…when I’m waiting to see NIN next Saturday: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s new album! The Effects of 333 is a 10-track instrumental album released on the band’s own record label, Abstract Dragon. It’ll be available for download from BRMC’s site as of 3:33 am November 1st.

I love them so much….

Or, more importanly, look at BRMC, but we’re there, too!

Video: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club doing “Spread Your Love” at V Fest 2008

Could they have caught me looking any more unenthused?

I dragged Mark to the venue early so we could get a good spot in line for tonight’s show. I don’t get it, though. When we got there, there were a few people sitting at the entrances to some of the lines, but other lines were completely empty and people were just hanging out and sitting around in the general area. Why get there an hour early only to hang out in the vicinity of the line? Not that I’m complaining, ’cause I just walked up to a completely empty line and plopped my butt down.

And how did this work out for me?

VERY WELL, THANK YOU. Mark and I were on the rail, just a few feet to the left (if you’re facing the stage) of center, for the whole damn show.

Tab the Band was the first opener, playing a handful of songs. They weren’t too bad. I’d see ‘em if they came to Asheville, I guess. I’ll at least check them out online.

Then BRMC came on. MmmmBRMC. Ten shows now, and not a single disappointment. They played nine songs–666 Conducer, Berlin, Took Out a Loan, In Like the Rose, Ain’t No Easy Way, Steal a Ride, Shuffle Your Feet, Six Barrel Shotgun and Spread Your Love–and rocked. My only wish is that they’d been a little louder. I left their set at V Fest with my ears feeling like they were stuffed with cotton (and probably they should have been; I have a really great set of earplugs…and I always forget to bring them). Tonight, though, wasn’t quite there. I guess they save the volume for STP. :)

God, I love BRMC. And they played “Steal a Ride!” And I’ll tell ya, “Ain’t No Easy Way” never gets old live. Never. It kicks you in the ass every time.

Robert Levon Been, BRMC:

Robert Levon Been with his hat for the final song:

Peter Hayes, BRMC:

After them, we had a looooooooooong wait for Stone Temple Pilots. More than an hour and twenty minutes! But Ho. Ly. Shit. What a fantastic fucking show. It was loud and intense and they were totally “on.”

Scott Weiland, STP:

Scott Weiland, STP:

Robert DeLeo:

STP:

STP:

No more shows till Saturday, when we catch BRMC/STP again, this time with Jake and his girlfriend. (Tonight we had Mark’s son Neil and his girlfriend with us. Sort of. They were a couple rows behind us.)

Wow. I’m looking forward to Saturday.

(Oh, one final note: wow. Another really, unexpectedly tame audience. What’s going on, people?!)

Photos care of Mark, who took pictures, so I didn’t have to.

..the only day we went. :)

Gates opened at 10; Mark and I were out of our hotel at 8:00. For some reason I didn’t picture there being parking at the subways station (what? I know. Go figure.) so we walked, and it turned out to be a longer walk than it had looked like on Google Maps. Took the subway to the bus to Pimlico and waited around for the gates to open. And of course we were at the south entrance, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club were scheduled on the north stage (at noon, but IT’S NEVER TOO EARLY TO GET TO THE BARRIER), so I power-walked across the festival with Mark…somewhere behind me.

And we got on the barrier. But we didn’t just get on the barrier—we got there in time to catch 2/3rds of BRMC soundchecking. Nice. (Robert was missing. He appeared to be a little stunned by having to be awake so early in the day.)

BRMC had a very short set with just eight songs on their setlist and a ninth squeezed in before their time was up. They played: 666 Conducer, Weapon of Choice, Berlin, Shuffle Your Feet, Ain’t No Easy Way, Salvation, Six Barrel Shotgun, Spread Your Love and Whatever Happened To My Rock ‘N Roll (Punk Song). Leia’s great on drums. No disappointment there at all. Mark was happy to get to see Salvation live.

Robert Levon Been, BRMC

Peter Hayes, BRMC

Leia Shapiro and Peter Hayes, BRMC

BRMC finished at 12:45, and we didn’t have another band we were super interested in seeing till 6:20. We could have camped out at our barrier spot all day long, but we have pit tickets for Stone Temple Pilots and Nine Inch Nails later this month (twice each, plus some great reserved seats for a NIN show, too), so we felt like we didn’t have to be right up front for either band today. In fact, I was looking to get a further back spot for NIN, one that’d give me a view of the whole stage.

