Clever Marketing

The Scorpions and Ratt are coming to Atlanta.  I'm sure it will be an awesome concert.

The concert sponsor?  A local pest control company.  Hilarious.

Concert Anyone?

I heard on the radio today that Journey was going to be in concert in Atlanta next weekend. To top it off, Night Ranger is opening for them. Two bands I would like to see, but never have.

That got me thinking. How many concerts have I seen over the years? So, without further ado, here is a list (in no specific order, other than how I remembered them) of all the big-name (and some not-so-big-name) groups I've seen.

The Thompson Twins - at the Astroworld amphitheather

T'Pau - opened for the Thompson Twins

The Cars - great concert

Sting - Dream of the Blue Turtles tour...Branford Marsalis on sax = awesome

R.E.M. - front row seats with my friend Kip...I was deaf after this concert

Randy Stonehill & Phil Keaggy - Phil reached over and tuned Randy's guitar during a song

Twila Paris

Petra - saw them a couple of times

Carmen - couple of times, first time actually changed my life, believe it or not

Monsters of Rock 1987:

Tesla

Whitesnake

Poison

Aerosmith
Boston

Monsters of Rock 1988:

Kingdom Come - yes, they sounded just like Zepplin

Dokken - sound quit during the show, singer threw down the mic and stormed off stage

Metallica - had hardly heard of them at this point

Scorpions

Van Halen

Boston - again, on the same album tour as the '87 Monsters of Rock

Newsboys

dc Talk

Bleach

Third Day - couple of times, got to stage manage for them once

7 Day Jesus

Ghoti Fish

Stavesacre

PAX 317

FFH

Grits

O.C. Supertones

Philmore

David Crowder

Pocket Full of Rocks

100 Portraits

Delirou5?

Grammatrain

There are probably more, but that's all I can think of tonight. But, I saved the best for last: Audio Adrenaline

I saw AudioA twice. Both times were fantastic! The first time I saw them, they were opening for the Newsboys at the Oil Palace in Tyler, Texas. The drummer was playing on a stripped down kit: just kick, snare, 1 tom, hi-hats, crash, and ride. They rocked!

I only knew one of their songs before that night, but I was on my feet for their entire set. Sadly, their lead singer had "ongoing vocal problems", and the band officially disbanded in '06.

Of course, some of you have seen more concerts than me, some less. But let me ask you a question. Who put on your favorite show?

The Soundtrack of My Life

As I was driving around Saturday night, delivering pizza, I had it on an "oldies" station. A particular song came on (to be honest, I can't remember which one), and it instantly took me back to a particular time and place in my life.

This got me thinking about the songs in my life that did that to me. These are the milestone songs that are irrevocably tied to an era in my life. So here it is: the soundtrack of my life. Sorry it is somewhat long...but I am 40 now.

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up to 8
Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott (The Statler Brothers)
Saturday Night (The Bay City Rollers)
When I hear these songs I'm taken back to the home of my childhood. I would listen to these songs (and others) on 8-track (click here if you don't know what an 8-track is), and play pool in our little gameroom. Sometimes we would use the pool table to have a place to play with all my army men.

3rd - 4th Grade
Summer Nights (Grease Soundtrack)
This song takes me back to 3rd/4th grade. The first time I remember hearing it was at Shari Morris' house on their 8-track. For some reason, I also always associate this song with my first girlfriend, Kelly McGraw (other than Luann Teboe in kindergarten...I broke up with her because she got the mumps). She lived right down the road from Shari...maybe that's why. I wonder if Kelly ever knew she was my girlfriend?

5th - 6th Grade
Tommy Soundtrack (Various Artists)
By this time, we had moved into the "new house". We had a gameroom there as well. I had left behind the Statler Brothers, and now liked to listen to Tommy while playing pool, and, you guessed it, pinball. I fancied myself a pinball wizard. Of course, this was on 8-track as well.

