Music

Progressive Nation Tour
By Rei Nishimoto

Progressive rock music is a genre that has been overlooked by the mainstream but still attracted a fan base unlike other styles of music. Since its earliest acts in the 1970s, such as Kansas and King Crimson, musicians have been keeping the spirit of progressive music alive through various forms.
Dream Theater has been one of the biggest bands to fuse progressive rock influences with heavy metal and fusion to create some of the most exciting sounds that fans have grown to love. For almost two decades, they have created music that incorporates concepts from mystery stories to various theories that is played along to occasional instrumental jam sessions.

Tonight's set was a condensed version of what Dream Theater fans expected from the band. An exciting video intro that flashed a computer animation of an ant that set the tone for the evening, giving fans the feeling of the musical journey the band was taking the fans on.

Keyboardist Jordan Rudess set the tone for the band, bringing the crowd into each song. His swiveling keyboard dome was set up to give a Sci-Fi like feeling when on stage, and somewhat like the Master of Ceremonies like persona throughout the night.  But, drummer Mike Portnoy is the star of the band, with his rock n'roll personality behind his two dimensional drum kit, switching kits in between each song. His energetic style kept the crowd excited for more, and his arms waving to keep the crowd participating throughout the evening.

While frontman James LaBrie's role live was minimized, as the band incorporated more instrumental jams than songs with vocals. While his vocals are in no way a weak point within the band, Dream Theater fed off of the crowd reactions to the instrumental portions of their set.

Their overall show was very energetic and the fans loved every moment of the night. But one downfall was that they cut out long time favorites such as 'Pull Me Under' from their setlist, which was a surprise. Whether this will be a move that will continue onto future tours will be seen when they come back through.

Swedish progressive doom metallers Opeth have come a long way since their underground death metal days back in the early 1990s. Since that time, they have been through numerous lineup changes and have traded Pink Floyd-like parts in place of simple blasting drums and roaring guitars.

Frontman Mikael Akerfeldt is the sole original member of the band, and his vision of creating music that fused death metal and progressive rock has began to take on a life of its own. Much of their songs they performed still have the heavy guitar tones, rooted to their death metal influences. But they have cited influences such as Uriah Heep and worked in swinging guitar melodies to alternate with the heavier parts and keyboard parts to compliment the rest of the music.

Akerfeldt mainly belted out raw, guttural vocals throughout the set, but on occasional moments, there are some cleaner vocal parts that have drawn in new fans over the years. Songs like 'Wreath' had won over fans over the past few years, and the fans singing along with them proved that metal fans are not the only ones who have grown to appreciate Opeth's music.

Between the Buried and Me is part of the new wave of neo-progressive metal/rock, and their exciting sound incorporates thrashy guitar parts with guttural vocals, that fans of modern heavy metal and metallic hardcore have grown to love. While much of their sound is on the metallic side, they have a slowed down progressive style that are equal parts ISIS as much as Porcupine Tree. While they appealed more to the younger fans, Between the Buried and Me are definitely an exciting band to watch out for.

Show openers 3 played a brief set of traditional progressive rock music, featuring two drummers, a bassist, a guitarist and a vocalist who also doubled on guitar. They brought a modernized twist to progressive rock while bringing their own fresh approaches to their sound. Frontman Joey Eppard fused lots of energy into their sound and gave the people in the crowd
a taste of a new generation of progressive rock.
 
Juniper Lane
"Wake From Yourself"
By Nancy Dunham
 
In this American Idol, YouTube crazy world, everyone's looking for the quick hit, the 15 minutes of fame Andy Warhol promised. Some follow dreams that would have been best to let go (see any number of American Idol contestants). Others just keep working to raise their heads above the crowd.

Consider Juniper Lane. This four-piece band which recently released "Wake From Yourself," has worked hard to break from the pack for seven years. The band members pride themselves on creating a diverse, but unmistakably individual sound with a mix of indie rock/dark pop. At the repeated request of publicists for the band, I gave the record another listen recently.

Yes, it's true the music is solid - "radio ready" one critic wrote - as it moves from one song to the next, exploring all types of crises - break ups, ugly memories, and more. But there's something missing. Perhaps its lead singer Vivion Smith's vocals that are almost too fragile for some of the hard lyrics. It's almost like Ann Wilson or Stevie Nicks  singing Alanis Morrisette's song "You Oughta Know." Perhaps it's the unrelenting percussions and pounding guitars that takes the band a bit deeper into rock than some of the lyrics suggest.

Several critics suggest that the band follows along the musical lines of Coldplay and U2. I think the passion and creativity is certainly there to suggest that comparison. But for this listener, there's a fair amount of fine tuning that needs to be done before the band can hope to break through and find national appeal.
 
 
 

Tokyo Police Club
"Elephant Shell"
By Nancy Dunham
 
This is going to be ugly because I'm obviously stomping on some sacred musical ground here but I'll just say it: Elephant Shell, the just-released CD by Tokyo Police Club, is boring.

For the thousands of fans who read that line and immediately put fingertips to keyboards to howl about my musical ignorance, I extend my apologies. I realize that Rolling Stone and other music industry giants have anointed the 20-something members of Tokyo Police Club the second coming of The Rolling Stones, The Sex Pistols, and The Kinks all rolled into one.

