Fresno Famous

Always Knew

Rob DeFrees

Peel away a few layers of the onion and you will always find some classical music to be loved.

MOI is of a certain generation that never appreciated the music of 'rock and roll', and that comes from one who was around in the beginning.

MOI is a snob, but then what else is new? My computer plays BBC Classical all of the day, to be changed to radio dramas in the evening. To some that is a bore, but it suits MOI. To be true, went to dinner with a young lad from site and his mates, and the ride in the motor was quite an experience. They played LOUD 'hard rock', perhaps to ruins me dinner to come, but MOI just sat and smiled. Payback was having them suffer through Edith Piaf!! Wicked of MOI, but shows my sense of humour.

Baroque

I know Baroque because of Heavy Metal

From WikiPedia

"Yngwie Johann Malmsteen (pronounced /ˈɪŋveɪ ˈmɑːlmstiːn/ in English) (born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck on June 30, 1963 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish virtuoso guitarist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and bandleader. Malmsteen became notable in the mid-1980s for his technical fluency and neo-classical metal compositions. Four of his albums, from 1984 to 1988, Rising Force, Marching Out, Trilogy, and Odyssey, ranked in the top 100 for sales.[citation needed]
...At age seven, he saw a television news report on the death of Jimi Hendrix. To quote his official website, "The day Jimi Hendrix died, the guitar-playing Malmsteen was born". ... Malmsteen was a teenager when he first encountered the music of the 19th century violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, whom he cites as his biggest classical music influence.

Through his emulation of Paganini concerto pieces on guitar, Malmsteen developed a prodigious technical fluency. Malmsteen's guitar style include a wide, violin-like vibrato inspired by classical violinists, and use of such minor scales as the Harmonic minor, and minor modes such as Phrygian, and Aeolian. Malmsteen also cites Brian May of Queen, Steve Hackett of Genesis, Uli Jon Roth, Alex Lifeson of Rush, and Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple as influences."

It was because of Malmsteen that I looked up Baroque and what Baroque did to classical music. There's an entire era named after Baroque. Either way, I could look at Classical music and boring and drawn out, or try to appreciate it. I choose to see my life as enriched for opening up to it, as I do to so many things.

Diablo

I have listened to some classical

stuff too. As well as Jazz and Lounge, House of all kinds which is another one of my fav's, Hip Hip, Rap, Alternative, Ambient, Reggae(Reality Sounds u kno da won), R&B & Soul (da remedy, u kno dat won too), Japanese Hip Hop(JSB u kno dem too)... It's funny to me to note that a lot of times Heavy Metal band members will have gone to a good school of music, where they usually learn classical stuff for theory and so on. I think it's unfortunate that people turn themselves off to something because it isn't easy to understand or take part in. But that's just me...

I would say Classical appeals to about as many as rock or metal does around here. Usually to more of the older crowd. Even the local Violin Master plays his Violin with Rock's blood...

Diablo

How I see it

Rob DeFrees

Classical music rules. Timeless and appeals to so many different folks.

Would be a form of torture for MOI to attend such a gathering.

HOLY MOLY

We showed up late to find and hear 36 Crazy Fists wrapping up their set. The sound was great. The setup was kind of weird, but it seemed to work ok. Concerts in parking lots are kind of hit and miss for me, almost passed out at Ozzfest a couple years ago, heat exhaustion, who knew! The mood wasn't what some typical metal shows are with attitude and angst. There were kids rolling around with their parents and a general good vibe going on. I was mainly there for Five Finger Death Punch and Machinehead outside.

We went inside and found much the same mood, only cooler a la Air Conditioning, with kids and lots of long haired tattooed folks. There were even vendors placed near the entrance with bags and tshirts. Lots of band gear, scored myself a tour tshirt, I'll never forget this concert.

When we, me n my beautiful girlriend Liz, went back outside we found Five Finger Death Punch. I'll be first to make note, I miss Motogrator. The singer is now with this band, his previous band shadows this one. His lyrics are the same along the lines of heartache and sorrow and sad and broken heart/record. Too bad, I really like this band too, I just don't think they are as deep as Motogrator. This singer has lungs and chords. Not only does he poses a great scream/yelling voice but dude can actually sing and carry a note too, rare. I want to like them more but can't. 3 of 5

Next was Machinehead. Ahhhhhhh, aggression harnessed in music and vocals. Me likes. They play some old and some new. I used to think they were East Coast, but I'm not sure. The rhythm says west coast with bottom end that would lower a tank, but the leads say east. I'll look it up someday maybe. I really wanted to hear The Blood The Sweat The Tears but they didn't deliver. :( Great F'ing set. 5 of 5

The rest of the show inside. Mastodon. I don't recall so much vocals, I recalled mostly music. Either way, they are clearly not of this land and their style reminds of old school early metal, early 80's Metallica-ish. Great leads and one of the things I love to see, switching lead guitarists in the middle of songs. Awesome, a testament to their depth musically. If they can put together some lyrics we can follow here they should do well. If not they'll probably stay just off center of being awesome. Almost 5 of 5 but 4 of 5 overall.

Dragon Force. These guys should have gone first inside. They have awesome skill.(didn't dig the long hair glam rock hair band thing with the fans blowing upwards making them look,,well,,,I don't don't like that) Fast fast fast stuff. That's about it. Singer, blah. Replace him, unless somehow he's the root of the band, I really hope not cause the rest of the guys have a career anywhere musically if they want it. I believe they are the dudes that are part of Guitar Hero, rather, they lend a lot of their music to it. 3 of 5 Couldn't make out the lyrics either so you end up just kind of feeling a bad ass band and just kind of going along somehow with the flow.

Disturbed. These guys are a machine. Road dog veterans and their show shows it. The vocals were spot on, the music was spot on as well. Did I mention a singer that was full of himself? Yep. Totally. They have his mic volume up so loud he overshadows the music. Sad. He goes off on a dude in a wheel chair to exhibit some of his I'm the band singer and I get to do what I want up in this mug. Tells the audience the wheel chair guy is rocking his heart out so he asks security to escort him backstage to have some drinks. This is totally cool, but dude was such a drama queen about it. Get over yourself Disturbed singer dude. The rest of your band shines too, let them. They played some of their best tunes, which thankfully did not include too much new stuff. Great F'ing show, 5 of 5.

SLIPKNOT!!! They have headlined all the hugest venues in the world. Very first thing I notice, who the hell is the singer? That's' Corey? Dude lost some weight. He's like, a lightweight now. Well, he still screams like a mofo and I dig that. This isn't just anger and aggression put to screaming yelling and singing, this is upheaval discontent and lashing out. There are nine members in this band. Every single one of them is hard core heavy metal personified. Why, what can that mean. It means the very first show they performed in San Francisco Sid the DJ jumps off the very top speaker racks. Dude broke both his heals. Very dumb, but very bad ass. These guys have a history of feeding off the crowd and getting progressively more intense as the show goes on. (btw, one of our local DJ's has done shows with Sid, we know him as DJ Indecent, he comes by now and then to DJ at our place, make a note) They stuck to a lot of what made them famous, though they did not play Wait and Bleed or my personal fav Spit It Out, they did play Prosthetics, Heretic Anthem and Sic. Played a couple of new ones that I never cared for and one from their new album coming out soon. Sorry man, I like the screaming and yelling from their first and second albums only. The new stuff is just a prelude to Stone Sour, blehk. They get a huge 5 of 5. Not one misfire and Corey didn't even get mad at anyone in the crowd this time.

Please bring this show back but maybe not as many bands. The sets were too short. It felt like SlipKnot was just settling in when they called it a night. :(

Diablo