08.08.07
Velvet Revolver, Alice in Chains, Sparta to play Dallas
(from HOB.com) Some fairly exciting news on the upcoming concert front – just got an email from House of Blues saying that as of Saturday, August 11 tickets will be on sale for a Velvet Revolver-headlined show at said venue with somehow-still-kicking metal band Alice in Chains backing them up, and Sparta will presumably be the opener. The show’s set for Thursday, September 27, and tickets will run you $29.50-$69.50. Since I’ve never seen Alice in Chains, though minus Layne, it might be worth the price of the lower-end admission. Don’t invest so much in seeing Sparta, though I’m sure Velvet Revolver would be pretty kick-ass to see live. Watching Slash shred is the closest you’re gonna get any time soon to seeing Guns N Roses live (outside of Japan). Let’s not even talk about the band’s now nearly mythical follow-up album, Chinese Democracy – which some people are still faithfully waiting for, a decade later. Go get your tickets, because there’s a good chance that this will sell out. A lot of shows have been doing that at HOB lately. It’s a great venue.
02.28.07
(Review) 2-25-07: meWithoutYou, Sparta, Aloha
I’ll start off by saying that this show was very, very underwhelming. I had fairly high expectations; I’ve been a casual Sparta listener since the early years of high school, and I got some good listens in on Wiretap Scars. It was a pretty good album. Their show wasn’t.
A band named Aloha opened up with a not-so-original dance beat-laden indie rock sound, cranking out songs that were hard to differentiate (and, as is always the case at Gypsy, the vocals were indiscernible). I was initially very much into this very chill band; by the end of the set I was eagerly waving them off. I just wanted to see Sparta and get on with it.
Sparta, to my surprise, was not the headlining band! Sparta came on next, opening up for meWithoutYou. I didn’t see that one coming; Sparta’s actually got a following. I admit that I know nothing about meWithoutYou (aside from having one of their CDs on my computer that I haven’t ever listened to), but still! Sparta just seemed to me to be the bigger act overall. The crowd seemed to think otherwise. They were wholly unimpressed, at least the ones near the back. The people up at the front were into it (as people in the front usually are), and all seemed to be going great until Jim Ward, the lead singer, thought it wise to berate a crowd surfer, telling the kid that he didn’t want anybody crowdsurfing (people were getting kicked, he said) and to stay off of his stage, or he’d “fucking throw you out himself”. This instantly turned me off / made me want to crowd surf to spite him, and now I regret not doing it. They didn’t play “Cut Your Ribbon”! After Sparta was off, Laura and I peaced out. We were tired, and we were not up for sitting through a full, headlining set for a band that we were completely unfamiliar with.
If you want to read a little bit more about the show, there’s also an article in today’s Daily Campus (I think…). If you’re on campus, pick it up! Otherwise, I’ll find and post the link here. Enjoy!
