Thank you Zoltan, for bringing me the horizon. Oh and the UK press too.

I grabbed a copy of Metal Hammer magazine, January edition, at Barnes and Noble the other day, mostly because the packaging showed that there would be something about Philip H. Anselmo inside, but also because it's British music press and -- dare I say it again -- the British music press is so much better than the awful so-called music press over here where you can't find a decent article for the ads. Sigh... Great magazine, Metal Hammer, but like Prog Rock magazine and Classic Rock magazine and others, all the tour dates are for the UK (despite some effort by the publishers to make this a more transatlantic publication, the majority are sold in England, Scotland, Wales... and we get them over here several weeks late).

On page 46, the "critics choice" of the best metal albums of 2013 begins. Includes some bands I've seen and reviewed this year--Dillinger Escape Plan, Five Finger Death Punch, Philip H Anselmo, HIM... but no Gemini Syndrome. Can't say I'm surprised, as GS haven't appeared in the UK... yet.

But then I see my friend Zoltan of Five Finger Death Punch.  Top of page 48.

(OK he's not really my friend. He can't "friend" any more people on Facebook, that's the reason why, OK??? I just have this cool picture I took of him at Aftershock. So I can call him friend, right???)

Zoltan Bathory of Five Finger Death Punch, Aftershock 2013

So my pal Zoltan, on page 48, Metal Hammer has published his top five albums from 2013. Number One on Zoltan Bathory's list???   Lux, by Gemini Syndrome.  (Not just friends... we're soul mates now!!!!) So today I'm expecting everyone in the UK to be listening to Gemini Syndrome, not because I say so any more. But now because you read it at the top of Zoltan's list.

So... as he obviously has great taste (to go with the guitar skills, I'm not so sure about the automatic weapons), I took a look at the rest of his top five. In particular, Sempiternal from Bring Me The Horizon.

The first time I listened to Sempiternal, I couldn't get past Oliver Sykes' vocals. I thought his throat would fall out. (The rest of the music made an impression: melodic, heavy, engine of a bass and drum line, almost-orchestral arrangements, and some football (soccer) chants that you know the crowd will sing along to.) The second time I listened to Sempiternal, the silence between the tracks made me realise how much I wanted to hear the next song. And the third time I listened to Sempiternal, I was totally hooked on Sykes' vocals. Even if that voice is not sustainable, this album is a classic.

(iTunes classifies the album as "punk". Really? Really???? Come on... Does anyone listen to anything before labelling it???)

"I can't drown my demons, they know how to swim."

"Go to hell, for heaven's sake".

Bring Me The Horizon are from Sheffield (if you know Sheffield, you'll know why "metal" is the true name of anything and anyone who comes from there... Google Sheffield steel). So maybe that's why I hadn't heard them before, being on this side of the pond now. Check them out on their website:  http://www.bringmethehorizon.co.uk/ or on Facebook. (Shows me that they are really still quite unknown over here, when I see they have more than 4 million followers on Facebook, and yet only one of my Facebook friends "likes" them.) But they are on their way to the USA now! Tour dates here: http://www.bringmethehorizon.co.uk/gigs  IMPORTANT: remember that the dates are written English-style not American! Day, month, year! Darnit... I'll be out of the country when they play San Francisco. DARNIT DARNIT DARNIT.

My prediction for 2014: Bring Me The Horizon will be big in the USA. And Gemini Syndrome will be big in the UK.

Let's get this year started.

And thank you, Mr. Bathory. Friend.

If you like Macklemore...

... check out Matt Van Sol (previously known as SpitNice or Spit NYC):

Videos:  http://www.youtube.com/user/SpitNYC

Website:  http://mattvansol.com/ 

Here's just one example: "Toxic" (Explicit/Parental Advisory/whatever warning you need)

Rock the zoo. Sacramento zoo and its rock stars.

"Are you shooting a show tonight?"
"No... nothing on. Bored. Maybe I'll go to the zoo."

Truth was, I'd seen someone-else's collection of black-and-white zoo-animal photos online this week, very highly-contrasted images, and I thought I'd "borrow" the idea and see what happened to it. That's how you learn and improve... see photos you like, play with the idea, see if you can do the same (or better), but usually find you are putting your own spin on it anyway and it turns into something unique.

The black-and-white concept bit the dust the moment I saw the flamingos. (Zebras don't count.) So I just shot from my own perspective... and guess what. Zoos are just like rock concerts.

There's the up-the-nose shot.

There's one of the stars (usually the drummer) who's hiding behind stuff, where light is not always perfect, and autofocus is useless. (This star is called Red Panda and it's the only part-decent shot I have of him/her.)

The great moments when you capture members of the band as they play together, having fun.

The in-your-face-mouth-wide-open moment...

... and all the long-legged dressed-up-pretty girls hanging out together and looking at their reflections...

That guy with the mohawk and goatee and loads of ink, standing close to the stage. He's always there.

Even my obsession with close-ups of the performers' hands.

But darnit. I really, really thought I'd get away without a Miley moment...

More pictures of Alison Toon | Photographer's music photography can be found at http://alisontoon.com/music.

