Montag, 28. Jul 2008, 20:47

Goldfinger at the Murray Theatre

Wow, where to start. I almost didn’t go to this show . I like Goldfinger, Less Than Jake, and Big D and the kids table, plus I want to see Suburban Legends. But I wasn’t in the mood for a show, it was one of those days I sat down after work and just couldn’t get off my butt and move. But everytime I let lazyness tell me what to do I end up regretting it so I dragged myself up and figured on spending $25 to chill in the back of a theater.

First off, I’ve never been to Murray Theater for a concert before. As far as I knew they only did hypnotist shows and weird things like that. Turns out it’s probably the best venue in the valley!

They don’t own their own parking lot to over-charge for. There doesn’t need to be because there’s plenty of parking in the surrounding area, especially if you don’t mind walking a block or two. I was late so I don’t know if the show started on time but it seemed to judging by how much of Suburban Legends was into their show. Getting in wasn’t like trying to get on a plane, I paid, they let me in; no pat-downs, idiotic rules, or cavity searches. The venue is small but not like Burts Tiki Lounge small. It’s like the Tower Theater, a 50s-60s movie theater with the chairs removed. The stage space is decent for the artists to dance around, room in back for the sound board, side areas for shwag, clean restrooms, limited drink vending in front, and tiered floor so you can be in the pit in front or stay in back and see over the heads of pit goers. The show moved from Saltair to here and all I can say is Thank God! And as John Feldman of Goldfinger pointed out…
No barrier!

So Suburban Legends was already onstage when I got there. The lead singer was good, I’m surprised he used to just be the trumpet man, left, came back, and became the lead because he did a great job leading the group. The music is a bit on the Pop-Punk side but good. And I noticed that the band was popular with the teens in the show and there were a lot of them. I’m getting to where I feel old at the shows I goto now, but fuck it. I was listening to LTJ and Goldgfinger when these kids were in elementary school.
It was my show not theirs.

Big D and the Kids Table and came out next. They had recently been here but they brought up the rear of another marathon 4 band show so people we’re dead by time they played. This time they still had a fresh crowd to play to so people were a little more lively for the show. They played a lot of their newer songs but still threw in all of their old favorites. I’ve noticed more and more artists adding in visualizations to their shows in the form of video shown on projectors. It’s distracting in a way but at the same time it provides more depth to songs where the images match the lyrics. Done well it’s pretty cool and Big D used it well. Plus I didn’t know they had a music video for their cover of The Specials' Little Bitch featuring a ton of other punk/ska bands.

Anyway after Big D and the Kids Table were off I checked out to see what CDs were available. Suburban Legends had a lot of their CDs out including ones that are hard to find through normal online means. Big D and the kids table didn’t have too much. I already had all the CDs they were offering. Less Than Jake had a few CDs, they’re moving over to their own new label so they had re-issues of a couple older CDs. Goldfinger had a few of their’s but none of the older CDs. Come on guys! I have these already! Bring the hard to find stuff!

While I was grabbing the CDs I didn’t have Less Than Jake came up and started signing autographs. I’m not big on collecting autographs but it’s a nice bonus if they want to do it. Although it always seems artists are never as excited as they make out when they finally start autographing. Except for Dragonforce who were really chatty during signing it seems most artists just sign while they carry on their own private conversations ignoring the fans in front of them. I don’t know the psychology of it, maybe they’re just tired of having to go face to face with so many people, some who are true fans and some who just think it’s cool to get a signature. Of which I saw many people who got just got their ticket stubs signed:
I know you don’t always have money to get a CD but if you’re going to get an autograph splurge and buy a CD, even if you already have it. It supports the artists even more and I’m sure they appreciate it more than if you want them to sign a piece of paper you’re likely to throw away when you get home.
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In an odd aside the other celebrity I saw was Elizabeth Smart. I swear to god, she was wearing a green shirt! I was going to ask the burning question, “Why didn’t you just walk out the f-ing door!!” But maybe she would have been offended.

Next was Goldfinger and all I can say is WOW. I remember from years ago that Goldfinger put on a good show but I had forgotten just how good they were. They easily tie or pass my favorite Street Dogs for the number one band to see live. It’s hard to believe John Feldman is 41 years old because he was tearing things up more than anybody at the show. The energy was simply amazing and he was loving not having a barrier, crowd-surf/singing, inviting everybody on stage for two songs (to the point they had to clear the stage to keep playing without getting overcrowded). It really was amazing, it made it one of those shows that will be talked about years from now among friends, “Goldfinger is coming to town?! That’s awesome! You know I was at the 2008 show at Murray Theater. They don’t allow shows like that anymore…”

Speaking of which, at one point the drummer Darrin Pfeiffer came out and interacted with the crowd. All good fun, splitting the crowd in two and having them rush together like the fight scene in Braveheart into a giant mosh for the end of a song. Then daring the wildest guy in the audience to some up and eat a twinkie wedged in his ass crack. Two came up and fought “rock, paper, scissors” to be the one. One guy lost but the other stayed up incase the first lost his nerve. To my surprise Darrin actually dropped trou and stuck a twinkie between his bare ass cheeks while standing on a stage monitor, and as expected “Mr. Tough” guy lost his nerve and pussed out. But his understudy manned up and put his money where his mouth was…
…or the ass twinkie where his mouth was. But he did it!
Goldfinger finished up by coming out and doing the classic anti-war nena cover of 99 red balloons as an encore. Amazing show!

In between shows Goldfinger came out an signed Animal Liberation Front pamphlets for people so I figured what the hell and went to try to get another CD signed. John signed the CD and a pamphlet, Charlie Paulson didn’t sign the CD but signed an ALF DVD. But since Charlie signed the slip case for the DVD a little swap and suddenly I had the CD signed by both members of the band (Kelly LeMieux and Darrin, weren’t out signing).
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Now I respect everybody’s beliefs so if they want to educate people about the horrors of meat packing plants, I’m not opposed; but I’m going to keep expressing my belief and eating meat guys. And no I’m not going to watch the DVD snuff video. Processing meat is gross and sad but I’m sure they do a better job than I would trying to slice a steak out of a cow.

While waiting for Less than Jake there was a little scuffle in back when a guy tried to steal a CD and the seller had to stop him. The problem is that it happened right next to the sound engineer rack yanking out a lot of plugs. If you’ve seen the mess of wires behind a sound mixing console you’ll know why this delayed the show till it could be fixed. If you ever see anybody stealing from the artist tables, or just fighting people for the hell of it, stop them and haul security to haul them out. They’re ruining your show that you paid money for, and stealing that money for the band you just gave it to.

Less Than Jake always puts on a great show. The only thing is that after 3 very energetic bands people were getting a little tired by this point and it was hard to keep the crowd going. Again it was a good mix of old and new songs (sorry no Jen Doesn’t like me anymore this time either), but not quite the onstage spectacle as they were at Saltair a year ago . However they did bring on stage an older guy introducing him as a man who knew what it was like to get laid back in the 70’s when sex was real. So they invited up the nastiest skankiest girl up on stage to dance with him to get him excited like it was 1970. There were plenty of potential girls in the audience who fit the bill quite well but as much as they want the attention they don’t want it THAT bad. There was one girl however who was willing to go up and go back down so to speak. I noticed her before, stereotype nymphomaniac personality: very outgoing , with a constant need to be the center of attention. I wasn’t surprised to see it was her going up on stage, she was also one of the many who went up when Goldfinger was one but she didn’t go up to sing with the band, just to go up and stand front and center and soak in everybody noticing her (and I guess it worked!)

Anyway they really got in on up on stage, I couldn’t believe it, it didn’t stop with dancing and moved on to the reverse cowboy and almost simulated 69. Even the band was shocked by how far they were taking it. Between that and the ass twinkie earlier I’d be surprised if the more prudish Utah goers would complain and cause issues for the venue.

But a great show all in all. One more thing, more bands need to work in confetti cannons into the show like LTJ did. Or take some guidance from Japanese groups who are a master of the confetti cannon.

New CDs
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Rump Shaker

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Infectious

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Let's Be Friends and Slay the Dragon Together

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Hello Destiny

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GNV FLA

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Goodbye Blue and White