Anybody Killa at the Muse, once again

Friday, October 14th, 2011
Anybody Killa
The Muse, Nashville, TN
$12

For the second time in 2011, and the third time in a year, I got the opportunity to see ABK perform at the Muse. Beforehand, I made up a batch of 2 dozen Moon Mist cupcakes, and picked up new friend Ryan "Cookies" from his house so he could go to the show as well. When we arrived, nothing was going on yet, so like always, we just stood around and mingled, and ate some cupcakes. I actually only went inside a few times before ABK started to perform since I wasn't familiar with anyone who was opening, and since I'd much rather be hanging out on the patio with my friends than pretending that I'm enjoying someone's performance.

By the time ABK started to perform, everyone had gone back inside and staked out their respective spots near the stage. While I waited, I had something very strange happen. I struck up a brief conversation with a man standing next to me, and after exchanging just a few pleasantries, he said "Too bad more REAL Juggalos didn't show up tonight. I only see three or four." Um...excuse me? I'd never seen this dude in my life, so he obviously didn't personally know every person in the room. And who is he to judge what a REAL Juggalo is? I wasn't even sure how to respond since I wasn't sure if he was including me in the three or four who were "real Juggalos" or was lumping me in the with "not a real Juggalo" rest of the crowd. What a random, judgmental thing to say to someone you didn't know.

Once ABK came out onstage, the show was great, as always. I actually thought the set seemed a little shorter than his past sets, but in reality I don't think it was. This was one of only three "Orange and Black" shows that he did, so hopefully it's a show that was unique to only those three dates.

Photos...



















After the show, everyone made their way outside, and Killa was right behind us. We all just hung around and chilled for a while, took some photos and generally had a good time.


Crystal meets Killa...


...and so does Nick!

After we'd been hanging around for a while, I decided to get my other dozen cupcakes and pass them out. So right as I'd handed them all out and we started to eat, two cops came up. They were shining their flashlights on us and acting like brutes, apparently thinking they were gonna bust us all for doing something illegal. But nope! We were all just standing there eating cupcakes! They kept looking at us, and shining the flashlights all over the ground, but all they found were happy, upstanding citizens eating yummy cupcakes hahaha It was so funny how confused they were. Eventually they left since we weren't doing anything bad!

Not sure what my next show is going to be since I don't have anything else on the plan at the moment. Still hoping that Boondox turns up at the Muse sooner than later!

-Julie

Super-Killa-Fragilistic - ABK at the Muse

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
Anybody Killa, P.R.E.A.C.H.
The Muse, Nashville, TN
$12
See all the photos from this show here

Considering that I live in Nashville, I find it really strange that I've had two opportunities to see Anybody Killa (ABK) in concert here within the last five months. But hey, I'm definitely not complaining! His show last November at the Muse was my first Psychopathic show, and I really enjoyed it, so I was definitely not going to miss his return.

Work was nice enough to let me leave an hour and 15 minutes early, and when I arrived, there wasn't much going on just yet. After getting the best parking spot yet behind the Muse, I met Pamela in the parking lot on the way in. The first thing we heard were rumblings about Kung Fu Vampire being MIA, AMB not being able to play since one of the guys wasn't there, and now ABK was refusing to play. Knowing how incorrect info can spread like wildfire, we both chalked this up to being like the telephone game...someone said something, then someone overheard it and changed the story a little, then someone overheard that, and so on.

Since nothing was going on yet, we sat down outside and chatted, and mingled with the others waiting for the show. Eventually we heard that Kung Fu Vampire was definitely not going to be there, which was fine since I'd never really listened to them.



The first band, S.G.F., went on a little before 9:00 They were awesome though, with elaborate makeup and blood, and some great rhymes to go with it.


Chick in the tank top is not impressed



Near the end of the set, they stirred up a mosh put and a couple of the guys jumped right in, while a strobe light was making everything look like it was happening in slow motion. Wild! I would definitely head back out to see these guys again since they were VERY entertaining.



After a break, P.R.E.A.C.H. was the next artist to perform. I wasn't sure what to expect with him either, but he was fantastic. Great beats, great lyrics, and great interaction with the crowd.


