Ah, the old familiar feel...tiredness. Out 'til 3 a.m. and an out of town shoot tonight. So much for the relaxin' days!

Tonight was a show I was super excited about...the Motley Crue reunion tour stop in Greenville, SC. It was only the 3rd or 4th show. When I saw them on the last tour (without Tommy), I thought they were really good. That was one of the first shows I ever shot. Here's what I can say about tonight...the set list was great (if terribly paced). All the hits (except "Smokin' In The Boys' Room") were there but I was more impressed with the more obscure cuts like "Red Hot", "On With The Show," "Louder Than Hell", "Too Fast For Love", and on and on. Of course, there was plenty of fire and special effects, too. Now - the problem...depsite all that, the concert kind of sucked. The effects seemed pointless and didn't support the music or anything else for that matter. They were all completely arbitrary. It was cool watching Nikki having fire and explosions poured directly on him. It was dazzling to see Tommy fly from stage left to right to the 2 drum-kits to the front of the rafters. The cloud created at the end of "Live Wire" was something I've never seen before, too. The problem was that it all just seemed like tricks to cover up the fact that they sounded awful. Tommy didn't even play like his old self. You couldn't hear Nikki and Vince's vocals were absolutely horrendous / comical. Mick seemed the most solid. Oh well - maybe it's just early in the tour and they haven't worked into the groove yet. Hopefully, they'll make it back my way later in the year. I'll be happy to give them another chance. But tonight just seemed like 4-middle aged men pretending to be reckless youth. Hearing them do "Too Young To Fall In Love" was like seeing The Who play "Young Man Blues" as their hair was graying and thinning (except of course for Daltrey who still looks great). I am glad to have showmen like Motley on the road, though. I was tired of seeing bands go up, stand there, play their songs while trying not to fall asleep and...well, you know. I love acts that can do it all. The performance, the material and the show...eyebrows on. Those elements are what legends are made of.

There was one really nice bonus for tonight. My brother Benji came up to cover the show for Carolina Concerts. Amanda and I sat with him and his friend Ben. I'm glad we got to spend a little time together. That's too rare these days. He's supposed to be getting married within the next few months. Does that mean he's going to be a grownup now? Somehow I doubt it. I don't think either of us is capable of being a "grownup" in the classic sense. I guess we'll see...

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Sweeping the cobwebs off in Athens...

S

Today I lazed around all day listening to music. I fished around Rhapsody and just listened to whatever struck my fancy. Somehow, I stumbled across Jackson Browne's Running On Empty which was one of my Dad's all-time favorites. I haven't listened to the whole album in its entirety in a long time. It really is seamless and without any real fault. This may actually be in my top ten albums of all time. That realization came as a bit of a shock to me. I'm always a sucker for well-paced "theme" or concept albums but I just never realized how great this one is. It's definitely right up there.

In the evening, 2005 began for the Critical Darlings (at least our live identity - we've already kicked the year off in the studio). I'd say this was an average show. The people that knew us said it was one of our best. I don't know. Remember, I know what we're capable of...and we definitely didn't deliver that. It was still mildly special as I performed a few songs in the solo acoustic format (for the first time ever). Read all about the show by clicking on this paragraph.

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You know what? It's nice to have an actual break for once in my life. I say that as it's about to end but this week may be the first actual break from having to do anything that I've had in several years. It's been wonderful and refreshing. I've immersed myself in enjoying music and participating in it as a listener and fan for a change. I subscribed to Real Rhapsody and that's quite an amazing deal. It's more than worth it to me. My friends Emily and Clayton recommended it to me last summer but I haven't really had time to jump into it 'til now. It's perfect for a dweeb like me. I recommend it to all of my fellow music freaks, too. They've got a free trial period going on right now. It's worth a look.

Oh, yeah - and Amanda's doing well. She got out and about to Atlanta and her acting class and got in by about 8:30 or so. She was a bit worn out but (just like I said) she did it all just fine.

This weekend will find the break ending. I've got a show tomorrow and a concert to review on Sunday. Maybe I can take some of this non-panicked feeling with me when I get back to it. That would be nice...

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Thursday February 17, 2005

Amanda's much better. Still a little out of it but she went back to work and made it through the day. Good thing she's getting stronger. She has an all-day shoot tomorrow in Atlanta. Just like always, I'm sure she'll do fine.