So we wandered off, caught some other bands (but not more than a few songs from each—nothing was really grabbing us…and we practically ran from the She & Him show after a song and a half), watched the aerial sculptures and the Bindlestiff Family Circus—

(a little lesson in safe sex, courtesy of the Bindlestiffs)

—ate bad festival food, drank horrid festival drinks ($10 for a margarita that tastes like gasoline. Oh fabulous!), and we saw an Xtracycle in real life!, which was actually one of the highlights of my day—

!!!!

—and then it was time for STP. Which conflicted with Bob Dylan’s show on the south stage, so Mark headed over that way for Bob, and I held our spot at the north stage and enjoyed STP. They came on twenty minutes late, but once they showed up, they were good. I’m stoked to see them next Sunday.

Stone Temple Pilots

Before and after STP, I ran into some trouble with the porta potties because by late afternoon they had completely run out of toilet paper. Now, it wouldn’t kill me to go without toilet paper once, but. Women before me had hovered, and hoverers splatter. Did you hear me? HOVERERS SPLATTER. All over the fucking seat. So: hot, stinky portajohn with piss all over the seat and no toilet paper to clean it up with and an empty hand sanitizer dispenser. I just held it till we got back to the hotel. Yuck.

Finally it started to get dark, and NIN, who had been given the longest set of any band scheduled over the two days of this year’s Virgin Mobile Fest, came on.

OMG NIN.

And all I have is this blurry picture. Sorry!

The stage/light show was…. There are no words. It was just unbelievable. They put on a fantastic show. And the only thing going through my head through all 1 hour and 55 minutes of it was “OMG NIN.” Cannot wait to see them closer up on Tuesday.

And that was our day in Baltimore. Back on the road tomorrow.

Statement from Robert and Peter:

To all of you who have read or heard about Nick’s myspace posting, Peter and I would like to clarify a few things from our perspective.

It’s true, Nick wont be joining us for the upcoming European tour, but it’s not true that he is fired. We just feel Nick needs time to sort out exactly what he wants right now. His heart and all his energy and attention is on his own solo project and he needs to see that through.

We welcome his singing and songwriting in BRMC, but his focus, at least at the present time, is on doing his own thing and we wish him the best.

He is our brother, our musical partner, and we love him dearly and look forward to playing with him again in the future.

I’m still looking forward to seeing Leah Shapiro with them, if she plays the U.S. summer dates as well as the European ones, but I have to admit that the part of me that loved that they didn’t replace Nick when he walked away near the end of touring Take Them On, On Your Own is snuggling in some warm fuzzies right now. Honestly, I can leave or take Nick as a drummer, but I love their…I don’t know, integrity? loyalty? something? Values, maybe. Well, definitely their values. They’re not your typical band, at all. <3 <3 <3

Bulletin Nick posted on MySpace:

Hey everybody that reads this,
I just had dinner with rob and pete and well, im not in the band anymore. They are going into rehersals tommorow with leah, she just finished touring with the raveonettes and is super nice and cool. They presented it to me like they need a break, i took it as i am fired again and to be honoust with you i respect thier descision. I dont make it easy for them, i hope to be able to play with them again in the futre as a reuinion as there is really no bad feeling other than we all wanna be happy and rite now we are not. Maybe playing drums for brmc all the time is not my calling and there is something else im supposed to do. we will see, Im sorry to all ther fans and know that the drums are in good hands with leah.
find her at http://www.myspace.com/deadcombosound
My best
hope to see you soon.

When I heard last year that the latest incarnation of NIN’s touring band had been disbanded, tears welled, even though I knew NIN’s line-up was always subject (or perhaps even certain) to change. Theoretically, then, I should be at least a little upset about Nick’s departure from BRMC…. Instead, I’m looking forward to seeing what Leah Shapiro can do.

UPDATE: Robert and Peter posted a statement: Nick isn’t ‘fired’; he’s taking time to sort out exactly what he wants right now. See my June 9 blog post for more info.