More pictures from today's visit to the rock star inhabitants at Sacramento Zoo can be found at in the Toon's Tunes gallery.

Photographer's choice: Zenfolio or PhotoShelter? Or... PhotoDeck? Yes, please!

UPDATE, Jan 25th: It's taken about two weeks for the images to be fully re-indexed and made searchable through Google, with the new location taking precedence over the old server (with consequent broken links). I can breathe again now! Yes, I recommend PhotoDeck. Use my discount code if you want to try it, you'll receive 50% off your first month!  YG@UTGRCO

UPDATE, Jan 2015: I have finally moved, copied, or more accurately, re-exported from Lightroom and then made a new import to PhotoDeck, all of the photos that were stored on Zenfolio. This weekend, I migrated my domain name. It was not painless. It was a huge amount of work, and now that I've migrated the domain name, I have to go and fix each and every blog post that had an embed from the Zenfolio site. So it's still not finished.

BUT... the images on the new http://alisontoon.com were showing up in Google search in under 24 hours! "Not a Zenfolio issue", I was told, over and over again. Yeah, right... Conclusion: PhotoDeck is much more expensive, and it takes a heck of a lot of time and effort to migrate once you're already established somewhere else. But the SEO improvements, the licensing and sales functionality, make it well worth it. Don't forget: use the code below if you're trying PhotoDeck. You'll get a discount!

 UPDATE, Sept 2014: I'm in the process of migrating all my photography, and my domain, to PhotoDeck, It is going to cost considerably more than Zenfolio--and that is a big downside--but the major upside is that photos are now being indexed and found, almost immediately. The PhotoDeck functionality for stock photographers is just what I was looking for. (If you want to see the work-in-progress, go to http://alisontoon.photodeck.com. Once all the photos are moved and everything has been redirected, I'll move the domain too and it will go back to http://alisontoon.com.)

Try it and see!  Use this coupon code to get 50% off your first month: YG@UTGRCO

ORIGINAL POST, Jan 2014: I've been hosting my photography portfolio on Zenfolio for over a year now: http://alisontoon.com. The music can all be found at http://alisontoon.com/music. I really like the ease of managing the site, and the way I can design it to look the way I want it. I like that I can create URLs specifically to sets of photos--URLs that make sense, like http://www.alisontoon.com/aftershock2013 or http://www.alisontoon.com/raccoons or http://www.alisontoon.com/marillionweekenduk2013sunday. But I don't like the SEO. Really, I don't.

I've had an ongoing discussion with the Zenfolio support team (who always reply to support calls very, very quickly, even if it is me rattling on again about SEO). Individual images on Zenfolio sites do not appear to be indexed by the major search engines. I believe that this is, in part, due to Zenfolio's site maps only reaching the gallery level--the collection of images--and not each page of the site which contains each image's own, often-unique, keywords and text. Despite all my best efforts at keywording, tagging, labelling and otherwise adding text wherever possible to enable good searching, I cannot find any way for Google, Bing etc. to identify and find individual images. (If you Google some of my pictures, you'll find that they are either found on this blog, http://alison-toon.blogspot.com, or if they are found on http://alisontoon.com, they are tiny thumbnails, found on a gallery page and not the image or image pages themselves.)

So when I saw info about PhotoShelter's advanced SEO and free trial, I thought I'd try it out and compare with Zenfolio. Here are the results. I'm not including price in here because it wasn't a big concern--functionality was the priority.

What I loved about PhotoShelter:

- Setting up licensing and prices. As a mostly editorial photographer, I have to be sure that the licensing is correct and that editorial images are not sold for commercial purposes. PhotoShelter not only makes it easy to set up licencing in many different forms, it also uses pricing from fotoQuote(r) to help you to choose your pricing--not essential, but a helpful indication of the prices you might charge.

- The concept of image-page-level sitemapping, and automatic upload of the sitemap each and every week to Google. However, after more than a week using PhotoShelter, I did not see any of my PhotoShelter images appear in Google searches, but I know that I had not given it enough time to really test it. Would be interested to hear from other editorial photographers about their success.

- Image security. It's really difficult for anyone to copy photos with the PhotoShelter security settings. Of course, there's always a way around it, but what PhotoShelter does makes it really difficult to "borrow" a decent image. But...

What I did not like about PhotoShelter:

- Online image quality. When I exported the same photos from LightRoom and uploaded them to both Zenfolio and PhotoShelter, the quality of the image as displayed by PhotoShelter was just bad. Many of my concert photos are taken in (very) low-light environments, and PhotoShelter appears to increase the noise that I've spent ages cleaning up. And Zenfolio does not. (I've printed poster-size prints from my Zenfolio collection, so I know that the images themselves are fine. This is just down to how PhotoShelter renders them for the internet.)

- The time lag between uploading photos, and seeing them on the site. I.e., if I uploaded an image, saw that it looked horribly grainy, worked on it a little more, uploaded the same image again... the first version would remain on view for hours. And hours. PhotoShelter support told me that it can take up to 24 hours and that this is expected behaviour. And there's a time lag or a bug in how gallery links are displayed to visitors versus a logged-in photographer, too, but I didn't get to the bottom of that one (and yes, all the galleries were set to visible).

