Yay! Already got my tickets for Clapton’s concert on June 23rd. Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood will be performing @ the American Airlines Center of Dallas on 6/23/2009. This tour was  inspired by their initial performance at the Maddison Square Garden in New York. Here is a quick [...]]]>

Clapton & Winwood in Dallas 6/23/09

Yay! Already got my tickets for Clapton’s concert on June 23rd. Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood will be performing @ the American Airlines Center of Dallas on 6/23/2009. This tour was  inspired by their initial performance at the Maddison Square Garden in New York. Here is a quick promo-excerpt:

After a stunning collaboration at the Chicago Crossroads Guitar Festival in July of 2007, Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood announced three eagerly anticipated concerts at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Those shows featured the artists performing together in a varied set list with Blind Faith, Traffic, and Cream classics and solo hits from each artist. Critics acclaimed the shows as historic and some of the best Clapton Winwood work ever. The tour promises more of the same collaborative musicianship that made these men legendary award-winning artists.

Coldplay Dallas 7/21/09

And Coldplay will be performing about a month later, July 21st, at the SuperPages.com Center -former Smirnoff & Coca-Cola venues- in Dallas. I am still not completely sold on their latest work but I do respect it. Besides, this is going to be my first Coldplay concert and I couldn’t let it pass.

All in all, good times ahead despite the rough economic situation. What would we do without this spectacular artform called muic?!

Rock on!

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If you answered “yes” [...]]]> Do you want your band’s material reviewed? Are you a signed or unsigned band? Do you have a couple of tracks you recorded at home with a beat box, your guitar & a few midi-synths? Do you know someone who might have answered yes to any of these questions?

If you answered “yes” to any of those, leave me a comment and let me know where I can get the album or tracks to listen to and review them. This is open to any genre -progressive is just a term to denote something out of the ordinary; something that breaks the mold, and that’s precisely the first thing that gets my attention.

Be brave, and let yourself be heard by the masses -and feed my appetite for good music!

C’mon, I know you can do it!

Cheers!
{miguel.pereira}

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AC/DC Dallas 2009 Concert

You can chalk my first concert for the year 2009: I finally witnessed the Australian hard rock in their full glory -or whatever they’ve got in them at age 50.

AC/DC’s line up: Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar), Angus Young (lead guitar), Brian Johnson (vocals), Cliff Williams (bass guitar); Phil [...]]]>

AC/DC Dallas 2009 Concert

You can chalk my first concert for the year 2009: I finally witnessed the Australian hard rock in their full glory -or whatever they’ve got in them at age 50.

AC/DC’s line up: Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar), Angus Young (lead guitar), Brian Johnson (vocals), Cliff Williams (bass guitar); Phil Rudd (drums) have been rocking the world practically since 1974 -amid a few lineup changes.

The Dallas show was part of their Black Ice album day view tour which kicked off its United States leg on October 28th 2008, and is part of a 42 show effort on their part. The album, Black Ice, though not my favorite did offer some good material for the concert. However, their older material: Shook You All Night Long, Thunderstruck, Back in Black & many others were the icing on the cake for me that night.

Always electrified, Angus, knew very well how to play and please the crowd. The American Airlines Center, which had the show sold out within days of the tickets going on sale, didn’t seem to be fully packed -at least not how I expected it to be. He was outfitted with the signature school boy attire that’s so unmistakeably AC/DC by now.

ACDC Live 2009 – TNT

In my opinion, their performance was flawless and left no good material unturned -which is so refreshing on a band that has so much of it at its disposal. Kuddos to AC/DC: KEEP ROCKIN’!

[[Show as slideshow]]

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Here is another interesting album I recently discovered not long ago by pure chance (google rocks!). “There is Hope” is a concoction of styles, which to me, are highly recognizable on some of my other guitar heroes. But more on that later, first lets meet the artist.

Marco [...]]]>

Italy's prog-rock guitar virtuoso

Here is another interesting album I recently discovered not long ago by pure chance (google rocks!). “There is Hope” is a concoction of styles, which to me, are highly recognizable on some of my other guitar heroes. But more on that later, first lets meet the artist.