Remember last week when I was all excited because the website for the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Alpharetta, Georgia, listed Black Rebel Motorcycle Club as the special guest for the Stone Temple Pilots show on August 23rd? I bought tickets during the presale and everything and now the site no longer has any mention of BRMC at all.

If you need me, I’ll be over in the corner making an origami seppuku sword out of my tickets.

Update: a poster on the BRMC message board believes they’ll still be opening for this show.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is confirmed for opening the Stone Temple Pilots show in Alpharetta, Georgia, August 23rd. We are so there.

Totally bringing TOO DEAD to an end this week. Five days? I can do it. One day to get them back to the mill with trouble hot on their heels, two days for the final showdown, one day for the resolution, and one day for the final touches on the ending and popping a bottle of wine to celebrate the end of the first draft.

What else to blog about today? I have some links sitting around in my “to blog” file, so here’s looking at those, kid:

Bookcase envy.

The coolest-sounding MMORPG ever (because I omg love the thought of a virtual world overlaid on the real one) that I’m not going to get to participate in anytime in the near future (more on that over the weekend, with photos maybe!).

And this video of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club doing “Spread Your Love” at a club—sound’s not great, but the video is the closest I’ve seen to the actual experience of being at a show. (My favorite bit happens around 2:30—that’s what I’m talking about!) Seventy-five days till I see them next (at a festival—so not the same as a small club, but I’ll take it. Plus I get to see NIN the same day. Dream come true y/y?).

Plus: 21 days till the new season of Weeds.

Anyone have any idea when we’re getting a new season of Big Love?

(Apologies in advance to my friends and Metallica fans who will read this. Metallica can be/do whatever they want, and if you still love them, great. This is only about how they don’t work for me anymore.)

So, I used to be a pretty big Metallica fan. A third or more of the t-shirts in my closet say Metallica. The front plate on my car still says Metallica (’cause I are too lazy to take it off). They were my number one band from 1991 to 2005 or so.

In recent years, though, they’ve been changing…and I’ve been changing, and the music industry has been changing…

Maybe mostly I’ve been changing. Blame it on the bands I’ve been getting into (or in the case of NIN and Marilyn Manson, back into). They’re a whole different experience from the Metallica machine, something that was never more evident to me than when I watched the trailer for Metallica’s new “Mission Metallica” website recently.

“One of the best selling bands of all time. 100 million albums sold. Gold or platinum in over 40 countries. 7 grammys. Since 2000, Metallica album catalog sales are second only to one band…. The Beatles. (And that’s not a bad band to follow!) Their songs are the MOST REQUESTED…for both Guitar Here and Rockband. Since 1990 Metallica are one of the top 5 touring acts in the world. Metallica have played sold out shows in all 50 states and in over 50 countries to more than 30 million people. They’re the #1 artist at rock radio by far. 5% of ALL airplay consists of Metallica songs!” (Mission Metallica trailer)

Maybe that sort of thing fires up some fans, but there’s nothing in all of that that makes me feel happy in my pants. DON’T BREAK YOUR ARMS PATTING YOURSELVES ON THE BACK, GUYS!

I’ve got Janet Jackson in my head, and she’s singing “What have you done for me lately?” Because that’s how I feel. “Yadda yadda yadda who cares, where’s the new music and shit?”

So the trailer didn’t do much for me, but I hit the website anyway, where I discovered that you can get access to some of the goodies coming to Mission Metallica for free. OR you can get more and better access, with other bennies, if you pay them money. I’m guessing this is separate from the money you pay to be in MetClub (which, as far as fan clubs go, is actually a pretty decent one).

This just looks like “squeeze more money out of our faithful fans” bullshit, and call me spoiled by Trent Reznor, but I’m just not cool with it.

How about this for a good “squeeze money out of our fans” plan: PUT OUT FUCKING MUSIC.

I’ve been keeping this sort of silly scorecard in my head for over a year now—Trent Reznor vs. James Hetfield. It works for me because they both checked into rehab in July 2001, so what happened after that?

¹ Including dates scheduled for later this year.

If St. Anger had been some amazing, HOLY SHIT! album, then at least I could say, “Quality, not quantity!” but any of NIN’s releases was equal to—and often better than—that effort, which as of next month is five years old. Damn, Metallica!

