Another Brick in the Wall...literally

Back in November I secured two seats for Roger Waters - The Wall Live at the Rogers Center for $285.70!!  My wife thought I was nuts (she despises Floyd) and these were not even the most expensive seats....but what I was witness to on Saturday was worth double may be even triple what I paid.  For the majority of the night I was speechless...

On the way down to Toronto my buddy Sven was playing Pink Floyd's "Is There Anybody Out There?" a live recording of Pink Floyd from back in 1980 to prime us for the concert we were about to see.  The first track on the album "In The Flesh" blasted out interrupting the MC as he was introducing the band...the hair on my arms immediately stood on end as the Goosebumps appeared and a shiver went down my spine...

The Huge Set-Up!

I wonder why though?  Why am I at a Roger Waters concert in the first place? My father loved Pink Floyd.  He purchased all the LPs, and I, curious, would check out the album artwork which was always filled with weird visuals...pigs flying...men on fire shaking hands...a brick wall with some very weird cartoon characters on them.  When the wall came out I was 5.  When the movie came out I was 7.  I remember watching it.  Probably bad parenting on my dad's part.  In my late teens early 20s I appreciated them a lot more.  I remember purchasing the Division Bell at the HMV on Yonge St when I was in university and not long after seeing them in concert at the CNE to promote that album.  Even that concert was an awesome production. 

Thec concert starts with a bang!

I was more drawn to their older work with "Animals" and "The Dark Side of the Moon" but rarely listened to "The Wall."  But throughout the concert I rarely missed a lyric...singing along as if I've been listening to the album my whole life.  I turned to Sven at least two or three times and with my jaw dropped.....my only words were "wow....wtf???....wow..." He then turned to me at one point and said "you're telling me...I'm almost in tears..."  I was just in complete awe.

Man-oh-man...what a concert!!!  The beginning had more pyrotechnics then the Symphony of Fire (look that up if you don't know what I am talking about) ending with a world war II fighter plane soaring over our heads and crashing in behind a gigantic wall (the span of Rogers Center outfield) in a ball of flames.

The screen goes Red during Another Brick in the Wall Pt1.

A massive circular screen over top of the band and the wall built up on both sides served as a backdrop for a stunning visual spectacle including footage from current events around the world, animations from the movie and even footage of Roger Waters at a concert in Earl's Court in 1980 in which he sang "Mother" in a duet with himself!  When he sang the lyric "Mother should I trust the government?" the words no, fucking, way appeared on the wall resulting in a massive cheer from the crowd...well done....

The point In between "Another Brick in the Wall" and "Happiest Days of our Lives" where you hear the sound of a helicopter approaching...a huge spotlight blinded sections of the crowd...moving about looking like it was searching for someone.  The roaring sound of the engine and the blades cutting through the air was so loud I thought the stadium was going to crumble.  It totally took your attention away from the massive inflatable school master being formed to stage right which was accompanied by the Regent Park School of Music Choir to sing those famous lyrics "we don't need no...education!"

Kids from Regent Park Music School yelling at their school teacher!

Roger Waters performing Mother in a duet with his
formal self from a concert back in 1980!

A fully bricked up wall...

As the first half of the concert came to an end the wall was completely built up isolating Roger Waters from the Band behind it...a sort of metaphor for Rogers Waters himself being isolated after the death of his father in World War II by his abusive schoolmaster and overprotective mother when he was a child. The remainder of the concert the wall remained and from time to time performers would appear at the top of the wall to join in with Waters who remained by himself in front.  During "Run Like Hell" a massive pig appeared from behind the Wall and made its way overhead floating above the crowd with red eyes glaring.  The later half of the second set was filled with animations from the movie itself...pretty demented stuff...those famous walking hammers, the judge and other sickly creatures all bearing down on "pink" a character from the movie supposedly representing Waters.

Roger Waters decides to take us all out!!

Walking hammers?  What does it mean??

The concert  pretty much came to a close with Rogers chanting, and getting the crowd to do so as well, "bring down the wall" and sure enough with a loud explosion...the center portion of wall crumbled to the ground in what was probably the coolest ending to a concert I have ever witnessed. 

With the lights on the band played appeared on stage left and sang the last song of the night "Outside The Wall"  Sven asked...."hey isn't that the guitarist from SNL??" Sure did look like him...and after some quick poking around the internet it was in fact G.E. Smith...former guitarist from SNL!

Anyhow...the concert was simply awesome.  The 67 year old lead singer was on form....and I truly hope this concert makes it onto DVD since it is definitely one to remember.  Yes Mr. Rogers...just for one day... they built that "Rogers" center just for you...

My concert partner Sven...yeah buddy rock on!

