Ok, this was great fun. Just subscribed. Yes re the weird old fashioned (?) quality of kids musical tastes. I did a photomontage for my son's graduation from high school, set to "Carry on My Wayward Son" And a few days ago, I drove him back to California for his last year at college, small photoessay below. Flip to the end . . .
I've spent a lot of time in California, or more accurately, have visited countless times, and even that coast, for a variety of reasons, but had never been to Santa Cruz. Loved it. Actually sent a note to my wife asking why I didn't go to school there.
I love 100% of this, including your son's musical tastes. My 14-year-old listens to doomy electronic from the games he plays...it should appeal to me but I find it boring. :) I saw Slipknot recently, touring to celebrate the mere 25th anniversary of their first album (the singer is 50, so just a tad older than me). I was blown away by the number of metal geezers in the crowd (some needing actual metal to walk or roll)...it was pretty entertaining.
My kid also likes Slipknot and System of a Down and all the same weird Minecraft music. Fortunately, he doesn't inflict too much of that on me. He also ships me a lot of memes I simply don't get, so there are some 16 year old things happening down there that are definitely beyond my ken. So it goes...
Since moving to Europe, I've been doing a "Bands I Should Have Seen in 1990" tour which as included Metallica, Judas Priest, Jane's Addiction (until Perry decided to drunkenly try and jack Dave Navarro), and will include Iron Maiden and (2000s update edition) Opeth next year. The Ship of Theseus rule hits hard with current day Judas Priest, currently in competition with their former guitarist and former replacement-vocalist-once-played-by-Marky-Mark-in-a-movie. I watched the 80s Floyd as well, and that's what Judas Priest is at the moment. If I watch it as a Rob Halford solo project/fronted band, then it's awesome.
This is brilliant. The stand-out lines for me: "[Billy Gibbons] also rocked a look like Santa Claus just back from a three-day ayahuasca trip," and "It was the least rock and roll maneuver I had ever seen." (A move, incidentally, that I've made more than once during an entirely predictable encore).
As it happens, I also brought my son Johnny— then 16, I think — to see Kansas, and he was blown away. Alas, while he has some pretty fine taste in rock — he loves Radiohead, and his favorite album is OK Computer, he loves Floyd, and Yes, and Steely Dan — he hasn't been too enthusiastic about joining Dad for other concerts.
What strikes me nowadays about seeing concerts is the audio quality: there's such great mixing now that every subtle ghost note on the snare, every little tick of a high-hat or a ride cymbal, every bit of string noise is all audible. In the right venue it's like listening to the best-quality CD ever with a show like that.
Thanks, Kaiser! Zach also has pretty diverse tastes and there is a lot to be said for Spotify (and similar services) opening a vast amount of music to his generation. In general, the sound at shows we’ve been to has been pretty good, but ZZ Top’s mix at this show was terrible! My diagnosis is that they were trying to compensate for it being a trio by adding a bunch of effects to the bass, but the result was a wall of mud. It was a shame. Skynyrd’s mix was much better.
Ok, this was great fun. Just subscribed. Yes re the weird old fashioned (?) quality of kids musical tastes. I did a photomontage for my son's graduation from high school, set to "Carry on My Wayward Son" And a few days ago, I drove him back to California for his last year at college, small photoessay below. Flip to the end . . .
https://open.substack.com/pub/davidawestbrook/p/seen-inas-transit?r=13evep&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Sea lions are the way to my heart! Kansas...well, under my son's tutelage I have learned to appreciate it!
I've spent a lot of time in California, or more accurately, have visited countless times, and even that coast, for a variety of reasons, but had never been to Santa Cruz. Loved it. Actually sent a note to my wife asking why I didn't go to school there.
I love 100% of this, including your son's musical tastes. My 14-year-old listens to doomy electronic from the games he plays...it should appeal to me but I find it boring. :) I saw Slipknot recently, touring to celebrate the mere 25th anniversary of their first album (the singer is 50, so just a tad older than me). I was blown away by the number of metal geezers in the crowd (some needing actual metal to walk or roll)...it was pretty entertaining.
My kid also likes Slipknot and System of a Down and all the same weird Minecraft music. Fortunately, he doesn't inflict too much of that on me. He also ships me a lot of memes I simply don't get, so there are some 16 year old things happening down there that are definitely beyond my ken. So it goes...
Since moving to Europe, I've been doing a "Bands I Should Have Seen in 1990" tour which as included Metallica, Judas Priest, Jane's Addiction (until Perry decided to drunkenly try and jack Dave Navarro), and will include Iron Maiden and (2000s update edition) Opeth next year. The Ship of Theseus rule hits hard with current day Judas Priest, currently in competition with their former guitarist and former replacement-vocalist-once-played-by-Marky-Mark-in-a-movie. I watched the 80s Floyd as well, and that's what Judas Priest is at the moment. If I watch it as a Rob Halford solo project/fronted band, then it's awesome.
This is brilliant. The stand-out lines for me: "[Billy Gibbons] also rocked a look like Santa Claus just back from a three-day ayahuasca trip," and "It was the least rock and roll maneuver I had ever seen." (A move, incidentally, that I've made more than once during an entirely predictable encore).
As it happens, I also brought my son Johnny— then 16, I think — to see Kansas, and he was blown away. Alas, while he has some pretty fine taste in rock — he loves Radiohead, and his favorite album is OK Computer, he loves Floyd, and Yes, and Steely Dan — he hasn't been too enthusiastic about joining Dad for other concerts.
What strikes me nowadays about seeing concerts is the audio quality: there's such great mixing now that every subtle ghost note on the snare, every little tick of a high-hat or a ride cymbal, every bit of string noise is all audible. In the right venue it's like listening to the best-quality CD ever with a show like that.
Thanks, Kaiser! Zach also has pretty diverse tastes and there is a lot to be said for Spotify (and similar services) opening a vast amount of music to his generation. In general, the sound at shows we’ve been to has been pretty good, but ZZ Top’s mix at this show was terrible! My diagnosis is that they were trying to compensate for it being a trio by adding a bunch of effects to the bass, but the result was a wall of mud. It was a shame. Skynyrd’s mix was much better.
Cute!