WHAT A TEMPER!: READY, AIM....POP!

A strange week comes to an end. Busy, busy, busy. Life continues to evolve. But it's Friday night and the time has come to crank up the music.

Iggy Pop takes the stage with some really energetic music off of Rock Hard, recorded live in Phoenix, Arizona July 17, 1994 and New York July 20, 1988. The NY show is a sound board recording, the other is recorded from a radio broadcast.

The author of the online blog "Punk Not Profit" writes this about the recording:

Once again here's the Godfather of Punk, the ayatollah of rock and rolla. Yet another relentless rockin' gig, listening to any of the Ig-man's recordings leaves you with the overwhelming sense of awe, or at least for myself that is. He is living proof that age has nothing to do with punk rock, and it isn't about the music, it's about the lifestyle.

There's only 2 kind of people in the world, people who like Iggy Pop and those who don't... you decide. Details on this recording are below, sound quality is an A+ and ripped at 320 for maximum raw power. Enjoy...

Refined primitives
Build ruins we inhabit
Never seem to change

On that moonless night
Ships passengers celebrate
There's no tomorrow

Puts his friend to rest
Bond forged in youth is broken
Distant memory

Download it here:
http://filefactory.com/file/cce221e/n/Iggy_Pop_-_Rock_Hard_1994_and_1988.zip

Stars die, one by one
Quiet shimmer to the east
Dawns crescent moon's pale light

The dancing never slowed down this evening, Iggy followed by a hard hitting performance by Van Halen, kicking off their 2012 tour at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky on February 18, 2012, an excellent audience recording, one of many flooding the net, compliments of the many bootleggers out there.

The review of the show:

Singer David Lee Roth bounced around the stage like a big, 57-year-old kid, delivering a performance that was half burlesque, half living-room show-off, and all rock star. Alex Van Halen brought his usual thunder on the drums, and while diehards probably still miss original bassist Michael Anthony, Wolfgang Van Halen has become a serious replacement.

But the night belonged to Eddie.

Eddie Van Halen, the guitar-shredding heart of the band’s sound, was in peak form. His right hand was like a jackhammer all night as he showed utter command of his instrument, with no apparent ill effects from a 2009 surgery on his left hand. This was crucial, because while the band’s best material stands alone as seriously good, voraciously hard rock, Eddie’s guitar is Van Halen.

Read it all here:
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120218/FEATURES/302180125/Classic-Rock-Van-Halen-David-Lee-Roth

Download it here:
http://depositfiles.com/files/4oj33xkob

A relaxing Saturday was followed by another evening of music, but the pace was slowed down a bit after last nights dancing rampage. Tokyo Police Club started things off, a radio broadcast recording from the Paragon Theater at the Halifax Pop Explosion on October 23, 2010.

"Tokyo Police Club is an ideal band to watch live. For starters, their songs inspire commotion and if you don’t know the words the next song is never more than two minutes away. The band encourages audience participation, so much so that there’s a Tokyo Police Club rule when they play ‘Tessellate’ – no beer claps. Dave Monks explains, “We want legit claps, so just put your beer on the ground, no one will kick it. We promise.” The band commanded all the enthusiasm from A Lesson in Crime through to their latest record Champ and delivered a pressing and euphoric performance. Tokyo Police Club is like having incredibly exciting news to tell someone and then when you try to share, your words can’t keep up with your thoughts. The analogy I’m trying to make is that the band generates such authentic energy that it’s overwhelming. ‘Your English Is Good’ is a flood of youthful chanting wrapped in a carefree chorus, the band closed Halifax Pop Explosion 2010 with more excitement than one could ask for."

http://www.cavacool.com/concert/halifax-pop-explosion-2010/

Download it here:
https://rapidshare.com/#!download|693|1442190467|Tokyo_Police_Club_-_2011_-_Paragon_Theatre__Halifax__October_23__2010.rar|143087

Last up for the weekend was Echo and the Bunnymen performing at the Royal Albert Hall in London on September 16, 2008, an excellent audience recording, the sound echoing in the cavernous hall. A review of this Ocean Rain tour show said:

It might appear self-indulgent at first glance. For just three gigs (London, New York, Liverpool), Echo & the Bunnymen are revisiting their fourth LP, 1984's Ocean Rain, and playing it in its entirety with a 16-piece string section. They even act as their own support band, with an hour-long hits set before the main event.

But what stops this becoming a nostalgic wallow isn't just singer Ian McCulloch's undiminished voice and guitarist Will Sergeant's peerless playing. There is a sense of unfinished business, a reputation to restate, and a lushly orchestrated album to perform properly for the first time. And anyway, as McCulloch alludes to in a scatted mea culpa midway through the inscrutable Thorn of Crowns, some of these quarter-century-old songs are only now starting to reveal their true meanings.

The simple staging is perfect. You don't have to be a synesthete to see Ocean Rain as a blue record: five of its nine tracks include the colour in their lyrics. Throughout, the stage is bathed in azure shades: pale turquoise during the brittle zithering of Nocturnal Me, rain-lashed slate for My Kingdom's icy guitar solo, a rich, regal amethyst for the title track.

The Killing Moon reaches the night's most dizzying high, feeling as though it contains every ounce of the mystic portent it must have held for McCulloch in the dream that gave him its chorus (as concise poetic encapsulations of the human condition go, it doesn't get much better than: "Fate, up against your will/ Through the thick and thin"). But even this is topped by Ocean Rain itself, where the strings are held back until the end of the second verse so that they hit with a euphoric punch of almost physical intensity, sunny melodic optimism piercing the lyrics' chiaroscuro of storm clouds and "blackest thoughts".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/sep/19/popandrock.echoandthebunnymen