Three Great Shows (or, All Music Lovers Should Be Jealous That I Live Near Austin)

Ever since their first record The Raven and The Reaping was released in 2008, I've wanted to see The Famine play live. The band, formed from the ashes of now defunct Embodyment, plays a very infectious brand of groove metal, not unlike Lamb Of God, Oblige or Pantera (although waaaay better than all those bands...of course). The show, hosted by Art Ambush, a tattoo parlor in Waco was awesome as could be expected and it was an honor to see one of my favorite guitarists, Andy Godwin. This event was also bitter sweet because the band recently had their studio burn down, destroying all of their gear and every bit of recorded material for their upcoming record. It was good to hear all of the new material anyway, even though it's going to be quite a long time until they're able to get back on their feet and re-record everything they lost. If anyone within 500-miles of the Dallas area is reading this, there will be a benefit show @ The Door in Dallas on Friday, May 29th. It's gonna be epic. Be there!!!



Andy Godwin - The Famine

Everyone should recall the ever famous Treadmill video, boasting over 50 million plays on You Tube, recorded by the brilliant Ok Go, as well as their equally brilliant Rube Goldberg video off their new record? Well anyway, I saw them play at The Parish in Austin and it was the bee's knees. It's always nice to see bands who don't take themselves too seriously. They even did one song entirely with hand bells and they were dead on, which is impressive, especially for a rock band. The show also included hand chimes, flying confetti, plastic electronic toys, laser-shooting guitars, LED scrolling jackets, and much fun banter with the crowd. Definitely a show I won't soon forget.











The last show was all-time favorite hardcore-punk-rock-metal veterans, Converge, who played at legendary Emo's in Austin. It's been nearly eight years since I last saw them live in Syracuse and it seems like they've done nothing but grow even more energetic as they're now hitting 20 years of playing music. Vocalist Jacob Bannon, who is only a year my senior founded the band at the ripe old age of 14, in 1990, and has been destroying stages ever since, this one included. Guitarist, Kurt Ballou hit every note perfectly and was playing through two new, in-vogue Bad Cat amplifiers. Bassist, Nate Newman continued to give Bannon a run for his money as to who could be the wildest on stage. And drummer, Ben Koller held it all together without missing a beat.

Here's a funny video of a Converge song with differently interpreted lyrics.

Upcoming shows: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros @ La Zona Rosa and mewithoutYou @ Emo's.