Music Loaded Weekend in Vegas (incl. STEWART sighting)

[TheEqualizer]

Usually I bitch and moan about how Vegas actually sucks a music destination. NOT THIS WEEKEND.

Playing this weekend (Starting Friday, August 13):

Primus (special midnight show)
Rush
Porcupine Tree
Coheed and Cambria

On the less great (or not great at all) but still notable:

Lady Gaga
Brandon Flowers (of the Killers)

Of all of these, I am only going to the Porcupine Tree/Coheed and Cambria double bill. Crossing my fingers that Alex Lifeson makes a guest appearance and plays the solo on Anesthesize (he played the solo on the original album); I'm pretty sure they will play that song.

Talking about guest appearances, it is not uncommon for STEWART to play with Les when Les plays in Vegas. I know there will not be a full Oysterhead reunion (as they have done at Les shows in Vegas in the past) as Phish is playing in Indiana that night. But STEWART, if you are going to play at the Primus show, PLEEEEEEASE let me know and I will be there.

[TheEqualizer]

In addition, there is the Las Vegas Shakedown going on.
http://lasvegasshakedown.com/

Here's who's playing:

FRIDAY, AUGUST 13TH

LAS VEGAS COUNTRY SALOON

THE ZEROS – 12:20 a.m.
THE RIP-OFFS – 11 p.m.
LORDS OF ALTAMONT – 10 p.m.
THE SUPERBEES (featuring Thunderbolt Patterson of The Dictators) – 9 p.m.
MUCK & THE MIRES – 8 p.m.
THE OMENS – 7 p.m.
THEE FINE LINES – 6 p.m.
SLIPPERY SLOPES – 5 p.m.

BEAUTY BAR

DEADBOLT – 1:15 a.m.
THREE BAD JACKS – 12:10 a.m.
ELECTRIC FRANKENSTEIN – 11 p.m.
THE HANGMEN – 10 p.m.
THREE BLUE TEARDROPS – 9 p.m.
THE TURBO A.C.’S – 8 p.m.
THE FARAWAY BOYS – 7 p.m.
VOODOO SWING – 6 p.m.
IGOR SPECTRE – 5 p.m.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 14TH

LAS VEGAS COUNTRY SALOON

THE NEKROMANTIX – 12:20 a.m.
THE GUANA BATZ – 11:10 p.m.
VICTORIA VENGEANCE BURLESQUE PERFORMANCE – 11:00 p.m.
THE CHOP TOPS – 10:00 p.m.
MAD MARGE AND THE F-BOMBS – 9:00 p.m.
THE HENCHMEN – 8:00 p.m.
THE MEMPHIS MORTICIANS – 7:00 p.m.
LOS CREEPERS – 6:00 p.m.
THE RIFF RAFFS – 5:00 p.m.

BEAUTY BAR

THE MAU MAUS – 12:20 a.m.
THE HUMPERS – 11:00 p.m.
THROW RAG – 10:00 p.m.
THE DRAGONS – 9:00 p.m.
THE ZODIAC KILLERS 8:00 p.m.
THE CLOROX GIRLS – 7:00 p.m.
FLEXX BRONCO – 6:00 p.m.
THE BOURBON SAINTS – 5:00 p.m.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 15TH

LAS VEGAS COUNTRY SALOON

ANDRE WILLIAMS – 1:00 a.m.
JAIL WEDDINGS – 12:20 a.m.
THE WARLOCKS – 11:00 p.m.
GENTLEMAN JESSE & HIS BAND – 10:00 p.m.
THE MORLOCKS – 9:00 p.m.
SPINDRIFT – 8:00 p.m.
THE BARRERACUDAS – 7:00 p.m.
GESTAPO KHAZI – 6:00 p.m.
JOHN CARPENTER – 5:00 p.m.

BEAUTY BAR

PRIMA DONNA – 1 a.m.
THE BELLRAYS – 12 a.m.
LOWER CLASS BRATS – 11:00 p.m.
THE STITCHES – 10:00 p.m.
THE FLASH EXPRESS – 9:00 p.m.
PAT TODD & THE RANK OUTSIDERS – 8:00 p.m.
THE WOOLY BANDITS – 7:00 p.m.
THE VERMIN – 6:00 p.m.
THE HITCHHIKERS – 5:00 p.m.

[sockii]

I'm pissed I missed this last Rush tour when it came thru the East Coast. A friend of mine saw them recently in CA and loved the show.

Mostly I am just DYING because Neil Peart went Steampunk. I would kill to see that kit in action. Actually, that may be the most beautiful drumkit I have ever seen (sorry, Stewart.)

http://www.pearldrummersforum.com/showt ... 1&t=245994

[TheEqualizer]

Was just told Primus changed time to midnight because they are going to the Rush show

[ltwoman]

Pray tell, why are you in Vegas, EQ?

[TheEqualizer]

Pray tell, why are you in Vegas, EQ?

My wife asks me that all the time.

[Divemistress of the Dark]

Damn!!! That Shakedown bill looks AMAZING.

Post any torrent links you find! Sounds like a great time will be had by all.

(Doesn't it just suck, though? All the good bands play the SAME weekend? We're currently having quite a logjam at the end of October - Avett Bros, Moogfest in Asheville featuring Devo, MGMT, Mumford & Sons...)

[plutonic]

Pray tell, why are you in Vegas, EQ?

My wife asks me that all the time.

