Robert Forto

What Rocks

Metallica in Portland Live Recording

by Leave a Comment

 

Metallica does it right. One of the coolest souvenirs from a concert is not a black shirt, a poster, hat, or picture with the band. It is a live recording from the concert. When we attending the Metallica show at the Rose Bowl during our Rock n Roller 17 tour we ordered a cd of the show and it arrived a couple months later. We did the same at our recent visit to Portland to see the band.

When you pop the cd into the player you are immediately taken right back to the show. All of the emotion, sounds, feelings come rushing back and you get to re-live the show as if it was happening all over again.

What an experience. I am surprised more bands don’t do this. Before you say anything about cd’s are dead or there is nothing like a live show. I agree with you but these cd’s special.

Here is the set list from the show:

  1. Hardwired
  2. Atlas, Rise!
  3. Seek & Destroy
  4. Holier Than Thou
  5. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
  6. Now That We’re Dead
  7. Creeping Death
  8. For Whom the Bell Tolls
  9. Fade to Black
  10. No Remorse
  11. Fuel
  12. Moth Into Flame
  13. Sad But True
  14. One
  15. Master of Puppets
  16. Spit Out the Bone
  17. Nothing Else Matters
  18. Enter Sandman

 

Are you Awake? Live and Inspired by Godsmack has arrived

by Leave a Comment

Put down the iPhones. Quit updating Facebook and taking pictures and sit back and enjoy the music. Because there is nothing better in the world than a kick ass live rock-n-roll show!

I am paraphrasing just a bit here but you get the jest. This was what Sully Erna said from the hard rock band Godsmack to a near sold out show at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage, Alaska last September.

He is right. There is nothing like it. Godsmack rocks! 

When my wife and I attended this no frills show at the Sully we were blown away. They played for almost two hours and it was one of the best concerts I have ever seen. No pyro. No light show. Just a balls-to-the-wall rock-n-roll band playing an intimate show to a few thousand people in the Great White North. It was a great time because rock concerts are hard to come by in the Last Frontier.

I bought the tickets before my wife even had a plane ticket to move up here. I said you need to get up here by September 5th because we have a concert to get to.

I will never forget the more than 15 minute rendition of the instrumental The Oracle, Sully on the drums with Batalla de los Tambores, and the guitar and bass riffs of Awake that shook you to the core. If you have been to a Godsmack show you know it is the real deal. This isn’t some video on YouTube or you sitting at home watching it on the big screen in your underwear with a remote control.

Just the past week, Godsmack released their first ever live set–Live and Inspired. Including covers of Joe Walsh’s Rocky Mountain Way, Pink Floyd’s Time, The Beatles Come Together and Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters.

I bought the CD while up in Tok, Alaska watching over my friends pack of Iditarod sled dogs. There is not much to do up here. No Mickey D’s. No WiFi and five-dollar double shot espressos with whip. What a better place to enjoy some good ole’ American-made rock-n-roll. None of this groomed boy band crap singing about Boyfriends.

I sat back in an old rickety lawn chair in the bight sunshine, closed my eyes and let the music take over. It did just that.

Track listings:

  1. Straight Outta Line
  2. Realign
  3. Awake
  4. Moon Baby
  5. Changes
  6. The Enemy
  7. Keep Away
  8. Speak
  9. Voodoo
  10. Batalla de los Tambores
  11. Whatever
  12. Serenity
  13. I Stand Alone
  14. Rocky Mountain Way
  15. Come Together
  16. Time
  17. Nothing Else Matters

If you want a rare treat to add to your ever increasing music library that is so large that you have to keep it in some place called the “cloud”, Godsmack’s Live and Inspired is worth the 12 bucks and the next time a live show rolls through your town, cash in that change at the local Coinstar and go enjoy yourself. You will be glad you did.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Moose’s Tooth Pub and Pizzeria

by Leave a Comment

I could eat pizza every day for the rest of my life. Think about it–it’s the world perfect food. It has your meats, your grains, your dairy and even your veggies to make mom proud! In fact, if I was stranded on a deserted island, I would grow a beard, name a volleyball, Wilson and eat Moose’s Toothpizza every day.

I have sat down to a decent slice of pizza pie in practically every state of this great nation, but I have to say that Moose’s Tooth Pub and Pizzeria is some of the best I have ever had.

This is not your manufactured pizza that you find ice burnt in the freezer section at the grocery. This is sit down with a knife and fork type of pie.

I had the High Protein Land:

Pepperoni, Canadian Bacon, Italian Sausage, Green Pepper, Red Onion, Mozzarella, Provolone, Marinara.

The small is just $8.75 (good by Alaska standards) and more than a mouthful.

But what I find most interesting is this place is packed to the rafters every single day! I have been here for lunch on a Wednesday and tonight, a weeknight. Not only do the people of Anchorage love this place but it’s reputation stretches far and wide…

I was sitting next to a 70s-something Golden Girl, really she looked just like Sophia! and she and I started up a conversation. She said that she was visiting Alaska from Scranton, Pennsylvania with her son and daughter in-law and her travel agent insisted that they visited Moose’s Tooth.

What did they do? They headed here as soon as they got off the plane!

As I have said before, if you come to Alaska leave the tour buses and sandals with socks crowd alone and rent a car at the airport. That is the way to see Alaska. There is more to this great state than bears and Sarah (Palin). Namely Moose’s Tooth.

Click the Foursquare icon to locate Moose’s Tooth Pub and Pizzeria and Explore your world!

