3 restores my faith in Prog Metal

[elfs]

As a general rule, opening acts suck. I can't remember who opened for Heart the one time I saw them in concert, I don't think anyone even dared trying to open for Pink Floyd, the opening acts for Blue Oyster Cult the two times I've seen them were local "hard rock" bands that were not worth recalling. I mean, there seems to be a rule that opening acts must suck: the opening act for Jethro Tull was Saga, for Set's sake, and they sucked live.

Three has restored my faith in both opening acts and progressive metal. They rocked. A mostly classic fivesome: lead singer/guitar, second guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards. Except the guy on keyboards also had a second, smaller drumset pressed up against the main drumset. The second guitar owned a classic axe and I thought he was pretty good. And then the lead singer/guitarist pulled out his own guitar and proceeded to do the impossible: play slap-fret heavy metal. I was so blown away by his skill, there was such visceral admiration for it from the audience.

And then the drummer got a solo, and he was quite good as a soloist until the keyboardist grabbed a pair of sticks and both of them started soloing in tandem on his mini set. They played against each other the way jazz musicians play against one another. Until they started hitting each other's instruments and things got even cooler-- to the point where one of them squelched a high hat with his mouth.

The audience went completely nuts. I bought the CD. Their studio work is solid, but it really lacks the astounding energy and sheer bravura that Three put out on stage. They broke the rules: they were an opening act that was as good as the act that followed. Porcupine Tree had to work, and work hard, to pull the audience up to the level of frenzied admiration that Three had aroused. Fortunately, they succeeded.

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Aw, frack. My ipod's headphone jack is borken. I've lost all sound in the right ear. This is not good. I just had the car's brakes done and paid for the Pendorwright server, and I'm broke for at least the next two months.

Comments

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the kind offer, but I've got plenty of headphones. It's the headphone jack, the hole into which you put the headphones, that's broken. It's a $20 part and I've already ordered one.

[woggie.livejournal.com]

All that remains is the m4d ski11z to insert said part, which you have, of course.

Me, I'd have to run ask clemtaur for the use of his m4d sk1llz. :)

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Actually, what I've got is the iPod Headphone and Hold Switch Tutorial (http://www.ipodhowtovideo.com/video/videoheadphonereplacement.html) and a pair a reading glasses.