Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Part II, Entropy and The Greatest 45 Seconds in Music History
After they played four songs, Greg Graffin, lead singer, stopped to talk to the crowd. When that band stopped playing people started clapping and screaming and shit. I started to clap, then stopped. I didn't seem like it was appropriate enough. I needed to do more, but there wasn't much I could do. I didn't clap for the rest of the show. It's like on that episode of The West Wing where after Josh recovers from being shot by a white supremasist and he is trying to get his insurance company to pay for the surgeries he had to have. Sam comes up with a way they could sue the Ku Klux Klan for $100 million dollars, but Josh says he doesn't want to do it because it wouldn't be doing enough. I didn't clap, I didn't fist pump, I didn't give the finger, I didn't raise the devil horns, I didn't raise my index finger. All I did was get jostled by the crowd and sing along at times. It was great. And every once in a while The Geoff would look over at me and yell, "Bleeter Bloop!" And I would respond to him with a "Blater Blop!" I will tell you about the origination and meaning of "Bleeter Bloop" another time, along with the other four times, the levels of punk bands, and the criteria for the perfect movie. That's four things I owe this blog.
Now, the Entropy story: Entropy is song on an old album that may never have ever been played in a concert, but it is great, one of my favorites. So, during a break, Graffin is discussing the recent presidential election and other things about the country, when Jay Bentley, the bass player, comes to the mic and says, "It's like Entropy." I started freakin' out. Then he said something like, "Maybe we should play it." Unreal, I'm looking at The Geoff and he is laughing and I'm in shock trying to figuring what this means. This has to mean something. Then Graffin says, "Yeah, I could probably sing it, but there's no way these guys could play it." Damn. Pretty close though. Out of all their songs that they didn't play, the one they mention is the one that I said I wanted to hear. It means something. I will figure it out sometimes, but it means something.
Later in the show, when BR played Kyoto Now!, a song off their album, The Process of Belief, Graffin said, "Well, we won't have Kyote for four more years, so we'll call it Kyoto Later!" A little humor, a little serious, quite fitting.
The #1 song on my list, yes, even ahead of Entropy, was Let Them Eat War, anti-war song. Let Them Eat Was has a paralyzing guitar riff right at the beginning. It's a riff you can play over and over and it still sounds really fuckin' cool. The entire song is great. And, I think the greatest 45 seconds in music history happens on this track. I can assure you I wouldn't think this if a couple of my friends hadn't introduced to me hip-hop artists like Talib Kweli, but they did, and so I dig it. It comes during the bridge of the song, Sage Francis makes a guest appearance and lays down some pretty cool lyrics over Brooks Wackerman's drumming. Then the guitar comes back in with that riff, Graffin starts singing, and Sage comes in inbetween Graffin's lines. In the show, however, they had the singer from Rise Against come out and sing this part. Eh, okay, I guess that's all they could do. Anyway, here are Sage's words in the bridge of Let Them Eat War (and if you don't give a shit, then fuck you):
We've got to kill 'em and eat 'em before they reach for their checks,
Squeeze some blue collars make 'em bleed from their necks,
Seize a few dollars from the people who sweat,
'Cause it's freedom or death and they question it,
At a job site the boss is god-like,
Conditioned work horses park at a stop light,
Seasoned vets with their feet in nets,
A stone's throw away from a rock fight,
But not tonight, feed 'em death.
I am doing a horrible job of putting this concert into words that depict it as it was, but maybe that is okay, maybe somethings just shouldn't have words that describe them, maybe that is what sets them apart.
The ended their set, left the stage. The crowd started chanting, "One more song, One more song." Graffin came back out and said why play one more? Let's play four more.
The ended with Sorrow. An amazing song, pretty emotional song for punk rock as well. The Geoff and I were arm in arm part way through this and emotion took over reason and my right arm shot up and I belted the lyrics.
After the show we stood in a circle while the place cleared out and discussed it. Then we headed to the merch table where I bought a zip down hooded sweatshirt. When we got outside, we stood there for maybe 30 minutes because The Geoff wanted to meet Graffin so he could say something stupid. He has a history of this with musicians. So while we waited, we see Jay Bentley drive by in a van, smiling and waving. I've never seen a person have more fun on stage than he does. He sings every lyric, even when not in front of a mic, smiles all the time, rocks hard - good shit. Then Hetson, the mouse-like guitarist, walks by and The Geoff taps him on the shoulder and says, "Good shit, man." Hetson doesn't break stride or say a word. The History continues. And then this girl comes up and says, "I don't want you guys to think I'm a groupie or anything standing out here." She is about 5' 4" with beady eyes and she started talking about all the bands she has hung out with and met and blah, blah, blah. This girl couldn't be your typical groupie if she wanted to. She started talking about The Offspring, saying that Dexter is about the same height as The Geoff. Then I brought up The Offspring doing a song with Redman, Original Prankster, saying that was definately a "blemish." Then she says, asking about a BR song, "What album in Generator on?" Without missing a beat, Josh says, "Generator." Generator is the title track of an album, Graffin even made note of this during the show. Her question was met with dismay and laughter. She's an odd little person.
Anyway, incredible experience for which I have been waiting a long, long time.
I cannot wait to see them again. It was a great way to start a shitty week. I will give the academic recap of my week when it is over, but it sucks so far.
Until Then.
Now, the Entropy story: Entropy is song on an old album that may never have ever been played in a concert, but it is great, one of my favorites. So, during a break, Graffin is discussing the recent presidential election and other things about the country, when Jay Bentley, the bass player, comes to the mic and says, "It's like Entropy." I started freakin' out. Then he said something like, "Maybe we should play it." Unreal, I'm looking at The Geoff and he is laughing and I'm in shock trying to figuring what this means. This has to mean something. Then Graffin says, "Yeah, I could probably sing it, but there's no way these guys could play it." Damn. Pretty close though. Out of all their songs that they didn't play, the one they mention is the one that I said I wanted to hear. It means something. I will figure it out sometimes, but it means something.
Later in the show, when BR played Kyoto Now!, a song off their album, The Process of Belief, Graffin said, "Well, we won't have Kyote for four more years, so we'll call it Kyoto Later!" A little humor, a little serious, quite fitting.
The #1 song on my list, yes, even ahead of Entropy, was Let Them Eat War, anti-war song. Let Them Eat Was has a paralyzing guitar riff right at the beginning. It's a riff you can play over and over and it still sounds really fuckin' cool. The entire song is great. And, I think the greatest 45 seconds in music history happens on this track. I can assure you I wouldn't think this if a couple of my friends hadn't introduced to me hip-hop artists like Talib Kweli, but they did, and so I dig it. It comes during the bridge of the song, Sage Francis makes a guest appearance and lays down some pretty cool lyrics over Brooks Wackerman's drumming. Then the guitar comes back in with that riff, Graffin starts singing, and Sage comes in inbetween Graffin's lines. In the show, however, they had the singer from Rise Against come out and sing this part. Eh, okay, I guess that's all they could do. Anyway, here are Sage's words in the bridge of Let Them Eat War (and if you don't give a shit, then fuck you):
We've got to kill 'em and eat 'em before they reach for their checks,
Squeeze some blue collars make 'em bleed from their necks,
Seize a few dollars from the people who sweat,
'Cause it's freedom or death and they question it,
At a job site the boss is god-like,
Conditioned work horses park at a stop light,
Seasoned vets with their feet in nets,
A stone's throw away from a rock fight,
But not tonight, feed 'em death.
I am doing a horrible job of putting this concert into words that depict it as it was, but maybe that is okay, maybe somethings just shouldn't have words that describe them, maybe that is what sets them apart.
The ended their set, left the stage. The crowd started chanting, "One more song, One more song." Graffin came back out and said why play one more? Let's play four more.
The ended with Sorrow. An amazing song, pretty emotional song for punk rock as well. The Geoff and I were arm in arm part way through this and emotion took over reason and my right arm shot up and I belted the lyrics.
After the show we stood in a circle while the place cleared out and discussed it. Then we headed to the merch table where I bought a zip down hooded sweatshirt. When we got outside, we stood there for maybe 30 minutes because The Geoff wanted to meet Graffin so he could say something stupid. He has a history of this with musicians. So while we waited, we see Jay Bentley drive by in a van, smiling and waving. I've never seen a person have more fun on stage than he does. He sings every lyric, even when not in front of a mic, smiles all the time, rocks hard - good shit. Then Hetson, the mouse-like guitarist, walks by and The Geoff taps him on the shoulder and says, "Good shit, man." Hetson doesn't break stride or say a word. The History continues. And then this girl comes up and says, "I don't want you guys to think I'm a groupie or anything standing out here." She is about 5' 4" with beady eyes and she started talking about all the bands she has hung out with and met and blah, blah, blah. This girl couldn't be your typical groupie if she wanted to. She started talking about The Offspring, saying that Dexter is about the same height as The Geoff. Then I brought up The Offspring doing a song with Redman, Original Prankster, saying that was definately a "blemish." Then she says, asking about a BR song, "What album in Generator on?" Without missing a beat, Josh says, "Generator." Generator is the title track of an album, Graffin even made note of this during the show. Her question was met with dismay and laughter. She's an odd little person.
Anyway, incredible experience for which I have been waiting a long, long time.
I cannot wait to see them again. It was a great way to start a shitty week. I will give the academic recap of my week when it is over, but it sucks so far.
Until Then.