LOL

[TheEqualizer]

Yep. STEWART was in the house for the Primus gig. But I wasn't. SHIT! I KNEW he was going to be there!

Review of Rush and Primus shows that indicate STEWART's presence:

QUOTE

'TIME MACHINE TOUR': Rush celebrates 30 years of rock

Like Rush, Primus excels at grounding a high musical I.Q. in quirky songs

By JASON BRACELIN
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Rush band member Geddy Lee sings Saturday night during a performance at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
JASON BEAN/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

It's rock and roll for people who like to do algebra for fun.

That, and play air drums.

This is the duality of a Rush gig: they're simultaneously brainy and goofy, self-assured and self-effacing, a bunch of smart kids reveling in the joys of dumb fun.

Rush's music is like a secret handshake between friends: not everyone gets it, but those that do share a bond.

And so there's a kind of fraternal camaraderie that hangs in the air at their shows, where it's OK for grown men to smile like they just lost their virginity while swinging their fists in precise unison with Rush's rhythmic core Neil Peart, a drum demigod whose kit may as well be a throne.

At the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday night, the band celebrated 30 years of expanding rock's vocabulary with their "Time Machine Tour," a curveball-strewn night of older songs that Rush has never played live before ("Presto," "Faithless), a pair of dense, disconsolate new tunes ("Caravan," "BU2B") and plenty of classic rock cornerstones ("The Spirit of Radio," "Working Man").

Rush has long served as a bridge between the populist and the progressive, a band whose songs can be as intricate as needlework and as bombastic as a high school pep rally at the same time.

Their tunes are like mathematical proofs: no matter how complex they can sometimes get, there's always an order to them, a symmetry, and once you wrap your head around them, it's akin to becoming fluent in a new language. What once seemed foreign begins to feel like second nature.

On this trek, Rush is playing their biggest selling album, 1981's "Moving Pictures," in its entirety, and it's an apt encapsulation of the group's talent for making some fairly complex song structures palatable to a mass audience.

Beginning their second set with the first song from the record, "Tom Sawyer," a live staple that singer/bassist Geddy Lee howled through like a banshee getting her hail pulled out by the roots, Rush swung back and forth between catchy, concise hard rock hits ("Limelight") and more unbounded excursions into the kind of expert-level musicianship that manifests itself in a tricky, tempestuous instrumental like "YYZ."

The highlight of the suite -- and perhaps the entire show -- was a hard-nosed, wide-eyed take on "The Camera Eye," an epic 11-minute jam that somehow how managed to be simultaneously funky, dissonant and melodic.

This is perhaps Rush's greatest skill: to be several things all at once, immediate and textured, overblown and nuanced, unorthodox and mainstream.

"Everybody got to deviate from the norm," Lee sang on "Vital Signs," the final song on "Moving Pictures," and not only was that on apt summation of this band's reason for being, but it could have doubled as the operating principle for one of the many groups that have followed in Rush's wake, Primus, who played a midnight show at The Joint at the Hard Rock on Saturday night.

Like Rush, Primus is a square peg power trio adept at grounding a high musical I.Q. in hokey, consistently quirky songs.

Singer/bassist Les Claypool, who donned an Abe Lincoln-worthy stove pipe hat at The Joint, whispers and hollers, yammers and yodels through his band's repertoire like a method actor inhabiting the roles of the various characters who populate Primus' songs, salt of the earth types, from race car drivers to fishermen.

He's an eccentric dude, and was in full character at The Joint, where he donned a monkey mask and played a mean solo on the Whamola, a kind of variation of a washtub bass, and navigated his bottom-heavy band through an eclectic slew of covers (Tom Waits' "Big In Japan;" Pink Floyd's "In The Flesh;" The Police's "Behind My Camel," with Police drummer Stewart Copeland in the house.)

Primus is best at creating a rhythmic rumble so dense and seismic, you can feel it rattle through your chest cavity.

When the band played one of its signature hits, "My Name Is Mud," it was like standing atop a suddenly active fault line, a welcome dollop of dirt in the eye of convention.

QUOTE

Mrs. EQ is laughing at me. She told me to go.

[Tamadude]

Ouch, EQ. That smarts.

Hopefully a recording will pop up and offer some degree of solace for ya bro...

ps. PLEASE let me know if said file surfaces. Thanks.

[Divemistress of the Dark]

Ya know, that really rocks. I'm glad our STEWART gets out of the house and straps his fanboy geek on from time to time.

(I won't rub it in that the Primus show was likely godlike...ya live 'n learn.)

[English-lion]

That would have been some show ... .Why oh why didn't you go

[TheEqualizer]

That would have been some show ... .Why oh why didn't you go

Honestly, I'm frickin' old. A midnight concert on the Las Vegas Strip? For Oysterhead? Sure. But coming home at about 3 a.m. is just not my bag anymore. When did I get so dang old?

[policefan]

But EQ, if Stewart can do it....

[sockii]

Kicking myself once again for missing Rush. They've never disappointed me on a live show before and this tour sounds fucking amazing. I hope there's a DVD.

Only shows I have lined up for sure for the rest of this year are two of Roger Waters' Wall shows (10/5 at MSG and 11/9 in Philly). I'd sell the MSG tickets at this point if I could as they were so expensive I really can't afford both shows at this point, but with all the scalper worries you have to pick up the tickets in person the day of the show, so I'm fucked on trying to resell them in advance. So that said, please holler if anyone else is going to either show...I did get pretty kick-ass seats for me and vespa for the Philly show.