- The very limited functionality for design of my web pages, in comparison to Zenfolio. While PhotoShelter has new layouts, and some of them are really nice, there's a limited selection and limits to what you can do with them.

So... my decision is, for now, to stick with my Zenfolio-hosted site. And keep working on the SEO. I'm told that the more people visit my site, the better the SEO will be... even if there isn't an image-level sitemap. I'm sceptical, but if you'd visit the site, or link to it from yours, you might help me out.

Go visit!  http://alisontoon.com 

Philip H. Anselmo, live and alive

A friend, a wise man (or is that a wise guy) once said that parents shouldn't like all the same music as their kids. His theory: if you can have discussions and learnings and meaningful disagreements about musical differences, you always be able to have discussions and learnings and meaningful conversations with them about everything else that matters in life. (Thanks, Geoff, I hope you don't mind my borrowing that.)

My introduction to Pantera and Mr. Anselmo was not through my own musical journey, but by means of loud music escaping my then-teenage daughters' bedroom walls. This was their music, as was Metallica and NIN and a few others. That's how I learned to appreciate this generation of metal, while they had learned Sabbath and Budgie from me and mine. (They are adults now, and we all have very varied musical tastes... but rock and metal and progressive are still at the core.)

So, of course, I had to jump at the opportunity to see Phil Anselmo and his latest band, The Illegals, when they came to town last night.

Great, great show. 

Phil Anselmo has such a strong, but approachable, presence. He's funny and he's kind. He was teasing one of the security guys because he looked "too young to know all my music", and asking people in the "old-school anti-clockwise" mosh pit to pick up their brothers and sisters if they fall, because we're all here to have fun not get stomped. (I thought mosh pits were like plug holes and the direction of water and depended on longitude, not time... but now I know.)

He made me laugh. I wasn't expecting that.

With his recording company Housecore, Phil Anselmo is involved in projects non-stop; supporting and encouraging new musicians (but also telling them to do their own thing, not copy his). He's been through a lot of physical pain and probably does so every day (my photo pass has a picture of screws in vertebrae and metal holding a spine together, and that just had to hurt). No doubt the life of a touring musician is a challenge at times, but it didn't seem a problem last night, on stage at Sacramento's Ace of Spades, with an audience of young and older and my-age too, enjoying one of the greats of heavy metal.

Just one request... next time (and there will be a next time, right Phil???) can the show be on a Friday? So that this town and it's working people can give Anselmo the full-house, all-night-long, raucous Sacramento treatment he deserves? Or maybe... Aftershock 2014????? Now wouldn't that be cool. Maybe we should suggest it.

Great show. So glad I went. My daughters are jealous.

Philip H. Anselmo and the Illegal's new album "Walk Through Exits Only" is available now. Find it, and music from the full set of Housecore artists, at http://www.thehousecorestore.com/

More photos from the show can be found in the gallery on http://alisontoon.com 

Author & Punisher. Wow. Seriously.

Just when you think that you've heard every type of music, seen all there is to see of instruments, become a little jaded by bands who sound a little-too-much-the-same... along comes Author & Punisher.

Wow. Just WOW!!!!

Supporting Philip H. Anselmo (he of Pantera), Author and Punisher was the second act at the Ace of Spades last night. I hadn't done much by way of my usual research, was expecting all metal, and was wondering what the heck that contraption was, squatting heavy and menacing, like a rough mock-up of a Geiger sculpture or Alien film set, on a carpet in the middle of the stage.

Part keyboard, part metal and wires and torture instruments, part man, part impossible. All music to my ears.

Tristan Shone -- for he is all of Author and Punisher, creator and engineer and musician and mastermind -- took his place not behind, but inside, the contraption, the instrument, the music. Author and Punisher is a one-man-band, but not a one-man-band like any seen before. He is wired in and connected and part of the machine, so much so that at times I was wondering about electric shocks.

The labels are "industrial doom" and "drone metal"; I don't think that does it justice. It's the creepy sound of the inner workings of the machine that spews nightmares. It's the groaning of planets as they align on the darkest night, and the spawing of new universes. It's the music of the factory, after all the workers have gone home, and the metal itself has come to life.

Sometimes I expected to see steam, smell methylated spirits, and to be transported to an H. G. Well's future, with top hats and dress coats and Tripods. The light/video show behind the machine-man combo added to the atmosphere. The audience, at first distant and tenuous, grew closer and louder and more appreciative with each and every song. If you can call man-machine-electronic-torture a song?

I can and I will call it music. Some of the newest, most interesting music I've heard in a long time, and very powerful kick in the open-your-mind area.

Wow. Seriously... Wow.

Anyone looking for a movie soundtrack should put Author and Punisher on the list for immediate review. And the album Women & Children is available, now. Go listen. It's for you.

More photos from this concert, see the gallery on http://alisontoon.com 

Alt-Country (and not Cntrl-Alt-Delete). Think Springsteen meets Nashville.

I hadn't heard of "alt-country" prior to this week, and apart from a few minutes touring websites and YouTube, had heard nothing of either Cody Canada and the Departed, nor of American Aquarium. I think most of Sacramento must have been in the same position--and maybe even less adventurous than I, because there were very few people who ventured to the show last night. And that's a real shame.

Cody Canada and The Departed at the Ace of Spades, Sacramento

The night started with American Aquarium, who come from Raleigh, North Carolina, but who--if websites and review sites are to be trusted--spend most of their days on the road, dodgy bar to dodgy bar, hotel room to hotel room, playing one venue after another... and while doing so, building up the material to write their latest album, Burn.Flicker.Die.  Hard talk about a hard life.

Whit Wright, American Aquarium

BJ Barham, American Aquarium

Think Springsteen's Nebraska with the plaintive, beautiful pedal/lap steel guitar of Whit Wright weaving its way through the night. BJ Barham is a strong frontman with a voice that is perfect for these songs. I really did enjoy American Aquarium's set; while they are not the most visually-active live show, the music is entrancing.

American Aquarium

Headline act was Cody Canada and The Departed. More rock than American Aquarium, with lively, old-school guitar solos and a frontman not afraid to make eye contact with his rapt audience, the show really rocked.

Cody Canada and The Departed

This is my kind of country. This is my kind of rock-and-roll. It's crossover and it's easy and it's fun. It's the sort of music a tourist expects to find playing in an American roadhouse in the middle of nowhere, where Patryk Swayze and Sam Elliot might be hanging out with Jeff Healey playing inside a cage because of the beer bottles being thrown.

Cody Canada

If you weren't there last night--I know you weren't, I would have seen you, but I only saw the guy-in-the-overcoat one-hand-dancing near the stage and a few other "interesting" Sacramento characters, not you--check out Cody Canada and The Departed's website, and also back catalog from Cross Canadian Ragweed.

(Can't explain it but Cody Canada reminded me of Steve Vai. Not the guitar style; more his presence and looks. That's not a bad thing, now is it.)

Cody Canada

I enjoyed the show, and yes, I'd very much like to see both bands again. Preferably with the bigger audience that they both deserve. But without BJ Barham's comments about wanting meth and/or cocaine or something to "make my eyes pop". I don't know if it was supposed to be amusing, or if he was soliciting speed. It didn't come across as funny. There were kids in the audience. While thoughts of addiction and getting high apparently fuel some of the band's lyrics, the only place where meth is funny is in Breaking Bad, and even there, sometimes it's a stretch. But heck, that's just my opinion. Oh but while I'm on a rant, can we up the light level next time please, and forget the pink??? Why does there seem to be a direct relationship between the number of people in the audience, and the amount and quality of light directed at the stage? Forgive me, the pictures are really grainy because there was little-to-zero light and most of it was PINK. If you want to know why pink's bad, ask me. It's got nothing to do with ribbons and bows.

For full sets of photos from both bands, follow these links to Cody Canada and The Departed photo gallery on http://alisontoon.com and American Aquarium's photo gallery. The drummer pics are a little different. Yeah... ask me about the light again.

Zardonic, EDM and it's all about the dance

I rarely go out of my way to listen to EDM, electronic dance music. It's something that happens in nightclubs, right? DJ's reusing someone-else's music?

But just last week I was introduced to Zardonic. Part of me was whisked off to the nightclubs in Grenoble, France, where we'd go on a Friday or Saturday night to dance and dance and dance. Part of me was wanting to research more of Zardonic's incredibly-inventive and almost-hypnotic music. The other part? It was already dancing.

Billed as "South America's favourite Extreme Dance Music artist", Zardonic recently remixed Figure's "Are you Afraid of the Dark?". He calls his style "bass metal", and it's compelling in the extreme. He's been touring Europe and that makes total sense to me.

Check this out: the "aftermovie" of the Europa Beyond Bass tour.


Hear and discover more on the website:  http://www.zardonic.net/ 

I'm off to dance. Again.

Of 'flu, and firecats, a wild world and a hard-headed woman

While desperately fighting sleep-inducing 'flu-and-bronchitis this week, trying to stay awake after 7 pm and not mentally-able to focus on anything requiring an ounce of concentration, I remembered the DVD I'd picked up at a recent vinyl-hunting trip to Dimple Records.  One of my favourite records of all time--Cat Stevens' "Tea for the Tillerman", live in concert, and I'd never seen it before--there's very little available in the way of live video recordings. Recorded at the KCET Studios in Loc Angeles on 8th June 1971, it's simple, warm and gently beautiful.

Just Cat and his guitar, guitarist Alun Davies, and Larry Steele playing bass and congas, it's a reminder that music doesn't have to be complicated to be beautiful. It doesn't have to be angry to be meaningful. And it doesn't need to be violent to be thought-provoking.

Still stunning after all these years. "Wild World" and "Hard Headed Woman". "Where Do The Children Play?" asks questions that we should be asking now, today, every day, until we get the answers right. "Father and Son", the timeless quest of generation after generation--both to find our own truth, and to protect our offspring from the mistakes we know are out there.