Tank Top is also not impressed with P.R.E.A.C.H.


lulz She looks miniature in this picture

One of the guys he was with also handed out CDs and lighters that said P.R.E.A.C.H. on them, so I ended up with a nice yellow lighter too. I was very pleasantly surprised with his performance. It's so awesome to go to shows not expecting to find any new artists to pay attention to, then come out as a fan of one of the openers! (Happened last time too when Critical Bill opened for ABK, and I figured out that Critical Bill was exactly the style of music I enjoy!)



With the first two openers having been big hits, Bones from AMB came out on stage to announce that Otis had had a family emergency and had to fly home, so there wouldn't be an AMB performance that night. Not a biggie for me since I'm not a big fan of AMB. He then introduced local Juggalo rappers Lords of Chaos.



Poor guys...you can tell that they're new to performing since they seemed to struggle to remember their Juggalo-centric lyrics and did little more than just stand there and recite them into the microphone. They also had some song about "the dark side of 615" which pretty much painted Juggalos as gang members, which I really wasn't fond of. But whatever.


And she's totally not feeling Lords of Chaos either



Bones made another appearance and introduced a guy named FLOW who he said was new to their record label (it was news to me that AMB have their own record label now, but hey, I must not keep up with them well enough hahaha). FLOW was entertaining, though not because he was particularly good. He was all smiles the whole way through his set, and didn't seem to be rapping about anything too serious.


Tank Top had to resort to playing with her phone since she was so bored with FLOW's performance



By this point, given that neither Lords of Chaos nor FLOW were particularly good, the venue had almost completely emptied out. Too bad that the two best performers went first, since the next two acts completely sucked the life out of the venue. S.G.F. and P.R.E.A.C.H. definitely should have played just before ABK.

By the time that it was actually time for ABK to take the stage, people were slowly filtering back in, and chants of "ABK!" and "Fam-uh-ly" were starting to fill the room. Since this show was technically a part of the Medicine Bag tour (just like the last one was), I was expecting the backdrop to be the same Medicine Bag backdrop as last time. But instead, when they dropped the tarp, there were two large hatchetman banners on the sides, with some sort of tall riser in the middle that he was standing on, which was a much grander entrance that just walking out on stage!




Pamela with ABK in the background


Tank Top was actually enjoying this performance! I think she was even taking a photo with the phone and not playing with it.







Much like last time, the performance was great. He moved around the stage a lot, and made prolonged eye contact with lots of people numerous times throughout the set. At one point during "Ghost of my Ex," he stared me down and reached out his hand toward me. But dammit if I didn't have a dude standing right in front of me, and I couldn't reach back far enough to grab his hand haha Overall, again, another solid performance. Better than last time in my opinion since he seemed a little more energetic and was having a little more fun with it.

After the show, everyone made their way outside and hung around for a while. I'd met new friend Dennis "Lazy D" before the show, and he'd invited me and Pamela upstairs to the Undertones bar because he anticipated that ABK would head up there for a few drinks later. I'm certainly not one to pass up the opportunity to meet a celebrity, so after a while, we all headed upstairs. After a good 45 minutes of hanging around with no sign of ABK, Pamela and I decided to go downstairs just to make sure that his trailer was still parked beside the club, and that he hadn't slipped away unnoticed! It was still there, and after chatting with a security guard about how much we both loved Boondox, ABK came our way. We gave him a quick whoop whoop and he headed upstairs, with me and Pamela following behind. He ended up being such a Joe Average cool dude to hang out with...didn't draw attention to himself or act outrageous like you hear some musicians doing!


Yep, that's what ABK looks like without his paint!

