How dare you insult the [imaginary] love of my life that way?
Way. As in Gerard Way.
Though I detest this new, cropped, peroxide blonde gig he's got going on as of late (seriously, G, if you're reading this--please bring back the black, as you're so pale that your hair blends in with your scalp and you look bald from far away), the new My Chem record is fucking sick.
A lot of people have been comparing it to Queen, which is easily my favorite band ever of all time, so I had to give it a spin or two if for nothing more than morbid curiosity. I don't think much of it sounds like Queen at all with the exception of the sickeningly catchy first single, "Welcome to the Black Parade." Gerard's got the Farokh Bulsara vocal impressions down, but it's Ray Toro's guitar on the track that gives it a Queen-feel--it reeks of Brian May. The rest of the CD is just as good, just not as Queen ("Dead," "Teenagers," and "Famous Last Words" are on constant repeat to sing along with in my car). And they even got themselves musical theater cred--you know that creepy woman's voice on "Mama?" Yeah, that's none other than Liza Minnelli. They're not playing around.
Gerard Way is no Freddie Mercury. He's more like the lovechild of Freddie Mercury and Glenn Danzig, only a lot more physically attractive than that offspring would be.
If only he'd do something with that hair.
*Jess, who was once accosted by Coheed and Cambria's creepy, huge merch guy at a show they played with MCR
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Friday, October 27, 2006
Lostprophets at Irving Plaza
Gerard Way who? Ian Watkins proved once again why he is arguably the best frontman of this generation. Catchy lyrics? Check. Killer style? Check. Captivating persona? Check. Check. Check. Check to everything else.
But it’s not JUST about the man behind the mic, even though he was in such demand; he actually went down to the front row and posed with fans for pictures in between songs. Although guitarist Lee Gaze appears to be rather tame nowadays during live performances, his band mates Jamie Oliver (keys), Stuart Richardson (bass) and Mike Lewis (guitars) act as if they’d had more than their fare share of Red Bulls to keep energy levels peaked.
While on disk, Lostprophets have focused more on melody driven tunes on their past two albums, instead of mosh worthy shredders ala their debut. But you’d never guess it based on the circle pits that kept going all night long. When one crowd surfer ended up on stage, Watkins embraced him and let him sing along. As the night closed, the vocalist became one with the crowd and stage dove into the pit mid-song, resulting in his ear piece getting torn out. Perhaps that’s why there was no much wanted encore.
Even with just three weeks promotion for this last minute show, the venue was pretty packed. Once “Rooftops,” the leading single off Liberation Transmission (Columbia) gets more radio play over here in the US, expect these UK superstars to be gracing our magazine covers, as well.
Watch clips from the show at www.youtube.com/user/planetverge.
*Joelle, who has been hooked on Lostprophets since Ozzfest '02 and put them on the cover of Planet Verge twice
But it’s not JUST about the man behind the mic, even though he was in such demand; he actually went down to the front row and posed with fans for pictures in between songs. Although guitarist Lee Gaze appears to be rather tame nowadays during live performances, his band mates Jamie Oliver (keys), Stuart Richardson (bass) and Mike Lewis (guitars) act as if they’d had more than their fare share of Red Bulls to keep energy levels peaked.
While on disk, Lostprophets have focused more on melody driven tunes on their past two albums, instead of mosh worthy shredders ala their debut. But you’d never guess it based on the circle pits that kept going all night long. When one crowd surfer ended up on stage, Watkins embraced him and let him sing along. As the night closed, the vocalist became one with the crowd and stage dove into the pit mid-song, resulting in his ear piece getting torn out. Perhaps that’s why there was no much wanted encore.
Even with just three weeks promotion for this last minute show, the venue was pretty packed. Once “Rooftops,” the leading single off Liberation Transmission (Columbia) gets more radio play over here in the US, expect these UK superstars to be gracing our magazine covers, as well.
Watch clips from the show at www.youtube.com/user/planetverge.
*Joelle, who has been hooked on Lostprophets since Ozzfest '02 and put them on the cover of Planet Verge twice
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It's about time Planet Verge Magazine got a blog don't you think? So here it is. Whatever our writers feel like talking about or reviewing...for your enjoyment.
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