And "Hard Headed Woman", a song that so many of us tried to live up to.

Cat Stevens still makes thought-provoking music, but since 1978 he has been called Yusuf Islam. You can hear more on his website: http://www.yusufislam.com/  His later music is still beautiful, but for me there's something really special about Tea For The Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat. They are woven into so much of my life in so many ways.

The DVD "A Classic Concert CAT STEVENS Tea For The Tillerman Live", was released in 2008 and is available from Amazon if you can't find it in a local store. It also includes an animated movie of Teaser and The Firecat, also made by Cat.

Track listing:

- Moonshadow
- On the Road to Find Out
- Where do the Children Play?
- Wild World
- Miles from Nowhere
- Longer Boats
- Father and Son
- Hard Headed Woman.

Toon's Tunes best of 2013: concerts, albums, audience and more

It's the last day of (another) year, and as everyone else does, I suppose I'd better create a "best of" the year that was (only limited by my opinion, and my experience!) It's a tough one, as it's been a year packed full of diverse and different and new and wonderfully-faithful things. And I'm sure I've missed some... you can always look back through Toon's Tunes for more. Lots of links to click below!

BEST WEEKEND, BEST LIVE VIDEO, MOST TRAVELLED FANS and BEST FAN EXPERIENCE all have to go to Marillion for the bi-annual conventions or "Marillion Weekends". Wonderful, wonderful concerts. The Wolverhampton, UK weekend was the third of the three held this year. In 2015, I hope to attend all three. So many fans from so many countries, coming together to see and hear their favourite band of all time. The live video--or rather, videos: first, Clocks Already Ticking, the world-record-breaking recording and publishing of a live concert, from the first night of the Wolverhampton weekend. And second, the live video of Brave in its entirety. Both beautifully played, recorded, mastered and produced.


I've seen many other music videos this year, but none live up to the quality of these two. Also, the Marillion fan experience through the website, Facebook page and other interaction has created, over time, a huge-yet-personal global family. People who have come together through a love of the music, and who have grown together into a close-knit group who will support each other in times of need and in times of innovation. (Example: Steve Rothery's project is just one.) Other bands, take note and learn from some true masters.

BEST ALBUM and BEST ALBUM ARTWORK:  Lux, by Gemini Syndrome. I had the pleasure of seeing Gemini Syndrome twice this year: once in Nevada, once at Aftershock in Sacramento. Lux is at the top of my new-in-2013 album list because every single song is a gem. See the full review of both Lux and Gemini Syndrome at Aftershock and if you haven't heard it yet, what are you waiting for???

Other very, very noteworthy albums from 2013: Orthodox by Beware of Darkness, and the stunning two-release set from Five Finger Death Punch, The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, volumes one and two.

Which leads me to my SURPRISE BAND OF THE YEAR: a band that I really hadn't listened to much before Aftershock's lineup was announced, but who I have been playing non-stop ever since: Five Finger Death Punch (5FDP, FFDP) of course. Added to the list of bands-who-I-will-travel-a-long-way-to-see.

BEST FESTIVAL OR CONCERT SERIES:  Monster Energy Aftershock 2013. Just amazing. What a lineup. Stunning. Can't wait for Aftershock 2014. If you need a summary, go watch Aftershock TV on the Aftershock 2013 website.

MOST ENTERTAINING AUDIENCE: Without a doubt, the People of Aftershock. Awesome job guys, truly awesome!

BEST TRIP: Jamaica! Not only was it a wonderful vacation, but the month before and after was filled with reggae shows, making it so much more than a trip to the beach. Leading the reggae shows this year, the Wailers on February 9th. And I'm looking forwards to seeing them again very soon; playing all of Legend, here in Sacramento, March 20th.

BEST OLDIE-BUT-GOODY: Blue Oyster Cult who performed at the Sunrise at Night concert series in Citrus Heights. I really, really enjoyed their show.

BEST COUNTRY SHOW: OK I didn't see many, but my favourite has to be Trace Adkins. His down-in-the-cowboy-boots voice just does something special. Maybe I'll explore Country further in 2014: Trace and LeAnn Rimes really opened my ears in 2013.

BEST MUSIC BOOKS: While I have read (or tried-very-hard to read--more on that later) many musicians biographies/autobiographies this year, and looked at a lot of concert photographers' publications, two books really stand out as the best I've seen in 2013. 9:30 to Fillmore, photographic memories which was published in 2013 and which is a beautiful documentary of a US tour, and Roger Steffen's Reggae Scrapbook, which was not published in 2013 but which I only saw and read after his storytelling at the Wailers' concert. So while it doesn't really count in this list, but I have to mention it again, as it's a true work of art in both documentation and unique presentation.

Remember: all of Toon's Tunes' concert photography can be viewed at http://alisontoon.com/music There are many more photos than can be included in individual reviews. Any band looking for a promotional photoshoot, go to http://www.alisontoon.com/contact.html

2014? What will you bring? I'm looking forwards to finding out. Happy New Year, everyone!

And now for something completely different...

