesn't like me singing it either as some lines go like 'God is dead and no one cares.. if there is a hell I'll see you there' and I think this line was sung even more passionately live.
Burn, No, You Don't, Suck, Dead Souls ----> I had heard these songs live before and they did not disappoint then and they didn't now. Before Dead Souls came on, Trent said "As you know we have a new album out which most of you have stolen, this song is not from our album and it's not even ours"
The Hand That Feeds, Closer, Gave Up, Wish ---> Star performances of the night
Help Me I Am In Hell, La Mer ---> Great interludes, Trent had a little trouble with the light over his keyboard during La Mer and had to abandon the song, it's so funny seeing Trent pissed! He just stopped the music and pushed the keyboard away
Me, I'm Not ---> The one performance I was expecting so much but didn't deliver. Maybe it was because of the fact that this was the first live performance of this song for NIN ever. Firstly, it had a little bit of problem getting set up (as this is totally computer generated) It was only him and Alessandro on stage for this. The tune of the song was not there most of the time. Trent said after the show in his blog, thats what you get when you make songs on a computer! I also believe just because these songs are so layered and so much work has gotten into them on the computer, they can't be matched live.
The Good Soldier, Only ---> I hadn't heard both of these songs live before and both were really funky tracks live. The good soldier had not been performed live ever before!
Mr Self Destruct ----> Mr Self Destruct was THE star performance of the whole show! It just went through the roof, the whole crowd was going nuts. I don't know why he hasn't performed that historically, but my compliments to him on that one.
Hurt ---> Out of the 3 NIN concerts I have been to, I definitely think that this performance was the best! He really looked as if he was totally into it and felt what he was saying. Unreal performance by him on the keyboard. It was so funny before this song started though. The roadie came and brought the keyboard to the center of the stage. Trent came and was jostling with the mike and ended up pushing it toward the keyboard which made the entire keyboard collapse. It almost fell toward to crowd! After all was settled, Trent said "Ever have one of those days?"
Head Like A Hole ----> Perfect ending to a NIN performance, it was full of energy and poise.
All in all it was a very different performance of NIN that I had seen. The lights were not that impressive, Trent said in his blog a couple of months back that he was really pissed at the lighting as he couldn't pay much attention to that part of the concert experience due to the whole album experience. I have seen better performances from him, but then again maybe I expect too much from them. I was seeing them perform 9 songs that I hadn't heard live before. Trent looked as if he was pissed generally and didn't seem his usual self, even though he looks pissed normally anyway, this time it was different. We had been wondering about his voice in some of the songs as he was sounding different?!?
As I mentioned earlier in the post, I had tickets to see them live on Thursday as well. We rocked up to the place the same way only to find out that the show had been postponed due to unforeseen circumstances. Really disappointing as we had been anticipating eagerly to see them live again. They ended up canceling the 3rd Sydney show as well citing the same reasons. No one knows what happened and why they can canceled although rumors are everywhere. I suspect that he had a sore throat or something (as we did notice him sounding different) They did reschedule for the dates in September, which was quite a relief considering its not just a city in the US where they can just fly to. They would have to especially fly out to Australia to perform, but I'm glad they announced the dates. I had my heart set to see them live again and will have to wait another 4 months.
It's so weird to see so many NIN fans in the same place, normally I hardly ever meet people who are actual NIN fans. This time around I saw a far less goths though, maybe it was because I was in the spiral entrance?
As I said in the 2005 NIN concert experience, my wife was totally supportive and amazing throughout the experience. I definitely wouldn't enjoy as much if I had gone without her (which I noted in the Tool concert)
Can't wait for September!!!
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Tool in Sydney
The experience of seeing Tool live was one of the best musical experiences I have ever had in my life. I had been waiting eagerly for the concert since the time I had bought tickets (I had bought tickets way back in October (I think) and the concert was in January). The build up to the concert was big as the fans in Australia had been waiting for a while to see Tool. They had been touring extensively all throughout Europe and the US before they came to Australia.
The concert was scheduled to start at 8pm, but started at around 9pm as there were so many people waiting to get inside. There was no support act so it started with Tool and ended with them. Of course there were no cameras allowed so I had to make do with my handy phone to take any pictures.
Tool started the show with a great performance of Stinkfist, which got the crowd excited and went on to perform classics like Schism, Lateralus and Aenima. Some of the performances were stand outs in my opinion, those being Jambi and Wings for Marie/10,000 days. The sound was pretty loud, although I was expecting louder as I had been warned that people ended up deaf after going to their shows.
The show overall was an amazing spectacle. Before the start of 10,000 days, they started throwing a lot of smoke in the air. It wasn’t until the song started that I realised what it was for. They started using the lasers. Man! As cheesy as they sound, they have an excellent effect on the performance. They were used sparingly and that made it even more amazing. The video projection was awesome and showed videos of songs as well as other cool stuff. The backdrop was typical Tool with Alex Greys stuff with full colour. The way they got revealed was awesome with one showing just when they came on and the other halfway through the performance of Jambi. The overall ambiance was amazing. Usually at a concert I feel the backdrops need to be good to get the overall feel of the concert. The lasers made the whole experience even better; it felt like the whole venue was involved.