At the end as I was leaving, I thought to myself...man I wish my dad were alive.  To see this with him would have been a real treat.

For some more pictures from the concert check out tmakworlds review of the concert.  His camera was a lot better then mine.  He makes the claim that this was the best concert ever...PERIOD.  I have to agree with him...

Vinyl Recycle - "Gentle Rain"

So the other day I figured I should give my Technic 1200s some luv so I opened the old vinyl record case and was browsing some of the tunes I purchased a very long time ago.   Suprisingly some of the tracks sounded like they could have been released yesterday.

Thought I would share with you some long lost gems that are definitely worth the listen too...

"Gentle Rain" playing on my Technic 1200

Back in 2003 I picked up a promo copy of Blackwatch & Greed's "Gentle Rain" with two new remixes on the Release Elements label.  Side A featured Blackwatches own "Jacked Hi Mix" which was described by Resident Advisor as "a deep atmospheric breakbeat" which features the voice of Leslie who's voice "draws you deeper...[and is] very magnetic and spelling binding..."

The voice on the track is truly mesmerizing.  It reminds me a lot of Everything But The Girl's Tracey Thorn...a topic for another day.

The Jacked Hi Mix is what made me part with $15 to purchase the vinyl way back when.  Lucky for you it is available on iTunes for $0.99.  Definitely worth the loonie.  Drop it in your itunes account and do your ears a favour by listening to this track.

Blackwatch & Greed - Gentle Rain
Label: Release Elements - ELE005
Released: 2003
Style: Progressive House / Breaks

Here it is on youtube:

Unionville Festival - Dragon Bistro

This weekend the quaint town of Unionville, nestled inside the town of Markham, held their annual street festival and as usual Mother nature did not seem to cooperate.  Friday saw record rainfalls and Saturday with a brief moment of sun quickly changed back to heavy rainfall as I got to the bar.  The weather did not seem to stop people from coming out though and the bar on the night was packed! 

Busy night!

Unfortunately the Festival seems to bring out the worst in some of the local young adults who seem to use the festival as an excuse to drink above and beyond what is reasonable.  Lucky for us at the Dragon, Mike the owner was able to keep local drunktards out sans security and the night went without any serious incidents. 

The rain subsided enough for a lot of patrons to use the patio and even though the furniture was still pretty soaked most seemed not to mind.  I brought an extra speaker and had sound outside as well as in.  I also connected to the house system so everyone had the chance to feel what I was playing.

I mixed it up starting out with some good bar/drinking tunes.  We got a makeshift dance floor going with a long set of top40 dance music and then I totally mixed it up with some hiphop, reggae and some classic 90s hits including "Informer" by Snow and Maestro Fresh Wes' "Let Your Backbone Slide".  I was having a little fun....:)

Myself with Dan & Tiffany

Here is the set-list on the night.  Special thanks to Tiffany for being my DJ equipment body guard... ;)