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, just to add another comparison in here, who have also had a band member in rehab and, like Metallica, found themselves at a point where they weren’t sure there was even going to be a band anymore, will have done 616 performances between September 2001 and September 2008, and possibly more than that—there are some August ‘08 dates I think might still be added. They’ve also put out four full-length albums and four EPs in that time. They keep getting dropped by record labels, but still manage to pull this shit off.

Message to Metallica: get the lead out. This ain’t your daddy’s music business anymore, yo.

My friend Reesa, who grew up in the same neck of the U.S. I did (but whom I didn’t meet until long after I’d moved outta there) and whom I recently turned on to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and who has been listening to me go on about how amazing they are live just called to ask if I wanted to go to Baltimore in August…and I said, “I’ve already got tickets!”…and she said “No way!” and I said “I bought them as soon as they went onsale—are you gonna go?” and she said “Yeah!” SO REESA’S COMING TO VIRGIN MOBILE FEST!!! This is awesome. Not only will she get to finally see BRMC, but Nine Inch Nails, too!

So it’s all gloomy and rainy outside, and it’s a Monday, and full of suckage—or would be if today weren’t the best freaking day ever! (Well, maybe not the best, but it sure has been a great day for concert news.)

First I learned that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Nine Inch Nails, Stone Temple Pilots, Bob Dylan and Iggy and the Stooges will all be playing on the same day at the Virgin Festival in Baltimore this August. Definitely going to that.

Then I found a LiveNation page for the Charlotte, NC, STP show in August, and it listed BRMC as their special guests. W00t! It’s just about a sure bet BRMC will be with them in Alpharetta, GA, too.

We’re taking Jake to one of the STP shows—this means he can finally see how freaking awesome BRMC are, too.  Every time we’re at a show, I think, “Damn, Jake needs to see these guys,” but none of the shows have been convenient (it either has to be during his summer break or on a weekend, and if it’s a nonsummer-break-weekend, it needs to be somewhere where we can drive from Asheville, NC, to Savannah freaking GA to pick him up, then turn around and go to the show, then repeat everything in reverse. (This made the Marilyn Manson show we saw together in Atlanta a 20-hour drive for me. But worth it! Going to shows with Jake is fun.)

Also…I found this out over the weekend, but I’ma count it as Monday news: Saul Williams has said he’ll be opening for NIN on the US tour.

Four NIN shows—three of them with Saul—three BRMC shows…. August is gonna be the shit.

I need to get some of Mark’s STP on my MP3 player. I haven’t listened to them in forever.

Six shows between one Saturday and the next—that’s my new definition of a perfect week. Tonight (—or last night, at this point) was Kenny Wayne Shepherd at the Cherokee Survivors Motorcycle Rally. I managed to get up at the barrier despite making it to the fairgrounds just ten minutes before the show started. It was kind of a crappy barrier—so high that the chick next to me could just about see over it. The show only lasted an hour and twenty minutes or so, but it was still damn good.

Getting home took a little longer than it should have—we had a high-speed police chase go around us just outside of Waynesville and a few minutes later found ourselves stopped on the highway thanks to the resulting accident. We hope the guy just crashed his own damned car and didn’t completely ruin some other people’s night, but we couldn’t tell. After twenty minutes of sitting, the police got the road blocked off so we could all turn around and go the wrong way back up the highway, then we had to figure out our way back to I-40.

And I haven’t blogged about it, but the Charlotte, Athens and Knoxville Black Rebel Motorcycle Club shows were THE BOMB. Particularly Knoxville, where they started out with a set list already two songs longer than we’d gotten on previous nights, then took a couple requests during the encore, bringing it to I think 27 songs for the night. The sound was great, the guys were in a good mood (even though Robert came back for the encore with red knuckles and a Band-Aid that hadn’t been there when he’d walked off the stage), and the crowd was strange (very strange), but that led to some funny moments—it was the perfect end to our short week of following them around.

And I had Robert’s bass right up in my face twice that night. Bliss.

I kept forgetting to take pictures at the BRMC shows, and most of what pictures I did take came out blurry. All I have is this pic of Peter with the trombone during “Promise”:

And some (not so fantastic) pics from the Kenny Wayne Shepherd show: