Wildest Concert Experience

The big music festivals are always wild and I’ve attended my share including the first three years of Bonnaroo (plus an encore visit in 2007 you can read about here), All-Good Music Festival, Rothbury and others. They all strive to elicit a sleep-depriving, stamina-challenging, mind-bending and dance-inducing experience beyond parallel with standout moments that could qualify them as my wildest concert experience – such as Tool’s laser show at Bonnaroo in ’07, Rothbury’s trippy Sherwood Forest or the hundreds of candle balloons sent aloft between sets at All-Good in '10 (see video below).  Then there have been those special holiday shows such as the circus-like ruckus of Flaming Lips with The White Stripes on New Year’s Eve or Widespread Panic on Halloween night at Madison Square Gardens with everyone – and I mean EVERYONE – in costume (the NY streets outside afterward were surreal).


But the show that has burned itself into my memory more so than any other because of its utter strangeness was from Captain Dave and the Psychedelic Lounge Cats, a long defunct local band in the college town of Ann Arbor, MI.

Favorite Xmas Song(s)

What’s my favorite Christmas song? Tough question since my holiday music is more like a soundtrack playing behind all the festivities. I set my Squeezebox Touch for Genre>Holiday>Random and let ‘er rip for most of December. There really isn’t one “go to” song, but several percolate up from the rest and make me put down the egg-nog ladle for a closer listen. These encompass a broad swath of styles.

Where Does the Time Go?

This short-lived… scratch that… this long-lived but horribly stunted blog has remained stagnant for just over two years. I could provide an endless list of time-constraining, calendar-consuming, life-altering rationales and excuses. But the crux of the matter is that I’m a procrastinator of unparalleled skill. Yet as Alex from A Clockwork Orange so succinctly puts it, “Initiative comes to those who wait.”

So, it is time to re-rack revamp reset redo refurbish restart re-initiate resume revive rejuvenate revitalize renew regenerate reinstate reestablish restore revive refresh and downright resuscitate this little blog.

A lot has happened over the past two years and I’m still on that aural prowl for funky sounds, cool equipment and inspired performances. I’ve been introduced to a lot of great music, fantastic audio components have come and gone through our doors, and perhaps most importantly we’ve been witness to some amazing live shows (though that aspect is admittedly on the wane due to major life changes, at least for the immediate future). And I'm sure there's much more to come.

Let’s see how long I can keep it going this time.

Book Contest! Win a Limited Edition Copy of The Experience: Jimi Hendrix at Mason's Yard

Link: Book Contest! Win a Limited Edition Copy of The Experience: Jimi Hendrix at Mason's Yard

Been a busy late summer/early fall at my full-time job... lot's of traveling and such with minimal time for concerts, music and audio system tinkering. Stumbled upon this great looking photo book of Jimi Hendrix and thought I'd pass along the contest link to win a copy.  Though I was only three when he passed, Jimi was one of a handful of artists that had an incredible influence on my developing musical tastes during my teenage years.  Needless to say he remains one of the most vital musicians even 40 years hence and is still in constant rotation at my home.

Stay tuned for a summary of the summer's music fests we attended and a review of a new audio toy... the fantastic Wyred4Sound DAC-2.

2007 Bonnaroo Music Festival

Now that we are in the heart of the summer music festival season, and having just returned from the 2010 All Good Festival in WV, here’s an archive post of my '07 Bonnaroo review which originally appear in the July 2007 edition of Affordable$$Audio (affordableaudio.org).  I'll be posting a summary of this year's festivals soon.

Bonnaroo is not for the faint hearted. Everything about this 4-day music festival is extreme and nothing is done in moderation. The size is enormous with more than 10 stages, more than 120 musical acts and an audience somewhere around 100,000. The schedule is daunting with a start time around noon each day and running until nearly dawn the next day. Then there is the oppressive heat, the choking dust, the seeming bottomless beer kegs and the endless campground parties.

AK Fest 2010

This year’s annual AK Fest, sponsored by audiokarma.org, was held on May 1-2 at the Sheraton in Novi, MI, just outside of Detroit.  It just seems to get bigger and better every year, now spread across three floors of the hotel with several large listening rooms in addition to the typical hotel guest rooms as well as a much more spacious swap room.  Great music, fantastic equipment and good people were in abundance.  Allow me to apologize in advance if I did not give your room the full measure due… there was just too much too see.  (Click here for Flickr picture gallery)

A Look Back at AKFest '08

I couldn't make it to last year's AKFest but I'm looking forward to the 2010 iteration that is just around the corner (May 1-2, Novi, MI, akfest.com).  Put on by audiokarma.org, below is my coverage of the 2008 show which originally appeared in the webzine Affordable$$Audio (affordableaudio.org).  I've got a bunch more photos at photobucket.

Spring in Michigan. You can’t always count on the weather, but rest assured that AudioKarma Fest will draw the hibernating audiophiles out of their listening rooms for a weekend of great sounds. Now in its fifth iteration, this annual event brings together manufacturers, retailers and AudioKarma.org members side-by-side and cross-pollinated in rooms at a hotel just outside of Detroit.