Entertainment

'Trick or Treat': ABC12 Listening Room mad scientist spends spooky weekend with friends

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Music, reviews, blogs, concerts

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james chesna, listening room, music, entertainment

James R. Chesna

PREVIEW (WJRT) -- Good evening, Mid-Michigan! And welcome to a super-scary edition of the ABC12 Listening Room blog! You're a dynamite audience, and you deserve to give yourself a round of applause, let's go!

(And by all means, try to hang onto your lunch. The weekly Running of the Mouth is about to begin. My condolences.)

As promised, I have returned from a little self-imposed hiatus from the world of rock 'n' roll. I've been wearing my fingers down to curious little nubs in trying to be your go-to guy for all things on the music horizon and I basically slammed into a wall a week ago and needed to get some friggin' sleep.

I had intended to review the new Creed, by the way, and couldn't muster the strength. I will say "Full Circle" is a good Creed album. You, dear readers, can interpret that any way you like. But if you interpret it as "Creed's new album is heavy and epic and a little dumb and Scott Stapp still has messiah issues," well, let's just say we're on the same page.

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But I've got the batteries recharged now -- mostly -- and I'm back on patrol, thanks to some much-deserved R&R of another kind over the course of this past weekend. And in the tradition of keeping the blog more personal, I thought I'd share the tale of how I got back on track.

As LR blog loyalists already know (and don't think I don't know the idea of a "blog loyalist" is a whopper of an oxymoron), I'm prone to hanging with my former Seventh Son bandmates when I have free time. Those of you not familiar with my rock god days can click here to catch up.

(Or you can just stay right here. The "rock god days" for whatever reason are amusing to people, sometimes to the point of causing wheezing and tears. I feel like I'm not in on some joke, and I hope someone will tell it to me someday. 'Cause it seems like a really good joke.)

Anyway ...

Late last week I got a call from one David St. John, Seventh Son bassist extraordinaire. Dave could tell I was worn out and he told me he and his lovely wife Kristy were going to take their firecracker of a son Finn out for trick-or-treating in Plymouth and he asked me if I wanted to come along.

These days, the rock 'n' roll train I'm riding zips along like the Bullet Train. And I'm clinging to the cowcatcher, folks.

And doing a lot of screaming.

Speed limits? Not in my realm, so taking a break from a lifestyle that embraces enough sin to make entire flocks of holy dudes blush and soaking up some wholesome family entertainment at a snail's pace sounded like pure nirvana.

I accepted the invite and had so much fun I should have been arrested. We had some tasty pizza, shared our usual silly observations, enjoyed the crisp air and warm sunshine, and laughed and loved and talked about the same stuff everyone else does.

This was true peace. The cell phone was off, no promoters were pursuing me and I wasn't the least bit concerned about what tours were about to descend on the Mitten. Trust me, this was big for me, so thank you Dave, Kris and Finn. This is why y'all rock my world.

Oh, and while we're on the topic of All Hallow's Eve, Halloween is sort of like a nighttime block party these days, just in case you haven't roamed the sidewalks in your best zombie outfit in a while.

Maybe Halloween has always been that way, but when you're a member of the under-10 set, you're just too busy trying to gorge yourself with chocolate bars and jawbreakers to notice all the parents making small talk.

Many parents, of course, were dressed up themselves. It's quite the spooky litte social club, and I totally dug it. "The Nightmare Before Christmas" as far as the level of decorating goes.

And as a bonus, this night I also got to remember what it was like to be a kid again, without a care in the world. I saw some amazing and ridiculous costumes, met another fun couple, got lots of wonderful hugs from Kris, and even got a warm goodbye squeeze from Finn.

How can you top that? Try and I'll fight you.

Exactly what the doctor ordered.

Now on to the other business at hand ...

Tuesday will see the release of "World Painted Blood" from thrash metal pioneers Slayer. If you think yours truly is looking forward to reviewing this sucker, you're correct. Be sure to duck.

Also on the new release landscape are new discs from Carrie Underwood, who is dropping "Play On" Tuesday, and alt-rockers Weezer will see the release of "Raditude," the band's seventh effort. My pal Josh Daunt has you covered here.

Moody indie icon and former Smiths frontman Morrissey is celebrating sadness on Tuesday as well. He of the Chiseled and Misunderstood face is dropping "Swords."

On a slightly quieter concert front this week, soft-rockers Train, along with Mt. Clemens native Uncle Kracker, will play the Royal Oak Music Theatre Tuesday night. Showtime is 7 p.m.

Friday will prove to be a bigger day for concerts, though, as a quartet of shows roll into town. Folk-rock legend Bob Dylan plays the Fox Theatre, country crooners Montgomery Gentry play the Palace of Auburn Hills, The Cult are knocking down the Fillmore Detroit. Additionally, classic rocker and former Eagle Don Henley will bring his massive catalog of tunes to Caesars in Windsor.

(That's it for this week, music hounds. Hope to see you back next week. Until then, keep rockin'.)

The ABC12 Listening Room staff: James R. Chesna, editor-in-chief; Josh Daunt, managing editor; Beth McEnroe, staff writer; Eric Fletcher, chief photographer; Randy Cox, photographer; Josh Daunt, photographer; Chris Carr, photographer; Jessica Reid, contributing photographer; LeeAlan Weddel, contributing editor, writer; Shawn Light, contributing writer.