... no, not Monty Python, but something else in my quest to experience American culture. We never had this in England when I was a kid, nor anywhere else I've lived... it's going to be quite a show and a brand new experience for me! What is it? It's Monster Jam.

With names like Grave Digger(R), Bad Habit and Bounty Hunter, you might think I'm going to see a few heavy metal bands, but no... it's Monster Jam, and it's coming to Sleep Train Arena on January 17-19. Tickets are on sale now starting at $20 for adults and $5 for children (as posted on the website today). And you can get pit passes too!

 I'll remind you about it closer to the time. Anyone want to come with me? I'll write a review after the event and there should be some photos, too. If you see that I've then replaced my truck's tyres and jacked it up, you'll know I'm hooked.

(In exchange for my blogging about Monster Jam, Feld Entertainment has provided me with complimentary tickets to the show. All opinions on Toon's Tunes are totally and utterly mine unless stated otherwise, and that has never happened.)

Beware of Darkness lighten-up Sacramento: unorthodox Orthodox

Yesterday, Rolling Stone magazine reviewed Beware of Darkness' just-released video, All Who Remain. But on Sunday evening, we saw them performing live here in Sacramento, at the Ace of Spades, last date of their current tour, ending a very-musical and successful year in which the indie-rock band saw their first album released ("Orthodox"), tours with Skunk Anansie and Smashing Pumpkins, nominations as best new band (Classic Rock Magazine), and performances at the UK festivals in Reading and Leeds.

Their show on Sunday just made me want to continue hearing and seeing more of them. From the first time seeing them at Aftershock 2012, and then hearing Orthodox, and again live this week, their talent just continues to grow. Kyle Nicolaides unmistakable voice leads the three-man band through rock ("Howl") to something as quietly beautiful and solo as "Hummingbird"--a range of tempos and melodies that most bands wouldn't dare after ten years on the road. 

Yet here we have three young men--Nicolaides with vocals, lead guitar, and keys, Daniel Curcio so tranquil on bass, and Tony Cupito like Animal on drums (and yes, that is the ultimate drummer compliment).

If you need a last-minute Christmas gift for someone, go buy them Orthodox from your usual online store. It's not too late. For all your music-lover friends... rock, indie, R&B... heck even the Leonard Cohen fans will get a kick from the lyrics.

Seriously... this is a band with a future. Keep listening.

Thank you guys for another wonderful show. Hope to see you again soon.

For more pictures from the show at Sacramento's Ace of Spades on December 22nd, see http://alisontoon.com/bewareofdarkness2013 

Robb Torres, new solo EP: Something About You Ain't Right

I first heard Rob Torres play guitar when Trapt came to town last year. Since then, he's moved on to something better, gone solo, and recently released an EP: Something About You Ain't Right.

Five songs: the title track, Something About You Ain't Right, Girl I Wanna, Out Here, What Do You Believe In, and Little Too Late.

Smoother, kinder and more rock'n'roll/old-school rhythm'n'blues than Trapt, this is very much Rob's own music. My personal favourites are Out Here, as it gently swells in intensity, and the more folorn Little Too Late.

The EP is available on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/something-about-you-aint-right/id726690123 and here's a quick preview:

Carol of the Bells: this is how you make a carol your own...

Marillion just released Carol of the Bells as a single. You can buy it on iTunes or Amazon. (I've linked to the USA version--you'll need to go to your local site.) Please do go and buy a copy: the money is going to a very good cause.

And go to Marillion.com for a better way of life!

For other Christmas (or "holiday", if you prefer) recordings, see http://alison-toon.blogspot.com/2013/12/trace-adkins-kings-gift-christma-carols.html. And maybe check out Rob Halford's Winter Songs while you're at it too.

Jack Russell's Great White, Sacramento 13th December--a review

Great White are another of those major American rock bands that I somehow missed out on during their hair-band heyday.

I didn't listen to Guns N' Roses much either back then, nor the other bands that were of the same genre: Poison, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Cinderella... I was probably too busy listening to Sisters of Mercy instead. So, hearing that Jack Russell was coming to town, with his new band, but playing legacy and familiar songs, I wanted to be there and see what I'd missed--and to see another on-stage survivor in action.

Jack looked, and sounded, good. His signature high-register vocals and Rod-Stewart-esque microphone manipulation. His interaction with his new, strong and musical young band members. His stage presence. This was the real show that I'd been waiting for, all evening. He made the wait worthwhile.

Shame there wasn't a bigger audience.



I was hoping to photograph a happy Jack on stage, making his good music: my perception of the man and his music, not a tabloid story. I know he's been through hell, and he's not the only one. There are far-too-many stories out there, people and writers handing out their version of the truth. I'm not going to rehash any of that here. Every day is a new day.

And indeed, Jack Russell was that happy guy last night, on stage at the Ace of Spades in Sacramento.

For more photos from last night's show at the Ace of Spades, Sacramento, go to the gallery: http://alisontoon.com/jackrussellgreatwhite

Jack Russell's Great White in Sacramento: the supporting bands

I almost didn't stay for Jack Russell's Great White show last night. <--Click that link for the show.

