Audioslave is the Best Band in the World

"Does it make you want to quit guitar to know that you'll never be as good as Tom Morello?" - Robert

Though it is disheartening to know that I can play guitar my whole life and never be as good as him, it's much more inspiring to the craft to see an expert at work. This weekend held a lot of firsts for me: first trip actually driving to Houston, first time going to Houston in my Volvo, first trip home all semester, first time at Buzzfest, and my first time seeing Audioslave. We got to Buzzfest around 6:00 PM and we saw the Bloodhound Gang and Fall Out Boy (and caught some of Seether), but we were really there for the band going on stage at 9:35 PM. I didn't take this picture to the right here, but I just wanted to give you a visual image of how thrilling it was to see them in person. That was, byfar, the best live performance I have seen in my entire life. They put together all the best elements of a concert: getting the crowd to sing, organized clapping, special versions of songs (as in different lyrics or acoustic), high energy, and as an added bonus: songs from prior bands engagements. He promised new songs, old songs, and really old songs. In that order (not the order of performance) their set list featured "Your Time Has Come" (which was first), "Out of Exile", "Be Yourself", "Doesn't Remind Me", "Cochise", "Show Me How to Live", "Like a Stone", "I Am the Highway" (acoustic solo from Cornell), "Set It Off", "Spoonman", "Black Hole Sun", unknown Soundgarden song, "Killing in the Name", and two other unknown Rage Against the Machine songs.

I've actually heard one of those other two Rage songs, but I can't remember the name of it for the life in me. I was totally blown away at how well they played "Spoonman" together as a band; it's almost as if Soundgarden was up there on stage. The coolest part was definitely when Chris Cornell played "Black Hole Sun" on his acoustic guitar (I was the first to scream when he played the first bar) and then just tapped the guitar after a while and let the entire audience sing the song. It worked damn well, too. He egged everyone to jump up and down during "Show Me How to Live", and it worked once again. What was really neat was seeing Mr. Morello jump in the air in that way that every kid out there who's ever picked up a guitar dreams of doing on a stage somewhere, someday. He seemed to be in the spotlight almost as much as Cornell, by the way, and with good reason. He's my second favorite living guitarist (sorry, I still like John Frusciante better). I guess my opinion of the show is sort of biased since they're one of my favorite bands so I knew almost every since song by heart, but the same holds true for Coldplay. So how did they trump Chris Martin's little band? I felt more energy, and I think it's a mixture of the crowd being better at Cynthia Woods and that fact that we were only sitting (or standing, rather) 28 rows from the stage. Anyway, if you ever get a chance to see them live do whatever it takes to go for it.

I'll keep the rest of this post brief to compensate for my splurging on the concert. There's been a lot of lawsuits going on against Google Print that I haven't covered because they're redundant, and Eric Schmidt has finally posted a great response to all the uproar. I totally agree with what he's saying, but I think he's facing an uphill battle since there's always a possibility of the servers getting hacked. The Google blog also pointed out that e-mail is now 34 years old, so happy birthday to you, e-mail! In an interview with a college newspaper, Bill Gates has expressed his disdain for the upcoming next-generation of DVDs but I feel that it's important to note his criticism of the Blu-ray format. It does sound like Sony is trying to be the movie industry's bitch, but could it be that they're just trying to piss off Microsoft? Lastly, if your electricity bill depresses you then you may be interested in a new type of LED bulb that could blow conventional light bulbs out of the water.

You'll either be delighted or, like me, disturbed to learn that Doom came out on top in the box office this weekend at $15.4 million. The only impressive thing other than that is that Wallace and Grommit are at #3 with $8.7 million. I think that Halloween weekend should drum up a good amount of ticket sales, particularly for Saw II. There's a totally sweet new tv spot out there for Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire that fans of the series won't want to miss featuring a new scene or two from previous video footage. If giant beasts tickle your fancy more, then you'll want to see the new video production diary entry for King Kong featuring the original Kong model. Lastly, you can take a trip don't memory lane with IGN's look at video game based movies.

Now for some Unconscious Mutterings:

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Infiltration::Espionage
   
2. Nice person::Sweet
   
3. Debt::Credit card
   
4. Settle down::Get married
   
5. Thomas::Moore (it's a name)
   
6. Unforgivable::Dastardly
   
7. Medicine::Red Cross
   
8. A year from now::Future
   
9. Neighbors::Next door
   
10. Dripping::Sweat