Certainly the 100+ attendees at a recent "Myspace" Secret Show in Baltimore that featured the band heeded the call (I might say "drank the Cool Aid" but I don't want to be mean-spirited) to worship TPC. It was interesting to watch as the hammered out almost every song from its new album, stopped the music on a dime, took swigs from water bottles as they ignored the cheering crowd, and then immediately hammered out another tune.

In fairness, TPC are obviously terrific musicians with their jackhammer fast playing of what Rolling Stone called "Mod Punk Party Starters."

I guess. To be honest, the mumbled lyrics and pounding sound makes each of the 11 songs on the CD almost non distinguishable. Since all but one song is under three minutes, it's easy to put the CD in your player and not realize when the album has played through and restarted.

When I was a kid in Sunday school, some of the students would recite prayers perfectly and crisply but without a hint of emotion or feeling about the actual words. That's what I hear when I listen to TPC. Technically, it's perfect. Emotionally, not so much.
 
 
 
Rock, Smash ‘n’ Roll
By Staff Writer
 
The destruction of musical instruments, a decades-old tradition in pop and rock music, is normally carried out by band members during a live performance, particularly at the end of the gig. The most famous of these acts is smashing one's electric
guitar.

Early years

Jerry Lee Lewis may be the first rock artist to destroy his equipment on stage, with several, possibly erroneous, stories of him destroying and burning pianos in the 1950s.

In the mid 1960s, guitarist Pete Townshend of The Who was the first guitar smashing rock artist. Rolling Stone magazine included his smashing of a Rickenbacker guitar at the Railway Hotel in September of 1964 in their list of the "50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock & Roll". He saw his guitar smashing as a kind of auto-destructive art.

Keith Moon, The Who's drummer, was also known for destroying his drum set. The most spectacular episode of this occurred during The Who's debut on U.S. television on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967. Moon overloaded his bass drum with explosive charges which were detonated
during the finale of the song, "My Generation." The explosion caused guest Bette Davis to faint, set Pete Townshend's hair on fire and, according to legend, contributed to his later partial deafness and tinnitus. Moon was also injured in the explosion when shrapnel from the cymbals cut his arm. VH1 later placed this event in the top ten of their list of the 100 Greatest Rock and Roll Moments on Television.
Jeff Beck, then a member of the Yardbirds, reluctantly destroyed a guitar in the 1966 film Blowup
after being told to emulate The Who by director Michelangelo Antonioni. Jimi Hendrix is also famous for burning two guitars at three shows, most notably the Monterey Pop Festival. He also would drive the guitar like a lance through the grill cloth of his amp's speaker cabinets, but this was replaced after the show and did not actually destroy the amp.

Later instrument destruction
Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple and Rainbow smashed guitars in performance through the seventies.
Paul Simonon of The Clash famously destroyed his bass on stage, with a photograph of the eventbecoming the iconic cover to their London Calling album.

Kurt Cobain would frequently smash guitars at the end of Nirvana shows, but they were often Mex-ican Stratocasters that were brought on stage simply for the purpose of destruction. Kurt and his band mainly shocked people with instrument destruction in their early career, as they came from poor town Aber- deen, Washington and could barely afford to replace them. Krist Novoselic once threw his bass guitar high into the air, seemingly to smash it, but did not move out of the way quickly enough and was concussed by the falling bass.

Paul Stanley, the rhythm guitarist from KISS, would frequently smash his signature Ibanez Iceman guitars, at the end throwing the halves into the crowd. These were specially prepared guitars, modified so as to be easy to smash, and to destruct in a consistent and controlled manner.
Marilyn Manson have been known to frequently destroy their instruments at the end of shows. They have often done so in such an aggressive manner that they have injured themselves, most famously when drummer Ginger Fish suffered a fractured skull. This destruction has been captured in their music videos as well in live recordings such as Guns, God and Government
Nikki Sixx, bassist of Mötley Crüe, also smashes basses at the end of concerts, usually a Precision copy, but sometimes a Gibson Thunderbird.

Trent Reznor, lead singer of Nine Inch Nails, was known for smashing his guitar out of frustration in the early years of his band. Later on, his band mates destroyed their guitars for the end of a show. Throughout the years, the band has been known for destroying most of their equipment, notably keyboards; this destructive rampage was chronicled on the VHS Closure.
Ryan Key, lead singer and guitarist of Yellowcard, has often smashed his most notable guitar, the Gibson Les Paul, to end many of Yellowcard's performances and has also thrown the halves into the audience.

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead have become known for regularly smashing their instruments on stage.

Big Black ended their final show by smashing all of their equipment.

Die Sektor frequently smashes their custom keyboards called "beasts" at the end of their performances.
Guy Pratt, Pink Floyd bass player (on their latest years), destroyed his bass at the end of the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour (1989) and Division Bell tour (1994). At the latter show the pyrotechnic team placed a large firework to the back which failed to ignite. The bass was never destroyed and merely chucked at a security guard due to its weight and the distance between the audience and stage.
Peter Criss, the drummer from KISS, destroyed his drum kit in 2000 on the last US performance of KISS' Farewell tour.

Greg Hill of Mute Math uses drum mallets to smash the body of his guitar during live performances. He often drums along with the band as he smashes the body.

Win Butler of Arcade Fire destroyed an acoustic guitar at the end of a live performance on Saturday Night Live, after a string had broke during the performance.

Craig Nicholls of The Vines destroyed his Fender Stratocaster at a show at The Corner Hotel In Melbourne in 2006.

Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes smashed a guitar he described as "very expensive" after performing "Road to Joy" on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.