Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Motorhead 2008 - The Orbit Room, Grand Rapids







Motorhead 2008 - Review of September 13, 2008 concert at The Orbit Room in Grand Rapids, Michigan

It's been almost 15 years since I last saw Motorhead in concert, and this was my wife's first time.

I have to first off start with a few comments about The Orbit Room. This venue has the potential of being a very cool club type concert hall, but has not been well maintained. What was once a very trendy looking place has now become a little bit better than your typical bar. On many recent occasions, they were not allowing access to the upper balcony, which further frustrates old people like me. For this show, we were able to get upstairs, however the track up via the first staircase proved adventurous, due to hardly any lighting. Once up at the balcony, getting around was also tricky, due to very limited stair lighting (I tripped more than once). The Orbit room used to have waitresses wandering around taking drink orders, but that has been discontinued (unfortunate). Overall, it wasn't our worst experience at The Orbit Room, but they could do much to improve things.

We arrived shortly after the second band had started. They were called "Year Long Disaster". They seemed to be more of a rootsy hard rock, akin to maybe Aerosmith or Led Zeppelin. Sort of a dirty bluesy rock, from this three-piece. Not bad, but I'm not buying yet. Next up with a group known as "Valient Thorr". These guys are full of energy, and appear to be bent on winning the audience over. With music that sounded like AC/DC on speed, this group was non-stop hard rock at 150bpm. Add to this the overall abundance of band facial hair, and you've got an odd visual. The lead singer "Valient himself" was constantly moving, jumping, climbing on speakers, dancing around, and attempting to engage the audience. Overall, the style isn't my cup of tea, but I'll give them a "A" for effort. They are apparently building a name for themselves by getting songs onto video game soundtracks.

Finally we get the headliner - the mighty Motorhead. After over 30 years of making music, Lemmy Kilmister and company still manage to maintain a trademark sound that doesn't much change. For the fans, this is a good thing. Basic high speed rock-n-roll with vocals that sound like they came from an 80yr old smoker (Lemmy is around 60 now, isn't he?). By introducing themselves as "we are Motorhead, and we play rock and roll", the band kicked into over 90 minutes of tunes from across their entire career. New material sounded like it came from the original 1980 "Ace of Spades" era, while cover tunes like Thin Lizzy's "Rosalie" still had that Motorhead stamp on them. The only "odd" moment was their first encore of an acoustic guitar blues tune, with Lemmy just handling vocals. Other than that, I'd say the night was loud, fast, and exactly what everyone wanted. After pummeling the audience with their sonic onslaught, they left us with ears rining, and some bass guitar feedback that only Lemmy provides. You gotta love a band that hasn't given up their style or compromised their image (warts and all).

The previous time I had seen Motorhead (again, 15 yrs ago), they were opening for Black Sabbath. Motorhead got about 45 minutes, and they wasted no time with their attack. I was surprised at how the band has very little stage "antics", and that hasn't changed over the years. Motorhead has no special gimic or show, but simply comes out loud and fast.

I don't know how much longer Motorhead will be around, but I'm betting Lemmy has at least another 10 years worth of damage to cause. See you next time around.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Part of why Obama is a problem for the USA

Talking politics:

I'm not exactly excited over either candidate (McCain or Obama), but Obama is definitely NOT the person to put in charge of the country. His plans are based off of monies that the government doesn't have (yet), and the plan is to raise taxes on the "wealthy" and "businesses". So, I suppose you'll be fine as long as:
- You don't own a business
- You have no desire to become wealthy yourself
- You don't work for a business
- You don't get a paycheck from a business
- You don't work for someone who is currently wealthy and owns a business
The problem with Obama's plan is that it puts a tax burden on those who have been successful, thereby discouraging success. If I happen to be lucky enough to start up a successful company from scratch, and now the government is going to take more of my money and hand it over to those "more in need", it won't take long before I decide to close up shop. That has the additional problem of removing tax revenue from the federal government, thus forcing tax increases on the rest of us to "fund" those helpful programs that Obama wants. Not a good plan.

On the other hand, additional tax breaks and reductions on businesses will reward the successful and increase jobs (economics 101). This allows more jobs, more pay increases, and obviously more money spent.

The biggest problem is that many seem to see the government programs as "free" money or services. Trouble is, that is NOT the case. Us tax paying workers are funding this government and it's programs. Regardless of how Obama wants to "spin" it, national healthcare, educational subsidies, and other hand-outs are going to be funded by tax payers. The level of spending that Obama has in mind will obviously result in more tax increases than just the "wealthy" and "businesses". It's going to cost all of us.

Obama simply doesn't understand what has made the USA the best nation in the world to live in, and continues to be the place where most of the world would rather be. McCain may not be the best choice, but he does have more understanding than Obama.

Get over your "celebrity admiration" of Obama, and give reasonable thought to what really makes our country great. Obama is more of a politician than he is a leader.

In the USA, you should be allowed to be successful without punishment ("pursuit of happiness" and all that). If that's taken away, what's left to motivate the inventor and pioneer?

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Cool Electronic Instrument - ReacTable

Just thought I'd pass this video along, for your enjoyment. This is a unique new electronic instrument called a ReacTable, which I've seen in live performance by the band that backed up singer Bjork. At the concert, I was never able to figure out what this thing was doing. Pretty interesting, if nothing else.