Philadelphia, twice in one week

This was a good month for concerts. I got to see Motorhead again, and then Kodo right after that. The pictures below are from those two shows. And I'm not in a single one of the pics, ha ha ha.

The Motorhead show had its ups and downs. Getting into and out of Philly turned into a little adventure, involving a side trip to New Jersey and lots of yelling FUCK really loud. There were too many opening bands. There was Brand New Sin, and Zeke, and Corrosion of Conformity. . . COC wasn't that bad, but the other two were just sonic shitstorms. Bleah. Zeke tried to make up for their suckitude by playing a few bars of Dazed and Confused in the middle of one of their shitty songs. . . sorry, guys, the comparison to Zeppelin just shows that you suck even more. What a waste of precious decibels! Motorhead was great, though -- loud as hell, and Lemmy is the man! Their playlist was as follows:

Dr. Rock -- Stay Clean -- Western Movies -- Love Me Like A Reptile -- Killers -- Metropolis -- Over The Top -- No Class -- I Got Mine -- Ramones -- Dancing On Your Grave -- In The Name Of Tragedy -- Sacrifice (+ drum solo) -- Just 'Cos You Got The Power -- Going To Brazil -- Killed By Death -- Iron Fist -- Whorehouse Blues -- Ace Of Spades -- Overkill

Damn. That's 20 songs in all, over 2 hours of live music. Motorhead Rocks!

. . . and then. . . there was KODO.

For those who don't know, Kodo is a troupe of Japanese performers who play traditional Taiko drums, and other things like shamisen and flute, and they do some dancing and singing as well. But it is the drums that take center stage. I have two Kodo CDs, and they are not bad, but they can be a touch boring, just hearing the rhythms. Their live performance, however, is like nothing I have ever seen or heard. Their drums are tuned to the resonant frequency of human bone, and every beat rips through you and echoes back out again. We had excellent seats for the concert (see photos below, after the Motorhead ones), and we could see and hear the performers as they did their thing. There is one picture that shows three drums in center stage, and a huge sideways drum at the rear. . . the big one is the O-Daiko, the star of the show. It was played by two people at the end of the concert, and it is their big show-stopper. This type of drumming still happens in villages in Japan, for special festivals. The three drums in the center are each about 6 feet in diameter! The third event of the concert was three men playing these drums, with much ferocity. I really shoulda taken a movie of that, it was incredible! Also worth noting are the Drums Of Pain. . . I forget what they are really called, but sheesh. They would put a big drum (like, 4 feet tall and 2 feet diameter) sideways on the stage, and just plop right down in front of it on their butts. . . then to play, they would put their feet under the side of the drum, and leaaaaan back at about 45 degrees, and then hammer away. So they played this drum while holding a half-sit-up position. HOLY SHIT. You should have seen the look on their faces while they played. I would have lasted about 10 seconds doing that before I vomited and died, leaving a very ashamed corpse. After the show, I was so totally wound up and full of energy -- I could have tackled a moose, if they wandered the streets of central Philly.

I'll stop blathering now. . . Kodo was the best live show I have ever seen. I hope they come back through next year. I'll be there. OH, and there will be a CD and DVD of their current tour "One Earth Tour 2005", so I feel less sad about not getting pictures. Go to their website www.kodo.or.jp for more cool stuff. DO IT NOW!!

It's getting warmer out, so there should be shooting pictures soon. And maybe even some pictures of me, after I get a haircut. Right now, I look horrible. Meh.

This is the view from our seats. There's half of the O-Daiko at the right, and the three, um, I forget what they're called in the center. . . DAMMIT, I wish I had taken a movie of the three guys that played those. Talk about shaking the pillars of heaven. . .

This is the inside of the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. The inside is shaped like a violin. Not sure if it is for the acoustic effect, but definitely a neat looking place. . .

This is the last picture I took, before they announced that pictures were prohibited. Shit, I'll be buying the DVD anyway. . I shoulda taken pictures!!!!

Dear God it's Motorhead!!!!!!! They win the Best Banner award!

Whoa. . . the blurry effect makes the banner look pretty cool. . .

Good ensemble picture. Note the cool flamy guitar Phil has.

Probably my best shaky-cam no-flash photo of the evening. Phil is playing so fast he's warping out!

This is Motorhead during "Whorehouse Blues". Red Light. . . um. . . red light district? Meh, probably just a coincidence.

Here's the soundboard they used to control the audio. . . hard to see, but the three meters in the center say "AC Phil", "AC Lem" and "AC Mick". And they go to 11!

Just a funny little pic. . . the meters in the center of the frame were in the mid-green for the whole night, until Motorhead came on. . . then they stayed in the red for the rest of then night.

There haven't been enough gazongas on the site, so here's some! Behold Gretchen (name changed to protect the cranky person's identity) in her grape-flavored glory! Nice boots, too! That's a scaaary person in the background. . .

. . .um, and here's some plastic ones. . . The Japanese have way better toys than we do. But they aren't allowed to own handguns, so I'll call it even.