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

I Want my MTV!

by 1 Comment

I can remember vividly– I was 10 years old and sitting in my parents den at our home in Jacksonville, North Carolina. We had recently moved there on a transfer for my father’s job. He was a Marine.

We grew up as a modest middle class family with the requisite 2.5 kids–my brother Chris was not quite two yet so I guess he can count as a half of a kid still–the dog and a station wagon in the driveway.

We didn’t have a picket fence but we did live in Sherwood Forest. The name of our street was Little John and all the surrounding streets were named after the classic tale.

One thing’s for certain though… we were one of the few families in the neighborhood that had cable television. I can remember sitting in front of the big console TV way too close because the cable box sat on top with these little push buttons to change the channel.

No remote in those days.

On August 1, 1981 I was flipping through the channels and I came across one that would change not only my life but the world forever.

It was Music Television. Thats right MTV!

Did you know that the classic moon landing commercial aired over 75,000 times? 17,000 times in the inaugural year.

MTV defined my generation. I have so many memories:

Headbangers Ball on Saturday Nights.

Watching Metallica’s One video a thousand times in high school with my guitar in hand trying so hard to learn the riffs just like Kirk;

Hair-bands like Skid Row, Bon Jovi, Warrant, Slaughter and Winger spent millions of dollars making videos that were like mini four minute movies.

Beavis and Butthead.

Staying up all night watching videos at sleep overs when I was in early middle school and having contests on who was the best band–Devo? Madonna? Wham! ? Milli Vanilli?

The game show, Remote Control in 1989 where Adam Sandler got his start way before SNL.

The music awards show and the crazy stunt that Howard Stern pulled as the Fartman in 1992

The MTV news spots with Kurt Loder.

Hearing it first when Def Leppard guitarist Steve Clark was found dead and my girlfriend screaming and crying.

[Check this out: The Long, Colorful History of MTV’s Logo]

I can recall hearing of Kurt Cobain’s death on the radio driving in Tampa, Florida and doing whatever I could to get home to watch the reports on MTV.

The birth of Yo! MTV Raps!

And the fall of the great music channel and rise of the reality shows such as the Real World, Cribs, and Pimp My Ride.

Its hard to believe it has been 30 years since MTV released at midnight on August 1, 1981 with The Buggles’ Video Killed the Radio Star. They don’t even play much music anymore. That is a shame… Sure you can still check out some old school videos on VH-1 but today’s kids don’t even know much about the original music destination on television.

They are a YouTube generation.

What are your memories of MTV? Share your stories.

Follow my news and updates on Twitter, my whereabouts on Foursquare and  relationship status on Facebook. Or send me a telegram.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Godsmack coming to the Last Frontier

by Leave a Comment

Logo of the Godsmack hard rock/heavy metal band.
Image via Wikipedia

One could argue that I live in the greatest state in the country–Alaska! We have the surreal beauty that people flock to from all over the world. Tourist arrive in search of adventure and to get a glimpse of brown bears, moose, puffins and magnificent glaciers.

People come here primarily by boat (cruise ships), RV’s, trucks, vans, and even explore the vast expanse by train.

But living in the Great White North we have our limitations.  One is concerts. The thought of a big name band coming to Alaska is rare. To many rock acts this still is the Last Frontier.

I can understand. The logistics must be atrocious. We are off the beaten path in terms of tour dates. Most bands will have a show on one day and travel the next day or two to the next and so on. With that a convoy of trucks are always at least one city ahead of the band so they can set up the stage show in the next town.

In the year that I have lived here a few bands/artists have made their way North, most of them during the Alaska State Fair held around Labor Day. Last year the rock group Shinedown was at the fair along with .38 Special, Collective Soul, Darryl Worley, Boyz II Men and even ‘The Gambler’ Kenny Rogers.

While all of these bands have their hits and their stamp on their collective fan base none of them are the mega groups that the fans of this state are yearning to see.

That is until this September.

One September 6th, GODSMACK rolls into town for a show at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage.

Thats right folks that hard hitting, guitar crunching, voodoo worshiping boys from Boston make their way North to rock this place to the ground.

I have been a Godsmack fan since their first release All Wound Up debuted in 1997 with Sully Erna at the helm. In 1998 the band signed with Universal and re-released the LP as a self-titled CD with a handful of new tracks and re-worked some of the others from Wound Up.

In 2000 I took my wife, Michele, to see Godsmack that Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado. It was her first rock concert. If you are a fan of live music you know about Red Rocks. It is probably the best place on the planet to see a live show!

Godsmack’s fan base built slowly but surely until they were invited to join the Ozzfest tour with hit singles like “Whatever”, and “Keep Away”.

Also in 2000 the band released Awake and they earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Instrumental performance for the song “Vampires.”

In 2003 Faceless was released and in 2006 IV was released with Erna behind the board. The band stayed true to their roots with their unique guitar and drum driven sound and were a mainstay on rock radio.

In 2010 the bands fifth full-length offering, The Oracle was released for which the band is touring behind.

If you are a fan of Alice in Chains, Mudvayne, Puddle of Mudd, Trapt and even Everlast and Korn you will like Godsmack.

Hurry tickets are still available (as of July 21st). You can pick them up at TicketMaster, The Sullivan Arena and even participating Fred Meyers stores.

If you are going to be up to Alaska on vacation during the Labor Day Weekend what’s an extra hundred bucks to see a show like this? It sure beats sitting on a packed tour bus with grandma listening to the driver point out the local tourist haunts.

Follow my news and updates on Twitter, my whereabouts on Foursquare and  relationship status on Facebook. Or send me a telegram.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta