But before we get to the awesomeness that is Horse The Band and the odd, yet somehow natural, pairing with MC Chris, we first have to get through (dun dun dunnnnnnnnn) the dreaded openers. Luckily, there were only two of them:
The first opener was local act Harry & The Hood, a self-proclaimed "acoustic crunk" duo, which pretty much means they rap over acoustic guitars (with programmed beats playing off a laptop). Needless to say, I didn't really like them...at least not at first. After their first song, I texted a friend "Someone felt the need to combine Tenacious D and Limp Bizkit. Why?" But after a few more songs about getting drunk and having sex with random girls at the bar, they showed promise but not really enough to break out beyond the local fanbase. And between the "lead singer" (I guess) being super-hyper when singing (though pretty funny between songs) and the other guy being too low-key, I thought that between the two they'd make one well-rounded performer instead of having a good existing dynamic. Anyway, if you're into that sort of thing, here's their Facebook page. Now don't say I don't support my local music scene. You're welcome.
Opener #2 was Math The Band, a male-female duo based out of Massachusetts, which I was getting ready to hate right out of the gate. First of all, their name is Math The Band...which I'm sure made them pretty embarrassed when they found out they'd be sharing the stage with Horse The Band. Then, when they took the stage, the guitarist was wearing an '80s nerd jogger outfit that seems popular with the hipster sect lately. Plus I kinda laughed at the fact that this was the second band in a row to use programmed beats on a laptop, as the guy played guitar and the girl played keyboard and a drum (that's right, A drum, as in one). But then they started playing...
...and sometimes I'm glad to be proven wrong. Math The Band rocked hard. Of course, they got bonus points with me right out of the gate by opening with Andrew WK's "It's Time To Party". Their show was so frenetic and crazy that the only way I can describe it is this: Remember Atari Teenage Riot? And how they used to hate EVERYTHING? Well, imagine if they LOVED everything instead...but were still hopped up on eightballs and Sugar Puffs. That's Math The Band...well, at least live. I liked them enough to buy a CD from them (their most recent album "Don't Worry") and though the songs are pretty good, it doesn't have the same energy on the album as they do live. I'd even go far as to say if I heard the album first, I probably wouldn't want to see them live...but thank god it was the opposite that happened.
So here's their video for "Why Didn't You Get A Haircut?", which isn't even my favorite song on the album but it's still pretty good. Plus the video has Mt. Rushmore with the faces replaced with the cast of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which is pretty awesome.
Also, you can check out their official website here, although most of it is just links to their Facebook and Myspace pages. However, they do have some of their older albums and EPs to download for free...but a donation is always accepted. Plus, check out their Links section for a good laugh.
And then came Horse The Band, the reason I was there in the first place. I've talked about them a few times here on the blog (with their most recent album Desperate Living ranking #3 on my Top 10 Albums of 2009 and a few weeks ago talking about their 48 Hours In The Ukraine DVD) so if you haven't checked them out by now, you should really do so. Considering they were added at the last second to a bill of three groups that had as many members as Horse The Band COMBINED and also employed things like, you know, a drum set, combined with the fact that the venue's stage was about as big as the bar (if that), set up took a bit of time but I knew the wait would be worth it in the end.
Although, the concert did almost begin in disaster, at least for me. Within the opening song, a giant mosh pit broke out, which I was kinda surprised due to the small size of the venue. Due to not being a mosher myself, I was content with playing border control to make sure the pit didn't get out of hand. But within the first song, I somehow was doubled over and my glasses flew off so I spent the rest of the first song on the ground, looking for my glasses (along with some of the bar staff). Miraculously, someone found them unscathed and un-stomped-upon, which was good because I'm practically blind without them and probably wouldn't have been able to drive home. Right afterwards, someone came up to me and, being the dumbass I am, I told him everything was fine because I found my glasses. Turns out he lost his too! So I went back down to the floor in another search and we eventually found his too, also luckily unbroken. I guess that's what happens when nerds are your predominant fanbase (which applies for Horse, Math AND MC Chris).