If I had not promised to cover Jack Russell's show here, on Toon's Tunes, with photos, I would have left--run, even--during the first support act. I'd have left during the second support act... and even if I'd made it that far, I would have left during the third support act. I could have been at home in the warm, watching Brave Live or some BBC crime series on TV and drinking a mug of hot chocolate.

It was seriously the worst set of supporting bands I've seen in a very long time, and I was really happy I'd remembered my earplugs and the way to the restroom to hide.

Sigh. I don't like writing that; I prefer to be English and to say "sorry" and to be indirect with criticism that might be misconstrued as positive feedback. This is emphatically not positive, but I'll try to make it direct.

Let's try again.

First band: the young woman guitar player had the right idea; some Yngwie-like riffs on a seven-string, and a calm but confident stage presence. The bass player, however, made me want to quickly scribble and hold up big signs saying, "Find out how to play the darn instrument, before you play-out the Rock Star", or, "Rip your shirt off AFTER you've been to the gym, not before. Please.", or "Friends don't let their bass player leave them stranded on stage". Please...  go back to the garage. Stay there. Please.

Second band were more mature, more fun, and obviously had long-time fans in the small crowd. OK maybe I wouldn't have left during their act. My opinion had just been tainted by what had come before. They played decent old-school rock. A bit like you used to find in Working Mens' Clubs in the UK on a Saturday night.

Third band: strong vocals and a bass player who knew how to play the stage and the audience. But overall, they just didn't do much for me, at all. I couldn't find the melody. I'm not sure that the band did, either, at least not all the way through the set.

Sigh... I wasn't even interested enough to work out which-band-of-the-three-was-which. And as none of them except the second band clearly introduced themselves, and not one labeled their drum kits like most bands do, I guess it really wasn't that important to them, either.

Sorry. (British sorry.) My fault. I'll do better next time. Sorry...

(I will put photos of these bands up on http://alisontoon.com/music once I work out who is what and which is which. Might not be today or this week.)

Ed Kowalczyk: from doughnuts (donuts) in Denver to acoustic in Sacramento

I first heard Ed Kowalczyk's voice in May 1995.

It was my first-ever trip to the USA. I'd left behind a vivid and vibrant green spring in Grenoble, France, and arrived to find a bleak, grey, bare-tree and wintery Denver. I'd left the warm conference hotel to explore the city and to buy breakfast, and I'd just experienced the stupid-customer treatment from the woman in the doughnut store. ("I'd like a coffee and a doughnut, please," I said, quite innocently, British accent and all. Where I came from there were two types of doughnuts: those with a hole, and those without. "Yeah, right. A donut. You want a donut." She looked at me like something that had just hatched and wasn't cute. I was obviously a foreign idiot who not only talked weird, but didn't know how to buy breakfast. I looked down in embarrassment, and only then noticed that there were a million different donuts and cakes (I know now they are "muffins") on display: frosted and sugared and chocolate-covered and sprinkled and cinnamon and apple and goodness-knows-what else...


Intimidated, I chose the most familiar-looking ball of fried dough. Then we had to repeat the whole process all over again, this time for a simple coffee. In France and England at that time, a coffee was just a coffee. It wasn't a grande-latte-decaff-nofat anything. It was just coffee. Black or white? Sugar? Simple binary choices with direct and simple answers.

(I hadn't yet experienced asking for salad. The salad-dressing-list-of-confusion was being saved up to ambush me later in the week.)

Bear with me: I'll get to the point of this review in a moment.

Suitably chastened, and clutching my hard-earned coffee (house, black, no sugar, tall) and donut (plain, sugared, in a bag), I retreated somewhere much safer--the music store on the other side of the downtown pedestrian street. It was warm, it was familiar... and it was filled with a really great voice and a song that was immediately familiar, even though I'd never heard Live or Ed Kowalczyk before.

The guy in the music store was much more helpful than Ms. Donut. I left the store with copies of both Throwing Copper and Mental Jewelry. (Either Live hadn't been heard in Europe then, or I'd somehow missed them... and they became firm favourites for many years. I still play them to this day.)

Last night, Ed Kowalczyk performed alone, with no band, no accompanist, no-one on stage with him, bringing a new meaning to "I Alone". Just Ed, two microphones, and a set of guitars. He entranced the enthusiastic audience at Sacramento's Assembly, performing songs from back-in-the-day Live right through to those from his latest solo album, The Flood and The Mercy. He warned of "era whiplash" as he jumped from new to old to new again: Mental Jewelry, Seven, Pain Lies on the Riverside, Angels on a Razor.. his version of Springsteen's "I'm On Fire"... Holy Water Tears from the new album, Heaven, I Alone. Overcome. Selling the Drama. Dance With You. And to finish an excellent show, Lightning Crashes. Bare bones: one man and his guitar. And it was just right.

Then entire show, Kowalczyk was bathed in pale, turquoise light like the water which flows so strong through many of his lyrics. He kept the audience engaged, responsive: some of whom will no doubt be making the trip down to San Francisco today, to see the next show of the tour.