1 - Bright Lights Bigger City - CeeLo Green
2 - Payphone  - Maroon 5 ft. Wiz Khalifa
3 - Just The Way You Are - Bruno Mars
4 - Blow at High Dough - The Tragically Hip
5 - Hard To Handle - Black Crows
6 - Peace Frog - Doors
7 - Fly - Sugar Ray
8 - How Bizzare - Omc
9 - Praise You - Fatboy Slim
10 - Cherry Bomb - John Cougar Mellencamp
11 - It's The End Of The World As We Know It - Great Big Sea
12 - Home For A Rest - Spirit Of The West
13 - 500 Miles - Proclaimers
14 - New Orleans Is Sinking - The Tragically Hip
15 - Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses
16 - California Gurls  - Katy Perry
17 - Do You Remember - Jay Sean
18 - Give Me Everything  - Pitbull;
19 - Feel So Close  - Calvin Harris
20 - Dance Again - Jennifer Lopez ft. Pitbull
21 - We Found Love  - Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris
22 - Without You - David Guetta ft. Usher
23 - Sexy And I Know It  - LMFAO
24 - Give Me All Your Luvin  - Madonna
25 - Only Girl (In The World)  - Rihanna
26 - I Like How It Feels  - Enrique Iglesias ft. Pitbull
27 - Danza Kuduro - Don Omar ft. Lucenzo
28 - Shake Senora  - Pitbull ft. T-Pain
29 - Good Feeling  - Flo Rida
30 - Firework (Radio) - Katy Perry
31 - Club Can't Handle Me  - Flo Rida
32 - Dirty Talks (Single) - Wynter Gordon
33 - Memories  - David Guetta ft. Kid Cudi
34 - Call on Me - Eric Prydz
35 - One More Time - Daft Punk
36 - Moves Like Jagger - Maroon 5
37 - I Got That Feeling - Black Eyed Peas
38 - Back in Time  - Pitbull
39 - I Know You Want Me - Pitbull
40 - Bon, Bon  - Pitbull
41 - Somebody That I Used To Know - Gotye
42 - S & M Remix (Main) - Rihanna
43 - Mr. Saxobeat  - Alexandra Stan
44 - Rise Up - Yves Larock
45 - If We Ever Meet Again  - Timbaland ft Katy Perry
46 - Cheers - Rihanna
47 - Work Out - J. Cole
48 - Big Hoops - Nelly Furtado
49 - Young, Wild & Free  - Wiz Khalifa & Snoop Dogg
50 - Jamboree - Naughty By Nature
51 - People Everyday - arrested development
52 - No Diggity - blackstreet feat dr dre
53 - Just Can't Get Enough (Main) - The Black Eyed Peas
54 - Suavemente (Kiss Me)  - Nayer ft. Mohombi & Pitbull
55 - Suavemente - Elvis Crespo
56 - Life (Is What You Make It) - Colonel Lite and Frighty
57 - Murder She Wrote - Chaka Demus
58 - Twice My Age - Shabba Ranks
59 - Punkie - Sean Paul
60 - Long Time - Tanto Metro & Devonte
61 - Action - Nadine Suntherland
62 - Who Am I - Beenie Man
63 - Pass the Dutchie - Musical Youth
64 - Informer - Snow
65 - It Takes Two - rob base and dj ez rock
66 - Funky Cold Medina - Tone-Loc
67 - Let Your Backbone Slide - Maestro Fresh Wes
68 - Niggas In Paris - Jay-Z & Kanye West
69 - Look at Me Now  - Chris Brown ft. Lil Wayne & Busta Rhymes
70 - Crank That (Remix)  - Souljah Boy ft Lord Kossity
71 - Titanium  - David Guetta ft. Sia
72 - Beautiful People - Chris Brown ft. Benny Benassi
73 - Ghosts N Stuff - Deadmau5 ft. Rob Swire
74 - Levels  - Acivii
75 - Feel So Close - Calvin Harris
76 - Hello  - Martin Solveig ft. Dragonette
77 - Gin And Juice - Snoop Doggy Dogg
78 - C.R.E.A.M. - Wu-Tang Clan
79 - Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers - Crooklyn Dodgers '95
80 - Jockin' My Style - Craig Mack
81 - Keep on Movin - Soul II Soul
82 - Flashing Lights - Kanye West ft. Dwele
83 - Coming Home - Diddy & Dirty Money
84 - We Are Young - Fun ft. Janelle Monáe
85 - Cant Believe It - T Pain ft. Lil Wayne
86 - Never Gonna Be The Same - Sean Paul

Really short post...

I hate this track: "H8RS" by Steve Angello, Max Vangeli, AN21

Going Deep...

The other week I decided to use iTunes on my DJ laptop to create playlists of a lot of my music I use for Djing and backing them up to my IPAD and Iphone.  I am finding that Alogrithm's "DJay" application will get me out of a bind if my laptop were to fail during a gig.  I am really done with lugging around CDs.  So now I have a really nice system of getting new music from my record pool... importing to Traktor and then to iTunes...updating playlists...then updating phone. 

That means my phone is always up to date with the latest top40 offerings plus a whole lof of classic tuneage.  But what I listen to on a day to day basis is not Top40...or rock....or retro. Instead I listen to various forms of house music.  That music for some reason or another (actually because I really hate that I have to use Itunes to put music on my iphone) never makes it onto my iphone...or rarely does. That leaves me with an iphone full of music that I don't particularily want to listen to...

The current EDM scene that has taking over the airwaves is starting to annoy me a little.  The elements of Trance music (that has been around for a very long time) and what makes/made it so popular is now making its way onto every pop release out there.  Soaring synths...blasting horns....drum rolls that seem to last forever until the 4 to the floor beat finally drops after an ear piercing crescendo!   The problem is it's been done before....it's predictable....it's BORING!   Plus I was never a big fan of Trance to begin with...sorry Tiesto.  

Anyhow, the other day i was listening to some new top40 downloads and came across "Goin' In" by Jennifer Lopez ft Flo Rida.  I had to stop listening to it....I thought to myself what the hell is this?    Not picking on Jennifer Lopez really...kinda like "Dance Again".  I think it is just the state of EDM music at the moment.  Every pop artist is jumping on the bandwagon and the producers all seem to have this formula to make music that appeals to a generation of North American Kids who are just getting into electronic music (yes they are very late).  The problem for me is I have been listening to various forms of electronica for 20 years or so and this stuff just makes me gag...well maybe that is a strong word....roll my eyes would be more appropriate.

So instead...I checked the archives as well as a short visit to Beatport and filled a USB stick with some nice Deep/Tech house grooves.  A car deck with a USB drive is a usefull thing.

Here are some tunes I am digging at the moment...

1. Heart & Spirt (Christian Hawk & Timid Boy Naked Mix) - Francesco Bonora
2. Reaching - Stelios Vassiloudis
3. Deep Beginning - Karol XVII and Mb Valence
4. Paris (No Vocal) - Andrade
5. This Time (Gorge Remix) - Lovebirds, Sebastian Dring
6. Unkown (Dixon Mix) - Saschienne
7. Night Track (M.A.N.D.Y Remix) - Sasha, James Teej
8. Red Roses - Marius Laurentiu, Andrea Bigi

So for the time being I am going to be a top40 music snob and I am going Deep...

My beloved Iphone...almost lost...

This post is not music related...but I had to post this story to share it with you all and have it documented on the interweb...

This past weekend I was at BMO field to watch Toronto FC and I did a really really stupid thing.  I lost my iphone.  However, a worker at BMO field found it and did the right thing, she got in touch with me to return it.



My Iphone and its Cassette Case Cover



Here is my letter to Fan Services:

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing this letter to praise the actions of one of your staff members in the clean-up crew at BMO Field. Last weekend I attended the DC United vs TFC match and at half time realized my iphone was not in my pocket! After a quick look around and assumption that it was still in the car you could imagine the panic and distress from losing such an expensive device!

On the Monday following the game I recieved a phone call from an Angelina. She had found my phone in the stands while cleaning and found it in her heart to call me to report it found!! That very day I considered replacing it at a cost of $280 with new 3yr contract with our friends at Rogers Communications.

A used iphone 4 on the Craigslist/Kijiji market could easily fetch $250-$300 cash and Angelina instead opted to do the right thing and track down the original owner, something that not many would do.

When we met up for the exhange I handed her some giftcards as a small token of appreciation. I am hoping this email will give her some additional recognition by her employer for her extreme act of kindness.

Yours truly,
Season Ticket Holder...

This was the response from Fan Services.

Dear John Moerman,

Thanks for your email and taking the time to write in with high praise.  We just received your email from Michelle Risi who has passed it along to Angelina and her boss.  We are glad your iPhone was returned safe and sound and we hope to see you at BMO Field again soon!

Sincerely,

Fan Services 

Here are a few tips that can save you from losing your phone for good:

1. Turn on "Find My Iphone" in settings...location services.

2. If you are a rogers customer register your phone at www.rogersphonefinder.com

3. If you are really bad with your phone purchase a "wireless leash" from http://www.zomm.com/

Don't do what I did which was ignore 1 and 2 above.  Dumb dumb dumb. Right when I noticed it missing I could have borrowed my friends smart phone and it would have told me it was in the vicinity of the stadium.  Instead I assumed it was in the car.  My friend who was at the game with me said "wouldn't it be great to have a device that beeps when you leave your phone behind?" or something to that effect.  That is where the wireless leash from zomm comes in.

All I have to say is that I am pretty lucky.  Question is what would you do if you find a valuable smartphone?

You may notice that I have labeled this post under "coolness."

Thanks again Angelina!



Ode to Adam Yauch

With the recent announcement of Beastie Boys Adam Yauch passing at the age of 47 due to cancer the twitter space was flooded with tweets remembering "MCA."

 

On Saturday night I thought it be appropriate to pay my own homage to the influential rapper by including some of his tracks in my set. A few weeks ago my sister in law was in New York and she bought me a T-shirt that said "You Gotta Fight For Your Right to Party". Those words of course were made famous by a track from the Beastie Boys debut album "Ill Communication" in 1986.

 

Words of Wisdom made famous by the Beastie Boys

 

As I drove down Main St to the bar the street was packed...I guess it took the warmer weather to get people out of hiding. The bar itself was also very busy on the night. Normally I start off my set with some laid back tunes but this time around I decided to change things up and started off with another track from Beastie Boys debut album "Brass Monkey." The reaction from the crowd was most positive...I think I caught everyone by surprise.

 

A special shout out to Sean who was celebrating his birthday and Thanks to all his friends...the rowdy locals ;) for making it a fun night....

 

This is what I played from the Beastie Boys:

 

"Brass Monkey"

"Jimmy James"

"Fight for Your Right to Party"

"Girls"

"Paul Revere"

 

Not going to add the set list tonight.  Let's just leave it at the 5 Beastie Boys tracks...well ok maybe one more (epic track):

 

"White Lines" by Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel