ümlaut: Another One Down

Vintage Old Metal Decal

It was an "interesting" year for Umlaut after 2008's weirdness and chaos. It wasn't necessarily a bad year, but I think when the history book is written, my 2009 will be called my "Lost Year" for reasons that some of you know about... and some of you don't. I felt like I had been vacuum sealed for 365 days and put into a freezer, but it looks like I'm about to be taken out, thawed, and unleashed again. Umlaut will continue to fight the hordes, sing and cry, and we will see what the next 8,760 hours bring. As always, THANKS to Skychick, Fredo, Dixie, Eddie, and Buggers for keeping the plane at cruising altitude despite any turbulence or bullshit that comes our way.

I will now quote that British band: "Let The Music be your Master, will you heed The Master's call?"... and with those words, here's my 2009 scorecard:

This year featured the return Stalking Tour Manager Doug that took in 10 shows, 8 cities, and 2 countries and in any other year that would have been the event to overshadow everything else... but, amazingly, Umlaut's year was defined by *THAT* band: Metallica...

I'll never talk shit about Metallica again after my experience with them in Cleveland during their induction into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. People often say a concert was a "once in a lifetime experience", but my experience in Cleveland was easily the most profound once in a lifetime experience imaginable. Yeah, The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is a bullshit elitist, out of touch institution... but The Hall of Fame sought out Metallica and the band used the moment to celebrate their career in the most INCLUSIVE way imaginable: By hosting a once in a lifetime reunion of old friends and associates dating back to when they were unknown pimply-faced teenagers. As I said in my rant in this space about the experience, there has never been so many people gathered in one room who knew Cliff Burton (including me) and 26 years of my life came full circle that weekend. Man, I followed a band from their demo tape to The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame... How many people can say that?! Plus... I stood 5 feet away from JIMMY PAGE at the party!! Sing and cry... Vahalla I am coming... AND I saw Metallica (with both Jason Newsted and Robert Trujillo on bass) perform 'Train Kept A-Rollin' with JIMMY PAGE, Jeff Beck, Joe Perry, Ron Wood, and Flea. ONCE... IN... A... FUCKING... LIFETIME.

To be honest, every other moment of my 2009 pales in comparison to that 5 minutes or so in Cleveland... but for the sake of variety some other highlights of my year were Amebix (If I had to pick ONE best concert in 2009 outside of Cleveland it would be this one!).. Gallows (TWICE!)... Shellac... General Surgery... Coffins.. Cheap Trick.. Secrets Of The Moon... Leonard Cohen ... Judas Priest and Whitesnake at a COUNTY FAIR... Mummies reunion show (!).. Ludicra (TWICE!)... Alice Cooper.. so many great memories... some other specific highlights from my year:

Following Motörhead on tour for 4 dates and having quality time with Lemmy.
Acid King's first hometown shows in almost 3 YEARS (!) and seeing my brothers Black Cobra 3x as they released their excellent new album.
Falling under the wheels of Landmine Marathon and traveling to their desert homeland to see them.
Pulling off 5 doubleheader gig nights.
Being able to say that I saw both Celine Dion AND Slayer in the same year.
Being able to say that the Celine Dion concert was better than Cradle Of Filth.. I'm completely serious.. Cradle Of Filth were awful.

This was also the year that I finally had to admit that I've fallen out of love with PJ Harvey. It was a long relationship that dated back to her debut U.S. Tour in 1992 when I saw her at Slim's. Sadly, her last couple of albums lost me... and her show on this tour made me finally realize that perhaps it's best that we don't see each other anymore. Polly Jean, it's not you.. It's me... Actually, it really is you but I don't wanna be an asshole about this..

Anyway, since I already have the first show of 2010 in the archives, I'm kind of not in the mood to write anymore about last year at this point. It was an inspiring year of seeing bands and having amazing life experiences as I chased volume in venues far and wide. They say a picture is worth a thousand words.. so here are my final 1,000 words about the year that was 2009:

Old Metal Brothers: K.J., Umlaut, James Hetfield, Ian
House Of Blues, Cleveland, Ohio - April 3, 2009

THANKS for all the support, readers and friends... I mainly rant in this space to entertain myself and to keep my mind sharp. The fact that people actually read my crap still surprises me... I will soon celebrate the 6th Anniversary of this space so let's see where The Rock Godz take me next.

See y'all on the other side..

Monday, January 04, 2010

Another One Down