Short update: Ramona, Jeff Buckley..mtba

a forum post I made last night.
Ramona Falls 9/9/09

Ramona Falls were awesome, even being the 1st night of their tour. Their drummer was being fueled by adrenaline, pounding away. They did nearly the whole Intuit record I think.

Sucks, the 2nd local opener, Spiritual Mansions, had this big crowd there, and most of them took off after they finished. Reminds me of the RX Bandits Crowd leaving and not staying for dredg last month. Spiritual Mansions are a good band, but I wish more of their fan-base could have stuck around for a little while longer. So goes a weeknight I guess.

edit: I might add, i met really, a number of cool people there last night. Namely the band members from Spiritual Mansions and some of their fans, despite them leaving early like that. This guy whose a drummer named Steve who I knew from meeting him after the Protest the Hero concert last Spring. He needs to meet my friend Josh from Mike Portnoy's forum. I think as music fans, specifically Tech/Death and other progressive music, and being drummers, I think the 2 of them would enjoy talking. It'll probably happen eventually; the Twin Cities concert/metal scene isn't all that big a place really.

But perhaps most enjoyable, was meeting this girl named Mary who was sitting next to me. I did give her this blog's url, so if she actually were to come here, I wish I'd have been able to tell her it was nice meeting her and goodbye. But perhaps she will be at a future concert I am, namely The Dear Hunter concert on September 30th at The Triple Rock, a band she of course didn't know. But she was one of the only people who was there last night soley for Ramona Falls, and was a Menomena fan. So I think that among some other parts of our conversation, I wish I'd been able to say goodnight/goodbye. It didn't hurt that she was cute of course :P.

I received finally after 3+ months, my 3rd prize? for the Jeff Buckley "Grace Around the World" contest. I won Jeff's own personal cd copy of Led Zeppelin IV believe it or not. It even came with a certificate signed by Mary Guibert, Jeff's mother, whose in charge of Jeff's estate. While in a physical sense, it's just a copy of Led Zeppelin IV with a jb stamp on it. But from a collector's sense, it's kind of cool, and perhaps the most distinctive (and sentimental) piece to my music collection. Jeff maybe bought it in 1987 or '88. He was a HUGE LZ fan, and when their catalog came out on cd, I imagine he bought it along with the rest. The idea of musicians personal music collections, what would be significant. Kevin Gilbert's copy of Genesis "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" or Gentle Giant's "Octopus" maybe? If not dead, say Mike Portnoy's copy of "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band" "2112" although those would be on Vinyl I suppose. Might make for a cool forum topic.

Phil Collins will never drum again. He has some kind of spinal condition that forces him to end his time behind the kit. Personally, this bugs me even more that Peter never rejoined them to do THE LAMB with Phil on drums. Damnit, Peter.

-Adrian Belew (King Crimson, Talking Heads, Zappa) plays The Cedar Cultural Center on Monday October 5th
-Wolfmother plays The State Theater (how? and bands like dredg don't sniff any of the Hennepin Ave Theater District. No justice) on Saturday November 14th
-The Swell Season play The State Theater on Saturday December 5th

Shadow Gallery new album is called "Digital Ghosts" and will be released on November 3rd via Inside Out music. A short clip is on their website.

Orphaned Land new album will be out late December/early January. I have grown more appreciation for their last disc "Mabool" from 2004. They will be playing on Saturday night at ProgPowerUSA. Hopefully they'll perform some of "The Neverending Way of ORwarriOR" their upcoming LP. Perhaps I'll have some time to talk to them, along with Enchant and the Fates Warning members about things. Guess I'll see and post whatever I can/feel worth doing/appropriate. I'm still down about missing Enchant tonight, but $250 extra I do not have, and that was BEFORE I had to purchase a new computer, lol.


Yikes..tired, need to pack quickly. No idea about free time in Atlanta over the next few days. If the hotel has web access, I may do some blog-work..namely the TV Previews. Emmys are not this Sunday, but the next thankfully. Not to fall on the NFL Week 1 stuff perhaps. Although I likely will be in Chicago 1-week from Friday for my new niece/nephew's baby naming/bris.