Queensrÿche - Halfway Jam

It would be surprising that there isn't some time in our lives that we didn't have that "know where you were" moments.  The attacks of September 11th, the Challenger explosion, the shooting of President Reagan, my high school graduation (trust me that one was touch and go) all are potential moments.  In 2012 I was really starting to hit my stride with this very blog and I had one of those moments.  Why am I telling you?  Why do you care?  Keep reading...

Hairball - Act Three

I had the strangest dream recently, Friday March 8th, 2013 to be exact.  I had this dream about music but that isn't what made the dream strange.  I would chalk the strangest part of the dream to those that made an appearance, and they were some interesting ones.  Yes I could have opened up in therapy, to a psychiatrist or I could even bought a book on dreams, but what fun would that have been.

Trixter - Halfway Jam

Magic, Silly Rabbit's and kids, levitation, David Blaine, Cheap Trick, Vegas and Harry Houdini, each of these are associated in some way to "tricks".  Whether it be magicians, cities, or breakfast cereal we all have a curiosity with tricks.  While we were young, we would stare intently, watching someone doing some type of magic trick, and we would sit mesmerized as the magician (or an uncle at a family gathering) did some type of trick whatever it was.  In the summer of 2012 I felt like that child as I stared at a stage in Royalton, MN.  You may ask yourself, why?  What does magic and Royalton, MN have to do with magic?  Well...

ZZ 3 - Mississippi Moon Bar

Walter Payton.  Gary Fencik.  Wilbur Marshall.  Although most of you may recognize one of those listed, its a fair bet that unless you are a rabid Chicago Bears fan, two of the names are unfamiliar to you.  Walter Payton, a Hall of Fame Running Back for the Chicago Bears (the greatest EVER) is the most recognizable name of the three.  Fencik and Marshall were phenomenal at the positions (Fencik - Safety, Marshall - Linebacker) so when I tell you that as a youth I wanted to be them, it should be of no surprise.  It seemed like every time my cousins and I got together and play a "pick-up" game of football I pretended to be one of them.  As the saying goes, "Imitation is the purest form of flattery" but what does that have to do with a music blog?  Well...

Bang Tango - Halfway Jam

The era that was "Hair Metal" was full of bands that had been signed by record companies eager to make a buck.  Bands from the era varied from the unenviable position of "one hit wonders" to arena-worthy "mega hit" bands.  For many of the "one hit wonders", their fame faded, rather collapsed around them but some of them survived to play another day.  The three days of "Halfway Jam" and so many other music festivals provide those "survivors" with a way to bring their music to those that lived through the hair metal days as well as a new set of ears; their children.  For one of those bands, they did more than just "survive".

Everclear - Mississippi Moon Bar

When I was a mere lad, I was introduced to a concoction so horrific that it still haunts me to this day.  The concoction always seemed as if it were the work of some evil scientist, no, it was like a potion created by an alchemist in search of turning water into gold.  The sickening sweet flavor of this potion was trumped by the fact that drinking one or two would make you so wasted that you would forget your own name.  This potion was formulated by the melding a grape flavored (and colored) drink mix and...

L.A. Guns - Mississippi Moon Bar

The terms "coulda - shoulda - woulda" can be as haunting the ghosts (or skeletons) that live within our closets.  Everyone has them (sometimes they are flat-out terrifying) but at times they can be inane.  Sure we can think back to that person we wanted to ask out, or that lottery ticket we should have bought but those opportunities that involve "celebrities" or our "childhood heroes" can be the most daunting.  Those people that are either "blessed with" or are "stuck with" living in a small town understand that when the opportunity arises to see, or meet celebrities or childhood heroes you better figure out a way to accomplish it or it may drift away quicker than a tornado in Kansas.