Summer Before 9th Grade
Friday Night Videos (Various Artists)
Ahhh...1983...the year Friday Night Videos made its debut. I'll never forget that night. It opened with Billie Jean (Michael Jackson, of course). Also that night: Hungry Like the Wolf (Duran, Duran), Let's Dance (David Bowie). I want to say that Come on Eileen, Our Love's In Jeopardy, Safety Dance, and Our House were also on that same episode, but it may have been later. Regardless, any of those songs takes me back 25 years instantly.

9th Grade
More Than a Feeling (Boston)
Being in 9th grade to me meant a lot of changes. I was in high school now, and I had friends that could drive. One of my best friends from my freshman year was Tyree Collier (he used to give his name as George when we would eat somewhere that put your name on the ticket...I always thought that was funny). Tyree was a senior. We fought back and forth that year for trumpet section leader, and became good friends while doing so. One thing I learned from Tyree has had a lasting impact on my life: the guitar. Tyree played guitar, and since he was a senior, and extremely cool, I thought playing the guitar would be cool. He introduced me to Boston, and one of the first songs he played for me was More Than a Feeling. So, years later, after all the bass and guitar gigs I've played, in church and out of church, in cover bands and original bands, it can all be traced be traced back to Tyree and Boston.

10th Grade
Eliminator (ZZ Top)
When I turned 16, my parents gave me a 1977 Camaro. I know, cool, huh? It rocked. I used to drive around town, listening to my ZZ Top cassette on my 8-track adapter. That's right. It had an 8-track AM/FM radio...and I had an adapter. Like I said...it rocked.

High School in General
Anything from any John Hughes movie or Back to the Future(1985)
Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Back to the Future...play a song from any of these and I am in high school again.

Freshman Year College
Sweet Child O' Mine (Guns n' Roses)
My freshman year in college, I was in a cover band called Shattered Image. I know, cool name, huh? We played pretty regularly, had the worst sound equipment ever, had no idea what we were doing, and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Tim Moss, Keith McLeod, and Bryan Armstrong were the other members of the band. Sweet Child O' Mine is indelibly linked to that time in my life.

Sophomore Year College
Lead Me On (Amy Grant)
For you Christian types out there (you know who you are), you may recognize that this is the first song by a Christian artist on this list. It's true. I didn't even know that "Christian music" was a genre until then. This was the time of my personal spiritual awakening, when I started reading the Bible and trying to figure out what I really believed.

Senior Year(s) College
Out of the Silent Planet (King's X)
Fast forward a few years, and you'll find me in college in a Christian band called Reckless Abandon (or Restless Ambition, as we were introduced one time). I roomed with several guys from the band (and some guys not from the band). Me, Mark, Coe, Russ, Tornado Tommy, Randy, Kenny (unofficially Seth...it just seemed like he lived there) all live at one time or another in what we called the Reckless Abode. We had quite the time. At one point, there were 6 of us living there. Tommy, who is worthy of his own blog post, introduced me to King's X. To this day one of my favorite bands (at least their first 4 albums). When I hear Goldilox from their Out of the Silent Planet album, it's like I'm back in the Abode again, fighting over who should have to wash the dirty dishes.

Circa 2000
Mezzamorphis (Delirious?)
This is one of my favorite albums of all time of all time. Also, King of Fools, another album by Delirious? is one of my other favorite albums of all time of all time. One reason I think this album, and two songs in particular off of it, My Glorious and Mezzanine Floor, evoke such strong memories is that I used them in a video I made about the youth ministry I was leading at the time.

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Well, there you have it. These things are, of course, always in retrospect. I'm interested to see in 10 years what songs make me think about moving to Atlanta. If I'm still blogging then, I'll let you know.

Care to share any songs from your soundtrack?

These Are A Few of My (Least) Favorite Things

I'm pretty easy going. But there are a couple of things that just drive...me...crazy.