Marco Sfogli, born in Italy in 1980 (makes me re-think how much I stink playing my favorite instrument, since we are both the same age -though I have more hair!) was initiated in the dark art of guitar playing at the age of 9. And while he had a brief stint playing drums, he returned to guitar playing at age 16. Marco’s resume include being a session player in Italy, and currently being the main riff-rocker for Dream Theater lead singer’s solo projects: James LaBrie; and has had the opportunity to play in one way or fashion with most of the progressive rock stable of names.

The first two cuts of the album: “Still hurts” & “Andromeda” are decidedly influenced and styled after John Petrucci’s album “Suspended Animation“. The tracks that follow feel to me as a departure from the album openers, and dwell into more rythmically interesting passages, as well as some amazing arrangements. The album-named track, “There’s Hope” has very sticky riffs and arrangements, and in my humble opinion, reflects the entire album’s essence: showcasing Marco Sfogli’s musical creativity and dexterity with the instrument.

Another track that that stands out is “Sunset Lights”, which carries a very melodic intro and a healthy amount of variations. Overall, the album is highly recommended and I can say it has kept me interested for quite some time. Each song has shed a new element everytime I’ve listened to them, and coming from me, that says a lot about the level of complexity of the material in this album. In my opinion, this is a “nice to have” album for anyone who has an appreciation for guitar playing, or a tooth for Petrucci’s style.

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I have to admit I had never heard of these guys before. Hence my shock when I received my Ticketmaster weekly newsletter letting me know Pink Floyd was going to be in town. I thought to myself: “WOW! I’ve either lived on a dream all these time [...]]]>

Australian Pink Floyd - Dallas, TX (2008)

I have to admit I had never heard of these guys before. Hence my shock when I received my Ticketmaster weekly newsletter letting me know Pink Floyd was going to be in town. I thought to myself: “WOW! I’ve either lived on a dream all these time thinking it was 2008, or someone has discovered how to resurrect the great legends of yore!”.

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It was not too long ago -maybe a little over a decade- when my first Dream Theater album landed on my honky CD player back in my bedroom in Buenos Aires. It was Images & Words. That was the ‘hook, line & sinker’ that got me into their music. It is probably, [...]]]>

Dream Theater lineup

It was not too long ago -maybe a little over a decade- when my first Dream Theater album landed on my honky CD player back in my bedroom in Buenos Aires. It was Images & Words. That was the ‘hook, line & sinker’ that got me into their music. It is probably, the first ever album I left to play from beginning to end without interruption, skipping or pausing. IAW had a spellbound effect on me, maybe because it reminded me of the good ol’ heavy, but melodic nature, of some of the most polished Europe-era glam songs I remember listening to over the radio; or maybe simply because every single arrangement on every single song seems to jell so fantastically well.

Whatever the case maybe, weeks later I was rushing to the most popular music store in town only to be disappointed: “Dream What?!” the clerk told me “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of them…I don’t think we carry any of their albums” he closed. I had to rush downtown Buenos Aires in order to get my hands on some more of their music. It was after a bit of scouring and shuffling through aisles and aisled of albums @ the most obscure CD stores that I was able to land the next big thing: Falling Into Infinity. For me, it was a downhill spiraling fall into fanaticism from there.

And then, when I thought these guys could not better themselves again, I heard it, their latest release back then, in 1999, Scenes From a Memory: which for me and many others, represented the ultimate showcase of musicianship and creativity from these Long Island boys. The conceptual album -i.e. Tommy; The Wall; Bat out of Hell- took me by storm. It was not only a condensation of all the things I admired about the band, but an augmentation of their creativity. This is probably the sole album where I know I have to skip certain songs if I don’t want to break down and cry. The music, lyrics & arrangements have such an intensity I’ve never noticed anywhere else. I highly recommend this album for those of you who have a more progressive tooth.

Since then, DT has shuffled styles back and forth trying not to fall into -infinity- the same cliches that usually mean ‘doom’ to most bands. They even recorded songs that were suitable to be aired on radio -hard to believe when most of their songs broke the 5 minute barrier and could NOT be edited without sacrificing their essence. They’ve survived, and they are now well into their 20th year making music. However, I can’t help but notice that the original Dream Theater spice has long been gone. I still love their music, their creativity, and above all, their supernatural ability to perform as a band: possibly the most cohesive live act I’ve witnessed in my two decades of music awareness. My question is, which ‘virtuosos’ band is picking up the baton from them?

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