Yes, I was there. How could I NOT show up for his set?

He inspired the entire gorram festival. It was a moral imperative.

All right, goddammit. I KNOW I’ve been slacking. Real world shit has gotten in the way, but hey, I JUST got home from Bonnaroo, and I’ve got AMAZING music on the mind. Fuckin’ Robert Plant, who played classic Zeppellin, to something NOBODY expected, fucking Buffalo Springfield, who ROCKED the goddamn festival the moment they played For What It’s Worth.

I’d love to get to MORE festivals, but I know I don’t have enough of a following to pull it off. Tell your friends, tell your companies… there’s a music fan who NEEDS to travel, and is looking for sponsorship into any festival around.

Buy it now!

Oh hell. Where do I even begin. I LOVE Weird Al. His newest album is no exception. From Party in the CIA to his traditional polka track, it’s amazing. He hasn’t lost a thing.

From his parody of Party in the USA, which has grown on me on its own Party in the CIA tells the obvious story of a spy who … dammit. Just buy the ALbum already. If you’re already a fan of Weird Al Yankovic, then you already have. But those who aren’t… have no sense of humor.

Polka Face… yes, the traditional polka track touches one the obvious Poker Face, also riffs on Britney’s Womanizer and what the hell else can I say? Weird Al touches on The Doors with Craigslist, and also Katy Perry in the polka medly. Jesus, the man’s a genius. Why AREN’T you listening?

All right, kids, bit of a history lesson here. Way back in 1973, a man name of Richard O’Brien wrote a stage musical. 1975 came along, and this stage musical was turned into a cult classic movie. Cut to a few years ago, and it once again appeared on stage. Today, this production is being put on locally, and I had the pleasure of going.

Now… anybody know purports to know me at all has head me speak of the Rocky Horror Picture Show on many occasions, and knows of my long standing love for it. Madison Broadway, a local troupe, has adapted the original production and is performing it over the weekend. I was able to get to the 10pm showing tonight, and let me tell you… it was FANTASTIC! With local radio personality Fish Calloway performing as the Narrator, it was a solid cast. Starring Brian Tuel as Doctor Frank N Furter with Trevor Kastein and Kelly Maxwell as Brad Majors and Janet Weiss respectively, it was a fresh perspective on something I, for one, have come to know extremely well.

The callbacks most people would come to expect from Rocky Horror these days were kept to a minimum, but of those that WERE used, the ones that got the best reactions came from a group of four RHPS veterans who I am pleased to say I was with.

It’s a local thing, yeah, but if you ARE local and are interested in a fantastic show with a great cast and a bit of innuendo, you could do a LOT worse than to catch a performance. Short notice, but they’ve got performances Friday night and Saturday at the Orpheum Theatre on State Street. Tickets are 15 dollars.

The production was put on by Broadway Madison

All right, all right. I’ve promised reviews, promised posts… so much music, so little time. I’ve been developing a new idea for this, hopefully I’ll have something for it real soon now. I’ve got around 40 albums I’ve been meaning to write up, but I’m thinking about coming up with some sort of audio show. The way this is gonna work is that I’ll ignore the singles and focus more on deep cuts.

Should be interesting.

Buy the ticket, take the ride.

Depeche Mode – Violator (Buy it now)

Sometimes, when I get into an introspective and sentimental mood, I like to dig through my music collection and find something I haven’t listened to in a long time. Not sure what exactly it was that drew me to Depeche Mode tonight, but I figured what the hell. I’d forgotten how awesome this 1990 album is.

For those who don’t know, Depeche Mode (performing since 1980) is an English electronic group consisting of Dave Gahan on lead vocals, Martin Gore on keyboards guitar and lead songwriter, Andrew Fletcher on keyboards, and (at the time) Alan Wilder on keyboards, who has since left the group.

Their 1990 album Violator is a very solid album, most tracks with a dance rhythm even I can move to.

Album opener World In My Eyes is a ballad-esque number dealing with a desire to share the world with someone, and on a deeper level, to open up and share their innermost self. “Let me show you the world in my eyes.”

Second track Sweetest Perfection, while at the surface seemingly about drugs, is much deeper than that. It’s about a quest, nay, the primal instinct to find happiness, and the inner turmoil that it causes. “I stop and I stare too much, afraid that I care too much, and I hardly dare to touch, for fear that the spell may be broke”

Personal Jesus, perhaps better known as it was covered by Johnny Cash, deals with the idea that everyone needs to be saved sometimes, that everyone needs that someone to talk to, and it’s not necessarily a religious thing. It’s about trying to find a personal savior who can be there for you if you need them.

Hmm. All right, Violator is a fantastic album that, while being the most popular album Depeche Mode has released, still doesn’t get quite the recognition it deserves. And hey, if it can get ME dancing, that’s gotta say soemthing about it.