Anyways, the show itself was awesome. I can't remember all the songs they played and definitely not the order they played them in, but there seemed to be an equal mix from their three most recent and most popular albums: The Mechanical Hand, A Natural Death and Desperate Living. I would've marked out if they pulled something off of the Pizza EP but alas, we didn't get "Crippled By Pizza" or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song. Songs I do remember them playing were "Heroes Die" (for the intro), "Birdo", "Murder", "Cloudwalker" and "Arrive", which they ended the set with. We all got tricked on that one as they teased "Rape Escape", which was my favorite song on the last album and possibly one of my favorite Horse songs ever, but I never thought they'd play it live considering it ends with a Tchaikovsky piece. Turns out they didn't play it, but I was too pumped up to notice that it was a different song until halfway through.
I tried to get some video footage via my cell phone but the camera on it kinda sucks, not to mention loud concerts like that never really record well unless done professionally, so they look like crap. Though I do have a video of the lead singer cuddling with someone in a bear suit during one of the songs. Also, the between song banter from Nathan "The General" Winneke was hilarious, especially when he told a drunk member of the audience that he had too much whiskey and when the guy replied "Jager", The General told him "You'd be better off smoking sugar cane to get a crack high!" Anyway, since I have no decent live footage, I'll just steal some from a completely different show off of YouTube:
If you want to support Horse The Band, check out their site here. Also, there's less than a week left to pre-order their Earth Tour 6-disc DVD and book set, which you can do so here. PS - If you have $80 to blow and don't necessarily want it for yourself, you can get it for me as an early birthday gift. *hint hint* Oh yeah, I totally own the hell out of this shirt now too:
As for MC Chris...well, I didn't actually stick around to see him. I would've liked to but honestly, I came to see Horse The Band and I was satisfied with that. The thing was, before the show, I was driving around trying to find a place to park, but everywhere had No Park/Tow Away Zone signs on them, so I continued driving around for a few blocks to find a spot. Since I'm the kind of person to take the first spot available, even if it is the furthest away, instead of driving around forever to find a closer spot, I ended up parking in an empty parking lot for an apparently abandoned school. But I soon realized that I parked like 4-5 blocks away from the venue...in the middle of the ghetto...and I had to walk there. Ugh. Worse yet, when I got in line, staff said that I could've parked in those spaces, as long as I didn't park at the grocery store across the street because they will tow. But by that time, I'm sure all the good spots were taken. So after Horse's set, I was kinda tired playing Pit Border Control, so I grabbed some merch. With there being some time before MC Chris' set, I decided that I would make the trek back to my car in hopes that it didn't get towed (or in reality broken to and/or stolen) and if I could find any better spots, I'd leave my merch in my car, come back in and enjoy MC Chris. Of course, that didn't happen so I just went home early (if you consider past midnight "early"). So I figured I'd at least put up my favorite MC Chris video...even if it isn't one of him rapping:
Check out MC Chris anyway at his site here. Sample some music, buy some merch (I like the Three Wolf Moon parody shirt myself) or at least donate to help fight Cystic Fibrosis. That's always good. Fighting it, not having it.
Well, that takes care of the concert. A few other things before I wrap up this entry. First of all, I did open up comments a bit (though people voted for every other option in the poll, no one voted that I shouldn't), allowing everyone to comment as opposed to just fellow Blog users with Google accounts. But I am still leaving CAPTCHA on so that I don't get too much spam. Hopefully this will promote more discussion and give me a better idea as to who actually reads the blog and who just stumbles upon it after a Google search for "ass fisting". (Yes, that actually happened. Thanks for visiting, pervert!) Also, feel free to contribute more questions via Formspring, as that gives me a chance to at least get up some content in between major entries.
Speaking of major entries, I plan to do my other movie review next...but I haven't started on it yet. It seems like after the craziness of this past weekend (between the concert and an awesome night out with friends), I've come back down hard and haven't had the motivation to do much of anything lately. Not to mention I've been visiting my family quite a bit lately and such, I haven't had enough time to sit down and write something major, though I'm going to try and not make this movie review as long as the last one.
Finally, next Monday I'm going to be at the Raw taping at the Toledo Sports Arena, so I'm pretty psyched for that. Oddly enough, I've pretty much gone back to not watching wrestling on TV, though I did tune into NXT last night just to see Daniel Bryan (Danielson) beat up on Michael Cole, which was quite awesome and well deserved. I'll probably take a "Michael Cole Fears Daniel Bryan" sign, along with one reading "I Came To See Virgil: Wrestling Superstar" due to his return as Ted DiBiase Jr.'s manservant. So look out for me. If I do end up making it on TV, you bet I'm going to point it out and brag about it.
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