Maynard was always standing at the back, which I think is really cool. Tool really show what a real band is all about by having performances from every single member of the band. The vocals are not overwhelming on the musical performances, instead every instrument is at the same level and vocals are one of them. Maynard being the kind of person he is attracts attention, but I think he makes an effort not to in Tool.
No encores to end the show, they showed their appreciation to the crowd at the end and huddled around before heading off stage.
Overall, it was an excellent show, which had more than what I had asked for and would remember it all my life.
The concert was scheduled to start at 8pm, but started at around 9pm as there were so many people waiting to get inside. There was no support act so it started with Tool and ended with them. Of course there were no cameras allowed so I had to make do with my handy phone to take any pictures.
Tool started the show with a great performance of Stinkfist, which got the crowd excited and went on to perform classics like Schism, Lateralus and Aenima. Some of the performances were stand outs in my opinion, those being Jambi and Wings for Marie/10,000 days. The sound was pretty loud, although I was expecting louder as I had been warned that people ended up deaf after going to their shows.The show overall was an amazing spectacle. Before the start of 10,000 days, they started throwing a lot of smoke in the air. It wasn’t until the song started that I realised what it was for. They started using the lasers. Man! As cheesy as they sound, they have an excellent effect on the performance. They were used sparingly and that made it even more amazing. The video projection was awesome and showed videos of songs as well as other cool stuff. The backdrop was typical Tool with Alex Greys stuff with full colour. The way they got revealed was awesome with one showing just when they came on and the other halfway through the performance of Jambi. The overall ambiance was amazing. Usually at a concert I feel the backdrops need to be good to get the overall feel of the concert. The lasers made the whole experience even better; it felt like the whole venue was involved.
Maynard was always standing at the back, which I think is really cool. Tool really show what a real band is all about by having performances from every single member of the band. The vocals are not overwhelming on the musical performances, instead every instrument is at the same level and vocals are one of them. Maynard being the kind of person he is attracts attention, but I think he makes an effort not to in Tool.No encores to end the show, they showed their appreciation to the crowd at the end and huddled around before heading off stage.
Overall, it was an excellent show, which had more than what I had asked for and would remember it all my life.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Death of a Tyrant and the new year
I start the first post of the new year with the killing of the so called Iraqi 'Tyrant' Saddam Hussein. Hanged for crimes against humanity and hanged for brutally murdering countless number of civilians. He was hanged on the same platform where he had supposedly ordered countless number of civilians to their deaths. What has this killing achieved? Nothing. Is the world one less of a murderer? Maybe. Is the judgement fair on him? I have no idea.
I do know this though, I know that there are countless number of leaders/heads of state that have ordered mass killings and the world doesn't notice and nothing happens. Be it in the name of religion, state or whatever.
Mass murder is wrong no matter what the cause. If one is supposed to dig in history there have been many times that mass murder has occurred. The exposure and the publicity across the world would all depend on who has committed it. There would be no news or publicity about mass murders in Haiti or mass murders committed by the 'noble'. But there will be movies and publicity about mass murders that happened in China. It also depends on if the person or the leader who is committing these mass murders has the support of the 'good' nations. Of course this wont be reported until after this leader is against these 'good' nations or I should say can't be used anymore.
The death of this tyrant was none other than a big show put on for the nations and the people of the world to see that either you're with us or you're with the enemy. But the fine print is you're with us until we see the need for you, once we don't need you anymore, you CAN be with the enemy.
The new year brings with it new beginnings and new hope, I'm not very optimistic about the world for this new year. I can only hope that this new year is filled with a new brotherhood of man and peace for all mankind.
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one . (John Lennon 1971)
Happy new year to you all!
I do know this though, I know that there are countless number of leaders/heads of state that have ordered mass killings and the world doesn't notice and nothing happens. Be it in the name of religion, state or whatever.
Mass murder is wrong no matter what the cause. If one is supposed to dig in history there have been many times that mass murder has occurred. The exposure and the publicity across the world would all depend on who has committed it. There would be no news or publicity about mass murders in Haiti or mass murders committed by the 'noble'. But there will be movies and publicity about mass murders that happened in China. It also depends on if the person or the leader who is committing these mass murders has the support of the 'good' nations. Of course this wont be reported until after this leader is against these 'good' nations or I should say can't be used anymore.
The death of this tyrant was none other than a big show put on for the nations and the people of the world to see that either you're with us or you're with the enemy. But the fine print is you're with us until we see the need for you, once we don't need you anymore, you CAN be with the enemy.
The new year brings with it new beginnings and new hope, I'm not very optimistic about the world for this new year. I can only hope that this new year is filled with a new brotherhood of man and peace for all mankind.
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one . (John Lennon 1971)
Happy new year to you all!
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