chugging along

These days my life has really calmed down. Well, I still get ups and downs but they're not nearly as bad as before. I hang out with clean friends including new ones from rehab, go to the occasional 12-step meeting (I found a Marijuana Anonymous meeting!) and spend alot of my time cooking for my family since the lady who usually does it is down with some sort of infection. And Frank visits alot too! She went nuts the other day because I was preparing a huge fish to cook and a fish based soup. She was licking the fish while I was trying to descale it and was sitting between me and the fish with her butt and tail in my face. Cute but annoying. I also saw Barney's Version and found it moving and sad. Perhaps too sad for me to watch again but there were lots of hilarious moments too and recommend it to anyone. Especially with all those scenes of our beautiful Montreal! A side note: I'm pretty sure his first wife had an extreme case of BPD. All of the outrageous behaviour, promiscuity, creative and attractive, and deep lonely suffering underneath it all which makes it impossible to be alone and leads to suicide attempts and general crazy-lookingness. I liked Barney's reaction to her totally clueless and demeaning dad. He thought he was doing the best he could in dealing with such an unstable daughter and expected her to be grateful but he never stopped to try to understand or just listen instead of 'fixing' her, judging by the way he talked about her. So Barney kicks him out. Oops, long side note.
Anyways, this is my 3rd week out of rehab and I'm doing alright. I still have urges and cravings sometimes though. But I just have to remember I don't want to stumble through this life God gave me in a hazy stupor, clueless to my self-inflicted misery and guilt. People think sometimes, oh addicts just want to party and have a good time too much. It may start out that way but the substances just take over everything and it very quickly becomes the opposite of fun. It's a form of slavery. I truly felt I could not get through the day without killing myself if I did not have my drugs. But at the same time they don't take away the problems and stress but add to them so it becomes a vicious cycle. They were as essential as breathing but they almost took over that too. My asthma got so bad from the constant smoking that I used up my inhaler in 2 months when it usually lasts me at least a year or 2. When I unexpectedly ran out I freaked because I had to choose between breathing and drugging. I still couldn't stop.

so many shows!!!

The first week of May is going to be killer! Opeth, Mastodon and Gojira are all coming that week to here in Montreal!!!! Me and my bud are going to all of them, ALL OF THEM! I can't wait...

Lamb of god + Children of Bodom in Montreal = mayhem!

Wow where to start! I'm sore all over and my ears are ringing from the sonic assault of last night's amazing show!
Well first of all, me and my buddy had no idea what or where the Cepsum was so we were both quite taken aback when we entered and found at least 1000 people inside a big venue! We walked in on As I Lay Dying's set (I hear they're Christian) which sounded decent but we were off to the side so we couldn't hear them very clearly, the crowd loved them.
After that, we knew Children of Bodom would be next so we moved closer to the stage in the middle. This is something I don't usually do because that's always where mosh pits form but I reallly wanted to see Alexi! I have some silly preteen crush on the guy. He's so hot and charismatic and an amazing guitar player! So, I just figured when the mosh pits would start we could just move to the side. Boy was I so wrong. After Children of Bodom introduced themselves with an old pop song and a track of them saying fuck many times over in different voices (they're so silly and funny), the entire floor became one huge mosh pit and there was no escape! I was not planning on being in mosh pits anymore (those were my teen years) but we had no choice. It was nuts! I nearly fell over at first, got squished alot but the energy in the crowd was great so it was fun in a kind of dangerous way. And their set was awesome. They played a couple songs from the new album Blooddrunk, the best from Are You Dead Yet? and they ended with Downfall! I'm probably forgetting others but yeah, Alexi's solos were mindboggling and the whole band was tight.
It was only after their set that we had a chance to get out of the mosh pit and we managed to secure an amazing spot where we were still close to the stage but not in the pit so we really got to enjoy Lamb of god's set! Generally I like their music but I don't like to listen to it too much because after a while I get bored by the lack of chord progressions or melodies but in concert they are amazingly energetic which makes for an insane show. They played their songs even better than on their albums and truly the singer has no lack of energy. He was screaming his lungs out with incredible tonal range and pacing the stage like a wild animal. I was glad I wasn't in the mosh pit anymore! At the end, the singer asked for the biggest circle pit he'd seen so far in the tour and he sure got it! Pretty much the whole floor was taken up by people running and pushing each other in a vicious circle. It was really neat to see it, while not being in it.

