ZoCrowes Reunion 2011

Final Crowes Show In UK

Jimmy Page got offstage about two hours ago, from playing with the Black Crowes on their farewell to England Tour. This video appeared on YouTube about 20 minutes ago (from post time). I act fast. Jimmy Page was supposed to launch his website today. That hasn’t happened yet, but he’s getting a shitload of traffic from thousands of fans refreshing ten time a minute. Clever, Mr. Page, but a bit dickish. The teen girls on Tumblr are apoplectic.

Continuing the trend of actually playing the guitar (rather than just posing with one) Jimmy Page joined the Black Crowes at the Shepherds Bush Empire, for a rousing rendition of Shake Your Moneymaker. Jimmy’s looking good, rocking the leather jacket and white hair. He’s cool as fuck. In fact he’s the Coolest Thing Ever. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QQ4HSPejX4

I saw Deep Purple on this tour, Youdopia. It was the Perfect Strangers tour, in 1985. The classic, “Smoke on the Water” lineup of Deep Purple reunited for an album and a tour. Both were excellent.  Cheesy? A little, but much of the 80′s factor can be mitigated by the honest awesomeness of this band. What keeps the Hammond Organ from being a gag, is the mastery and badassedness with which it is played. Richie Blackmore’s sourpuss and Roger Glover’s Miami Vice look are excused when you hear them play live.

When my friends and I saw them in Worcester, in 1985, it was an event. I got very into Deep Purple leading up to the show. They were amazingly tight, fun, and fucking great. The talent is huge, the spectrum just isn’t that wide for classically tinged steppenwolfy cock rock. It’s all good. This video is from a Russian tube site, so let it buffer. Let me know what you think, but I think this music is the Coolest Shit Ever.

I don’t know if you’re aware of this, Youdopia, but there has been a Soundgarden reunion. They had a reunion concert, in Seattle, under the name Nude Dragons. It was filmed, and I have a clip from said show. I am not the world’s biggest Soundgarden fan, but they are without doubt an incredible band. Much has been said about Chris Cornell’s voice, that it’s shot, that he’s lost his range, etc. It’s a lot like what is said, and has been said for 35 years, about Robert Plant. Well, this clip will prove that, unlike Robert Plant, Cornell’s voice still can reach those powerful highs of old.  Take a look at this clip and tell me that this is not the Coolest Shit Ever.

This is one of the cooler things I’ve seen lately, Youdopia. Being a child of the 90′s (and 80′s, and 70′s) I like … some… of Faith No More’s songs. Mike Patton is definitely eclectic, and I’m really not. I like some Mr. Bungle, I respect John Zorn, and have given many of Patton’s projects a listen, but I am a musical luddite… which is why I’m just now given Syd Barrett a chance.

Faith No More reunited recently, and I wanted to see some footage of them, so I went to the the YouTube, on the interwebs. I found a nice audience video of them at Pukkelpop (where Them Crooked Vultures just played as well) performing Midlife Crisis.

Imagine my surprise when at 2:40, a dude stagedives about ten feet to faceplant on the ground. Ouch. The band stops playing and Mike Patton drops into the crowd to check on the guy. That’s a nice, cool, rockstar thing to do. When he gets back up, he says some stuff to the crowd about how fucked up that was, and how he’s not in a good place.

Then band kicks into the intrumental “Popcorn” for a bit, and then BOOM! They drop back into Midlife Crisis like the whole thing never happened. Many reunions are done for money, or to get another taste of the spotlight. This band is fucking tight. Nice nice nice. Enjoy it. If you just want the incident, start at 2:40.

Coolest shit ever?
Yep.

It’s been a wild couple of weeks. Courtesy of Facebook, I have found my wonderful son, I have reconnected with some old friends, and now I’m getting people I went to high school with.

I live a very compartmentalized life. A house with many mansions, as it were. As I reconnect with people from my past, however ancillary, incidental, or profoundly important, I seem to come together a little more. It’s like the gnostic idea of particles of light… accumulating until luminosity wins over the dead weight base matter. Jung might call it integration. Most would call it dealing with shit.

Shattered vessels. Scattered Monad. Qlippoth.

Shells.

This is a very interesting time. Maybe I’m going to die.

Maybe I’m going to live.

Maybe I’m going to bed.

He sees angels in the architecture

spinning in inffinity

and he says, “Eh ,Hallelujah”

Happy Monday, Youdopia. I am a little under the weather today, so I will give you this wonderful little clip of Mr Jimmy Page playing the theramin, and the Whole Lotta Love solo from the 07 reunion. I found this clip while reading about an underground effort to round up all the footage from the show, for the definitive Reunion DVD (at least until it’s released professionally)
Enjoy the music of Led Zeppelin. w00t.