Ok so I've seen some pretty kickass bands in the last few months and I'm on a total music high these days.

Awhile back I saw the german industrial band KMFDM for the first time in a good 10 years. They've been at it for 25 years and can still rock out. That was on the first day of my vacation and was a great way to kick things off!

KMFDM - DIY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwbkAyG8Kpw

And then just recently I went to see Social Distortion which was a fan-FUCKIN-tastic show. Just an all around kickass band that was tight and blew everyone away. Social D has been around for 30 years now (damn I feel old) and you would still think they were a bunch of kids just lovin life playing music. My friend brought her 6 year old daughter to see her first concert and she's going to remember this one haha. Mike Ness (singer/band leader) loves seeing kids out at the shows because he sees children as the future of music and likes to see them getting into it. He came to the side of the stage and bent down to hand this little girl his guitar pick. I don't think she even knows how cool that was lol. I also got a chance to show him my Social D tattoo and he said thanks and gave me the sort of "high five handshake" kinda thing lol. Wicked cool moment for me. It was an amazing night all around.

This is a video someone shot from the show I was at, its not professional quality but you can still get the feel of it. Playing a classic from the man in black. One of those hands in there somewhere is me lol.

Social Distortion - Ring of Fire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHY8ja6cAp0

And that brings me up to tonight. We went out for Halloween to see a great hard rock band called Halestorm. They're a young band but have been playing for about 10 years together now. The singer is pretty fuckin hot and she can sing like no tomorrow! She's this tiny little thing with lungs the size of a bus. They tore that place up and made the opening bands wish they had stayed home. Absolute fun on that stage! They made fun of each other and joked around in between songs because they started the show in costumes. They kept throwing candy to the crowd but to my girlfriends dismay, we didn't catch any lol. To give you an idea of the power of this girls voice, and how everyone felt as they opened the show you can just watch this:

Halestorm - It's not you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlV-E4WjRYE

From there they went through a great set list including a Zep cover of Black Dog. The drummer for this band was an absolute animal! Being a drummer myself I was loving watching this guy play. He didn't just play, he entertained as well. Lots of stick tricks and even somehow managing to kick his cymbals now and then without missing a beat. Towards the end he was throwing his drum sticks at the guitar player who would catch it and throw it back. This might sound like playing around except that they were doing it while still playing the songs lol. And the drummer never missed a beat! He did a drum solo that was great but what made it better was part way through they brought out drums on stands and the rest of the band started pounding away in this whole drum circle. It was awesome and really kept the crowd into things.

Here is a clip of what they do there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRIsgXcbBls

We hung out a bit after the show and got to talk to them for awhile and get pictures. They were wicked cool and their managers were actually trying to get them to leave because they had to catch a plane for the next show. They stayed and signed everything we had and took pictures and kept thanking us when we were trying to thank them lol. All in all it was a killer night and I'll be going back to see them again next time they come around. Although maybe next time I'll wait til after the show to drink if I want to get pictures again lol.

This is their first single - I get off
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l14naR3dJQ

http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh289/luxxman/IMG_2792-1.jpg