1) Fingertappers
2) Newscasters


Fingertappers are people that tap a finger or two on the microphone to the rhythm of the beat while they are singing. It drives me crazy. CRAZY, I tell you!! I don't remember fingertappers being around in the '80s. I think Christina Aguilara started it all. Even if she didn't, I've decided to blame her.

When we watch American Idol, (I can't abbreviate it as AI, when people do that I always think of artificial intelligence) if the person is a fingertapper, they go right to the bottom of my list. I would rather watch Sanjaya than a fingertapper. No, really, I would.

If you happen to be a fingertapper, I don't dislike you personally. I don't even blame you. I blame Christina Aguilara.

Newscasters also drive me crazy. I'm talking about the ones that have all gone to the same school. I call them " left, right, up, down" newscasters. You know what I'm talking about, right? It goes like this:

"Tonight on 11 Alive News..." (look left)
"we'll meet a family with four cats..." (look right)
"but there's a problem..." (look up)
"they also have...a dog." (look down)

Of course, they're not really "looking" in those directions. Their eyes stay glued to the teleprompter, and while the rest of their head does the gyrations. Two other things finish the package. If they're female, they must speak in a very nasally voice. And, they must pause just before the last...few words.

I always wonder if they talk like that at home, too.

Husband:
"Honey, what's for dinner?"

Wife (in a nasally voice):
"We're going to have meatloaf..." (look left)
"as the main dish..." (look right)
"broccoli and potatoes for sides..." (look up)
"and apple pie...for dessert." (look down)


Watch a little AI (I did it!) and your local news and think of me.

Trivial Trivia

While I was born in the 60's (just barely), having graduated from high school in '87 I'm a child of the 80's. Tonight we went to a local restaurant, ate dinner, and played some trivia. The final bonus question was right up my alley.

Name the band that recorded these 80's hair band songs:

We're Not Gonna Take It
Rock You Like A Hurricane
Cherry Pie
18 and Life
Unskinny Bop
Once Bitten, Twice Shy
Girls, Girls, Girls
Round and Round
When the Children Cry
Love Bites

We only missed one (I said it, but everyone said they didn't hear me say the answer). How many can YOU get without looking them up?

Wrecked and Abandoned

While in college, I was in a hip, cool, froody band called Reckless Abandon. That's right...Reckless Abandon. We were a Christian rock band, desperately hanging onto the end of the glam rock days, still sporting our mullets and convincing ourselves that our mullets, and ourselves were cool.

As I mentioned, we played Christian music (actually, I said we were a Christian rock band, but that is what that usually means to most people), so not only did we have a name that to us signified something spiritual and meaningful (that's another post), but we ALSO had a band Bible verse. Kind of our signature scripture if you will.

It was Matthew chapter 16, verse 24:

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

It's a good verse. I like it. We all did. So much so, that our band logo consisted of our name (Reckless Abandon), with a little "Matthew 16:24" underneath it.

We actually played the area around our college quite a bit, and ended up getting some t-shirts made. Of course, being in college, and musicians, we had no money. So we got some guy who owed a favor to somebody's uncle's cousin's sister-in-law and just happened to have a t-shirt business on the side to print them for us.

And he did. And we were pumped! White lettering on black t-shirts. They were cool. There was our name "Reckless Abandon"...and there was our band verse: Matthew 16:20. Awesome!

Then someone noticed something... Wait a minute...it says Matthew 16:20! It was supposed to be Matthew 16:24! What's Matthew 16:20 say?

Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

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True story.

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Feeling brave?

Rhythm & Hues - It Rocks

Hey!! Here's a link to the AJC (Atlanta's major paper). There's a cool article about the coffeehouse venue we have at the church I attend. Once a month...hold on, just read the article. It tells you everything!

Rhythm & Hues

Thanks. Just wanted to give them a plug.

Independence Day and Overeating

Well, you may or may not have read my last post, but suffice it to say that I am trying to eat more healthily. I have to say, though, that to me, the 4th of July = Independence...and independence = hot dogs. That's right, hot dogs. Perro calientes.

My son's birthday is tomorrow, (happy birthday Nathanael), so we had a little party for him today. And, of course, I grilled hot dogs. All beef, because I am allergic to chicken, and lots o' them.

On those hot dogs I put mustard and my wife's homemade jalapeno pickle relish. Yum, yum!! Let's see...today I broke 3 of the 7 rules. Not bad. But, hey, it is a holiday! Calories are free on holidays, right?!?!

Also, as a gentle reminder about fireworks safety, please view the following video from my pals (I don't really know them, just exchanged a couple of emails), Rhett and Link.

Freelance Fireworks Hall of Fame

Have a great 4th weekend!

Eisley

You know, it's cool when you have an opportunity in life to get to know some people that are really talented and cool. Take Eisley for example. Eisley is a band made up of 3 sisters, 1 brother, and their cousin. And I will have to say I really dig their music.

But one of the coolest things is that I have the privilege of knowing the siblings' parents, as well as the two older sisters and the brother. That being said, it has been a few years since I've seen "the kids", so they may not even hardly remember me, but they attended our church youth group quite a bit (in fact, I distinctly remember giving them rides home), went to youth camp with us a couple of times, and played at our youth service at least once. Boyd (the dad), is a graphic artist and he designed our youth group t-shirt.

Now let me back up and say that Boyd and Kim (the mom) are extremely cool people themselves, and they have raised some really cool artsy people. Notice how many times I am using the word cool? This is one of those times when it is really, really appropriate.

They started out as a band called "The Towheads" back in the day when the youngest in the band was a pre-teen. Since then, they have been signed on a major label, released a handful of EPs and albums, toured with the likes of Coldplay, played on Conan O'Brian, and generally kicked some butt.

However, they have yet to get that "main stream" acceptance. Partly, I believe, it is because their music is unique, doesn't sound just like everything else on the radio, and doesn't consists of "he broke my heart, how I hate him" and "she's a jerk so now it's over".

Below are a some links of interest for Eisley. I recommend you check them out. Spend some money on them, support them. They are really cool (and I know them).

Eisley's MySpace Page

Invasion (Video)

Memories (Video)

Marvelous Things (an older Video)

Eisley's YouTube Page

Eisley's Official Website

Check them out!! They are also on iTunes!

American Idol (aka I told you so!)

Well, Season 7 is all over and David Cook reigns supreme. I told you so. I predicted it weeks ago. Last night when all the judged where gushing Archuleta from their eyes, I stood by my prediction.

Then, as the day went on, I knew my prediction was going to come to pass. Every person I talked to, heard on the radio, or saw on televesion said the same thing:

"I like David Cook better, but I think Archuleta is going to win."

It didn't take me long to see the prevalence of that sentiment. Apparently, 50-something% of the people that voted felt the same way. They liked Cook better, and they voted Cook.

And I for one, am glad!

2nd Post...in one day!!

Well, I am still tinkering with the layout, etc.

For fun, though, I thought I would give a random sampling from the iPod Nano I share with my wife. Cool, huh? Of the list, 7 are my contributions, 3 are hers...any guesses?

• I still Believe - The Call (this was covered on the Lost Boys soundtrack, just FYI)
• Sick of Will - Grammatrain (I was very sad when I learned they broke up)
• Sometimes - King's X (their first 4 albums are 4 of my favorite rock albums)
• Save Me - Queen
• Reborn - Rebecca St. James
• Breakfast At Timpani's - Relient K (funniest Christian band ever)
• We Live - Superchick (I love this song)
• Eye Conqueror - Third Eye Blind (A Knight's Tale Soundtrack)
• Gospel Machine Gun - The Vanished (formerly Seven Channels...you know I was their first bass player, right?)
• It Takes Two - Zac Efron (Hairspray: Soundtrack to the Motion Picture)

What are you listening to right now? (Maybe this will get my first comment!)