(Side note: Even though this all sounds quite violent, most metalheads are super nice and courteous. One big guy pushed people away from me in the pit when I asked him, another gave up his place in a safe spot for a girl who was clearly overwhlemed by the mosh pit.)

It was funny how the singer dedicated Redneck to Alexi because he got totally plastered the night before at a party! Also, Alexi dedicated Blooddrunk to anybody who has done stupid things while plastered, like how he broke his shoulder by jumping out of the tour bus window while drunk! This all makes me want to have a drink with friends, an impulse I have not had in a while since I've been depressed and think they don't really care. (Which I know is not true.) Of course, I don't want to get plastered though. Vomiting does not seem like an attractive venture to me.
Anyways, it was a crazy, energetic, exciting and amazing show!

And up again (with Alestorm and Suid'Akra!)

It was everything I hoped it would be and more!!
First of all, even before the music started I was so happy. This is because a lot of the crowd dressed up like crazy! People had pirate hats and coats, some had full costumes as Jack Sparrow, some even brought foam swords, one person had an awesome metal knight's helmet and someone even brought a blow-up parrot! It was already an entertaining show!

I think what I enjoyed most was how we all went nuts when Alestorm played their set. There was a constant mosh pit going (I could see foam swords flailing in the air in the middle which was a hilarious sight), a lot of us were headbanging (I have a stiff neck now but it was worth it), there was lots of crowd-surfing, we knew all the words and sang along to all the songs while punching the air at the right beats. Basically everyone was having a ton of fun and the atmosphere can't get better than that.
I was also hoping that the band members would be all dressed up as pirates but instead they were shirtless, which was also nice but anyways the crowd made up for their lack of wardrobe.

Musically the sound was decent and not too loud which is always nice but I heard a few mistakes and the guitar solos weren't very good but I was having such an awesome time that I didn't really care.
At the end the singer dived into the crowd and they carried him all the way to the back of the venue which was my cue to leave on a high note instead of giving the headlining band, Tyr, a chance. (Their music is too slow for my taste)

Plus, I learned a new term: wall of death. And since people were so excited and followed everything the singer said, I got to see a huge wall of death and not just a bigger mosh pit.
A wall of death is where everyone in the audience splits and stands on the sides so there's a huge space in the middle of the floor. Then when the singer cues everyone they go running at full speed towards the other side and smash into the people coming the other way, resulting in a massive mosh pit afterwards. Wow was that a sight to see especially since so many in the audience participated! It was crazy to see two walls of people smash into each other at full speed!
It would probably be even crazier at an outdoor festival.


I wish Alestorm looked like this on stage and not just in studio photo shoots!

Suid'Akra was even better than I thought they would be and I was already looking forward to seeing them! Musically I think they performed the best. The band was tight, the solos were interesting and the clean singing harmonies were bang-on. They played some new stuff from Crogacht (which I bought there) and it sounds like they've improved their songwriting which is awesome. I was hoping they would have some body and face paint on like in one of their videos but again most of them were shirtless and again I didn't mind, especially since the singer had a nicely chiseled torso.

To add the cherry on top to the enjoyable night, there were a bunch of guys in the metro still excited after the concert and one of them yelled, "On casse tout! (Let's destroy everything!)" and they started violently flailing their arms and legs but they were in a metro station surrounded by nothing but brick and concrete so they broke nothing! It was such a hilarious sight I burst out laughing and I still do everytime I think about it!

A few thoughts on metal

First of all, I must announce that Meshuggah is coming to Montreal February 18th and then Lamb of god, Children of Bodom, As I Lay Dying and more are coming April 17th. Eeeeeeee!!!! Montreal is such an awesome city. It's so artsy and varied and great for all kinds of music, especially metal.
I am currently trying to play my favorite Kalmah song, Doubtful of it All. I prefer to figure out songs by ear but these guys play so fast I have to slow down the music! Generally I am always disappointed by tabs out there because I can always hear mistakes by the tabber. I haven't checked out how the tabs are for this song that are out there but I think I may post my own tabs for it soon. I've basically figured it all out except for the precise tuning... If others want some precise tabs of metal songs or at-least-interesting-to-play-on-guitar songs then let me know.