Once ABK and almost everyone else snuck off to the back room for a while, Pamela and I stayed to chat with Dennis, who ended up being such an interesting guy! Everyone else came back into the main area of the bar at some point, and as it approached 3:00am, the subject of the Gummi Bears theme song came up. So eventually, we all ended up watching cartoon theme songs on YouTube over the big screen TV in the bar! Epic...totally epic hahaha

I've said it before and I'll say it again, that I am so glad that I chose to embrace this whole genre of music. The music is great, the concerts are awesome, and the other fans are so, so fun! Now all I need is for Boondox to come to the Muse and I'll have seen everyone on the label :-)

-Julie

My first foray into blogging & a recap of 2010

Starting in the fall of 2009, I rediscovered my love of live music. When I was in high school, it was nothing to go to multiple concerts a year, either at intimate venues like the long gone away 328 Performance Hall or larger events at the also long gone away Starwood Amphitheater. I saw the likes of Counting Crows (four times!), Weezer, Stone Temple Pilots, the Wallflowers, Live and Smashing Pumpkins among many, many others. But once I hit college, the concert going all but stopped. I managed to make it to a few shows over the following decade, most notably Saliva, Cypress Hill, Davy Jones and an amazing performance by Simon and Garfunkel on their Old Friends tour. But that was pretty much it. It got pushed very far onto the back burner as travel moved to the forefront of my wallet.

But on one boring Sunday night in August of 2009, I was vividly and LOUDLY reminded of just why I loved concerts in my teenage years. I heard that Saliva was playing at a small bar/music hall in Murfreesboro, TN, and ultimately talked myself into making the 45 minute drive to the venue so I could go. I had caught a show of theirs during the Survival of the Sickest tour a few years prior and remembered having a great time, so I figured that it would be an evening and $20 well spent.

Well, to say that I enjoyed myself is the understatement of the year. It was loud...it was flashy...it was intense...and it brought back every memory of exactly what it was that I loved about live music in high school. A good concert just lets you step out of your real life for a few moments and just enjoy something that's fun. Nothing else matters for that little slice of time except for who's performing, what they're singing, who you're with and how much more your ears can take!

Two more Saliva shows in Evansville, IN and Decatur, AL rounded out the year, and I ended up making one single resolution for 2010. More live music. LOTS more. My initial resolution was to go to 5 shows, with at least two of them being Saliva shows. I later amended that to 12 shows, with at least two being Saliva shows. Ultimately, I went to 11 shows...just one shy of my goal, so I was very happy with that. And yes, two of them were Saliva shows :-)


As 2011 rolled around, I decided to make the same resolution for the new year. 12 shows in 12 months. And I'm sure that I will make it this time.

The point of this blog is to share my experiences and photos from the shows I go to in 2011. Since I already have tickets purchased for two shows in January, I figured that I better get this blog established ASAP!

So here's a quick recap of what went on during my musical escapades in 2010...

January 20th, 2010
Better than Ezra
Wildhorse Saloon - Nashville, TN

The first show of the year was Better than Ezra, who I absolutely loved in high school. The show was good, though I did learn the hard way not to wear heels to a concert! Ouch! By the end of the show, I had to give up my front row spot just so I could sit down and get off my feet!








April 1st, 2010
Seven Mary Three, Marcy Playground, Sponge
Wildhorse Saloon - Nashville, TN

February and March both passed without a single good show in my area, but I started April off right at the 102.9 the Buzz Birthday Bash. The tickets were reasonably priced, and all three bands put forth great performances, though Marcy Playground was my favorite of the three.








May 13th, 2010
Saliva, Since October
Sammy T's Music Hall - Huntsville, AL

Hands down, my favorite show of the year was the Saliva and Since October show in May. Since it fell on the first day of my weekend, I got a hotel for the night, and decided to make a weekend of it. After a soak in the tub, and a good long while of lingering over my hair and makeup, I made my way to the venue. The guys from Since October were hanging around in front of the club, so I got to meet all of them, and had a great time hanging out with Smootch and new friends Janelle and Jeremy. Anchored opened, followed by an awesome performance by Since October, and then the most incredible Saliva performance ever! Lead singer Josey Scott was so close to the audience that we were able to touch his stomach as he sang! For this raging Saliva fan, it was the ultimate concert experience!



