The Assembly was the perfect setting for this show. It's small enough to be intimate, but big enough not to be cramped, with a large open floor area, wide bar, and comfy booths. The seating in the booths above-and-behind the bar gives a wonderful, close-to-the-stage view in comfort. The sound is really good: every word was clear (mostly due to Kowalczyk's annunciation, but credit must also be given to a very well set-up sound system, much appreciated by my ears!). There was a warmth in the interaction between performer and crowd. Serious fans from when Kowalczyk fronted Live, and new fans too.

A few more tour dates in California and Canada, and then some with a full band in Australia and New Zealand coming soon. See the Tour page on Ed Kowalczyk's website for more details.

See more photos from last night's show at the Assembly in Sacramento: http://www.alisontoon.com/edkowalczyk

 (If you are not aware: Kowalczyk split with Live a while back, it wasn't a fun 'divorce', but it seems sorted now. I'm only writing about the music here.)

Consumable Online--taking me back: early internet and music reviews

Once-upon-a-time, in the dim-dark-days of the early internet, when most things were still in batch mode with ListServ and stuff like that, I was a writer for the first online music publication--or "zine" as we called them--Consumable Online. Consumable was run by a hard-working editor, out of Hoboken, New Jersey, and had correspondents in the US and overseas--including yours truly, in France at that time.

Consumable stopped publication in August, 2001. Take a look: remember this was mostly an emailed publication, plain text, sometimes photos, but no flashy websites and certainly not loads of advertisements. 

Here's an example of what a subscriber received:

http://www.westnet.com/consumable/1995/March06.1995/c030695.txt 

(My bit's at the end, about Sisters of Mercy.)

Amazingly, a lot of the publication is still available online: http://www.westnet.com/consumable/ 

Here are a few of mine:

• Malcolm McClaren, "Paris"
• Peter Finger, "Between the Lines"   (amazing guitarist)
• Jimmy Somerville, "Dare to Love"  (read this in the context of the European age-of-consent, which is 16, not 18 like here in the USA)
• Buzzcocks, "All Set"
• and more if you search for them...

So yeah, I've been doing this for longer than you knew. Under various names. Who'da thunkit?

Trace Adkins, The King's Gift, Christmas, carols and comfort

After falling in love with Trace Adkin's voice earlier this year, and really enjoying his show here in Citrus Heights, I was really looking forwards to his Christmas release, "The King's Gift". After all, it's not country, it's a set of some of my favourite Christmas carols, with a Celtic twist, and it's Trace's wonderful, deep, hearty voice, like black treacle in song.

("O come o come Emmanuel" is one of the most beautiful songs, religion aside, ever. It has a special place in my heart, entwined with memories of home and family and visits to Israel and to a family history that includes several generations of Emmanuel Bonnets, blacksmiths... and simply because I love the song, its melody, its tonal changes. It has to be something really, really special.)

I have to admit, on first listening, I was disappointed. I wanted, and expected, this non-country recording to absolutely blow me away on first hearing. It didn't. It was very nice. Really.... nice. But I don't do "nice". I do raw and soulful and heartfelt and bleak and beautiful and painful and cursed and reborn. I want emotion and passion. I want wild landscapes and wolves and a fire to keep them away.

Trace Adkins, Citrus Heights, Sunrise At Night concert series 2013

But this was nice. Melodic, gentle, comfortable, warm and snug like an inglenook fireplace on a snowy day. 

So I listened to The King's Gift once the day it was released, and then went back to Marillion and Gemini Syndrome and Five Finger Death Punch and well, it's not Christmas yet anyway, is it???

And then I see lots of reviews celebrating The King's Gift. Was I missing something? Time for another listen.

It's still nice. In fact, it's quite beautiful. Trace's voice melds with the Celtic sound. The Chieftans help out. It's very, very different to his usual country sound--and for his country-only fans, this is a huge step outside of the country-cowboy-comfort zone. It's classic holiday-season music, with a twist, and will no doubt be playing and playing in bookstores around the USA between now and January 1st (at least, it should be). The more I listened, the more I came to appreciate the gentle and unique subtleties of Trace's versions of these precious songs. And I'm convinced it will continue to grow on me, and that it will become one of my annual Christmas classics.

If you are lucky, you can see Trace on tour with his Christmas show: http://traceadkins.com/tour 

(But now that you've taken this step away from country,Trace, will you jump even further, and go heavy metal? Something that will really push from comfortable to absolutely amazing? I'd really like to hear that... you've played with Muppets after all... and of course,  I'm still waiting to see you play Reacher!)

For those of you interested in a version of O' Come O' Come Emmanuel that really did blow me away on first hearing, this is it: 

For more pictures from the summer Trace Adkins' show in Citrus Heights, CA, see http://alisontoon.com/traceadkins 

Dedicated to those of you waiting in line at the DMV... best wishes, Fitz and the Tantrums

(I had a great-uncle named Walker. I love that name.)

In case you missed their show earlier this year in Sacramento, the pics are here: http://www.alisontoon.com/fitzandthetantrums   And the review: http://alison-toon.blogspot.com/2013/07/fitz-and-tantrums-performing-at-ace-of.html

Fitz and the Tantrums at Sacramento's Ace of Spades