I got one of the best deals I've ever gotten in the mail today. Back in the '70s Paul McCartney released a live triple album called Wings Over America. (The live version from this of "Maybe I'm Amazed" was actually the hit version.) The album was re-released as a 2-disc set sometime in the '80s and has since gone out of print. You can find copies for prices between $30 and (I'm not kidding) $150 at places like Ebay. I happened to stumble across one for $7. It had to have been a typo or something, I thought. I figured it might even be a bootleg or not the same thing. It showed up today and it's pristine, still in the shrink wrap and imported from Australia. Perfect. The thing's over 2 hours long and sounds more like the guy from The Beatles performing live than Paul McCartney. Plus, it's got a song never released anywhere else called "Soily." So you know I'm as happy as a collector can be.

Now if I can just find a cheap copy of Jeff Lynne's Armchair Theatre or the Traveling Wilburys' out of print albums at a reasonable price...

During my time "off" I've clearly reverted to my full-on nerd geek ways. That's okay. I go back to work this weekend. We've got a show Saturday and on Sunday I go back to photography with none other than the reunited original lineup of Motley Crue!

Can't wait for that one! It'll be suitably insane and ridiculous.

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Well, Amanda's still home from work. She's getting stronger but, man, it's been rough for her the last few days. She's tolerated my overdosing her with Electric Light Orchestra pretty well. Of course, by the end of the day she let me know that she may be starting to get sick of them. For my part, I downloaded Balance Of Power and all of ELO's non-album tracks from Rhapsody for a mere $12. What a deal. Suddenly, I have everything they've done except for On The Third Day (although I do have half of that). Unfortunately, several of those songs aren't for sale via download. 'Tis all just to frustrate me. And it's especially hard for me to justify going out to buy that one since it's possibly my least favorite of their albums.

In the evening, we had a rust removal rehearsal. It started out terrible and wound up perfectly okay. Frank sounded like he's invested some time in solidifying his parts. That helped a lot. Also, I'll tell you this : my guitar sounded incredible. I got it all set up and intonated for my studio work next week and Mr. Danny Esposito here at Musician's Warehouse did an unbelievable job. The guitar has never felt or sounded better. It was hard for me to focus on our songs! I just wanted to jam like a kid with his first guitar but we didn't have time. We've got a show (and no opener) on Saturday. It's just a getting our feet re-wet performance. We need to get back out there 'cause we've got some fairly biggies coming up and we actually have at least one showcase gig coming up for a producer and a potential investor. We can't afford to blow that. We've also got some road shows on the horizon. We won't be doing as many while we're recording but we'll still be out there enough. So come on out if'n you get the chance.

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Okay, Amanda's full-on sick today. It may or may not have been because of dinner last night. The bottom line is that she's sick enough to not go to work. For her that's a big deal. I'm okay (a minor miracle in and of itself these days). I took the day to kind of look out for her and do a little more delving into my production study. I've decided that Electric Light Orchestra and Jeff Lynne may be the perfect inspiration. I've always loved the music and I respect Lynne up there with my greatest heroes but I didn't realize just how perfect his stuff may be to add into our very particular mix. I wound up downloading the non-hit tracks from I-Tunes so I'd have all the tracks from Face The Music and A New World Record. They're both great records, especially A New World Record. It's just stellar. I also went ahead and ordered the CD of Out Of The Blue for once and for all. I haven't had a decent copy in years and I want to get back into it.

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Monday February 14, 2005

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

I'm taking several days to do not much of anything starting with today. I've earned it. I did drop off copies of Center Of The Universe to go on sale at AthensMusic.net. I also got Paul McCartney's Tug Of War in the mail today. I've picked a couple of artists to study as we're in the studio and Macca's one of 'em. It's hard with him, though, 'cause his solo career's so hit or miss. At least Tug Of War is mostly solid. There are a few great songs and a slew of okay ones. It was his reunion with Beatles producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick. It definitely shows in the first few cuts. It's also the one with the Lennon tribute "Here Today."

In the evening, Amanda and I went out looking for a place to go out. I don't know what's up with Athens but the traffic and crowds have gotten positively unbearable lately. We went out early to try to beat the rush and failed. There were already lines out the door of every restaraunt we went to. We wound up at Thai Of Athens. It's nice enough but it's definitely not my thing.

Within a few hours, Amanda began not feeling too well.

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