May 21st, 2010
Three Days Grace, Apocalyptica, Halestorm, Three Doors Down
Municipal Auditorium - Nashville, TN

The Buzz Hootenanny in late May ended up being the least impressive of the shows of the year. The line to get in the venue was ridiculous, stretching literally all the way around the block. Also, the general admission seats were simply too far away to give a good concert experience, and concert goers were confined to the far stretches of the cheap seats while over half of the main floor went empty. Three Doors Down was fine except that their set was extremely short, and Halestorm just wasn't impressive at all. Apocalyptica was just truly lame, and as much as I wanted to think that playing cellos in a rock band was awesome...it wasn't. They sucked. Luckily Three Day's Grace swooped in and saved the day, but their performance would have been ten times better had I been on the main floor. Oh well. Live and learn.








June 4th, 2010
Saliva, Adelita's Way, Puddle of Mudd
Wildhorse Saloon - Nashville, TN

Finally Saliva came back to Nashville. Through a series of unfortunately misinformed employees, I ended up paying $70 for a meet and greet for this show, and Saliva wasn't even included. So I did get to spend about 15 seconds talking to Puddle of Mudd, but didn't get to see them perform since I left early to hobnob with Saliva behind the club. This show also convinced me that the Wildhorse sucks as a venue for hard rock shows. The Adelita's Way performance was great though, and Saliva was awesome as well, though I do prefer when they are headlining.










August 15th, 2010
Marcy Playground
3rd and Lindsley - Nashville, TN

Since I had enjoyed Marcy Playground's performance in April so much, I decided to see them again in August. I ended up running into my friend John at this show as well, which was great.






August 27th, 2010
Since October
Buzz Acoustic Den - Nashville, TN

In an incredibly wonderful twist of fate, I won a pass to see Since October (who was, by now, one of my favorite bands) at the 102.9 the Buzz Acoustic Den in late August. When I arrived, I found that I was one of only 11 people attending the show! It was truly amazing to attend such an intimate show by one of my favorite bands! After the show, the band hung around for as many photos as we wanted, and chatted with me like they'd known me forever. Awesome show...awesome guys...awesome day!








October 14th, 2010
Brent Mason
3rd and Lindsley - Nashville, TN

In October, a friend from Canada made his first trip to Nashville and invited me to see Brent Mason with him. I had never heard of Brent Mason, but I quickly found out that he is an incredibly famous, incredibly talented guitarist who has worked with seemingly everyone in town. Even though I would tend to choose harder rock shows, I really had a great time experiencing something new!






November 5th, 2010
Since October, American Bang
Crossroads Music Hall - Huntsville, AL

To start off what would be a fantastic November, I made the drive down to Huntsville to hang with Smootch and see Since October for the final time of the year. The show was great as always, and all of the guys recognized me from the acoustic show in Nashville!






November 15th, 2010
Anybody Killa (ABK), Critical Bill, Ajax
The Muse - Nashville, TN

By the middle of November, I was ready to embrace my new-found interest in Psychopathic music and the Juggalo culture and see ABK perform at the Muse. For my first Psy show, I had a great time! I'm not the biggest ABK fan, but he gave a great performance...much better than I was expecting, actually. I also saw Critical Bill, who I had never heard of at the time. I was very impressed with them, and since the show, I've become a big fan of theirs as well!








November 28th, 2010
Twiztid, Blaze Ya Dead Homie, DJ Clay
The Masquerade - Atlanta, GA

The last show of the year was one of the best, and also one of the craziest! I knew not to expect a subdued, sophisticated crowd, and when I arrived in Atlanta, I was not surprised at all to see a few hundred of the wildest, most fun concert goers I'd ever seen. The show was fantastic, and I was so glad that I had put forth the extra effort to see Twiztid during their World of Webs tour. The whole room was basically one big mosh pit, and there were crowd surfers, weed smokers and a lot of water flying everywhere. It was truly unlike anything I'd ever experienced before...in a great way!









So there you have it. That was my 2010. I can only expect that 2011 will be equally entertaining, if not more! My first two shows of the year are within the next two weeks...Insane Clown Posse at Expo Five in Louisville, and Full Devil Jacket at 12th and Porter in Nashville. I've had "Go to an ICP show" on my bucket list for about a decade, so I am very excited to be able to cross another thing off the list.

Til next time!

-Julie